Bridge Questions and Answers - saskatoon bridge club

Bridge Q & A
Q. My partner, dealer, hesitates for some time and then passes - am I
allowed to bid?
A. Certainly! But you must be prepared to justify your bid. It would be totally unethical for you to open
on a marginal hand in this case. Hesitations throughout the auction and play constitute unauthorised
information. An opponent may say to you "hesitation noted." Careful - you’re being watched! DO
NOT feel compelled to bid just because your partner hesitated
Q. My partner gives a mistaken explanation of my bid. What should I do?
A. Nothing -not yet anyway. Why not? Because if you, in all good faith, call the director and say what
has happened you have just alerted your partner to the misunderstanding. This is the same logic that
makes it illegal for you to remind your partner to alert when s/he has forgotten to do so. That's right - if
partner forgets, no looking daggers across the table, or waving little circles in the air. POKER FACE -
please.
Example - You open the strong NT which you have agreed to play but your partner tells the opposition
you are playing the weak. S/he is sitting there with a nice 10 pts ready to pass. If you remind your
partner to alert or call the director, your partner now realises the mistake and puts you to 3NT saving a
bottom board. So what should you do? You call the director at the end of the auction if you wind up as
declarer, and at the end of play if you are the defender. Why the difference? Its all to do with illegally
alerting your partner. If you are defenders you must not do anything to alert your partner to the fact that
something is amiss till the hand is over, since s/he will realise at once that your hand is not as assumed.
If you are declarer or dummy it does not matter, since one person plays both hands. If you cannot
remember what to do, call the director and ask to speak to him/her away from the table, although this
step itself will constitute unauthorised information.
Very Important Point - mistaken explanations are unauthorised information, and you must be
very careful not to base subsequent actions on that (75D2).
Example: Let us reverse the previous example. You have agreed to play the weak NT, and open it
with a good 14 pts. On inquiry your partner says you are playing the strong, and then bids 2NT. You
now know that your partner has only 7-8pts opposite your 14, but you are morally and ethically obliged
to treat partner's bid as showing 11-12 pts and bid 3NT, knowing you probably have a bottom board
coming up!
Dummy’s Rights
These are quite limited, and basically all you can do if keep track of the tricks, try to prevent declarer
from committing an irregularity and inquire after possible revokes. There are a couple of interesting
points here -
a. You may not point out to declarer that s/he has a trick wrongly designated, e.g. showing that your
side won the trick whereas the opposition actually took it. This makes sense - if you do, declarer may
well play the rest of the hand differently, and this kind of prompting is wrong.
b. You may not point out that declarer has led from the wrong hand, but you may try to prevent it from
happening. In other words be alert here and try to stop it happening before the event. If this sounds
odd, remember that dummy may not draw attention to an irregularity during play, but may try to
prevent it. If declarer has already played from the wrong hand, then the irregularity has already
occurred - it is too late to say anything.
Another point is that dummy is not allowed to call the director unless attention has been drawn to an
irregularity by another player. If I find dummy has called me, I will always ask who drew attention to
the irregularity, and if it was dummy, expect a matchpoint fine. and bear it.

Contested claims (70)
This is the biggie. If you remember nothing else from this page, remember the following. An opponent
claims the remaining tricks, but you disagree because you think you can take one or more. What most
players will do now is utter what I describe as the four craziest words in bridge - "Play it out please".
Crazy because what you have just said to the claimer is "I believe I can take a trick". Claimer will then
quickly work out what it might be, e.g. a remaining trump, and promptly take it off you. Those four
crazy words will usually cost you a trick. O.K. That’s what you don’t do. What do you do? You call
the director - radical idea!!! The important thing is that once a claim is made, play ceases. If there has
been any play after the claim, it will be declared void. There are a number of very important points
here.
a. If the claimer did not state the intended line of play at the time of the claim, it is too late now.
Claimers will usually now waffle on about what they couldda/woulda/shouldda done. Tough. It’s too
late.
b. All cards will be faced on the table. Remember, play ceased once the the claim was made. A ruling
will be made as equitably as possible but "...any doubtful points shall be resolved against the claimer"
(70A).
d. When there is an outstanding trump, if a trick could be lost by any "normal" line of play, then it
must be awarded to the opponent. The key to the whole page and a half covering this law is the
following -
"The director shall not accept from claimer any successful line of play not embraced in the original
clarification statement if there is an alternative line of play that would be less successful.(70D)"
Confused? What this is saying is that it does not matter how many ways claimer could have avoided
losing a trick, if there is one normal line of play by which a trick could have been lost, then that’s what
will be awarded.
The law goes further and states that "normal" includes play that could be careless for the class of
player, but not irrational. In other words if an opponent claims the last 3 tricks with the K 7 2 of
trumps and you have the trump Q and two other irrelevant cards, then you will not be awarded a trick,
since it would be irrational for claimer to have played anything other than the K first.
So remember to engrave those words "Play it out please" indelibly into your mind and promise
yourself never, ever to say them again!
Q. My partner concedes the remaining tricks, but I disagree. What can I do
about it"?
A. Object immediately. If you do, then no such concession has occurred.(68B) But be careful here.
That concession by your partner is unauthorized information, (keeps cropping up, doesn’t it?). Be
careful that you can justify any play you make from now on.
Duplicate Experiences
By Marshall Pearlman
We hesitate to say more, but. . .The subject of hesitation was introduced earlier in this series. What is
not clear to many players is what to do if:
• You hesitate • Partner hesitates• An opponent hesitates.
1. When you hesitate (and you know it), you may think you must take some forward action or else
partner is barred. This is not correct. You may make any legal bid you wish. It is partner whose
actions are affected. Certainly, if your action would seem to be a choice between strength showing
bids, the problem is minimized. However, if after “tanking,” you pass or make a minimum response to
partner’s forcing bid, it is probable that you have conveyed “unauthorized information.” You have told
partner, “I have some stuff here but not enough to make a constructive call. ”An extreme example of
unethical conduct is to tank purposely as means of forcing partner to pass when you really don’t want

him to bid again. This should not work, as partner must make his response based only on his hand.
2. When partner hesitates, your action is controlled by the following rule. (Paraphrasing and
simplifying Law 16): From among the logical alternatives, the partner of the offender must NOT
choose the call reasonably suggested by the hesitation. You are not barred, but you must make your call
based on your hand and the bids on the table and nothing else. For example, if you need a little extra
from partner to bid game, and partner’s hesitation suggests he has it, you must not bid the game. Note
that this does not mean you cannot make the bid you would have made in any case; it’s just that you
must not be influenced in your choice of bids by partner’s hesitation. And if the director is called, be
prepared to defend your action
.When an opponent hesitates, you have a decision to make. Previously,
the director should have been called immediately. The rules have changed, and now it is only
necessary that all 4 players at the table agree that a hesitation occurred, and play continues for now. The
director should be called if all 4 players do not agree. The idea is that you must establish your position
as early as possible so as to minimize the damage and the complexity of the remedy. This is often very
difficult and awkward to do, especially if playing in a club game with friends. Some players will never
say anything. Most will do it only if the “tanking” is flagrant and seems likely to significantly affect
the outcome. But be warned. If you don’t speak immediately, it may be more difficult to prove your
case later. Finally, arguments pro and con about hesitation are rampant. Many want the rules changed,
some want to eliminate the issue altogether and “play on.” It is certainly not a perfect world. For now,
we players have no choice but to live with the present rules and do the best we can to play fair and bid
in an ethical and honest manner.
DON'T VARY THE SPEED OF YOUR ACTIONS
A typical violation occurs when a player doubles quickly, thinking about inflicting a large penalty
on the opponents. Partner, who may get in the way by bidding something new over the double, is not
entitled to know doubler's degree of optimism. It is equally improper deliberately to hesitate for a long
time and then double when the issue is close. Hesitations are unavoidable, because bridge is a tough
game and everyone encounters problems, but you should keep the same tempo whenever possible; take
a second or two to act even when your decision is an obvious one.
DON'T DRAW INFERENCES FROM THE SPEED OF YOUR PARTNER'S BIDS AND
PLAYS
If your partner hesitates for a long while and then passes, it is obvious that the hesitation indicates
something of value (else there would be nothing to consider). However, you are ethically obligated not
to make any use of this information and to act just as though partner had passed quickly. Notice that
although you must try to make your calls and plays in a uniform tempo, there is nothing wrong with
thinking at length when it is necessary. What is wrong is for the hesitator's partner to take an unusual
action on the basis of this illegal information. Players who take advantage of such hesitations (and, for
example, bid further with poor values, expecting to find unannounced strength in partner's hand)
deserve to be shunned by those who know better. And they usually are.
DON'T MAKE EMPHATIC GESTURES
It may be tempting to slam a card down if you don't like partner's play or to speak loudly and angrily if
partner's bids seem to be heading your side towards disaster, but such temptation must be resisted.
Similarly, don't smile or applaud loudly if partner's actions please you. Maintain the same tone and
demeanor.
DON'T MAKE SUPERFLUOUS COMMENTS

Bridge wouldn't be much fun if everyone had to stare grimly into space and say nothing except
"pass," "three clubs," and so on. You will certainly want to exchange pleasantries with your partner
and the opponents, but you must make sure that they have no bearing on the game. For example,
unethical tactics such as asking, "Did you bid diamonds?" when you want partner to lead a diamond
don't belong in any bridge game.
DON'T PRETEND TO THINK JUST TO FOOL THE OPPONENTS
If an opponent leads the ace of diamonds and the only diamond in your hand is the seven, you have
no problem; you must follow suit, so the only legal play is the seven of diamonds. It is unethical to
hesitate in order to mislead the opponents into thinking that you had a choice of plays (and hence more
than one diamond). Play at a steady pace.
In short, you should convey and receive information only by means of the bids and plays that you
and your partner make, and not through any other actions. We cannot urge you too strongly to pay
close attention to the proprieties and become an ethical player who will be welcome in any game
Reprinted (revised) from Calgary Unit 390. Used by permission