Stop card out of turn
Dealer is considering his hand. Next player takes out a STOP card but gets no further before the director is called.
I ruled that as the use of the STOP card is not part of the rules of the game there had not been a call out of turn. The card gave unauthorised information to her partner that the partner was not allowed to use, but as they were playing Benji Acol, there was no indication of whether the offender had intended a weak 2, pre-emptive 3, strong 2C , strong 2D or anything else. so the UI was jsut that she had something worth an opening bid. The card was taken back and the auction continued normally, with no further penalty.
Was there anything else I should have done?
Comments
With this kind of UI I don't consider what the information is. I point out to the other side that they can call me when the hand is finished if they think they have been damaged by misuse of the information.
Alan
We've discussed Stop cards out of turn before; consensus was that the Stop card creates UI and doesn't do anything else, so this is just a simple UI case. (As such, I'd do the normal response to UI, telling the informer's partner that they cannot take an action suggested by the UI unless they have no logical alternative, and the opponents that if they think the offending side have performed a suggested action, they can ask for an adjustment at the end of the hand.)
Note that the Laws of Bridge defer to the Regulating Authority in the case of "things that are vaguely similar to bidding but not the same" (such as Stop cards), so although this answer is correct for the EBU, it might be different in other countries.
I don't think it is within the power of a RA to have a regulation that a Stop card constitutes a BOOT, or to modify the UI consequences. So I would expect that the answer would be the same in any jurisdiction where the RA prescribes a Stop card procedure in the first place.
Regulating authorities can define how to make a call, so it's within the realm of possibility that the Stop card itself could be defined as a method of making a call (rather than a warning that you're about to make a potentially unexpected bid). That said, if there's more than one possible call that would warrant a stop card, doing so wouldn't make much sense.
(Thought experiment: a player bids 6!s; LHO passes; partner plays the Stop card, thinks for a bit, and then retracts it. In the EBU, that isn't a bid of 7NT, but it wouldn't seem illogical for a different regulating authority to rule differently.)