[jallerton]

jallerton, on 2011-October-13, 15:23, said:

You implied in an earlier post that this hand came from an EBU event. Therefore, your failure to opening the bidding should (somewhat luckily) not have cost on this occasion. The "interesting gadget" is not a permitted convention even at EBU Level 5, so the board should have been scored as 3 IMPs to your team, not 14 to your opponents.

lamford, on 2011-October-14, 13:56, said:

I was posing the problem as a general one, and commented (wrongly) that the rule of 19 would apply in England, and this was corrected to the rule of 18 by gordontd. The actual hand, as I mentioned elsewhere, was A9xxxxx x xx Axx, opposite J10xx Axxx x KQxx and was played in a small club game in Przedmieście Szczebrzeszyńskie which I visited after being in Poznan; there were only eight players there and we decided to play a match. I presume that the convention was level 5 in Poland - the arbiter spoke excellent English, but was unaware of the EBU level system, but confirmed it was permitted - and they bid 2NT*-3D (Pass or Correct)-3S-4C*-4H*-4NT-5S(2+either the queen or extra length)-6S.

At the point where you made this comment, only a poster from the Netherlands had suggested opening 1♠. If the deal had really occurred in Poland, any regulations existing in the UK would have been of no relevance.

JLOGIC, on 2011-October-14, 22:32, said:

Cool, I think you just make stuff up

Whatever gave you that idea? If you look at the Laws and Rulings section of the forum, you'll be amazed quite how many disputed claims "happen" at Paul's local club.

[lamford]

jallerton, on 2011-October-15, 02:21, said:

If the deal had really occurred in Poland, any regulations existing in the UK would have been of no relevance.

I don't think that follows. What to open if it is illegal to have an agreement to open 1S is of interest as well. I don't know what the rules are in other jurisdictions and wrongly thought it was rule of 19 in most events in the UK, when it would be more of a problem. But you are right, I should have stated: "You are playing in Przedmieście Szczebrzeszyńskie and you suspect that your opponent in the other room can open this hand 2NT showing, inter alia, a flawed pre-empt in spades. What do you do?" That would allow readers to be prepared for a similar situation after reading the thread.