RULING THE GAME

Courtesy = ACBL

(October issue)

Question (from Oklahoma): I am a brand new club director and faced the following situation. Declarer was playing in 6*H*. When dummy came down, one of dummy's diamonds was covered, making it appear that dummy had a singleton diamond (and only 12 cards). No one noticed.
Declarer proceeded to ruff both his diamond losers in dummy. With five tricks to go, a defender finally noticed that dummy was short one card and the offending diamond was found under the club suit.
I ruled that all four players are responsible for making sure that the dummy has 13 cards and follows suit appropriately. Since I felt normal play was impossible at this point, I canceled the board and gave both sides average minus.
I asked our senior directors and got different responses. One said she agreed with my ruling but would have given average to both sides, the other said she would have had play continue and that the defenders had earned what was going to be a terrible result if 6*H* made because they had not counted dummy.
What is the correct ruling?
Answer ( by petermollemet , member): According to Law 64B (Procedure After Establishment of a Revoke C No Penalty Assessed), there is no penalty for a failure to follow suit when playing a faced card. This applies to dummy as well. Thus, the table result should have been allowed to stand except that according to Law 64C (Director Responsible for Equity), if the non-offending side is insufficiently compensated, the director should award an adjusted score. Without knowing the exact cards, it appears the defenders were due at least one other trick (a diamond).
The reference to both sides being responsible for dummy is no longer a part of the Laws book.