2002 European Teams Championships Page 6 Bulletin 6 - Friday, 21 June  2002


Laws of bridge (3)

In the present laws it is an infraction to misexplain a bid from partner but it is not an infraction to make a misbid (a bid not in accordance with the agreements in a partnership). This causes problems more than once. Give partner [KJ87 ]AQ763 dx3 cxJ73 after your opening of one spade and an overcall of 2NT which promises clubs and diamonds. This hand is certainly less promising now than after an overcall of three clubs which promises diamonds and hearts. You understand what happened, overcaller did misbid his hand, he should have bid three clubs and your side misses a normal slam due to this mistake.

Is there a reason to change the laws to make these kind of mistakes more costly?

Should we give the organising body the possibility to adjust scores after certain misbids, considering the other side damaged as a consequence of bad preparations (no clear agreements) for example?

Don't worry about psyches, we can handle that, but take into account low level play where mistakes are more common.

At this moment declarer or dummy has to rectify a misexplanation from partner before play starts. Misbids are no infraction, so no need to tell anything in that case. Is there a reason to change this approach asking declarer and dummy to tell opponents about their misbid if they really thought to follow the partnership agreements when making their wrong call?

Ton Kooijman



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