Declarer's partner makes opening lead - can it be accepted?
My first time teaching the club directors course today. A (alightly tongue in cheek) question came up:
If presumed dummy (not dummy yet) tries to make the opening lead, can the next player accept it, per law 53A:
_any lead faced out of turn may be treated as a correct lead. It becomes a correct lead if declarer or either defender, as the case may be, accepts it by making a statement to that effect, or if a play is made from the hand next in rotation to the irregular lead. _
I cannot currently see any reason why not.
Of course the same would apply to declarer leading to the first trick.
Comments
An apparent lead by the declaring side is not a lead - it does not end the auction period so is not in the play period (Law 17D1) - so cannot be accepted. It is in limbo as an exposed card after the auction but in the auction period. When there is an opening lead by a defender, an exposed card from dummy becomes part of the faced dummy and an exposed card from declarer is picked up.
Thanks, Robin.
Robin_BarkerTD is correct; there's actually a separate Law covering the situation that hasn't been mentioned yet (Law 54E), but it basically just says the same thing that Robin_BarkerTD said (i.e. "apply the rules for a card exposed during the auction").
This reminds me of something that actually came up at the table, where the fix is obvious but it's unclear where it's actually specified in the Laws – what do you do if, after the opening lead, dummy attempts to play a card rather than spreading their hand? Intuitively, the solution seems to be "consider dummy to have placed down 1 of their 13 cards and ask them to put down the other 12", in addition to potentially considering an adjustment under L40A1c (which in practice is unlikely to make enough of a difference to require one) – note that L45F, which would be the normal adjustment for dummy suggesting a play, doesn't apply. But it's not obvious how that fix works within the Laws.
A follow up: if dummy plays a card rather than spreading their hand, then third hand plays, is that a play out of rotation? (I think, based on Law 57D, it is; but Law 45D1 probably rectifies this in favour of the defenders regardless.)