Penalty Cards
Here's the situation:
West (defender) pulls out SA, and accidently pulls out H2 and H3 which land face up on the table.
West designates SA as the played card (Law 58B) and H2 and H3 become penalty cards. Although they are both below the rank of an honour and were not exposed through deliberate play, because there are 2 of them they count as major penalty cards.
So far so good.
West wins the trick with SA, and leads H2 (declarer not being fussed which of the 2 major penalty cards he leads).
Now he has only one penalty card left (H3), which is below the rank of an honour and was not exposed through deliberate play.
So according to Law 50B it is now a minor penalty card.
Thw White Book is silent on this, and I cannot see anything that says a major penalty card has to stay a major penalty card.
Anyone wish to object?
I can see this mattering in some situations.
Jeremy
Comments
Law 50B says "becomes a major penalty card". That wording leads me to suspect that the card is permanently a major penalty card, even when the second card has been disposed of. In particular, it also says "becomes a minor penalty card" at the time it's exposed, which leads me to believe it doesn't become a minor penalty card at any other time.
One possible alternative interpretation, which leads to the same result in practice: I can't find anything in the Laws that says the card ceases to be a minor penalty card when it becomes a major penalty card, so the card may be both a major and a minor penalty card in this situation. The rules for disposing the two sorts of penalty card are compatible; and the result is equivalent in practice to a major penalty card.
A major penalty card retains that status until it has been played. It does not change into a minor penalty card.