[blml] Law 25A

[Sven Pran]

First of all thanks to Henk for bringing blml back again. I was probably one
of many who yelled "wolf" to him when I discovered than not only was blml
silent, but also that it was completely unknown at amsterdamned.org

The L25A question arose in the Norwegian championships for pairs (round 69,
board 137) and the first ruling was to not allow a change of the call. (L25B
was never in question)

However CTD (one of the best we have in Norway) later got "cold feet" and
called on me among others to discuss the situation. There was no doubt that
South intended to reach game and there seemed little (if any) reason to
believe that he thought North had already bid 3NT. More probably South
absentmindedly ("inadvertently") pulled the pass card rather than the
desired 3NT card from his bid box. And it is clear from the facts that there
was no "pause for thought" when he discovered what he had done.

After an extensive discussion we ended up "allowing" a Law 25A correction.

It is part of the history that North/South only made 8 tricks as East/West
had an easy defense for 5 tricks (I had no knowledge of that fact during our
discussion) so the final ruling was to let North/South keep their score for
2NT8 (based on an application of Law 82C Director's error) and award
East/West the score for 3NT8 (the contract South wanted to be in and the
result that would give).

A side point: Law 25A apparently misses some specification on when it is too
late to have an inadvertent pass corrected when this pass is the second last
pass of the three or four passes in a row that end the bidding. "Until
partner makes a call" has no meaning here since partner is not to make
another call. 

Regards Sven 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Probst [mailto:john at asimere.com]
> Sent: 6. september 2006 19:36
> To: Sven Pran
> Subject: Re: [blml] Law 25A
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sven Pran" <svenpran at online.no>
> To: "blml" <blml at rtflb.org>
> Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2006 10:49 AM
> Subject: [blml] Law 25A
> 
> 
> >I was consulted (on telephone) on a case on which I would like to hear
> > opinions on blml, preferably from those that feel themselves competent
> on
> > the application of law 25A:
> 
> I have occasionally allowed the intended call to be substituted. i'd have
> to
> have been there and given the South a pretty hard time.
> >
> > The auction: (North dealer, bid boxes in use, no screens)
> > N    E    S    W
> > 1C - P - 1D - P
> > 1H - P - 2S - P
> > 2NT - P - P - P
> >
> > Immediately after West's final pass, before any activity associated with
> > the
> > opening lead, South exclaims: "God, what have I done" or words to that
> > effect.
> >
> > Facts (undisputed) as established by the Director: 2S is forcing to game
> > (4th suit), there is no doubt that South intended to bid game, i.e. 3NT,
> > and
> > that his pass as such was "unintended". (I am deliberately avoiding the
> > word
> > "inadvertent" here).
> >
> > Question: Shall South be permitted a Law 25A substitution of 3NT for his
> > last pass?
> >
> > "Disturbing" circumstances:
> >
> > We have since long practiced a general (but not necessarily absolute)
> rule
> > in Norway that for a call to be considered inadvertent its bid card
> should
> > normally "come" from the same compartment in the bid box as the bid card
> > for
> > the intended call. (Pass, Double and Redouble come from one compartment,
> > all
> > bids come from a different compartment).
> >
> > I believe I have heard that Law 25B2(b)(2) was introduced because of a
> > situation where a player was so disappointed by his partner's response
> to
> > a
> > Blackwood asking bid that he lost all hopes of slam but "inadvertently"
> > passed instead of correcting the contract to 5 in the agreed trumps. At
> > that
> > time his mistake shall have been ruled not to qualify for a correction
> > under
> > Law 25A?
> >
> > Comments anybody? (I am deliberately not disclosing my own opinion or
> the
> > ruling actually made except that they do agree).
> >
> > Regards Sven
> >
> >
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