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Penalty cards


mr1303

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In a 3NT contract, declarer leads a club, LHO discards a diamond, dummy follows and RHO discards a heart. At this point, LHO announces he has a club and plays it, winning the trick.

 

Does the diamond HAVE to be played at this point? Can a diamond be prohibited if declarer so desires?

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Given that the person who 'coudl have known' is the one who would have been on lead anyway, and so could have chosen the diamond lead anyway, I don't see why 23 should apply. If the argument is that when revoking he could have known that the penalty card he would now be forced to lead could be the one to break teh contract, i'm finding this a bit far fetched.

 

The Rabbit defense term, I assume, refers to the character rueful rabbit from the Mollo books, a character who would accidentally (often by missorting, or dropping cards) find masterful plays, or hte only play to work, however unlikely.

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In a 3NT contract, declarer leads a club, LHO discards a diamond, dummy follows and RHO discards a heart. At this point, LHO announces he has a club and plays it, winning the trick.

Don't forget that dummy's card may now be changed (and if it is RHO's card may be changed).

 

Does the diamond HAVE to be played at this point? Can a diamond be prohibited if declarer so desires?

Yes it has to be played. If it happens to be the right card to play, that's just lucky. Law 23 doesn't come into play -- if he knows a diamond is right then the PC doesn't gain over just playing it, and if he doesn't know the diamond is right then he has no reason to think the penalty card will help.

 

I had to rule on this exact situation at the seniors congress the weekend before last.

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