The Director's Last Name

Monday 5 Dec 2016

Board 3 South Deals None Vul	♠ J 9 6 5 ♥ — ♦ Q 8 6 5 3 ♣ K 8 3 2
♠ 10 ♥ A K 10 9 7 4 3 ♦ A J 4 ♣ Q 5	N W E S	♠ A K Q 8 3 2 ♥ J ♦ — ♣ A J 9 7 6 4
	♠ 7 4 ♥ Q 8 6 5 2 ♦ K 10 9 7 2 ♣ 10

EW 6♥; W 6♣; W 5N; EW 5♠; E 4N; E 5♣; NS 1♦; Par -980

This is just a wild distributional hand that several of us found intriguing. The possible results shown are for perfect declarer play against perfect defense, determined using the double-dummy solver in Bridge Composer.

6 ♥ makes from either side, though of course West would be the likely candidate.

6 ♣ by East goes down one on a heart lead (ruffed) and then North must play the ♠ J . Declarer's only entry to dummy then is to ruff a spade, giving up the ability to take the club finesse twice. Declarer must then lose the ♣ K unless North makes the mistake of covering the ♣ Q. 

If West is declarer, 6 ♣ makes because North doesn't get a heart ruff, only the ♣ K. Alas, I don't see any normal auction that would let West be declarer in clubs.

If there is a lesson here, it is that you should always summon the Director in the event of an irregularity. If East is declarer in 6 ♣ and North faces an opening lead out of turn, East may accept the lead out of turn... and make six!

From the ACBL Laws of Duplicate Bridge:

LAW 54: FACED OPENING LEAD OUT OF TURN

When an opening lead out of turn is faced and offender’s partner leads face down, the director requires the face down lead to be retracted. Also:

A. Declarer Spreads His Hand

After a faced opening lead out of turn, declarer may spread his hand; he becomes dummy. If declarer begins to spread his hand, and in doing so exposes one or more cards, he must spread his entire hand. Dummy becomes declarer.

B. Declarer Accepts Lead

When a defender faces the opening lead out of turn declarer may accept the irregular lead as provided in Law 53, and dummy is spread in accordance with Law 41.

1. The second card to the trick is played from declarer’s hand. 

<...> 

There's more to Law 54, but that's the relevant part.

So, always make your opening leads face down. And in the event of an irregularity, summon the Director.  By the way, the Director's last name is Please, as in "Director, Please!"