[Lanor Fow]

A friend sent me a question from an IMPed duplicate:

"So there was a hand where we bid and the contracted ended up being 6Nx...

I held AK to some number of hearts,... So I played the Ace of hearts, and declarer also had the ace... So we called the director.. And then looked at the board..
3 of us had taken cards from one board, and the declarer had picked up the cards from the board underneath (which we hadn't played)...

What happens now? "

First hand:

---

North had picked up the cards from the below hand, which they had yet to play

---

The cards have different coloured backs and I believe that NS are playing a weak NT.

Firstly how do you rule.

Other questions:

If you rule the first board as fouled, what averages do you give and does the different coloured backs make any difference?

Do you allow the second board to be played?

If you do, bidding goes 1nt-p-p-p which goes down one. Do you consider adjusting? If it makes a difference east claims:

"On the next board he opened a strong NT, and that's where the auction ended. We played the hand and obviously I knew he had the ace of hearts, but I had JT9x so when there was an outside chance of getting a spade trick, I still played a heart, because I *know* I would have done that if I didn't know he had the ace. "

[RSliwinski]

Lanor Fow, on 2015-June-01, 04:59, said:

If you rule the first board as fouled, what averages do you give and does the different coloured backs make any difference?

Do you allow the second board to be played?

If you rule the first board as fouled, what averages do you give and does the different coloured backs make any difference?
40%-60%, Laws 17D and 12C2, different coloured backs make no difference.

Do you allow the second board to be played?
No, 40%-60%, Laws 16C2(d) and 12C2.

[weejonnie]

I think for the second part the director might allow the hand to play (12C2C) - the auction period for the second hand has started for NS (Law 17) so it could be argued that it is a card exposed during the auction (law 24) - and North is going to open 1NT - the same as he did the hand before. East of course has no UI and can do what he wants - he should have called the director to get this clarified, as it is he has no recourse due to his misunderstanding of the laws.

[Lanor Fow]

Can you start the auction period of a future hand whilst playing the previous?

[RSliwinski]

I was little to quick to answer. TD must must award an artificial adjusted score on the next board but not stricly speaking because of 16C2(d). He must do it because the condition for letting the bidding continue on the next board which is mentioned in 17D3, is not met.