As with ‘proper’ bridge, players are expected to treat all others with courtesy and respect.

Partnership System

If the partnership are playing any system other than basic four card major and weak no trump (Acol) system then the opponents must be informed of the system at the start of each round. To save time, it is not required to announce that you are playing a basic four card major and weak no trump system.

Special rules under Bridgebase

Most Laws and rules apply to bridge on Bridgebase: there are, however, a few important exceptions:

1. Players should self-alert and self-describe their own calls:
   1. When the ‘bidding box’ appears, click on Alert and/or type a description before making your call. Neither are visible to your partner;
   2. To request information about an opponent’s call, click on their call and they will be asked complete, or amplify, their description. This is not visible to their partner;
   3. If any player believes an alert or description should have been given but wasn’t, and that this has affected either their bidding or their play, then they should call the director at the earliest opportunity. It is understood that it may not be apparent until the end of the game that a call should have been alerted;
   4. For convenience, the following bids do NOT have to be alerted or described:
      1. 1nt opening which is 12-14;
      2. 2nt opening which is 20-22;
      3. 2c or 3c stayman over 1nt and 2nt opening respectively;
      4. 2d or 3d negative response to the 2c or 3c stayman noted above;
      5. 2c strong bid if that is the only strong bid available.
   5. All other bids which have a specific or unusual meaning, or have a meaning which may not be clear to the opponents, must be alerted or described EVEN if the system has been announced at the start of the round.
2. The ‘undo’ facility is available for both calls made and cards played. This should only be used for genuine misclicks. It should not be used for any change of mind, for whatever reason.
3. Unless you need to take time to think, all bidding and card play should normally be ‘in tempo’. However, players should be aware that those using tablets and phones may experience time lags in card play and bidding.

There are some players who are happy to be flexible with the rules, for example, allowing players to take back cards played. Others believe that the rules should be properly followed in all circumstances. Both views are acceptable and appropriate.

However, any player has the right to call the director at any time. If so called, the director will apply the Laws of the game with disinterest. The director is the sole arbiter of the Laws. The director’s ruling on the Law is final.

The ‘Undo’ facility

As a friendly club, the ‘undo’ facility is turned on for our tournaments.  As noted above, this should be for genuine misclicks only. To prevent play from being held up, the general rule is that requests for an undo should normally be immediately accepted. If an undo request is to be denied, the director should normally be called first. But any player has the right to call the director if they feel the denial of an undo request is unjust, or if they believe the undo request is not for an honest misclick.

The director will normally apply the following general rules:

Bidding

1. ‘Undo’ requests will be denied if the change is to be both suit and level eg 1S to 2c;
2. ‘Undo’ requests will be denied if the change is to either a non-adjacent suit or a non-adjacent level eg 1d to 1nt or 1S to 3S;
3. ‘Undo’ requests will be denied if it was deemed the delay between the call and the request for an undo was too long, in the opinion of the director.

Carding

1. ‘Undo’ requests will be denied if the card to be replayed is not near-adjacent to the card actually played;
2. ‘Undo’ requests will be denied if it was deemed the delay between the call and the request for an undo was too long, in the opinion of the director.

Adjusted scores for unfinished boards

The director will review the play of any board that is not finished. Where possible, a director will determine the likely result of a board and adjust the score to that result, taking into account:

1. Any standard or natural line of play;
2. Any clear line of play being undertaken by any player.

If there are too many cards left to play and/or there is no clear line of play then an average score will be awarded. It should be noted that directors cannot assign a result based on what other people did.

Because there is only a twenty minute period after the completion of the tournament in which scores can be adjusted, any request for an adjustment to a score should be made as soon as possible, and, where possible, preferably before the end of the tournament.

Appeals

The director is known to have an irascible temperament with little patience for players of bridge. He will, however, refer all appeals to the Chair of the Committee. Unfortunately, the Chair is known to be utterly humourless and with little social tact. In matters of interpretation of the Laws of the game, the Chair will apply the following rules:

1. The director is always right;
2. If the director ever happens to be wrong then rule 1) will apply.

In matters of judgement, for example in assessing a score for an uncompleted game, written documentation will be sought from all players involved, and these, together with a written report from the director, will be forwarded to three other directors for their comments and views. The final decision of this ad hoc appeals committee will, of course, have no bearing on the results (as it will be far too late to make any changes) and will be kept confidential to the appeals committee for their own amusement.