Cards and Play
CARDS AND PLAY
• Always count your cards before you look at them.
• Always make your opening lead face down (in case the wrong person
leads).
• Any card that touches the table is considered ‘tabled’, i.e. a played card, and it cannot be picked up again unless the Director rules.
• A lead from the wrong hand can be accepted, but Director must be called. You cannot just pick it up again. (The lead is considered accepted as soon as the opposition plays a card.)
• Declarer should call for a card to be played from Dummy’s hand rather than touch the cards. There are 2 reasons for this:
A mistaken call or designation can be changed (if you call the Director immediately), but a touched card is a played card.
When you lean forward to play from Dummy, you lose sight of your hand. You can lose track of what you intended to play.
• Dummy may not play any card – including singletons – without being directed to by Declarer. In fact, apart from preventing Declarer from committing an infraction, (e.g. asking “Having none” if Declarer fails to follow suit), Dummy basically isn’t allowed to say or do anything during play.
• Declarer should not play a card from Dummy until their left-hand opponent has played. Call Director if Declarer makes a habit of this.
• Think ahead: as soon as you have played a card, you should be thinking about your next move or possible moves. However…
• Players should not detach a card from their hand before it is their turn to
lead or play.
• Don’t turn your card over until all players have played to the trick.
• The player who wins the trick should be first to turn their card over.
• You can ask to inspect the last trick played only if you haven’t turned
your card over. No other quitted tricks can be inspected.
• Don’t collect up your cards until all players at the table have agreed to
the number of tricks made.
• At the end of the game, shuffle your cards briefly before putting them back in the correct pocket.
• If there is any irregularity, the perpetrator should call the Director and explain what happened. Too many voices just confuse the Director and it takes longer to sort out.
• No player is allowed to touch another player’s cards.
• Slow players are expected to speed up their game if they are still playing after the round has been called. There are no dispensations if you are held up by slow play. Slow players (and their opposition) are expected to catch up in the next round.
• One person from the partnership should keep an eye on the clock. If you know you aren’t going to have enough time to play a board, call the Director. You may be allowed to play it later. Otherwise it is marked ‘Not played’ and the results are not included in your overall average.
• If you are running late, West moves on, leaving South and East to deal with the scoring. North picks up the new boards and, as soon as the next West sits down, they both count their cards. This means that when South and the new East pick up their hands, one person from each partnership has already sorted their (own) hand and worked out their bid. It keeps play moving.
If a board is not played
• If you have bid but not started playing when the end of the round is called, the Director may not allow you to play the board. It is marked ‘Not played’ and not included in your score at the end of the night.
• This means that your score is only averaged over the boards you have
played. While you miss out on the enjoyment of playing the board, you
are not disadvantaged scorewise. (The same is true if you are Phantom)