[KamalK]

Hello friends,

The following hand was dealt in a tourney that I played yesterday :

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

 -     -     -     2♣
 Pass  2♦    Pass  2♥
 Pass  3♥    Pass  4NT
 Pass  5♣    Pass  5♦
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

Please note the following :

1. I was playing at East

2. Opps got top 5♦, very surpising

3. They communicated openly at table during bidding in Turkish

4. They made the following alerts :

*2♣ strong

* 2♦ waiting

* 2♥ Suit !!!!!

* 4NT Ace ask

* 5♣ Natural !!!!!!!!!!

And then 5♦ is bid and passed. NO alert for 5♦!

I called TD and explained everything, she also saw for herself but refused to take any action. She accused me of being rude lol.

After tourney she apologised and "adjusted" the Board from 5♦+1 to 5♦

My questions are :

1. Am I right in assuming that from the bidding, there is no logical way for them to reach a ♦ contract? That they have surely communicated this to each other??

2. The fact that they communicated in Turkish, wasnt that enough for TD to understand and take appropriate action?

3. What, if any, action should/could TD take?

4. What are the remedies available to us Intermediates, who are not regular tourney players, DURING the tourney, not after it has been completed. If I did not continue playing, BBO and/or TD "bans" me.

Thanks for all your help in advance.

Regards

Kamal

[vang]

from time to time, opps have a misunderstanding which leads to a good contract. this can be annoying, but it doesn't mean they cheat.
as a TD i'll probably adjust this one (A+/A-) only if they communicated during the bidding.

[Elianna]

If you have BBO set up to log chat, you could copy and paste from the chat file and send it to someone who speaks Turkish, and they can tell you what was said.

I believe that I have read that abuse usually waits for more than one case to be presented to it, but if you have no Turkish-speaking friends, perhaps you could email the copied and pasted chat log to abuse and they could get it translated? I don't know if they would do that, though, but at least it might be more constructive.

In other words, I think that the answer to your question 4 is the same as for any other skill category: "not much, sorry".

[TylerE]

It's actually possible for this auction to make sense, if the player's aren't on the same page.

2♣ - Strong
2♦ - Waiting
2♥ - Kokish Relay (Normal GF in ♥, or 25-26 Balanced, forces 2♠, in theory...)
3♥ - Heart support
4NT - 3014 / Reg. BW
5♣ - 0
5♦ - Asking for Q♥

[ArtK78]

First of all, 5♦ is NOT a good contract. 6♦ is almost 100% and 7♦ just needs the ♦Q to fall singleton or doubleton, a better than 50% chance. Admittedly, 5♦ is a better contract that some other choices (specifically, anything other than 6♦ and 7♦, and an argument can be made that 5♦ is superior to 7♦).

As for the opponents openly conversing in Turkish at the table during the auction, that is not permissible on 2 levels.

(1) It is impermissible for players to converse during the bidding or the play of the hand in all events.

(2) Assuming that the tourney is a BBO tourney without any special rules as to language, English is the only permissible language in use in BBO tournaments.

At best, the declaring side should be given a procedural penalty. At worst, you know where you want to go with this.