Bawburgh Bridge Club

This document gives guidance on the basics of Bridge Law as set out in the 2007 version and on BBC's club rules.

A. BBC Club Rules.

1. Playing Time.

Players must be seated 10 minutes before the start time, leaving the Director time to complete the playing arrangements and get the event off to a prompt start.

2. Best Behaviour at Bridge.

Members should greet others in a friendly manner prior to the start of play in each round. Both couples should endeavour to be good hosts or guests at the table, giving credit for good play by opponents and making bridge enjoyable for all players. Remember that it is rude to criticize your partner or opponents, to gloat over results or to be other than polite at the table.

Players should not object to a call for the director by their opponents or dispute or argue about director rulings.

3. Paperwork.

At BBC we now use Bridgemate terminals to record the scores for all our events. This equipment enables us to dispense with Player Slips and Travellers. BBC does not require players to hand in personal score cards and players should update them in their own time, rather than keep the rest of the table waiting for their bid or play whilst they record events on the card.

4. Bridge Regulations

As the club rules state, BBC has adopted wholesale all the regulations in the EBU's Orange Book. BBC's sole deviation is the following statement from the club rules on convention cards..
"Pairs should have identical convention cards, which opponents can examine before the bidding starts. If you don't have a convention card, you should tell opponents your basic system when they come to your table. If opponents don't do this, you should ask them before bidding starts.
The following systems are accepted as being generally understood at BBC:- ACOL, Benjii ACOL & 5 Card Majors. The use of a convention card is mandatory if not playing one of these systems.
As a result of these practices, you are expected to understand the essentials of your opponents bidding system. If you make bidding errors in ignorance of it, you receive no help from the laws of bridge.

B. Procedural Matters

1. Organization of Play

North is responsible for ensuring that the correct board is played,  as indicated by  the Bridgemate terminal or the movement card,  and for ensuring that the board in play remains correctly positioned on the table at all times. It is also always North's responsibility to pass the boards on to the next table when the round is complete.

It is the duty of moving couples to arrive at the correct table. The Director will attribute to them the penalties that arise from their taking the wrong seats, if play proceeds.

2. Checking Hands

Each player is obliged to count his cards face down before looking at them. If curtain cards are in use, each player must also verify that the card for his position is the correct one, and then check the hand against this document, before bidding. Errors in the pack that would have been discovered by the above practices are attributed to the player holding the cards,  as are any penalties if the board can not be played.

Because of this checking, the cards are assumed by the laws to have been in the hands of the correct player from the beginning. When one player is short at the end,  and the card turns up,  (e.g.  as happened in the Norfolk and Norwich League, in a lady's handbag),  you should call the Director.  In  all probability, there will be a revoke to sort out.

C. THE AUCTION.

1. Unauthorized Information.

As this document demonstrates, the use of unauthorized information is strongly prohibited throughout the laws of bridge. The only legal ways for a pair to exchange information are valid calls and plays. All other forms of communication between partners supply unauthorized information which it is an offence to use. 

If your opponents think your partnership has exchanged unauthorized information, they may indicate that they have noticed it and reserve their rights to call the director, if its use proves damaging.

a. Common Sources of Unauthorized Information

• Hovering over or touching the bidding box contents before passing suggests you had a marginal bid.
• Touching a Pass card before bidding implies your bid is minimal
• Hesitations. You are expected to bid roughly in tempo with the other players. Hesitating unduly before passing suggests you have a borderline bid.
• Questions during the Bidding. To ask a question and then pass implies that you have a borderline bid. Looking at your opponent's convention card is the same as asking a question.
• Jump Bids. Before a jump bid, the Stop Card should be displayed for 10 seconds. Regardless of this, the next bidder must wait 10 seconds before bidding. Not doing so implies to your partner an additional layer of confidence in the strength of the bid.

All of the above cases make it strongly advisable for your partner to pass, if his/her next bid will not stand examination for validity without your hints.  The director will be asking himself, 'Would 70% of the room have made that bid unaided?'

b  Insufficient Bids and Bids out of Turn.

As well as being illegal, both bids supply unauthorized information to partner. The director should be called immediately.  Constraints on the defenders  and the non-offender's rights are  much more extensive than is generally realized .

c.  Misinformation.

Opponents have an absolute right in law to accurate answers to their questions.

• If you realize you have given an incorrect answer to a question, you should call the Director immediately. Timely action can unpick much of the damage.
• If you realize that your partner has given an incorrect answer, this misinformation must also be corrected.
• To avoid passing unauthorised information, members of the declaring side can not  correct wrong answers by partner until the end of the auction.
• Defenders can not correct partner's errors until the end of play.

If your partners answers to a question tell you that either your bid has been misunderstood, or your own bid was wrong according to your system, you must continue to behave as if completely unaware of this information. 

2. Alerts and Announcements.

a. Announcements

Announcements are a special form of alert made in the following circumstances:-

• After a bid of 1NT, partner must announce the point range of the bid, e.g. "12-14 Points" and adding, if applicable, "possible singleton".
• A natural opening of two of a suit must be announced by partner indicating its meaning, choosing from "strong forcing", " strong not forcing"  "intermediate"  and "weak".  Precision 2 clubs is announced as "intermediate."
• If you and partner are playing standard Stayman, a bid of 2 clubs after 1NT, without an intervening double, must be followed by the announcement “Stayman”.
• After a response of 2 Diamonds or 2 Hearts to 1 NT, indicating a transfer and guaranteeing a 5 card plus holding, if there has been no intervening bid, partner announces the transferred suit e g. after 2 Diamonds “Hearts”; after 2 Hearts “Spades”.
• If the above bids have meanings other than those defined above, or there was intervention before the Stayman or Transfer bid, they are alertable rather than announcable.

b. Alerts.

• Further responses to Stayman and Transfers do not require alerting, whether or not the original bid was announcable or alertable.
• No bid higher than 3NT is now alertable, excepting artificial opening bids and doubles that imply suits, (e.g. Lightner Doubles)
• Minor suits can now be opened without alerts with as few as 3 cards, if the bid implies the suit named.
• Doubles of 1 NT are assumed to be for penalty and are not alertable.
  
• Doubles of natural or near-natural suit bids which are for take-out, including Sputnik or Negative doubles, are assumed to be for takeout and are not alertable.
• Doubles of conventional bids which are for penalties and lead direction are not alertable, if they show the actual suit doubled.
• All other doubles are alertable

3. Changes of Call

Provided partner has not called, inadvertent bidding errors can be substituted, if this is done without pause for thought, as soon as the error is noticed. However the facts and the laws of the matter are a very common cause of dispute and you should call the director every time.

4. The Clarification Period

At the end of the Auction, all bids must be left in place on the table until the opening lead is faced. The face-down opening lead marks the start of the clarification period. In this interval, questions can be asked without risk of unauthorized information. Declarer alone can consult his system card. Declarer or his partner, but not defenders should correct any incorrect answers to questions. If this happens, and the other side believe the auction was distorted by the incorrect information, they should call the director. He can reopen the auction if necessary.

The opening lead is faced when the questions are complete, and it is usual though not prescribed, to ask for questions to ensure that the clarification period is respected.

D. THE PLAY

1. Unauthorized Information During Play.

As he has no partner to benefit, these laws do not apply to declarer.  Declarer’s cards, whether accidentally exposed, or withdrawn following  a lead out of turn or a revoke, do not become penalty cards and can be picked up.

Defenders have no such privileges. Cards exposed for any reason other than playing them become penalty cards.

However defenders can now draw attention to the number of tricks won, by correcting partner’s placement of tricks, before the lead to the next trick. They can also draw their partner's attention to potential revokes, saying 'Having none?' when a discard is played or trick is ruffed.

2. Play of the Cards.

If it is a legal play,   (e.g. not a play out-of-turn or a potential revoke,)   a card is played :

  - by declarer when faced
  - by defenders when held in any position where it could have been seen by partner.
  - by dummy when  the card is touched by declarer, other than for rearrangement.

The single exception is when there is an inadvertent error in verbally designating a card to be played. The law allows correction of slips of the tongue. However, it will be extremely hard to persuade the director that you have not changed your mind after seeing LHO's card , having previously decided what to play. The EBU's guidance to directors is that such slips of the tongue 'almost never happen'.

Play of the cards by dummy,  without instructions from declarer,  has no standing  and can not override declarer’s choice of card.  However,  if dummy plays or hovers over a card without instruction,  the opponents may claim damage if they think he is helping declarer with something he has not spotted - e.g. a potentially winning finesse.

3. Illegal Plays – e.g. Plays out of turn, Revokes, etc.

Call the Director every time. The non-offenders have many more options than is generally understood, arising from the unauthorized information.

4. Claims and Concessions.

Once a claim or a concession is made, all play of the hand ceases even if the players want to play the hand out. Too much information has been disclosed, both in making the claim or concession and in the dispute of it, for this to be achieved fairly.  However if the player's partner rebuts the concession, it has not happened. Cards exposed do not become penalty cards, though they are unauthorized information.

When making a claim for the remainder of the tricks,  the claimant has to state how they will be played and explicitly explain  the handling of all the contingencies relating to an outstanding trump. In the absence of a waterproof prior statement, the director is directed to award a trick to the opponents if a trick could have been lost to a trump. The director is also directed to ignore any subsequent rationalizations,  not included in the statement made when making the claim.

If disputed, the Director must be called to adjudicate the claim. The director is instructed to judge the outcome as equitably as possible. Doubtful points will be resolved against the claimant who is expected to make an average number or errors for a player of his class.

Claims and concessions can be subsequently disputed right up to the end of the dub's defined correction period, but only on the grounds that a trick has been conceded that could not have been lost, or claimed that could not have been won.
   

5. When the Play is Finished.

The law indicates that each player restores his original 13 cards  to the board pocket corresponding to his position, hinting that they should be counted in cases of doubt. It is now also the law that cards must be shuffled before being returned to the board,  in order to suppress any potential unauthorized information in their arrangement.
Thereafter, no cards shall be removed from the board unless a member of both sides or the director is present.

E. WHEN THINGS GO WRONG.

It is always best to call the Director as soon as something goes wrong, and you should always do this rather than begin or join in a dispute with your opponents. Calling the Director does not question any one’s honesty or prejudice any one’s position. It is a procedure designed to ensure that all unpleasantness is avoidable and unnecessary.
The aim of the law in this matter and of Bawburgh Bridge Club at all times is that

                                           ALL PLAYERS IN THE ROOM SHOULD ENJOY THEIR BRIDGE