Engineers Ireland Bridge Club, Dublin

Engineers Ireland Bridge Club

Revokes - Laws 61 to 64

Revokes - Laws 61 to 64

Revoke not established:-

A revoke is not established until one of the offending side plays to the next trick. If the revoke is discoverd before it is established, the offender substitutes a correct card. After this substitution, the non-offending side may change any card played after the revoke. This may include a card that they led to the next trick before the revoke was discovered.

If played by a defender, the revoke card becomes a major penalty card. A revoke card played from declarer's or dummy's hand is replaced in hand.

Revoke on the 12th trick

If a revoke on the 12th trick is discovered before the cards are returned to the board, even if the revoke is established it must be corrected.

Rectification of an established revoke (Law 64)

Once established, a revoke cannot be corrected - except a revoke on the 12th trick.

if the player who revoked won the revoke trick, and their side has won any later tricks, two tricks are transferred to the non-offending side.
if the player who revoked won the revoke trick, but their side won no later tricks, only one trick is transferred to the non-offending side.
if the player who revoked did not win the revoke trick, but their side won that or any later tricks, then one trick is transferred to the non-offending side.

in essence, it's one trick if the offender won the revoke trick and one trick if their side won any later trick. If both happened, they lose two.

Important note- dummy and declarer are treated as separate players when assessing who won the revoke trick. So, if declarer revoked in his own hand, but dummy won the trick, then the offender has not won the revoke trick.

There is no rectification:-

if the offending side did not win the revoke trick or any later tricks
for a subsequent revoke by the same player in the same suit
for failing to play a card from dummy or a faced penalty card
if the revoke is noted after non-offending side makes a call on the next deal or the round ends.
for a revoke on the 12th trick
when both sides revoked.

Adjusted Score Instead:-

If it is clear that the non-offending side has not been sufficiently compensated for a revoke, the Director can assign an adjusted score instead of the transferred tricks.