[jillybean]

I'm having a discussion with a friend regarding calling the Director after a player becomes aware that they made an erroneous explanation of partners alerted bid during the auction period.
Law 20 F 4a tells us that the player must call the Director before the end of the clarification period. They may call earlier but are under no obligation to do so.

This is fine and understood, the additional question was 'I know I can't call the Director and talk to them away from the table'

I believe this is another "rule" that has come about from players ruling the game. Is there anywhere in the Book (LoDB) that deals with this?
So far I can only find a reference to calling the Director in 9B

Thanks

[mycroft]

A good thing that they know this: the Law does say you need to call the director and correct. Most don't - they just correct it. They should - not only is it the Law, but this is a situation where others need to know what their rights, responsibilities and options are (and the director would like to know what they would have done with the correct explanation).

Players do not have a right to talk to the director during a hand away from the table. Look, you can ask. Whether the director will agree is another story. Whether it will help is yet another story.

The problem with "call the TD, ask to speak to them away from the table" isn't that it's not legal; it's that it passes UI. In this case, it's not going to be a problem; the TD will say, "yes, come back, correct your explanation now, and we'll handle what happens from there" and the AI will cover the UI. Really, the "99% time" it's a problem is when it was "partner misexplained and I'm/she's on lead, what do I do?" because now the answer is "nothing until the end of the hand, but you've already told partner about the misexplanation; so now she doesn't get to wake up on her own, she's constrained by UI."

Best if the players just know the three cases without having to "talk to the director away from the table":

• If you misinformed, call the TD and correct immediately (okay, before the opening lead. But immediately is better).
  
• If partner misinformed, and you are dummy or declarer, correct during the Correction Period (after the pass, before the OL).
  
• If partner misinformed, and you are a defender, wait until the end of the hand and then call the TD and correct (assuming the TD hasn't already been called by declarer!).

[jillybean]

Thanks.
I think players who want to speak to the Director away from the table do so because they are worried of creating UI or, they feel that the opponents have acted on UI and don't want to accuse them of cheating, or they feel uncomfortable discussing the issue at the table.


Yes, UI does not equate to cheating but some players do see it that way and at the same time, are blissfully unaware of their responsibilities.

So calling the Director and asking to speak away from the table is not illegal but often inappropriate and may not be granted?

[mycroft]

As you noticed (and I am speaking NLBH (reading, at least)), there is nothing in the Law that gives players the right to speak to the director away from the table. They may request it, and it may (will usually) be granted, but there is no right. The Director may ask to speak to a player away from the table (and how often this is done in ACBL vs other places in the world, and why, has been an interesting topic in the years). The Director may decide that the table is best served by sending someone away from the table and having the discussion with the other three.

In the "partner misexplained and I don't know when to correct it" case, absolutely, they are trying to avoid giving UI to partner. But bridge players aren't stupid (please don't ask my partners if they agree with me!), and they are definitely pattern-matching machines. You have already given them a bunch of UI, and partner will figure out what it is, trust me. The fact they can't see that before the Director explains is - interesting, given that bridge players are pattern-matching machines. But that conflicts with "bridge players are biased and miss obvious things when they conflict with the bias".

[barmar]

In my experience, most of the time it's the TD who asks the player to step away from the table to talk to them. This usually comes up in cases of insufficient bids, since the TD needs to know the possible meanings of the actual bid and the potential replacements, and we don't want partner to hear all of this.

In the case of explanation problems, the simple act of calling the TD is likely to suggest the problem. If you call the TD without anyone calling attention to an irregularity, there's only a few possible reasons, and a misexplanation is often the most likely. So the UI cat has already been let out of the bag.

But in any case, if you call the TD and tell them you're not sure what to do in a situation that you don't think you can describe without passing UI, I think the TD will just ask you to step away and explain it to them. If the TD knows what they're doing, you shouldn't need to ask.