Misbid?

[conor6969]

Hi,

 

Can you help. I was directing tonight. W opens 1C, announced as could be short as two. N/S end up in 2D. W plays his SINGLETON club. E playing the A and another for.a ruff! N/S cry foul. My ruling was that the bid was explained properly and matched the convention they play. W May have bid incorrectly but has misled P too. Unfair though it sounds no redress. Am I right or wrong?

[blackshoe]

Having not seen the hands, I would have asked East why he led back a low club. That said, unless there are pertinent facts not reported here, your ruling was correct.

[barmar]

Having not seen the hands, I would have asked East why he led back a low club.

Since it's unthinkable to continue the suit partner bid and led. :)

[blackshoe]

Heh. No, because I want to understand his thinking.

[weejonnie]

I think we would need to see the hands - but if dummy, for instance, came down with KQT in clubs and a club was returned into the QT then I would be wondering why the player went for a singleton club rather than a doubleton (when holding up is usually the correct play). Maybe the correct announcement is "could be two, but partner has been known to call 1♣ with one". That is just one avenue of investigation.

 

Otherwise I agree with the ruling - an agreement is between two players in partnership, not an undertaking to the opponents.

[chrism]

You need to establish West's understanding of their agreement. If he thought that his hand was suitable for a 1C opening bid, and had not mis-sorted his cards, did he think that their agreement was actually "could be as short as one", having not really read the written agreement but merely assented to playing a "short club"? Did he think that no agreed systemic bid applied, and that he needed to find the least lie? In either of these cases, the opponents were entitled to know, though nobody was in a position to tell them legally before the end of the hand.

 

So in those cases we would rule misinformation, and give them redress if damage resulted, though not if the correct and complete information would have arrived at the same outcome.

[pescetom]

To help determine whether there was misinformation, in absence of a system card I would also ask some specific questions about their agreements, in particular "when would you open 1♣ with 2 cards in the suit?"