'doesnt matter what you play'

[gwnn]

6-card end position (posting from my phone, sorry no diagram) with clubs as trump.

 

S is declarer, E is on lead.

 

S has 3 high spades and the T8x of clubs.

E has 2 hearts, 3 diamonds and the 9 of clubs.

NW have no clubs, W had a club void that he has shown from trick 2.

 

E is thinking when S shows his cards and says

 

'It doesn't matter what you play, you cannot get a ruff'

 

E calls the director saying that declarer didnt make it clear that he will draw the last trump.

[gordontd]

It sounds clear that South is aware there is still one trump out, and therefore that he is going to draw it when he's in.

[ArtK78]

Absurd director call. Depending on East's level of experience, he should either get a talking to or a procedural penalty for wasting everyone's time and the time of the TD.

 

South could have avoided the problem by saying "I will win any lead and pull the last trump, and West cannot ruff anything," but that does not mean that East should waste everyone's time like he did.

[JLOGIC]

Lol at people like east. Just horrible.

[lalldonn]

Lol doesn't "you can not get a ruff" mean "I know you have a trump but you can't ruff with it"?

[gwnn]

Thanks. This pissed me off slightly, especially since we were in 6C (bid to make) and they had already taken 3 tricks. Since I claimed in Dutch it is entirely possible that I said words to the effect 'doesnt matterz way you doing, the ruff is not in your pocket' but when I repeated it to the director in proper Dutch, my opps did not object and the director just said 'I feel for you but if you didnt say you pull trump I can do nothing for you.'

[blackshoe]

if you didnt say you pull trump I can do nothing for you.'

:o

 

Send him back to TD school! B-)

[mycroft]

Okay, let's look at the Law.

 

Law 70C

When a trump remains in one of the opponents hands, the Director shall award a trick or tricks to the opponents if:

 

1) claimer made no statement about that trump, and

 

well, that is clearly not correct, as declarer mentioned it. Okay, that law does not apply.

 

Law 70D1:

 

The Director shall not accept from claimer any successful line of play not embraced in the original clarification statement if there is an alternative normal* line of play that would be less successful.

 

I know there's a trump, and I know it's lower than mine. If it is truly careless, given that, that I won't pull it when I get in, rather than irrational, fine. I'll make sure that others know what this director thinks of his players' abilities; but fine.

 

If he just thinks he knows the law, rather than reading it,...

[gwnn]

I suppose 'you cannot get a ruff' can mean one of:

-you cannot get a ruff because you have no more trumps left

-you cannot get a ruff because you're on lead and I'm just about to take your last trump away from you in the trick after this one.

[barmar]

I suppose 'you cannot get a ruff' can mean one of:

-you cannot get a ruff because you have no more trumps left

-you cannot get a ruff because you're on lead and I'm just about to take your last trump away from you in the trick after this one.

While practically anything is possible, the first meaning would be a very strange thing for someone to say.

 

Remember that his partner had already shown out of trumps many tricks earlier, so it goes without saying that he can't give his partner a ruff. So the only ruff that's worth mentioning is one that the player on lead could potentially get. And if the player doesn't have any trumps left, either, it also goes without saying that he can't get a ruff.

 

So given what declarer obviously knew about the layout, the likely meaning is the second.