October 2006 - 45

PLAY BRIDGE

Dear Marie,
What should I do about the nice
lady who insists on showing me
her hand when I am the dummy?
I have asked her not to do this,
but she sits so that it is almost
impossible not to see her hand. I
find this very distracting, and I'm
sure there must be some guidance
on this.
What do you say?
Shirley T.
Dear Curly Top,
This is really difficult because
the lady probably thinks it is fun
for you to follow the action, and
she probably loves it when her
opponents show her their hands.
You have already asked her not to
do this, and she is not honoring your
wishes, so let's take a page from
Dr. Skinner's book and ignore the
behavior.
Theoretically, behavior that is
not rewarded will be extinguished,
except for bad marriages and playing
the lotto.
So table the dummy, then root
through your purse like one of those
pigs seeking truffles, or get out your
knitting, or check your lipstick or
whatever to not make eye contact
or see the hand she is trying so hard
to show you. If you do this, she
eventually will stop. The behavior
may get worse briefly as she fights
the change, but keep rooting or
knitting or lip-sticking up a storm and
see what happens.
Sorry I don't have a magic
formula, but etiquette mimics life in
this area.
Y'all play nice now.
October 2006

Dear Marie,
I applaud your effort to remind
players of the common courtesies.
In particular, I agree with almost
everything you said in your June
article with one exception. You
suggested that dummy should not
call the director until play is over.
That's not always the case. There
are four (well, three, actually) times
dummy should call the director
before play is over:
1. When, after the final pass
and before the opening
lead is chosen, he needs
to correct his partner's
erroneous explanation of
their agreements (Law 75D2).
Technically, he's not dummy
yet, because the opening
lead hasn't been faced, so
there's no restriction on him
anyway, but players may not
always be aware of this. More
importantly, the law requires
him to call at this time.
2. When he realizes that his own
explanation was in error (Law
75D1).
3. When attention has been
drawn to an irregularity by
another player (Law 9B(b)).
4. When there has been a
"Zero Tolerance" violation.
This is not explicit in law or
regulation, per se. I got it from
Tournament Director Mike
Flader who writes the "Ruling
the Game" column, following
an incident at my local club.
(Briefly, during the play my
very experienced left-hand
opponent began asking my
novice partner questions about

Marie Sander
hatlady@prodigy.net
my bidding. She was unsure of
her answers, and became more
and more flustered. When it
reached the point I felt LHO
was badgering my partner, I
called the director. What did
this director do? He said "Ed,
you know you're not allowed to
call the director," and walked
away. Even directors don't
always know the laws!)
Many players (myself included)
don't always call the director when
they should, sometimes out of
misunderstanding the director's
role, as you noted, but more often, I
think, because they think it'll be a
waste of time. That's fine when the
failure to call doesn't cause further
problems, but when it does, they're
usually a bigger mess then it might
have been if they'd called at the
right time.
Ed
Dear Ed,
I think your letter is cool on so
many levels. You express the best
about bridge players. You are really
smart, and you are willing to share
what you know with all the rest of us.
And you do it in a way that we can
all learn without feeling stupid. So on
behalf everyone in the bridge world, I
thank you.
Y'all play nice now,
The Hat Lady
45
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2006
