April 2020 - 40

Ruling the Game
rulings@acbl.org
MODERATOR: MATT SMITH
NATIONAL TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR

Q

What is the correct way to
handle the following situation regarding comparable
calls? I am getting slightly different
answers from multiple directors.
North is the dealer, but before
North bids, South bids 1♠ with 13
points and five spades. The director
is called, and West does not accept
the bid. How exactly should the director handle this situation, with the
added fact that North has an opening
hand as well and was prepared to
open 1♣?

A

The director should follow Law 31B (Bid Out of
Rotation) in making a ruling.
Because the bid out of rotation was not
accepted, the director should inform
offender's partner (the correct dealer)
that they may make any legal call, but
they may not take advantage of the
knowledge that partner bid 1♠ out of
rotation in choosing that legal call. In
other words, North should make their
normal call. So presumably North
would open 1♣.
East may now make any call they
wish, and when the auction gets back
to South, the director should take
South away from the table to explain
the options and find out relevant
information about their system as appropriate. This is done away from the
table so the director can explain the
law and answer any questions South

40 Bridge Bulletin April 2020

has without making extraneous information available to the table. If South
can make a call that has essentially
the same meaning as, or one that has a
more specific meaning than the withdrawn call (see Law 23A: Comparable
Call), they may do so and there would
be no further rectification.
If they cannot make such a call, they
may do whatever they like, but partner
must pass one time at their next turn to
call. As well, if there is no comparable
call available or chosen, partner may
not use to their advantage information
from the original withdrawn call in
any way, and should their side end up
defending, there will almost surely be
lead restrictions as described in Law
26B (Call Withdrawn; Lead Restrictions).
In this case, the director should
find out from South if the partnership
has a bid available in response to 1♣
that would show spades and (at least
nearly) an opening bid. If so, they may
make that bid and the auction would
continue without penalty. Our guidelines for ruling a bid comparable as
"similar" (23A1) generally allow for
a 2- or 3-point difference and/or one
card in length away from the withdrawn call if it seems the information
will not likely affect the outcome of
the board. If it turns out that the small
difference in meaning between the
withdrawn call and the call allowed as
comparable does ultimately affect the
outcome of the board, the director may

apply 23C and adjust the score after
the play is over.
A bid of 1♠ over a pass by East
would not be deemed a comparable call
because a 1♠ response can be made
with as few as 5 or 6 points, while the
withdrawn call showed significantly
more points. If the partnership is playing strong jumpshifts by responder,
a response of 2♠ after RHO passes
would be allowed as comparable because that call defines a subset of the
withdrawn 1♠ bid (23A2) showing
five or more spades and at least the
values to open the bidding. Unless
they are playing strong jumpshifts by
responder, though, it is unlikely they
have a bid available after RHO's pass
which could be considered comparable. In that case, South may make any
call, and North must pass just once at
their next turn to call. If East happens
to take action over North's 1♣ bid
before South's turn, then the director
goes through the same process to determine if South's call over it might be
ruled comparable according to the test
described above.
I understand this might seem quite
complicated, but over time, we hope
directors (and players) become more
comfortable with these provisions of
the laws. Their intent is to produce
more normal auctions and outcomes
without automatically barring players and creating random results as the
previous laws more often did.
◾
April 2020

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