[blml] DeWael School and WBFLC

[Herman De Wael]

Herman De Wael wrote:
> 
> As to the WBFLC altering the laws (presumably away from the dWS 
> interpretation), I would advise them not to do so. I have formulated 
> four different reasons why it would be a mistake to write the anti-DWS 
> into regulations. Permit me to make this post much too long by 
> enumerating them:
> 

While writing this, I knew I had five reasons, but when enumerating, I 
forgot the fifth, so I changed the sentence above. Here's the fifth 
one, and it's a good one:

5) Such a regulation would favor lazy opponents. Consider this 
example: a player bids 4NT, intending it to be for the minors. But his 
partner explains it as Blackwood and responds 5Di. There are now 
several types of opponents:
- the ethical opponent does not need to know how many aces there are 
and will only inquire about this if and when it is his turn to lead;
- the prepared opponent already knows the style of Blackwood;
- the active opponent looks at the convention card;
- the passive opponent asks "how many aces?".
Now if that passive opponent is playing against me, he will receive a 
bland reply "1", and have exactly the same information as the other 
three. But if he's playing against anyone else, he will be given far 
more information than the others, including a piece of information 
that is simply wrong (diamond preference) and including a piece of 
information he is not entitled to (we are having a misunderstanding). 
This gives an unfair advantage to lazy bridgers and that cannot be 
what we want. Furthermore, if a regulation is written that forces 
players to reveal the misunderstanding, when asked, you will quickly 
see appear a fifth kind of opponent:
- the clever opponent will always ask at every turn, hoping to catch 
out misunderstandings and trying to get people to exchange UI. Surely 
that is not the way we want bridge to be played.

Really, the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that I am 
right, even if I'm the only one saying so. I would very much like to 
hear an encouraging word once in a while.

-- 
Herman DE WAEL
Antwerpen Belgium
http://www.hdw.be