[bluejak]

cherdanno, on Oct 13 2009, 03:36 AM, said:

I had a team game where for one set, my counterpart at the other table clearly wasn't shuffling the cards before putting them back.
Would you still call the TD? Would it have been ethical to draw inferences from the sorted cards?

Sure. There is an infraction: call the TD. Those two things should go together.

One problem is that it is not clear at all what you should do when confronted by an informational set of cards. Well, ok, it is obvious, you ask the TD's advice. But TDs have not been given any advice in the matter apart from making sure the player sending you the cards is reminded of his responsibilities. Presumably he applies Law 16C but it is not clear.

[skjaeran]

Vampyr, on Oct 13 2009, 03:40 AM, said:

skaeran said:

It's a very common way to count the cards - I see many doing it like that.

There's a drawback to this method, if there's one or more cards face up in your pile, all the players at the table can see it/them.

Yes, I count my cards this way and have had this happen before. It is very rare, though.

But it raises another question -- should a penalty be assessed against the player who returned some cards to the board face-up?

Yes, if the playing format let you know who's the culprit, I'd penalize him. A warning is enough the first time IMO.

Where I play you normally can't tell who returned some cards to the board face-up, since we play barometer tournaments all the time.