[mycroft]

I have two responses, one as defender, one as declarer.

I will ask "I didn't hear. Did you call for [card]?" as defender.
I will think about my hand, the play, and otherwise at trick 1, and then call for the card I want to play as declarer. It doesn't matter that dummy has already moved it out of position. It matters even less if RHO has played out of turn, even though of course there is no penalty for doing so. It is my hope that after doing that a couple of times, partner will get the hint.

Oh, and as dummy I will not play a card until it's called for. The same dummies that play my cards tend to expect me to extend the same "courtesy" to them when they're declarer. "Why do you do that?" "because I'm not allowed to play a card you haven't named." They usually learn to do the right thing after that. They also think I'm anal-retentive, but that's okay, I'm a TD, I'm supposed to be.

[billw55]

At times, I have played with declarers who seem to expect me to play cards from dummy unprompted in certain situations. For example, the last remaining card in the suit led, or when playing out a dead dummy over the last few tricks. More than once, declarer has been actually annoyed when I asked which useless spot card he wanted played, or when I sat doing nothing rather than play the singleton. Strangely, this does not seem to happen when playing from equals early in the hand.

Also, in the case of playing out a dead dummy, declarer will often say "anything", seemingly suggesting that I may choose which card, even among multiple suits. I generally hesitate to do so, after which declarer either names a card, or else repeats "anything" louder and in an annoyed tone. Is there a law that applies to this?

[ArtK78]

Declarer's partner's main purpose is to physically move the cards indicated as played by declarer from the dummy to the played card pile. Declarer's partner cannot do so on his or her own initiative - declarer is playing the hand.

So for a declarer to be annoyed that his partner didn't play one of several useless but equal cards from the suit led or his partner didn't play a singleton in the suit led is really inappropriate. It is not the job of declarer's partner to play the hand. It is also not the job of declarer's partner to determine which cards are worthless and which are not (yes, it will be painfully obvious that a number of dummy's cards are equal and that it doesn't matter which is chosen, but that is not the point).

[blackshoe]

billw55, on Sep 20 2010, 04:57 PM, said:

Also, in the case of playing out a dead dummy, declarer will often say "anything", seemingly suggesting that I may choose which card, even among multiple suits. I generally hesitate to do so, after which declarer either names a card, or else repeats "anything" louder and in an annoyed tone. Is there a law that applies to this?

Yes.

Law 46B5 said:

If declarer indicates a play without designating either a suit or a rank (as by saying “play anything” or words of like meaning), either defender may designate the play from dummy.

If you really want to wind partner up, ask the defenders which card they'd like.

[mycroft]

Again, as defender, I will say "Queen of clubs, please" to "anything". And then they gripe, because anything means "whatever you think is safe, partner", not, in fact, "anything". Or they'll say "it doesn't matter", in which case, "Okay, play the CQ then. Or are you claiming?"

Of course, never has my suggested "anything" been a problem, but declarer loves it anyway...I wonder. Is the fact that partner wants card X played on an "anything" AI to me? Is the fact that partner actually cares, one way or the other, AI? After all, it is part of a legal play from dummy.

Oh, and have I mentioned my passive-aggressive teaching methods recently?