Hobartian

To Barman Your post at 9.25 was not nice to me. I would imagine this forum was established for those interested in the ins and outs of bridge and I can see no need to use the language or make the assumptions that you did in this post. However, you seemed to have reflected on things and posted again at 9.52 and the content of that post is quite reasonable and I understand what you are saying. Never-the-less it would seem the rules could be changed so players are not disadvantaged in cases like this. When North bid 2D he knew that his opponents had a nine card heart fit which is something I did not know. Perhaps his 2D bid was to stop me making a transfer or maybe he meant to bid 2 spades. The only other possibility was that he psyched.

This incident did occur in Australia in an event to determine who would represent the state in a forthcoming Interstate competition. The two players concerned are a husband and wife combination and are a long established pair having represented their state before and regularly play in Congresses all over Australia. They did have system cards. In hindsight I should have called the TD immediately instead of allowing the first player to leave the table and then the second player to have a private conversation with the director. Why did the 2D bidder want to speak to the director? Did he tell the TD that he had made a psyche or an inadvertent bid? I don't know what occurred but I do know that North came back and told me his 2D bid meant he had both majors. Perhaps he was told by the TD that he could not change or explain his bid, It is interesting to note that after south returned to the table she bid two hearts after originally stating she did not know what the 2D bid meant. It is also interesting to note that she passed two spades doubled only holding the king doubleton. Perhaps I should have been able to work it out. However, I am seventy years of age and was playing with a novice in the last match of two days play and was not anticipating skullduggery. I do know that it has left a sour taste in my mouth and left me with the feeling that I could do better things than play bridge.

Thanks again for the responses. This is another opinion that I was given from a person who was not involved. "I can see why this thing is difficult to accept because I see a number of problems. The first is that they have both transmitted unauthorised information (Law 16B1a) by their inability to provide an explanation at the table and in needing a long chat with the director before answering a simple question even if those actions are per se legal. Thus, I would see them as being constrained (Law 16B1b) in their choice of bid. The second is that north knows you have a 9+card heart fit and has bid that suit in what might be seen as a psychic maneuver in a situation protected by his partner's professed lack of knowledge as to what 2D means. This game is fraught enough with possibilities for cheating that one not only needs to be lily-white but also needs to be seen to be lily-white. If one realizes the problem here, one would probably just say what had happened before the auction finished. Personally, I would be severely embarrassed to say I had hearts (and spades) in this situation when I don't. OTOH if I had psyched and partner alerted and explained correctly, I wouldn't though it seems a daft psyche at unfavorable vulnerability. The third is that Law 17B1b requires the director to rule misinformation (mistaken explanation) rather than miss bid. To escape that constraint, the potentially offending side have to produce system notes: I guess the Director never required this. It suggests the ruling was wrong. If that was the case Law 21B3 requires an adjusted score if the NOS have been damaged. (NOS = Non Offending Side) The play to trick 1 is consistent with partner leading from 53 or 853 (if you use MUD) or Q85 therefore failure to give the ruff is not an egregious error which breaks the nexus between the offence and the result (Law12C1b regarding SEWOGs) I would have adjusted (after consulting) but the problem is to what? S has said 2D is artificial so it is clearly not just spades: if it is D+S or H+S then sh might reasonably bid 3D or 3H i.e. there are logical alternatives to pass. One could adjust to 3D*-3 or 3S*-2. 3H*-5 seems unlikely as N would bid over that. I think 3S*-2 = 500 is a good choice and let them, the offending side, appeal to see if they can get it back to av+/av-. In summary, they are clear the offending side, you were clearly damaged and you should have gotten an adjustment.[/i][/b]"

Thanks again for your responses. South opened one club holding K3 in spades, A654 in hearts and 53 in diamonds and KJT94 in clubs. West bid 1NT holding J84 in spades, KQJ2 in hearts, A87 in diamonds and A76 in clubs. North bid 2 D holding AT965 in spades, void in hearts and JT64 in diamonds and Q832 in clubs. My hand at East was Q72 in spades, T9873 in hearts, KQ92 in diamonds and the 5 of clubs.

Thanks for your responses. I did make a mistake when I described North's hand. His hand was: Spades AT965 Void in hearts, JT64 in diamonds and Q832 in clubs. When south's one club opening was alerted we were told that it may be short in clubs.

My partner and I were playing in a Swiss Pairs event and the following auction took place. My left hand opponent South opened one club which was alerted. My partner bid one no trump (15-18 hcp) and north bid two diamonds which was alerted. I then asked south the meaning of the bid and after a period of time trying to work it out she was unable to tell me. She then suggested she could leave the table so her partner could explain and I agreed. She then left and her partner left too and went and had a long discussion with the director out of our hearing. North then returned and I was told that the bid meant both majors. South returned to the table and I then passed and south bid two heart, west passed and north bid two spades. As I had seven high card points, a singleton club, four hearts and three spades including the queen I doubled for penalty which was passed out. I led my club and my partner won with the Ace and then switched to the Ace of Diamonds. I played a low diamond to discourage and my partner now switched to a heart despite the Ace of Hearts being in dummy. The declarer did not follow suit and pitched a diamond and finished up making eight tricks doubled and vulnerable which effectively gave them the match in one board. I told my opponents that I thought we had been severely disadvantaged and I went to speak to the Director. He ordered me back to the table and then ruled everything was OK. He told me that north had no obligation to tell me that he had made a wrong bid and that his only obligation was to tell me what his bid meant. I would not have doubled if I had known he had five spades, a void in hearts, four diamonds and two clubs. Then when we were defending we did so on the basis that his hand contained both majors and my partner holding three clubs had no way of knowing that my lead was a singleton. I thought in this situation the defenders were entitled to know about the mistake made in the bidding so they could defend properly. As it was the declarer had a distinct advantage during play. I would appreciate the readers comments.

I was North and declarer in a six heart contract. My trumps were King, Jack and four and dummy had Queen, eight, seven, six and five. The auction was uncontested. After winning the opening lead in my hand I led the four towards the Queen. East played the ten and I played the queen which was taken by west with Ace. After winning the next trick I led to the jack and East showed out. That left west with the nine and another trump and I had no way of making my contract. After seeing the hand record I worked out that if I had lead toward the jack or king I would have observed the fall of the ten from East and that would have given me the opportunity of later finessing West for the nine. The full layout of trumps were North: King Jack four, East: Ten, South: Queen, eight, seven, six, and five. West Ace, nine, three, two. If the west and east hands were reversed it would also be possible to finesse East for the nine. My fatal mistake was leading from the short hand toward the queen leaving the king, jack, as a doubleton without any finessing possibilities. Is there any rule of thumb in drawing trumps with this layout?