Cascade, on Aug 1 2010, 05:25 PM, said:
barmar, on Aug 2 2010, 10:06 AM, said:
Who says?
Its not in the laws.
Try Law 73A (my emphasis added):
Quote
A. Appropriate Communication between Partners
1. Communication between partners during the auction and play shall be effected only by means of calls and plays.
2. Calls and plays should be made without undue emphasis, mannerism or inflection, and without undue hesitation or haste. But Regulating Authorities may require mandatory pauses, as on the first round of the auction, or after a skip-bid warning, or on the first trick.
A counter-defence that I usually employ when declarer calls for a card the instant dummy goes down is to fold my own hand, ask a few questions about the auction and inform everyone that I'm just thinking about the whole hand and then after a few moments pick up my hand and decide what to do. Playing with screens, particularly if you are on the South-West side as Fred was in this case, closing the screen aperture while you think is a technique that can also be used.
btw, well done to the Diamond team! Boards in the dying stages are invariably the most memorable, but how good (albeit slow) was Brad Moss' double of 3♠ on the penultimate board?