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Penalty Card options


Coelacanth

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ACBL, matchpoint pairs if that matters

 

South is declarer and leads a club from dummy. East wins the ace as West discards a diamond. Before anyone moves to the next trick West says "whoops, I have a club", corrects his revoke and leaves his diamond on the table as a penalty card.

 

Nobody feels the need to call the TD at this point.

 

East asks the table "I'm on lead, right?"; declarer agrees. East leads something; declarer now asks "wait a minute, he (West) has a penalty card, don't I have some options here?"

 

Director please!

 

How do you rule?

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ACBL, matchpoint pairs if that matters

 

South is declarer and leads a club from dummy. East wins the ace as West discards a diamond. Before anyone moves to the next trick West says "whoops, I have a club", corrects his revoke and leaves his diamond on the table as a penalty card.

 

Nobody feels the need to call the TD at this point.

 

East asks the table "I'm on lead, right?"; declarer agrees. East leads something; declarer now asks "wait a minute, he (West) has a penalty card, don't I have some options here?"

 

Director please!

 

How do you rule?

 

I would rule that the diamond is not a penalty card. It seems as if declarer had ample time to call the director. Already East has led with declarer's consent.

 

But I would not argue with someone who ruled that the diamond was a MPC and that declarer had chosen the option to leave it as such.

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ACBL, matchpoint pairs if that matters

 

South is declarer and leads a club from dummy. East wins the ace as West discards a diamond. Before anyone moves to the next trick West says "whoops, I have a club", corrects his revoke and leaves his diamond on the table as a penalty card.

 

Nobody feels the need to call the TD at this point.

 

East asks the table "I'm on lead, right?"; declarer agrees. East leads something; declarer now asks "wait a minute, he (West) has a penalty card, don't I have some options here?"

 

Director please!

 

How do you rule?

The relevant Law is

The right to rectification of an irregularity may be forfeited if either member of the non-offending side takes any action before summoning the Director. The Director does so rule, for example, when the non-offending side may have gained through subsequent action taken by an opponent in ignorance of the relevant provisions of the law.

Declarer certainly has some options here, but as he failed to summon the Director in time the Director should not allow him to select any rectification that eventually will result in damage to the offending side compared to the outcome if the lead by East just stands as made.

 

Note that "declarer agrees" as quoted above is also "taking any action" within the understanding of this Law.

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Nobody feels the need to call the TD at this point.

Law 9B1{a}: The Director should be summoned at once when attention is drawn to an irregularity.

Attention was drawn to an irregularity when West indicated he'd revoked. I would point out to the table that failure to do what the laws say one "should" do is an infraction subject to procedural penalty.

Declarer gave up his lead options when he did not object to East's lead before it was made. The lead has been made; declarer does not now get to choose options. In effect, he has chosen "lead anything". I would rule at this point that East's lead stands, West's penalty card remains a penalty card. Then I would apply the provisions of Law 50D to the following tricks, until the PC has been played. If at the end of the hand I determine that the declaring side gained an advantage because of East's choice of lead in ignorance of the law (seems unlikely), I may adjust the score (Law 11A).

 

Note: East has a card exposed on the table. If the director now tells East that lead does not stand, and gives declarer his options under Law 50, what becomes of East's card? Technically, it becomes a PC "unless the director designates otherwise". He could do that, but then there's a UI question. Simpler to just rule that the "rectification" chosen by the players (allowing East to lead whatever he likes) stands (Law 10B).

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