[blml] Law 25A

[Sven Pran]

> On Behalf Of Roger Pewick
.............
> > 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.
...............
> I agree that a relevant issue has to deal with the facts surrounding
> whether
> or not there was a pause for thought.  But a pause for thought prior to
> what? 

It is a well established understanding of Law 25A that "pause" is to be
measured from the moment the player discovers his mistake until he gives
some indication that he had made an inadvertent mistake. He need not
immediately actually name his intended call.

Thus the following scenario satisfies Law 25A:

A player makes some call and LHO makes his subsequent call. Then the player
exhibits all signs of great surprise looking at the call he had made and for
instance says "OOPS!"

Now the Director is (correctly) summoned, comes to the table and asks in
what way he can be of help. The player tells him that he didn't intend to
make that call. The other players at the table confirm the player's
indication of immediate surprise and reaction.

>From this evidence the director should now allow the player Law 25A
correction of his call. The Director must NOT at this time look at the
players cards for instance in order to evaluate the probability of the
player's story!


 And that is the issue of first importance.  Did the player change
> his
> call, or, to be more thorough, did the player change his call- or attempt
> to
> do so but was stopped by an outside force from completing the change?
> 
> 
> 
> And the facts support the conclusion that the player did not.   It is as
> simple as that.  It is one thing for a player to change his call; it is
> quite another to want to do it.  At no time did the player change his
> call.

It is not a requirement that a player immediately actually changes his call,
only that he obviously never intended to make the call he actually made. 

Sven