[mjj29]

This happenned to us tonight. I'll leave the actual hand and what happenned until later, since it's not directly relevant to my question.

Second in, my partner, sitting North, puts the STOP card on the table and withdraws some cards from the bidding box, but still all facing him such that I can't see what he was attempting to bid. At this point West points out that she is actually dealer and my partner returns the cards to the bidding box and calls the director.

Now, the bidding cards were definitely removed from the box with apparent intent, so there is no question that the bid was made (this being the EBU), but at this point I have not seen the card, so the only UI about the call I have is the STOP card. His question was - can I be sent away from the table in order that I have less UI in the event that East does not accept the bid?

A second question then arose after the director ruled that he couldn't do that and that the bid be put on the table to resolve the BOOT. The bid in question was 2C, which shows either diamonds (weak), hearts and spades (weak), hearts and spades (game forcing) or 20-23 balanced. In the event that the bid is not accepted (it wasn't) and West does not pass (she didn't) - does my partner have any available call which does not silence me?

[RMB1]

The call is made and should be faced on the table, everyone at the table must know what the call is before the penalty (rectification, if you prefer) is applied.

Any call from partner silences you for at least one round. In this case, the call out of turn does not specify a denomination so the subsequent (in turn) call can not repeat the denomination so any call will silence you for the rest of the auction.

[CamHenry]

RMB1, on Jun 22 2010, 05:53 PM, said:

The call is made and should be faced on the table, everyone at the table must know what the call is before the penalty (rectification, if you prefer) is applied.

Any call from partner silences you for at least one round. In this case, the call out of turn does not specify a denomination so the subsequent (in turn) call can not repeat the denomination so any call will silence you for the rest of the auction.

This is what was ruled at the table (I was North, and had just bid on autopilot because I wanted to open). I agreed with the lack of a non-silencing call for me, but neither Matt nor I was certain about whether I had to reveal what the bid was to partner. It was clear that I must reveal it to oppo.

It seems to me that the laws could treat a bid out of turn (not accepted, and not repeatable) the same way as an insufficient bid: so a natural call could be corrected, and an artificial call could be corrected if an equivalent _or more precise_ call could be made. While that wouldn't have helped me on this hand, it could be usable. For example, if a weak-only Multi was opened out of turn, a weak jump overcall in a major could potentially be substituted.

[bluejak]

A call was made. No Law suggests that a made call should ever be hidden from one of the players for any reason.

[Vampyr]

CamHenry, on Jun 23 2010, 09:39 AM, said:

It seems to me that the laws could treat a bid out of turn (not accepted, and not repeatable) the same way as an insufficient bid: so a natural call could be corrected, and an artificial call could be corrected if an equivalent _or more precise_ call could be made.  While that wouldn't have helped me on this hand, it could be usable.  For example, if a weak-only Multi was opened out of turn, a weak jump overcall in a major could potentially be substituted.

This would be consistent, but would not be a popular choice on this forum, where most of the posters (correctly) believe that the current law governing insufficient bids is seriously misguided.

I think that it would make nearly all players and directors happy if an insufficient bid or bid out of turn always silenced partner; but the WBFLC seem to feel otherwise, and obviously do not believe that the Laws of Contract Bridge are for the benefit of players, directors, clubs, NBOs, etc.