[blml] Obviously this is the prime duty [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

[Konrad Ciborowski]

> [KC]
> 
> If alerting a bid partner doesn't expect you to alert is not
> "communicating
> through alerts" than what is?
> 
> [DALB]
> 
> Alerting a bid that partner does expect me to alert is, by this token,
> also
> communicating through alerts - "it's all right, partner - I've remembered
> the system". 

Exactly - this is why we use screens whenever possible.
The fact that you actually see partner alert is
of great value and it greatly helps you to make
your call.

Your partner opens 1NT, RHO doubles. You hold 5H and 4D and 
about 6 HCP.
You bid 2D though you are not sure if you play
"system on" in this particular position.
Partner fortunately alerts ("transfer!") and lefty bids 3C, pass, pass.
>From your partner's alert you know that you are on the 
same page with him so can be sure that he knows about your 
hearts so you can safely protect with 3D -
it is safe as you know partner won't take
it as a natural bid showing 6+D.
Without the alert you might not risk 
3D and you might decide to pass to avoid
confusion hoping to go plus against 3C.

Cheating? Of course but this kind of foul play is going
on all the time in bridge. Many, many pairs who 
consider themselves 100% clean and who would kill
you if you mentioned to them that they _are_ using help
from the fact that partner alerted a bid. The most
typical situation is that if you keep making artificial
bids and partner keeps alerting them then they 
are bound to conduct a more subtle auction leaving
all options open as you can be sure there is no
risk of ending up in 4C on a 3-2 fit.


How do I know that? Put any pair who has never played with screens
behind them and you'll see what happens.
The lack of this confirmation from partner that we
are still on the same wavelength can be at times devastating.
I have seen numerous examples of this.

The amount of non-verbal information transmitted in bridge
is big, especially at the lower levels.

When they introduced screens in the Polish Third Division the
effect was unbelievable - suddenly bids asking for
kings started becoming final contracts.
And in 99% of cases these were pairs everybody
considers clean.

I've played in clubs in Paris, Helsinki & Denver.
And I have seen this phenomenon frequently.

And we both know that it happens all the time -
and also that it is very hard to detect.

That's why we use screens. Not to prevent cheaters
like Buratti - Lanzarotti or Facchini - Zucchelli
because it is almost just as easy to cheat
with sceens and without them. There are 1000000 ways -
tray moving, the way that you put bidding cards
on the tray etc.


> Do you suggest that this is illegal?

Yes, it is illegal. It is made illegal
by one law and yet it is required
by another. It isn't something unusual
without screens: in face-to-face-no-screens 
bridge this problem of conflicting laws
is simply unavoidable.
You must face the fact that it exists - 
not get around it by pretending that "as the matter
of fact my partner never hears my explanations."


[SNIP]

> If, therefore, I give an explanation to an opponent, I do not "know that
> it
> is going to wake up partner", for I know that partner will act as if he
> had
> not been woken up. 

Nope - you don't know that. Even the most honest of players cannot
say with certainty that they would act in the same way if they
didn't hear the explanation. As M.Rosenberg once pointed out - even
if you think you are 100% certain that you would act the same 
you still cannot be sure that it was not the UI that cristalized 
that decision in you.

We are humans, we are physically incapable of erasing the
UI from our minds. So I'd rather not send the UI at all.


> 
> So what? Since partner will not act as though the wheels have come off,
> the
> effect is the same as if I had not communicated anything to him at all.
> 


This is the quintessence of our disagreement. You don't know that.
You don't even know that about yourself.



-- 
Konrad Ciborowski
Kraków, Poland

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