From: ted@heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov (Ted Ying)
Subject: Re: Ethics questions
Organization: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 19:00:53 GMT

asya@ux5.lbl.gov (Asya Kamsky) writes:

> ahollander@dcs.simpact.com writes:

>> asya@ux5.lbl.gov (Asya Kamsky) writes:

>>> Analogy -- 1NT, you overcall 2H showing the majors.  Partner explains as
>>> such and bids 2S.  You look at your hand and suddenly realize that your
>>> spades are really all clubs.  Can you correct to 3C?  Of course not.
>>
>>Of course you are allowed to bid 3C.  B U T, partner has to interpret it in 
>>the light of the 2H hand as showing the majors.

>THis is just plain wrong -- you may really honestly know what you are playing
>but this would never ever be allowed to stand by a committee or director.

>There is no way to judge when you forgot your convention and when you misspoke/
>missaw, missorted, they all have to be judged consistently, which is:

>Once you screw up, you are screwed unless you are playing with screens.

Asya is right in this matter.  To (hopefully) clarify this, I refer to the
footnote to ACBL Law 75 which states:

	"Two examples may clarify responsibilities of the players (and the
Director) after a misleading explanation has been given to the opponents.
In both examples following, North has opened one notrump and South, who holds
a weak hand with long diamonds, has bid two diamonds, intending to sign off;
North explains, however, in answer to West's inquiry, that South's bid is
strong and artificial, asking for major suits."

"Example 1--Mistaken Explanation
The actual partnership agreement is that two diamonds is a natural signoff;
the mistake was in North's explanation.  This explanation is an infraction of
law, since East-West are entitled to an accurate description of the
North-South agreement (when this infraction results in damage to East-West,
the Director shall award an adjusted score).  If North subsequently becomes
aware of his mistake, he must immediately notify the Director.  South must do
nothing to correct the mistaken explanation while the auction continues;
after the final pass, South, if he is to be declarer or dummy, should call the
Director and must volunteer a correction of the explanation.  If South becomes
a defender, he calls the Director and corrects the explanation when play
ends."

"Example 2--Mistaken Bid
The partnership agreement is as explained--two diamonds is strong and
artificial; the mistake was in South's bid.  Here there is no infraction of
law, since East-West did receive an accurate description of the North-South
agreement; they have no claim to an accurate description of the North-South
hands.
(Regardless of damage, the Director shall allow the result to stand; but the
Director is to presume Mistaken Explanation, rather than Mistaken Bid, in the
absence of evidence to the contrary.)  South must not correct North's
explanation (or notify the Director) immediately, and he has no responsibility
to do so subsequently.
In both examples, South, having heard North's explanation, knows that his own
two diamond bid has been misinterpreted.  This knowledge is "unauthorized
information" (see Law 16A), so South must be careful not to base subsequent
actions on this information (if he does, the Director shall award an adjusted
score).  For instance, if North rebids two notrump, South has the
unauthorized information that this bid merely denies a four-card holding in
either major suit; but South's responsibility is to act as though North had
made a strong game try opposite a weak response, showing maximum values."

So, back to the original hand.  Partner opens 1NT, and you bid 2H showing
the majors.  This is your systemic agreement and partner alerts it and
explains as such when asked.  After partners 2S call, however, you now note
that all your spades are in fact clubs and you have clubs and hearts.  Note,
due to your correctly filled out convention card, the Director and
committee must now believe that you made a mistaken BID.  Therefore, you
could have thought that 2H showed hearts and a minor or hearts and clubs.  
Now, when you are under the assumption that you've already shown clubs and
hearts or hearts and a minor, partner's spade bid would probably be natural
(perhaps opened one notrump on a max with 5 spades and has no tolerance
for hearts and no interest in minors unless you have a game going hand).
Unless you have extra values, extra shape, or no tolerance for partner's
spades, you should pass.  If you happen to be 0-5-2-6 then it would be
alright to bid 3C, but I doubt you ever have any recourse with 2 spades
and less than a game going hand (with game going values, I would expect
you would have to bid 3S).

As Asya says, once you've made a mistake, you're pretty much screwed.  I
lost 15 imps this way yesterday in the Flight A teams.  RHO opened 1D and
holding QJxxx/KT9xxx/-/Jx, I bid 2D Michaels.  Unfortunately, we don't
play Michaels in this situation (Michael's over the majors and Top/Bottom
Q's over the minors)  LHO asked what 2D was and partner correctly explained
Top/Bottom Q's.  LHO doubled.  Partner bid 3C.  RHO bid 3NT and the auction
floated.  At the other table, my hand correctly showed majors and partner's
hand on Axxx of hearts bid 4H.  Our teammate even tried to salvage it by
bidding 5D (very chancy as his hand is only about 18 with 6 diamonds) and
one or the other of our hands competed to 5H.  5H was -450 for our teammates
and our opponents were +630 (3NT making 4).  Ugh.  But, after partner's
correct explanation, and club bid, I could no longer bid hearts.

	Ted Ying			ted@rosserv.gsfc.nasa.gov
	Hughes/STX			Goddard Space Flight Center
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge