[blml] Fwd: Re: Live exam question

[Sven Pran]

> On Behalf Of Eric Landau
> >.........
> >The rule is crystal clear: Where a defender's explicit question to his
> >partner of a possible revoke is a violation of Law 61B so is also
> >considered
> >any action or mannerism which although not being an explicit question
> >still
> >is likely to alert partner of the possibility that he has revoked.
> 
> That seems a bit categorical.  Suppose I cash the CA, but partner, who
> has clubs, unknowingly "follows" with a spade, which is trump.  Then
> nothing happens.  I can sit there and look at partner until he wakes
> up, or I can tell him it's his lead; unless the opponents prove
> helpful, I have no third choice.  So whatever I do will be an "action
> or mannerism which... is likely to alert partner [to] the possibility
> that he has revoked".

Indeed, and that will be the hell of a nightmare for the Director who must
distinguish between the player patiently waiting for his partner to lead to
the next trick having the lead, and the player delaying the game for the
possible purpose of alerting partner of a probable revoke without really
asking.

As I said: The rule is crystal clear, but I doubt if anybody ever paid this
particular situation any attention.

The situation is no abstraction; I still remember many years ago in a
regional for teams, we were defending against 4H after an auction telling me
that Dummy probably had 4-4-4-1 with his singleton in Clubs (which my
partner and I had both bid). I was on the lead and for various reasons I did
not fancy leading a trump so I lead a small club to partner's expected Ace.

Partner wasn't too happy about opening any of the other suits so he just
returned another club which declarer covered and I covered too and then
Declarer said to Dummy: "Discard a heart please".

It felt like ten minutes passed before Declarer suddenly and very surprised
looked at our played cards and exclaimed: "Why have you all marked that
trick to me?" 

(All play in the room was completely halted for several minutes because of
the laughter at our table.)

Sven