A Question of Alerting: Part I
Rich Colker

It will be helpful in what follows to keep in mind several things. First, the purpose of the Alert procedure is to inform the opponents that a call has been made which has a hidden meaning or implication of which they may not be aware. Second, neither of the players on the Alerting side is entitled to "hear" the Alert nor is a player on a side which has failed to Alert entitled to "not hear" the Alert. Third, the laws prohibit a player from basing any call or play upon information gained from partner's answer to an opponent's question. (You are, however, allowed to "hear" the question itself.)  Fourth, you are required by law to correct (at the appropriate time and in the proper manner) any misinformation that might have been caused by an inappropriate Alert or failure to Alert. And fifth, proper ethical conduct begins with you recognizing your responsibility to act accordingly. Let's examine each of these points more closely.

The opponents are entitled to all of the information that you and your partner have regarding what your bids mean (or imply). Law 40B states: "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..." Often, the only way you can convey such information is through an Alert

Suppose, for example, your 1¨ response to your partner's 1§ opening denies a five-card major and otherwise says nothing about diamonds. It is Alertable. How else can the opponents reasonably be expected to know that you could hold a singleton or a doubleton diamond for your call? Similarly, if the auction proceeds:

 

You	LHO	Pard	RHO
1¨	Pass	1ª	2§
Pass

and you play Support Doubles (a double of2§ by you at your second turn would have shown three card spade support), your pass of2§ must be Alerted. In this case the pass itself is not a special convention or treatment, but your failure to double has hidden implications. (You could not have made a penalty double, and you probably do not have three-card spade support—at least not that you wished to show.)

Now suppose you hold ª-Qxx ©-Axx ¨-KQxx §-Jxx, and the auction goes as above. Partner Alerts your pass of 2§ which reminds you that you are playing Support Doubles. LHO passes and partner now bids 2¨ which is passed back to you. Should you bid 2ª? Absolutely not!  Alerts are for the opponents' ears and their ears only. You are not permitted to "hear" your partner's Alert in the sense that you may not take advantage of the information which it contains. Since you obviously forgot that you could make a Support Double and since equally clearly partner's Alert awakened you to that fact, you may not now take advantage of your newly found knowledge. You must act as though partner had not Alerted your pass and go quietly.

What would happen if you did bid 2ª and that ended the auction? If partner showed up with ª-Axxxx ©-x ¨-Axxx §-xxx and both 2ª and 2¨• make three (with the ª Kx onside), you would not be allowed to keep your good result. The opponents would call the Director who would rule the contract back to 2¨ making three (-110 for the opponents). In addition, if you are an experienced player who the Director judges should have known better than to take advantage of the unauthorized information, he could also assess a procedural penalty against you (1/4 board at matchpoints or 3 imps at teams) for taking improper advantage. In addition, if you are so foolish as to appeal the ruling, the Appeals Committee should find your appeal to be without merit and penalize you again for your failure to learn your lesson. And if there is evidence of a history of such actions on your part, a Conduct and Ethics Committee might even be convened which could impose an even more severe punishment. The possibilities include a probationary period or even a suspension.

And what if you bid 2ªA and caught your partner with ª-xxxx ©-Kx ¨-AJxx §- xxx and the opponents lead the ª A and a spade through your queen-third drawing trumps in four rounds. They then cash five club tricks for down four—a cold bottom! 
In that case you would keep your poor result, and you could still be subject to a more severe punishment from a C&E Committee. Crime doesn't pay.

Suppose you hold ª-AJx ©-Kx ¨-AQxxx §-xxx and the auction proceeds:

 

You	LHO	Pard	RHO
1¨	Pass	1ª	2§
Double*	Pass	2ª	Pass
?

*Not Alerted

The failure to Alert your double is a sure sign that this partner has forgotten that you are playing Support Doubles. Therefore, partner has pulled what he believed to be your "penalty" double of2§ back to spades. If he holds something like ª-QlOxxxx ©-Qxx ¨-Kxx §-x or ª-Qxxxxxx ©-Qxx ¨-Kxx §-x, 4ª could be cold. . Even if he produces some miserable holding such as ª-Q10xxxx ©- Qxx ¨-Jx §-xx, he would have to be quite unlucky to go down at the three level. If a raise to 3ª seems appropriate to you—wrong! If partner had Alerted your double, you could raise (at your own risk). However, his failure to Alert makes the raise even more attractive, and with that information present the law says you may not choose "from among logical alternative actions one that could demonstrably have been suggested over another" (Laws 16A and 73F) by the unauthorized information. As before, any attempt to do so should at least lead to a score adjustment and possibly to a disciplinary penalty as well.