Deal Opt-outs

The rules pass the deal of a new round to the winner of the previous round. But Rule 1(b) says that “players may announce beforehand their unavailability to deal, should they win, due to personal circumstances”.

We play the game to have fun, and sometimes dealing a round may be difficult or inconvenient or even impossible. Most players find it burdensome to have to deal with only a mobile phone for support. We also can't ignore power failures, comms outages, absence from home, family visits, disk crashes, or ill-health. 

For this reason, it has always been possible for the winner of a round to be excused from dealing the next, at any time, and without limit. 

This acknowledges the simple fact that a player cannot be compelled to deal. A player with more pressing priorities could simply wait and do nothing. Eventually, the other players would get the message. But that would of course be impolite, if done deliberately. In the past, the polite alternative has been to announce unavailability in a group message, but some now regard that as unnecessarily public. 

You can announce unavailability by entering your name into the list below, and saying how long you would like the dispensation to last. If there is no known end date, leave that blank. We naturally do not inquire about the reason. 

This form of announcement is a new initiative, so when you submit a definition, be sure to tell the dealer that your name is on this list, because they may not know to look, or forget.