West opened not vul 2♠ "weak" 1st seat, NS-Vul, EW not vul.
North bid 4♥ (vul) with no hesitation at all, lets say a second and no more than 2 seconds after 2♠ hit the table. There was no skip bid warning or stop card used here either,
East paused or hesitated then passed. According to East, he paused for 7 second, according to north he hesitated for 12 to 15 seconds, according to South somewhere in the middle of 7 and 15 seconds, and according to West a normal pause tempo.
South passed,
North called the director, these quoted facts were agreed too, other than the legnth of East pause. The times quoted by the players (7 seconds and normal pause) by the 4♠ bidders and somewhere berween the reported 12 to 15 second hesitation by North and somewhere between the reported values of 7 and 12 to 15 by south.
The director ruled play on. North passed, East passed, South doubled which became the final contract.
was called, these facts
West had opened 2♠ with an atypical hand perhaps, 7S, 3C. 1H, 2D and held:
KT9xxxx
x
xx
AQx
and felt that all he need was six tricks for a good "save" (although this was imps).
East held:
Qx
K9xx
xxx
Kxxx
and said he "counted to seven slowly in his head and passed" as he hoped he had at least two tricks with his kings, and his partner for his weak two might contribute two with something like the spade king and minor suit ace. The thought of bidding 4♠ never entered his mind in an "eight card fit".
The defense started diamond ace, swithced to a club won in declarer's hand. Low spade to Queen ACE, club back, dummy winning as North discarded a heart. This marked the spade jack with south, which was picked up. Clubs did not split, so EW took nine tricks (6 spades, 3 clubs).
The director was called back by north who protested the result (five hearts was making, losing a club and a heart). The director took the board, came back in a few minutes and ruled 4H NS making five. She further made these two comments:
1) West had "shot his wad" when he decided to open 2♠ instead of 3♠ or 4♠ or 1♠ and could not preempt and then bid again uninvited
2) and that East, by pausing (her word) over 4♥ further barred west for considering the vulnerabilty or the offshape of his first bid anyway, thus barring a further bid.
EW lost the match by 1 imp, this board, if playing 4♠x -1 would mean a 12 imp I think (or whatever it turned out to be). So EW's team captain appealed the ruling.
Without going into the appeal process. What are the issues, and how would you rule on the appeal? Not that it matters, but I held the hand with Qx of spades and counted to seven, even if I took a few seconds before I counted, it was certainly not longer than 10 seconds, but go ahead and use what ever time frame you like from the quoted facts in deciding your ruling. For those who have played against me live or online, you know I pause over all jump bids, no matter what I hold -- but that should be a non-issue in your decision. Go on the law and if necessary, any comments about the two numerated statements by the director at the table (those parts in quotes she said just that way).
[edited to fix the confusion over who bid what, and to make it complete, i have included the auction below]
This post has been edited by bluejak: 2011-March-17, 07:15
Reason for edit: Switching 'East' and 'West' in description of hands