Posted 2023-June-08, 09:14
It is a serious issue with a serious reason (which should be obvious in a world where the median age is 70ish).
The requirement to also do something audible is also serious (viz my partner blind in left eye story).
Frankly (and being USA-blinkered for a minute), not having that regulation would be an ADA lawsuit waiting to happen. Now, allowing it to be ignored in practise...well that wouldn't be the first time in ADA cases either, would it?
Yes, I do always do something (first of all, those stupid alert Strips are for the birds, all they do is knock over boxes (during an Alert or when bidding.) I try to pull the Alert card and aim it around where my cards go back into the board (again, my partner blind in left eye...), but will sometimes just point at the bid while Alerting or Announcing.
or almost always at least. And if it causes a problem, I apologize (although over 1NT, I'm not upset. If you "expect to" not hear anything, don't hear anything, and are okay with it, then you should be okay when what you didn't hear wasn't "15-17". A few more of those rulings and people will start asking; a few more of those asks and people will stop being lazy and follow the -ing rule. Still apologized, though).
No, "nobody" does it. And it "never" causes a problem. And when it does, the Director pulls out the regulation and applies the misinformation ruling. And a few more of those hard done by stories might break through the entitled bridge player bubble and get them to JFDI for their opponents' benefit for a change.
I absolutely agree with "could not enforce the Stop card". The difference is that they have made a different decision around "we want them to not Alert because it helps them more than us" than they did over "people just use the Stop card to wake up partner". Still amused by the number of people who tell me "we don't have to pause any more, since they took the Stop card away", though - which means they didn't read the decision, or just saw the part they wanted to see.
When I go to sea, don't fear for me, Fear For The Storm -- Birdie and the Swansong (tSCoSI)