[blml] Declining to ask a bid's meaning to achieve a specific purpose

[Jerry Fusselman]

On board 1, North deals and opens 1C, alerted "precision"; East bids 1S,
which is alerted.  If East is showing four or more spades, South has a great
bid to show his hand. But East might not be showing spades, and South will
not know until he asks why it was alerted.  So, cleverly, South doesn't ask,
and he bids 2S (which, assuming it is a cue bid, shows 9+ HCP, no 5-card
suit and no spade stopper).

South expects North to treat 1S natural for the purpose of understanding
South's call, because South has not asked what the alert means.  South meant
2S to be a cue bid in their system, and North was listening to the absence
of a question about the alert and understands it that way, even after he
later finds out the meaning of East's 1S conventional bid:  It shows a red
or minor two-suiter.

On board 5, same dealer and same auction, but this time South has 5 spades,
so he asks the meaning of 1S.  It again shows the red suits or the
minors.  South bids 2S again, but this time with a totally different
meaning:  (Here it is a natural bid showing 4-7 HCP and five spades.)

I have been told that South and North are lawful here because no player is
ever required to ask the meaning of an alerted bid, but I suspect that North
and South on board 1 are both in violation of Law 73A1.  North-South
agreements after the 1S overcall depend on what 1S shows, so I think that
they must find out the meaning of 1S.  They must not use the presence or
absence of a question by South to affect the meaning of their calls.
South's declining to ask is not AI to North, and North should continue the
auction as if South understood what 1S showed.  What's more, South's lack of
question is UI to North and North is in a situation where Law 16A applies in
full force.  Anyway, that's what I currently think.

But I am no director. Am I right or not?  Even if this is right, there is
probably a much clearer way to put it, and when is the proper time
for East-West to call the director?  And what should the director do?

 Jerry Fusselman
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