An unusual case of hesitation Blackwood

[VixTD]

The following incident was reported to me from a local club teams league event (both vul, IMP scoring):

[hv=pc=n&w=shaj42da872ckjt62&e=sk9875hkqt76dkqtc]266|100[/hv]

The auction, starting with West, was:

 

1♣ - 1♥

4♥ - 4NT

5♥ - 5♥(H)

6♥ - P

 

4NT was RKCB, the first 5♥ bid showed two key cards and denied the ♥Q. The second 5♥ bid was very slow, and accepted (whether wittingly or not I don't know) by a pass from South.

 

Assuming the contract made, should the director allow West's 6♥ bid to stand?

[gordontd]

The following incident was reported to me from a local club teams league event (both vul, IMP scoring):

[hv=pc=n&w=shaj42da872ckjt62&e=sk9875hkqt76dkqtc]266|100[/hv]

The auction, starting with West, was:

 

1♣ - 1♥

4♥ - 4NT

5♥ - 5♥(H)

6♥ - P

 

4NT was RKCB, the first 5♥ bid showed two key cards and denied the ♥Q. The second 5♥ bid was very slow, and accepted (whether wittingly or not I don't know) by a pass from South.

 

Assuming the contract made, should the director allow West's 6♥ bid to stand?

Presumably if he was thinking of bidding less, he would have bid 4H, not 5H. So a slow 5H does suggest he was thinking of bidding more. :)

[blackshoe]

Is pass a logical alternative?

[ggwhiz]

Is pass a logical alternative?

 

I think so. If the second 5♥ bid was sufficient (which east obviously thought it was) it's to play and it seems to have been so slow it suckered south, who had probably fallen asleep into accepting it.

 

Just my guess on the tempo part but on the first part I make pass not only a logical alternative but called for.

[barmar]

I wonder if West thought East's 5♥ was a trump queen ask.

[weejonnie]

I would say that IMHO that the contract should be rolled back to 5♥ (one of them). The trance suggests that East wants to continue so has extras (in this case the club void), but dan't work out how to show them. I suspect West could work out the extra as it is unlikely to be a void in Spades.

[aguahombre]

I would go a different route altogether. 5♥, rather than PASS, keeps the auction alive and puts the ball back in Opener's court if accepted. If not accepted, Responder can just pass or bid 6; it is a no-lose irregularity and the offender might conceivably have known that. Please, no pedants on the exact way I worded this, but L23 could be invoked.

[barmar]

BTW, Law 23 has been moved in the 2017 version, it will be 72C. There are some minor wording changes, but nothing that changes the meaning, so SB will still have plenty of ammunition.

[ahydra]

I'm with the majority here - would roll this back (pass is an LA and the hesitation suggests East was thinking of bidding 6).

 

ahydra

[WellSpyder]

It makes a change from the more common mistake of forgetting what the last bid was and signing off by passing rather than bidding 5♥ over something like 5♦. But I agree that the BIT clearly suggests the player is not sure whether to sign off and therefore suggests bidding on. I also think that if partner invokes BW and then signs off, pass is pretty much always a logical alternative (unless, say, you have 5 key cards rather than 2!). So I would indeed rule the contract back to 5♥ (the second one, not that it matters which).

[wank]

people here seem to be pretty confident they know what a slow insufficient (repeat) bid demonstrably suggests. i'm certainly not.

 

i would say that anyone who makes a 5h bid over 5h is clearly so mixed up at the moment that it's impossible to know what they have.

[ggwhiz]

people here seem to be pretty confident they know what a slow insufficient (repeat) bid demonstrably suggests. i'm certainly not.

 

i would say that anyone who makes a 5h bid over 5h is clearly so mixed up at the moment that it's impossible to know what they have.

 

I don't think what the 2nd 5♥ bidder had is relevant at all although with anyone I've played with or against often enough, I can guess what their tanks mean way over 50% of the time. They signed off after a keycard response that just happened to be where they already were and took so long to do it that the rest of the table (them too) went into a coma.

 

West has no business raising that having chosen to respond to 4nt as they did whether the 2nd 5♥ bid was insufficient or not.