Playing before last trick is quitted.
Declarer (South) is a few tricks into the play. West leads a small Heart, dummy plays, East plays the King and Declarer plays the 8. (East winning the trick). Declarer is thinking (even though she has not won the trick) and is holding her card face up. West, Dummy and East have turned their cards face down. East now immediately plays to the next trick and Declarer says, sorry I'm thinking and haven't quitted my trick yet; You shouldn't have played that card yet. East says (rather aggressively) OF COURSE I CAN, I won the last trick. No you shouldn't says declarer. There is quite commotion! Declarer is upset, East is arguing quite loudly, and as TD I go to the table without being called.
Can I help I say? East says CAN YOU TELL THIS PERSON SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT.
I warn East about his aggressive manner being unacceptable.
I say you should have waited until the trick was quitted. RUBBISH he says.
Now I'm dealing with Bad Behaviour @ Bridge; and warn him as such and suggests he apologises.
Apart from the BB@B, which he later apologised to Declarer, again loud OK I APOLOGISE.
Can you please advise me where I can find the correct procedure for Play to the next trick. Law 66A describes Inspection of the Current Trick. Law 65A describes the Completed Trick.
Comments
Law 44G is relevant in what it doesn't say. It does say that the player to lead to the next trick is the player who won the previous trick, but there is no mention of timing, and in particular no requirement to wait for other players to quit their card to the previous trick.
If East leads before South has quitted his card, there's no reason why South can't carry on doing his thinking with his card for the previous trick still in his hand while East's card to the next trick is already on the table.
But equally, unless East has led to the next trick without noticing that South is still faffing, I would think it polite for East to wait for South to get a grip before leading.
Let's imagine there is a law that says that East has to wait and East hasn't waited. What then? I would suppose that East's card would become a Major Penalty Card and have to be played as soon as South has quitted his card to the previous trick! It would have the same effect as not having such a law!
When someone says loudly "CAN YOU TELL THIS PERSON SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT", I always hope that the person who actually doesn't know what they are talking about is the person making such a claim, but sadly that wasn't the case his time!
Barrie Partridge - CTD for Bridge Club Live
Because 66A allows a player to have all the other cards played to the trick be faced on the table, until that player's own card is turned over, and there is no explicit requirement for a player to turn over their card until they are ready, the usual practical understanding of this is that players should not play to the next trick until all the cards have been turned face-down.
There is however a counter-argument, to which I don't subscribe and to my knowledge very few do, expressed in the discussion in this Bridgewinners thread.
There are some extra complications here. If West leads to the next trick then East may no longer expose his card to the previous trick per Law 66B but South may require that cards do be exposed per 66A. I guess the solution here is that South should call the director to enable East and West to show the previous trick. In practice, of course, a player would ignore 66B on South's request.
In the given case, South is declarer but if South were a defender with West declaring and West leads to the next trick with North also playing to the trick then South loses his right to require exposure of the last trick. Equally, if your partner wins the trick and leads before you have quitted the last trick, you have no rights under 66A.
Gordon the link on the Bridgewinners thread is to “Trick 1 Pause, Platinum Pairs”
I’m not sure if this was the thread you intended.
Thanks again, Steve
Well, I think until the cards are all turned face down you've not really completed the last trick - 65A, so you should wait for the player. Which has a certain practical value as an approach, I'm not sure if a close examination of the laws would back it up
It is, but is should take you directly to a post by me on the subject. If you go to the post directly above, to which I was replying, and follow the thread until you lose the will to live, I think you'll find it's on point.
66B is concerned with inspecting your own card, not with complying with an opponent's request to see it.
If you don't want your rights to be limited, you need to persuade your partner not to play to a trick before you have quit the previous one!
Just found this: WB 1.6.6: "No one should play to the next trick until the cards played to the current trick have
been turned face down"
Steve