Declarer takes a card from their hand!
Can anyone help with this disagreement that took place at my local club. Declarer pulled the wrong card and the realised he had pulled a heart instead of a diamond. He called the director and claimed mechanical error. According to the 2017 law book it seems a declarer does not have this right but the opponents do. This seems unfair, however, does he not have other rights?
the only one I can think of is asking his LHO if they would accept a change of call but before he had a chance LHO aggressively said "we wont accept a change". Is LHO out of order and is there any law that the director could use to allow a change of call?
Comments
Sorry I meant RHO spoke. also could she not be reprimanded for telling her partner what to do?
There is no "unintended play" law, there is no retraction of a card played from a closed hand (not dummy) if the card played is legals (Law 45, 46, 47). I do not understand
This is not a change of call, so LHO's option to accept a change of call does not apply.
The situation here could depend on whether the card was actually played or merely detached from the hand before declarer realised his mistake and had not yet played the card. See Law 45.
Unless declarer had placed the card on the table, tapped it on the table, or some equivalent, then the card was not yet played and may be replaced with another card. Note that it's not relevant that one, or both, of the defenders, or anyone else, was able to see the card. If it wasn't actually played per Law 45 then it can be replaced.