Members Guide to the Essentials of Duplicate Bridge Law


A.  BBC Club Rules.

1. Playing Time.

Players must be seated 10 minutes before the start time, leaving the Director time to complete the setup of the play  and the Bridgemate system  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. 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.

We use Bridgemate  to score all our events and have dispensed with Player Slips and Travellers. The club  does not require players to hand in personal score cards; in fact, each player receives a completed Score Card as part of the results.  If players chose to maintain personal score cards during play,  they should update them in their own time, and not keep the rest of the table waiting for their bid or play whilst completing the card.

4. Playing Regulations.

For the optional parts of the bridge laws, the club is aligned with the EBU, which publishes its selected variations in the Orange Book.  In particular this means that all bidding conventions up to and including level 4 are accepted and no psyche bids are forbidden. The club does retain a psyche register. The EBU regulations on alerting and announcements are also in force at the club.

We quote from the Club Rules on the question of convention cards:-
" Pairs should have identical convention cards, which opponents can examine before the bidding starts,  preferably recorded on the EBU Convention Card, form 20B.These can be downloaded from the EBU web site. Copies are available from the club.
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.
For the purposes of such declarations, the following systems are accepted as being generally understood at BBC:- Acol,  Benji Acol & 5 Card Majors.
The use of a convention card is mandatory  for all other bidding systems used at BBC."
The above practices, and the right to ask questions during play,  enable players to understand their opponents' bidding system. There is no rectification in the Laws for bidding errors made as a result of failure to acquire this information.

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.

Due to the above procedures, the law assumes that the dealt cards have been in the hands of the correct player from the beginning. When one player is short at the end,  you should call the Director as it is likely that a revoke will have occurred.

C. THE AUCTION.

1. Unauthorized Information.

 The laws of bridge place great emphasis on preventing the  use of unauthorized information.  The only legal ways for a pair to exchange information are valid calls and plays. All other forms of receiving or communicating information are unauthorized.

It is not an offence to receive unauthorized information. Much arrives accidentally, e/g overhearing conversations at adjacent tables. The offence is to use it in your bidding or play. If your opponents think you have received unauthorized information, they may reserve their rights to call the director later, if they observe that the unauthorised information has been used. If you disagree with your opponent's reservation of their rights the director must be called immediately.

a. Common Sources of Unauthorized Information.

  • Bidding. Hovering over or touching the bidding box contents before passing suggests you have 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 does not look reasonable without the unauthorized information.  The director will ask 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 in every case. The restraints on the actions of the opponents and the rights of non-offenders as a result of the unauthorized information are far more extensive than is generally realized.

c. Misinformation.

Opponents have an absolute right 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 your partner has given an incorrect answer, this must be corrected according to the following rules:-.

  • To avoid providing your partner with unauthorized information about the error,  the declaring side must delay correcting wrong answers until the end of the auction.
  • Defenders must delay correcting wrong answers until the end of the play.
  • If you realize,  from your partner's answer to a question,  that your bid has been misunderstood, or that you have mis-bid, you must continue to act as if you had not received this information.
  • At the end of bidding or play,  as appropriate, the director must always be called to redress the consequences.

2. Alerts and Announcements.

a. Announcements

Announcements are a special form of alert made in the following circumstances:-
 i. 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.
 ii. 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'.
 iii. 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”.
 iv. After a response of 2 Diamonds or 2 Hearts to 1 NT, indicating a transfer which guarantees 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”.
 v.. If the above bids have meanings other than those defined above, or (in cases iii and vi) if there was intervention before the Stayman or Transfer the bids should be alerted by your partner rather than announced by yourself.

b. Alerts.
 i.  Further responses to Stayman and Transfers do not require alerting, whether or not the original bid was announcable or alertable.
 ii. No bid higher than 3NT is alertable, excepting artificial opening bids and doubles that imply suits, (e.g. Lightner Doubles)
 iii  Minor suits can now be opened without alerts with as few as 3 cards, if the bid implies the suit named.
 iv. Doubles of 1 NT are assumed to be for penalty and are not alertable.
 v. 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.
 vi. Doubles of conventional bids which are for penalties or lead direction are not alertable, if they show the actual suit doubled.

 vii 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  about the auction without risk of unauthorized information. Declarer alone can examine his convention card. Declarer or his partner, but not defenders, should disclose incorrect answers to questions.
If the outcome of the auction is distorted by an incorrect explanation, call the director. He can re-open the auction if necessary.

The 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 during play of the hand.. Declarer’s cards, whether  accidentally exposed, or withdrawn, following a  revoke or a lead out of turn, 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.

Defenders and dummy can avoid potential revokes by saying 'having none'. when the card is played. They can also correct partner's placement of the tricks, before the next trick is commenced.

2. Play of the Cards.

If the play is legal. (e.g.  not out of turn or a revoke), the  card is defined as "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 sole circumstance when a legally played card can be withdrawn is when  an inadvertent error is made  when verbally designating a card to be played.  The law allows correction of slips of tongue. However, it will be extremely hard to persuade the director that the exposure of  LHO's card has not caused a change in plan, following a prior decision on what card to play. The EBU's guidance is that such slips of the tongue 'almost never happen'.

Play of a card 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, particularly relating to 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 is disclosed, both in the claim  and/o  in any dispute of it, for further play to be fair. 

If the conceder's partner rebuts the concession, play continues as if the concession has not been made. Cards exposed by defenders do not become penalty cards but the sight of them is unauthorized information to partner. The Director should be called to deal with the unauthorized information that arises..

The claim must include a description of how the remaining cards will be played and must explicitly mention the treatment of  outstanding trumps.  In the absence of a waterproof prior statement about trump play, the director is instructed to award a trick to the defenders if a trick could have been lost to a trump.  The director will ignore any subsequent rationalization of the proposed play, and make his ruling soley on what was said when the claim was made.

Claims or concessions can be disputed right up to the end of the club's declared correction period. No concession is valid if the trick could not have been lost.  When handling disputed claims the Director is required to resolve the dispute as equitably as possible. However doubtful points are  resolved against the claimant who is expected to play with average carelessness for player of his class..

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. Before returning them to the pocket, it is good practice to count the cards,  and it is required by law to shuffle them .
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.

You should always call the Director as soon as something goes wrong, and you must always do this rather than dispute with your opponents. Calling the Director is a procedure designed to ensure that disagreements  and unpleasantness at the table are avoidable and unnecessary.  The aim of the law in this matter and of Bawburgh Bridge Club is to ensure that

                                       ALL PLAYERS IN THE ROOM SHOULD ENJOY THEIR BRIDGE