| A Strong Hand ? |
With the new law book, the EBU also made some amendments to its regulations. A particular example is opening two bids.
You can read an article on the changes: http://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/laws-and-ethics/articles/BlueBook-section-7C.pdf
For Benji players, the new regulations are somewhat more relaxed about hands with which you may open 2♣ . However, if you are not playing the original strong hand meaning, then you must be very careful that your methods are known to the opponents.
So what is a strong hand? It's now defined as any hand with 16+ points OR 12+pts with 5 controls. [A=2 K=1] - notice no mention of '8 playing tricks'.
Example from David Burrows:
I played in the Swiss Pairs at Telford, one of the Staffordshire/Shropshire Green Point events - well recommended. My opponent opened 2♣ with this 10pt hand:
♠ KJ82
♥ -
♦ -
♣ KQJ987432
They ended up in 4♠ making 13 tricks, which would have been worth 52% for them. Problem is they had described the 2♣ bid as 'strong', which this hand isn't, so the TD ruled 'illegal agreement'. The consequence of that was we scored the better of 60% and the score at the table.
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| Opening bid out of turn |
Say dealer’s partner makes a bid of 1D, before anyone else bid.
In the old rules this was a simple and draconian situation: supposing that LHO did not accept the bid out of turn, then the bid reverts to dealer, and partner of the offender must now PASS for the whole of the Auction.
The new rules are much better, once the TDs have got their heads round the concept of an ‘equivalent bid’. Again supposing LHO does not take up the option of accepting the bid, now the auction reverts to dealer, who can call as they like, though without being influenced by partner’s illegal call. When the offender gets a turn, they can also call as they like, and if it’s an ‘equivalent bid’ then the auction continues without any further rectification. [In this case an equivalent bid would be anything that mentioned Diamonds] If it’s not an equivalent bid, then partner must PASS but only once!
At the end of play the non-offending side might want to check that they have not been damaged by these shenanigans, as an adjustment is possible, but often it will be ok.
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| New procedures for players |
For players, there is little to worry about. Simply call the TD whenever someone calls attention to an irregularity (although this must not be dummy, who is not allowed to do so).
However, the new Law Book clarifies two points, without the intention of changing the procedures:
Law 6B – The deal: the cards must be dealt into four hands of 13 cards and no two adjacent cards shall be dealt into the same hand. There is no longer an option for the TD to authorise a different way of dealing. This makes it clear that the procedure of dealing into five piles is illegal, as is dealing into the four piles 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1. However, now that Warington Bridge Club is using computer dealt hands, shuffling and dealing at the table no longer applies.
Law 7A - Placement of the board: the Law now says that the board to be played is placed at the centre of the table where it shall remain, correctly orientated’ until play is completed. There are players who have issues with eyesight and like dummy to be in the centre of the table. If that’s you, then make sure the board does stay on the table the right way round and clearly visible to everyone.
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