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Laws and Ethics Forum: March 2010 Explanations What should you do when partner forgets the system? This query comes from a League match, where the auction went:
There were no alerts. (4H should be alerted if it is a conventional bid even though it is above 3NT: such bids are alertable if made on the first round of the bidding.) As the hand was played out, it transpired that East and West had far more trumps than expected. At the end of play South explained that 4H was a Texas transfer to spades. A failure to alert comes under the general heading of Mistaken Explanation. The situation is covered by Law 20. Law 20 Review and Explanation of calls 5(a) A player whose partner has given a mistaken explanation may not correct the error during the auction, nor may he indicate in any manner that a mistake has been made. ‘Mistaken explanation’ here includes failure to alert as regulations require or an alert that regulations do not require. Thus South could do nothing in the course of the auction to indicate that her bid should have been alerted. Should she have done something later? The answer to that question is: “Yes”. This is what the SBU Alerting Procedures have to say: 3.3 If a possible misexplanation emerges during the explanation stage the Director should be called before the opening lead is faced. Defenders, however, must wait until the play of the deal is completed before calling the Director to report any misexplanation by their partner. The ‘explanation stage’ is the period between the end of the auction (three consecutive passes) and the opening lead. Defenders are entitled to know what has happened before they make the opening lead. It is at this stage that South should call the Director if there is one. In a League match, where there is no Director, South should draw attention to the misexplanation herself. (It is incumbent on both declarer and dummy to draw attention to partner’s failure to alert.) In this case South should explain that partner has forgotten the system, and that 4H is a Texas transfer. Technically, since the auction period is not over, Law 21B applies: Law 21 Call Based on Misinformation B Call based on Misinformation from an Opponent (a) Until the end of the auction period and provided that his partner has not subsequently called, a player may change a call without other rectification for his side, when the Director judges that the decision to make the call could well have been influenced by misinformation given to the player by an opponent. Failure to alert promptly is deemed misinformation. However, on the given auction it is highly unlikely that East could make a cogent argument that he would bid had he known the meaning of 4H. So the hand would be played out in 4H. Once the deal has been played out East-West may ask for an adjusted score if they feel have been damaged by the misexplanation. In the League match situation they should reserve their rights, and consult their team captain at the end of the session. They might argue that West would bid or double if he knew 4H was a transfer; or that they would make more tricks in defence if they knew that South had long spades rather than long hearts. Of course sometimes North might protest that 4H was natural, and that it was his partner who had forgotten the system. The Director (the Captains in a League match) should consult the Convention Card for corroboration – one of many good reasons why regulations insist that a partnership has a properly filled out Convention Card. If the situation was not covered on the Convention Card (or - tsk, tsk - there was no convention card) the Director would not give North-South the benefit of the doubt, he would assume that there had been misexplanation. When the misexplanation has come from the defending side, they cannot draw attention to it till the end of play, because the information might help partner more than declarer. They should do so at the end of the hand, and if declarer has been damaged an adjusted score may be awarded. Note that there is no automatic adjustment in favour of the non-offending side. Your score is adjusted only if you can demonstrate how you have been damaged by the misinformation. |