[blml] Pointing out who won the trick

[Ed Reppert]

It is commonly accepted in my neck of the woods (Rochester, NY) that  
a defender is permitted to point out to his partner that he has  
turned his card of the just completed trick the wrong way, so long as  
he does so "right away" (whatever that means). However, I am told by  
others, mostly not in the ACBL, that it is illegal to do so. I can  
find no law which explicitly addresses this question, no law that  
authorizes it and none that expressly forbid it. I did find, howver,  
that in minute #8 of its 24 September 1998 meeting, the WBFLC said  
"The Secretary drew attention to those who argued that where an  
action was stated in the laws (or regulations) to be authorised,  
other actions if not expressly forbidden were also legitimate. The  
Committee ruled that this is not so; the Scope of the Laws states  
that the laws define correct procedure and anything not specified in  
the laws is, therefore, 'extraneous' and it may be deemed an  
infraction of law if information deriving from it is used in the  
auction or the play."

It appears to me, then, that a defender should not tell his partner  
that he has turned a card the wrong way, in that doing so is  
"extraneous", and not proper procedure. However, if a player does so,  
the act is no more an infraction than is the passing of UI by other  
means, for example by hesitating. The legal infraction, if one were  
to occur, would be the use of the extraneous information by its  
recipient (the player who had his card turned wrong).

Am I right so far?

Assuming I am, how the Hell is anyone supposed to tell that a player  
in fact did commit that infraction?

If I'm right, both the local position (it's okay to tell him) and the  
"other" positions (that it is completely illegal to tell him) are  
wrong. But if I'm right, the law in this case is IMO very difficult,  
if not impossible, to administer. Personally, I hope someone can tell  
me (and point to a legal basis) either that I and the local position  
are both wrong, and that the "other" position is right. Failing that,  
that I'm right <g>, and there really is an easy way to deal with it.