gordontd

In my experience people usually say that the board was fouled by being rotated by 90/180 degrees. Not overly succinct, but it's never before seemed problematic.

Whereagles has given an example of one. Sometimes the bidding doesn't stop at 2C. Partner won't think opener has a bigger hand if you don't play that the double shows a bigger hand.

It wasn't a point, it was a question. And I still have no idea what you mean by a free bid in this context.

I occasionally fill in at a rubber bridge group which plays without negative doubles, and that's quite normal here. Do you play these two differently from each other? I suspect for most players they are the same thing. However, since there are two entirely different ways these are commonly played, neither can be considered to be mandatory. Most beginners don't double much - whatever their agreements, they don't recognise situations for using doubles.

If you have hearts as trumps, they are more likely to get a spade ruff than they are to get a heart ruff with spades as trumps. This chimes with Marlowe's distinction as to whether you expect your trump fit to be 4-4 or 4-3.

It seems like the right place for it. After all, Walsh was created in conjunction with early 2/1, and is usually played as part of the system.

It's a reverse, after partner only responded at the one level. In what way is this a "free bid"?

Indeed - nothing has changed since the earlier responses.

Someone said that to me the other day. It took so long for me to understand what he meant that it would have been much quicker if he hadn't tried to shorten it :)

Sounds like the ideal number for a Bowman movement. Then you'd only have 26 boards in play.

That's not what L81C3 says.

No problem. I apologise for being grumpy!

As the manager of a club that has quite a lot of American visitors, probably more than any other, in practice it doesn't seem to cause many difficulties. Two minutes of explanation before the game, and a bit of goodwill on both sides during it, suffices.

Nonsense deleted

I don't recall anyone at San Remo making this point, where we had an extensive discussion about Serious Errors and where several members of the WBFLC including Grattan were present. Perhaps it escaped me. If we wish to disallow double-shots (and we could certainly have a discussion about whether or not that is desirable), then I think we should leave it as it is.

And since Colombus, most people believe he discovered America.

I think it's clear that we haven't all missed that.

What's the problem?

I don't think this conclusion follows from that premise: aren't we now in L70D2 territory?

If it wins you've still only got 11 tricks, and if it loses (and they don't play a heart back) you're short of two tricks. It's hard to see how you can make the contract without finding the CQ onside, so I'm inclined to think you should start with the club finesse, and then judge whether to play for clubs 3-3 or generate a heart trick. Another problem is that the entry position requires you to see if the clubs break before playing on hearts, and if they don't break then your heart play is determined for you - to keep the hand with the fourth club off lead.

So if you took a losing finesse early, they would know that they have an ace to cash too.

Have you asked for aces along the way?

It wouldn't have been that contract we'd have committed to at the time of our first decision.

If we aren't going to pass, we should have bid on the previous round.

If you hadn't watched (as you needn't have done to fulfil your brief to move them on at the end of the hand), you wouldn't have known there had been a revoke. For these sorts of reasons it's best not to watch any more than strictly necessary. However, 81C3 is completely clear that if you become aware of an irregularity you must rectify it. Interestingly the law says that you must do this "within the correction period". I know of one TD at the very top who has argued that in the case of revokes that allows him to wait until it's too late to award a L64A rectification, but simply to adjust to restore equity under L64C.