Who Plays the Hand?
North opens 1NT
East passes
South (who has not been concentrating) bids 1NT
which is accepted by West passing
Passes then from North and East
Who plays it?
Latest Posts on this Thread
- Brad Johnston03 May 2019 at 11:50AM
Both North/South are on the same side, so it falls to which of them bid no-trumps first to determine who the declarer is.
There could even be an auction such as:
North East South West
2H 1D 1H ap
I struggle to think of hands that would fit this auction; but despite the contract being played in 1H (which South bid), North was the first of the declaring side to mention hearts (even though it was at the 2 level). This means that North is the declarer for this contract. - Dougal WATSON14 Jun 2019 at 01:41PM
I would also have ruled that North plays it as declarer. My reasoning is as follows.
South's 1NT, an insufficient bid, has been accepted and then passed out ... so the final bid, and the game contract, is 1NT. The denomination of that final bid is NT.
The declarer is the player who, for the side that makes the final bid, first bid the denomination named in the final bid (Laws of Duplicate Bridge). That person becomes the declarer when the opening lead is faced by the opponent to their left.
So NT is the denomination of the final bid, and it was North who first bid NT, so North is the declarer ... same as would have been the case if South had passed.
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