[blml] ACBL LC Detroit minutes

[Eric Landau]

On Apr 3, 2008, at 12:19 PM, Herman De Wael wrote:

> Eric Landau wrote:
>> On Apr 3, 2008, at 6:44 AM, Hans van Staveren wrote:
>>
>>> Totally agree. Years ago I ruled misinformation when a player bid a
>>> singleton on a small doubleton. The pair was very clear that
>>> singleton was
>>> their agreement. When I questioned the player that made the bid
>>> about what
>>> his systemic correct bid on the hand would have been he became a bit
>>> puzzled. It turned out that the bid he made was the only forcing bid
>>> available. Neither player of the pair was aware that their  
>>> agreements
>>> actually had this hole in them. So indeed in this case I ruled
>>> misinformation, since it was the responsibility of the pair  
>>> making the
>>> agreements to make sure they covered the bases.
>>
>> Was it?  Nothing in TFLB forbids a pair from entering a bridge event
>> without having "covered the bases".  The notion that a pair is
>> "responsible" for doing so comes from Bobby Wolff's discredited
>> "convention disruption" theory, which has yet to be accepted or
>> implemented anywhere (and hopefully won't be).
>>
> You misunderstand. They are not obliged to "cover the bases", but they
> are obliged to give complete information. If it turns out that there
> is a hole in their "expressions", they are guilty of misinformation.
> They have a system, which is without holes, but they don't know it
> completely, and their expression is incomplete as a result.

ISTM that the pair in Hans's anecdote was as totally forthcoming  
about their agreements as they could be.  To rule that they have  
given MI based on the presumption that "they have a system, which is  
without holes, but they don't know it completely", which appears to  
be manifestly not true, is unfair to the point of absurdity.  I have  
been playing EHAA for forty years, I wrote the definitive textbook on  
the system, and I can assure you that it is not "without holes".  I'd  
wager a beer that Messrs. Meckstroth and Rodwell, with their infamous  
hundreds of pages of bidding notes, would never be so bold as to  
claim that even their system is "without holes".


Eric Landau
1107 Dale Drive
Silver Spring MD 20910
ehaa at starpower.net