19 January 2010

Both sides revokes: WBF minute

January is a good time for breaking resolutions! This is discussion of a hypothetical problem (against the stated policy of this blog) which arose from the recent WBF LC meetings. The WBF LC minutes are reproduced in the recent EBU L&E minutes. The item I am interested concerns both sides revoking on the same hand.

7. When both sides have revoked on the same board (Laws 64B7 and 64C), each revoke is examined separately in assessing the equity when that revoke occurs.

What does it mean? Or more accurately, what does the TD do? Having examined each revoke separately and assessed the equity, what does he do with the different answers to arrive at an adjusted score?

Extreme example

North
irrelevant
WestA
irrelevant--
A K Q J 6 5 4 3
C2 lead10 9 8 7
--
A
10 9 8 7
A K Q J 6 5 4 3

South plays in 3NT: North and West follow suit and can not win any tricks. South plays clubs from the top and East discards SA on CJ, and wins C6 with C10. East plays diamonds from the top and South discards HA on DJ, and wins D6 with D10.

South makes 8 tricks. Both sides have revoked: so we examine each revoke separately. Without East's revoke South will make 9 tricks. With East's revoke but without South's revoke, South makes 4 tricks; or 5 tricks if we apply the one trick revoke penalty for East's revoke. This gives two or three separate results: 3NT= and 3NT-5 (and 3NT-4); which one do I assign?

For what it's worth, my vote is for 3NT=, ignoring both revokes. But I don't see how this fits with the wording of the minute.