ggwhiz, on 2016-July-22, 08:15, said:
I put this up as a poll on bridgewinners and so far have 15 bidders (2 for 6♣) and 13 passers.
Wow! If I ever need a poll of my peers I guess I insist on (at least) borderline criminally insane types. This is a pretty good advertisement for polling instead of the Director using their own bridge judgement.
I could not find the thread on bridgewinners. Can you provide a link, please? I found it now, and I see there is a majority for Pass. The TD apparently consulted, and it would be nice to know whether he asked the pollees what calls other than 5S they seriously considered, and I think his ruling should have indicated the result of that poll and how many people were polled. Certainly the English Internationals present whom I spoke to (Bell and Bakhshi) had not been polled, and they were at least as strong as the 5S bidder. One was on the putative AC so could not give his opinion. The initial ruling, in my opinion, should have been to disallow 5S, which I think is the right call by the way. I did not appeal partly because I think one should always be allowed 10 seconds when the bidding reaches you at the five level on the first round of the auction. But that is an issue for changing law or regulation (and no, blackshoe, no need to move the thread!). However, the 5S bid is hardly carefully avoiding taking
any advantage of the UI. (my emphasis)
I prefer to give the lawmakers credit for stating things for a reason - barmar