[blml] When to late

[Ed Reppert]

On Jan 2, 2007, at 2:21 PM, Tim West-Meads wrote:

> My current understanding is that the ACBL prohibits reserving  
> rights in
> any way and that many ACBLers feel they can only protect themselves by
> calling the TD when UI is made available.

The ACBL's election wrt Law 16A1 reads:

"At ACBL sanctioned events, competitors will not be allowed to  
announce that they reserve the right to summon the Director later.  
They should summon the Director immediately when they believe there  
may have been extraneous information available to the opponents  
resulting in calls or bids which could result in damage to their side."

Taken literally, I suppose the second sentence means "when the  
recipient of UI takes a call which could have been suggested by the  
UI". IOW, not immediately when UI may have been provided, and not  
later, when the hand is known IAW 16A2. Personally, I think the ACBL  
would have done better to just say "you can't reserve your rights"  
and leave it at that. Then apparently you should call immediately  
when UI may have been provided, or you should not call at all  
(provision of UI not being in itself an infraction of law) until 16A2  
kicks in. In any case, when to call is completely ambiguous by the  
wording of the laws and the election. I hope this gets fixed in the  
next laws revision. We'll see.