Re: Is it ACBL masterpoints we hold or are they "bridge" masterpoints?

Jürgen R. wrote:

Of course you may, and I am very glad to be able to help you, but maybe
you should ask Santa Claus for a good dictionary when he comes around
(this usually happens on or about December 6th).

Proprieties are the conventions of polite society defining socially
acceptable conduct.

In this particular instance the offense consists of making a craps
shoot out of a bridge tournament. I made it clear at the time that
I was not talking about a club game against LOL's, or people like
you and your brother, who need 6 months to memorize the newest
bidding fad. I was talking about something like an ACBL Regional,
to which people might travel expecting to serious competition.

*****************

What you actually wrote in the thread in question follows (see: An
ethics question -- what would you do?):

Your ethical obligation, particularly in a pairs game in a tournament
(not in a kitchen table game or a relaxed club game), is to play a
system that you and your partner can remember and and that your
opponents can understand.

and then you wrote, in response to another poster's comment (not mine,
yet):

That seems extreme. I don't see any ethical reason why you should have to
play a system both partners remember: it's only going to hurt you in the
long run, and everybody has to learn sometime.

People have come to play bridge for a weekend, some from far
away. Under these circumstances it is an ethical offense to play
a complex system for the first time, making it likely that there will
be misunderstanding: It ruins the enjoyment for those opponents
whose primary concern isn't the score but the game.

You do have some obligation
to say at some time "this isn't working" and ditch conventions you can
never remember - but when I was learning it took me 3 months to remember
transfers. Somehow I don't think the right response was to drop them
(even
though my partner/teacher was ready to a month earlier!).

So practice in a non-competitive environment until you
can remember.

As for playing a system your opponents can understand, that's definitely
not
a requirement. The sponsoring organization establishes what systems are
legal, and if you're playing something legal but your opponents aren't
capable of understanding it, there's no reason you should have to dumb it
down.

I would agree that the requirements of the organization are impossible
to satisfy: There is no such thing as *complete* disclosure.
But that is not the point here: There will definitely be no
*satisfactory* disclosure from a pair playing, for the
first time, a system they can't remember.

and then you wrote, in response to me:

No, that is not what I said; but as you kindly pointed out, my
language
skills are not sufficient to allow me to express myself with the
requisite
clarity. Evidently this explains why you are replying to something I
did
not say.

I asked for the justification, in laws or proprieties, for this
astoundingly ignorant statement.
YOU have not provided one, which is no real problem, BECAUSE THERE IS
NO LAW OR PROPRIETY THAT REQUIRES PLAYERS TO PLAY SYSTEMS THEY CAN
REMEMBER.

There are various rubber paragraphs that one might quote - the ones
in the higher numbers that used to come under the heading of
'proprieties' - read them if it amuses you; however, the ethics of
the behavior in question does not depend upon the laws of bridge.

and from this point on you made no substantive contribution to the
thread, not even to defend your claim that "the ethics of the behavior
in question does not depend upon the laws of bridge," or to state what
the ethics of the behavior in question does depend upon if it is not
dependent on the laws of bridge.

I leave it to others to decide for themselves what you actually said,
and what you claim to have said.

Henrysun909





.

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