AlexJonson, on 2011-March-02, 15:09, said:
But Pran, that exactly seems to be the result of allowing people to choose between Laws 73 and 16 when they rule (according to dburn and Lamford).
I notice that neither dburn or Lamford care to deal with that, do you?
I have observed in another thread that, at least in the ACBL, any action (however illogical) chosen by a player in possession of UI is now considered a logical alternative for that player. That thread was constructed by lamford in order to "deal with" the issue raised here, so I hope at least that AlexJonson will discontinue to believe that either of us is avoiding the question.
I observe here that if a player considers that
any selection from among logical alternatives is likely to work badly for his side (because if it succeeds, it will be ruled against), he may not attempt to avoid the provisions of Law 16 by selecting an illogical action, because to do so is a violation of Law 73. The ACBL minute from the Reno meeting was designed, as far as I can see, to bring the selection of an illogical (in the wider context) action within the purview of Law 16, and a praiseworthy effort it was too. It is deeply flawed, but that is only because the Laws themselves are deeply flawed.
At the moment, the second best advice I can give to a player in possession of UI who is (correctly) trying to maximise his side's score is this: select from among logical alternatives that which you think is least likely to be overturned if it works. This is rather more cynical than the "Rubens approach" (advocated in
The Bridge World passim for about thirty years), which is in essence "do what you would have done anyway and accept adverse rulings with good grace". But it isn't much more cynical: if you are correct in thinking that your action is least likely to be overturned if it works, you are less likely to incur an adverse ruling than otherwise.
The best advice I can give is to play with someone who doesn't transmit UI. But well it was said by the bard:
A man has horns in Tufnell Park.
A man eats clocks in Camberwell.
A man plays billiards in the dark
Entirely by the sense of smell.
A man I knew extremely well
Went up to bed and met a bear
That said its name was Little Nell -
But cases of the kind are rare.