[BudH]

1. Minor penalty card due to low spot card stuck to an intended played honor.

2. Two tricks later, same defender fails to follow suit but notices it quickly. Major penalty card, and now with TWO cards showing, the initial minor penalty card is now a major penalty card.

3. One more trick later, the second penalty card is legally played and the first penalty card (initially classified as minor) is the only one now on the table.

Is the now single penalty card classified back to the original minor penalty card status?

Note Law 50B says "when one defender has two or more penalty cards, all such cards become major penalty cards". But can the card be "de-classified" back to minor status? Not crystal clear, but reading the law, I believe it should be again considered a minor penalty card as it was initially once it is the only penalty card for that defender.

Opinions?

[lamford]

I think once it has become a major penalty card it remains that way until it is played. Both the minor and major penalty cards are UI to the partner of the offender.

[chrism]

Once a Major Penalty Card, always a Major Penalty Card. This seems to be implicit in 50B: A single card below the rank of an honour exposed unintentionally (as in playing two cards to a trick, or in dropping a card accidentally) becomes a minor penalty card - no other way is specified that a card can become a minor penalty card. The frivolous might argue for picking up the remaining penalty card and then accidentally dropping it, but I think even SB would have a hard time arguing that one.

[sanst]

It's clearly stated (law 50B) that the minor PC becomes a major PC when there are two or more PC's. I's a major PC and remains so, since there's nowhere in the laws a clause that says that a major PC can become a minor PC.

[barmar]

If they wanted it to be a temporary upgrade, they could have written something like "While a defender has two or more penalty cards, all are treated as major penalty cards." The word "becomes" seems to describe a change of status, and nothing is written about changing the status back.

[BudH]

BudH, on 2015-July-27, 13:41, said:

1. Minor penalty card due to low spot card stuck to an intended played honor.

2. Two tricks later, same defender fails to follow suit but notices it quickly. Major penalty card, and now with TWO cards showing, the initial minor penalty card is now a major penalty card.

3. One more trick later, the second penalty card is legally played and the first penalty card (initially classified as minor) is the only one now on the table.

Is the now single penalty card classified back to the original minor penalty card status?

Note Law 50B says "when one defender has two or more penalty cards, all such cards become major penalty cards". But can the card be "de-classified" back to minor status? Not crystal clear, but reading the law, I believe it should be again considered a minor penalty card as it was initially once it is the only penalty card for that defender.

Opinions?

Having read the law closer, I tend to agree with the posters the card "becomes" a major penalty card when two cards are faced and it never restores back to the original minor penalty card status.