Port Macquarie Hastings Bridge Club - Learn & Play Bridge
Frequently Asked Questions
What time is lunch ?
ASKING FOR EXPLANATIONS AND NOT BIDDING…..
ASKING FOR EXPLANATIONS AND NOT BIDDING…..
It is better not to ask what a bid means unless you are intending to bid. Asking for an explanation without bidding could in certain circumstances be construed as passing unauthorized information to your partner, i.e. you have values or you hold cards in an alerted suit bid. If you don’t intend to bid, wait until the conclusion of the auction and ask for a full explanation of the bidding. If you are on lead, ask then. If partner is on lead ask when partner has put the card he intends to lead face down on the table. The opening lead should always be placed face down until it is accepted by partner. This prevents irregularities such as leading out of turn and enables partner to ask any questions about the auction or alerts that have been made.
INSUFFICIENT BIDS
When a player makes an insufficient call the first option is for the next player to accept it,
which may well be done if it is to their advantage.
If the insufficient call isn’t accepted then the offender has to find another legal call.
If the substituted call (it can even be a double) has the same meaning, or a more precise meaning
of the original call,
then there is no penalty, and the offender’s partner can bid when it is next his turn.
Should the substituted call not provide the same meaning (and it may be a pass, but can’t be a
double or redouble)
then partner is barred for the rest of the auction, and may be subject to lead penalties.
Finally, the Director may impose a penalty should an enforced pass be to the benefit of the
offending side.
So, it’s not easy, and all the more reason when there is an infringement at your table to CALL THE
DIRECTOR!
Slow Play ... There is a website for the Australian Bridge Directors Association with a link to it on our website, and on this website is a forum, open to all, where rulings and interpretations are discussed. In browsing the website the vexed issue of slow play was recently raised, and from the comments it is an issue everywhere.
The general consensus from the forum seemed to be that our job as directors was to keep the game going as smoothly as possible without too much interference and just to try and hurry up the slower players. As a last resort, consistently slow players could be penalized with a 40%/60% average. Most scored the hand “ not played”. There is , however, a body of opinion that believes that awarding a “not played” is illegal under the rules, Law 12c2a, and that every hand not played needs to be assessed and an adjusted score given.
Everyone can think of examples where neither side is at fault and having a mandatory rule that required the director to assess blame and adjust scores every time a hand was unable to be played would be impractical. It would take far too much time for each party to argue the case for or against his decision. It is difficult enough for a director to finish his round if he receives a couple of calls in a round without the added burden of assessing the reason for one hand not being played.
There is an example given in another discussion on the forum where a player took 13 minutes to make a bid. This is not illegal, but obviously you would be pushing to finish the round. What happens if the next player then takes a further 13 minutes to bid, which presumably he would be entitled to do and one could then say that every subsequent bid should take 13 minutes to maintain the tempo.
At our meeting, after much discussion it was decided to maintain the status quo for the moment but to encourage the known slow players to try and speed things up a bit or we may be forced to start imposing penalties. If you find that you are regularly not finishing your boards by the time the move is called you are a “slow player” - have a look at yourselves. Do not spend too much time in idle chit-chat before starting to play; do not spend eons assessing what lead someone must have received to have made one more trick than you did, accept the result and get on with the next hand. At the end of a round If you need to go to the toilet or get a cup of tea do that first, chat second. Once the move has been called do just that – move. There was a saying when I was growing up “a fast game is a good game” but this doesn’t mean that you have to play as fast as Robert. However if a card is going to lose staring at it for five minutes will not make it a winner so accept your fate and move on.
We do not want to be parking police handing out fines, we just want to have fun and play some good cards and with your help we can do that without any draconian regulations.