[pin_73]

Scoring: IMP

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South West North East
!2♦ Pass !2♥ 3♦
Pass Pass Dbl Pass
Pass 4♣ Dbl Pass
Pass Pass

North leads 3♠ and West calles me.

At the moment I arrived at the table the alerted biddings was:
2♦ : 5+Majhor and 5 + any 8_11 points
2♥: 3+ heart 0-13 point

I've asked West what is the problem and he said look at the alerts. I did and I told him everything is OK and I asked him to play. Then he said that South has changed it from 5+ majors to 5+ major and 5+ any. I was not able to find anything from the other 3 payers because they where not speaking english (I initiated a topic on this but nobody answered)

How would you rule this?

[inquiry]

First, you have to determine the facts. You can hear only one side so far (from the person speaking english or what ever language it was that you understood). The alert you see looks "right" for what is held, and it must be tough for a non-english speaking person to type a correct alert.

Try to find someone in the lobby or someplace that speaks the appropriate language. Become familiar with babelfish. If the alert was wrong, then it was an accident, but you have to make sure that EW are not damaged by their own actions. Does 3D look right on the surface? I am afraid that I think 3D was overly aggressive when the opponents maynot even have a fit. East is looking at 3H and north claims to have 3 hearts (or more), so he can safely pass. If this goes pp to his partner, his partner will be short in hearts and will surely reopen if he has some value. If he doesn't, East with his ratty hand would not be wanting to compete.

So in real world, I would let 4Cx stand for EW. NS would get a procedural penalty, anyone playing odd things like this need to be able to communicate their methods. In BBO, we have no procedural penalties, so it would be 4Cx all around and if I cold figure out how to warn NS to do better job of alerting, I would.

[pin_73]

Good idea with bebelfish. Thank you for the tip. It will be useful.
Unfortunately NS was from Poland and EW from Turkey so it wouldn't been helped me.

[luis]

Let the result stand and ask west not to cry when he gets a bad result.
Nothing to do.