ARNB Alerting Policy

Effective January 1st, 2005, the ARNB will adhere to the WBF rules regarding alerts.

Preamble

  1. The objective is to have a uniform ARNB policy, which is applied to all ARNB events.
  2. It is not intended that this should over ride Alerting Policies developed by the clubs.
  3. Full disclosure is vital. However, players who participate in ARNB events are expected to protect themselves to a large extent. They are also expected to observe the spirit of the Laws as well as the letter.
  4. The Policy has been made as simple as possible. Players are, however, expected to alert whenever there is doubt. (N.B. Where screens are in use, an alert on one side but not on the other does not necessarily imply an infraction.)

Policy

The following classes of calls should be alerted:

  1. Conventional bids should be alerted, non-conventional bids should not.
  2. Those bids which have special meanings or which are based on or lead to special understandings between the partners. (A player may not make a call or play based on a special partnership understanding unless an opposing pair may reasonably be expected to understand its meaning, or unless his side discloses the use of such call or play in accordance with the regulations of the sponsoring organization.) See Law 40(b).
  3. Non-forcing jump changes of suit responses to opening bids or overcalls, and non-forcing new suit responses by an un-passed hand to opening bids of one of a suit.

If screens are not in use, do NOT alert the following:

  1. All doubles.
  2. Any no-trump bid which suggests a balanced or semi-balanced hand, or suggests a no-trump contract.
  3. Any call at the four-level or higher, with the exception of conventional calls on the first round of the auction.

Nevertheless, players must respect the spirit of the Policy as well as the letter.

Definition

Convention
  1. A call that, by partnership agreement, conveys a meaning other than willingness to play in the denomination named (or the last denomination named), or high-card strength or length (three cards or more) there. However, an agreement as to overall strength does not make a call a convention.
  2. Defender's play that serves to convey a meaning by agreement rather than inference.

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