Was harm done?

Can opponents be penalized for making a “false” or misleading bid in the auction which may harm your partnership in that hand? ACBL law 40C 1 says that, unless the bid was part of an undisclosed partnership agreement, no penalty applies. In our game one player chose, on her own, to bid 1NT with 19 points, not the agreed upon 15-17 points for a 1NT bid. As it happened, the next player had a standard 1NT count and doubled. As the bidding unfolded, the non-offending side ended up in a 4H contract which was promptly doubled leading to a bottom board. Harm was done but because of the ACBL law, no penalty could legally be applied. However, since partner should be your best friend, a deceptive bid will mislead him and could cause harm in your own partnership, backfiring more often than not. As a very experienced director once said,” There’s no penalty for bad bridge.”

Once again our March 31 Evergreen game was well attended. Winning N/S: 1^st Jean and Loyd Hill, 2^nd Anna and Dave Goff, 3^rd Nancy Brandt and Wade Lowder; E/W: 1^st Chuck and Margaret Rimer, 2^nd Fern Albracht and Everett Halsall, 3^rd Rosemary Sowkolowski and BettyBonner Steele.

Our featured board is #5 from the March 31 game.   N/S vulnerable   West dealer

NORTH:

S A K T 4 3 2

H K 9

D A Q T 4

C 5

WEST:                EAST:

S     9 6 5            S 7

H T 8 5 3            H A Q J

D 5 3                   D K J 9 7 2

C A J 6 4             C K T 7 3

SOUTH:

S Q J 8

H 7 6 4 2

D 8 6

C     Q 9 8 2

The best N/S score was made by Mack Brown and Fred Krusemark, two of our very new players. They bid 3SN making 4 while Chuck and Margaret Rimer had the best E/W score defeating opponents 4SN 3 tricks.

The Tuesday, April 4 Women’s Club game was won by: 1^st Judy Hurder and Jean Hill, 2^nd Chuck and Margaret Rimer, 3^rd Creekmore and Pat Macon, 4^th Judy Gealy and Fern Albracht.