[blml] Alerting Rules [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

[richard.hills at immi.gov.au]

Richard Hills (from the "San Diego Lightfoot Sue") thread:

[snip]

>>Therefore, when I play against different Aussie bridge subcultures
>>at the Aussie nationals, I do not assume that because a particular
>>one of my partnership agreements is normal and general in my local
>>subculture it is necessarily normal and general in my opponents'
>>subculture.
>>
>>Rather, I carefully pre-alert, alert, and post-alert all of my
>>methods which I think may be unexpected.  (Indeed, against
>>inexperienced players, I even pre-alert them to the Aussie alert
>>regulations, pointing out to them that it may be to their
>>advantage to enquire about all of my partnership's doubles at the
>>time they are made, since the ABF alert rules prohibit alerting of
>>doubles during the auction.)

Private response from a blmler, but authorised for public release:

>Your solution assumes a high level of
>.. empathy (with strange opponents),
>.. knowledge (of what methods may be strange to them) and
>.. active ethics (well above normal legal obligations).
>
>If your protocol were law, most players would lack the mental
>equipment and moral fibre to conform to it.

[big snip of cogent complaints about related issues]

>I would prefer to conduct future correspondence on BLML, in the
>hopes of eventually influencing somebody else.

Richard Hills:

Clarification.  What I have described is not "my" protocol because
it _is_ Law.  Or at least it is what is required for all Aussie
bridge players by the Australian Alert Regulation, as created by
the ABF pursuant to Law 75.

ABF Alerting Regulations, clause number 1:

"It is an essential principle of the game of bridge that you may not
have secret agreements with partner, either in bidding or card play.
Your agreements must be fully available and fully disclosed to your
opponents.  These Regulations set principles and guidelines for the
approved alerting procedures.

"The ABF System Regulations require each player to have a legibly
completed approved system card on the table, with the partnership
cards being systemically identical.  The purpose of an alert is to
draw the opponents' attention to any call that has a special meaning,
or a meaning the opponents may not expect.  The fact that your system
card explains the meaning of a call does not remove the obligation to
alert it when required by these regulations.  (However see 2.4 below
for self-alerting calls.)

"You should follow the principle of full disclosure (as required by
the Laws) in following these Regulations and in explanations of
calls.  Your principle should be to disclose, not as little as you
must, but as much as you can, and as comprehensibly as you can.  A
careless failure to follow this policy may result in an adjusted
score, and possibly procedural penalties, when the opponents have
been damaged.  If you make a positive effort to meet your obligations
under full disclosure, you will rarely if ever fall foul of these
regulations.

"Your agreements include not only specific agreements appearing on
your system card but also partnership understandings which have
arisen through partnership discussion or experience.  The opponents
are entitled to know about these understandings.  General bridge
inferences, like those a new partner could make when there has been
no prior discussion, are not alertable, but any inferences that can
be drawn from partnership experience must be disclosed."


Best wishes

Richard James Hills, amicus curiae
Level 6 Aqua Training Suite, DIAC
02 6225 6776

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