Bridge Laws and Infractions
Things go wrong at the bridge table. Someone revokes. Someone bids out of turn. Someone leads before the auction is over. The question isn’t whether mistakes will happen. It’s how you handle them when they do.
Bridge has a comprehensive set of laws that cover almost every possible irregularity. Most players know the basics, but many don’t know the details. Here’s what actually happens when the common mistakes occur.
The Golden Rule: Call the Director
Before we get into specific infractions, understand this: when something irregular happens, call the director. Don’t try to fix it yourself. Don’t accept “just this once we’ll let it go.” Don’t rely on your opponent’s interpretation of the rules.
Say “Director, please.” Wait for them to arrive. Explain what happened. Let them make the ruling.
Directors aren’t there to penalize you. They’re there to apply the laws fairly and keep the game running smoothly. Calling the director isn’t rude or confrontational. It’s the correct procedure.
Revokes (Playing the Wrong Suit)
A revoke happens when you fail to follow suit when you could have. You play a spade when you still have a heart in your hand and hearts were led. This is the most common serious infraction in bridge.
When It’s Established
A revoke isn’t established until you or your partner plays to the next trick. Until then, you can correct it.
Partner leads a heart. You play a spade, then realize you have a heart in your hand. Before anyone plays to the next trick, you can say “Sorry, I revoked” and substitute the correct card. The spade goes back in your hand.
The card you played incorrectly becomes a penalty card (if you’re a defender) or just goes back in your hand (if you’re declarer or dummy). There’s a minor penalty, but it’s not terrible.
Once someone plays to the next trick, the revoke is established. Now you’re dealing with a more serious penalty.
The Revoke Penalty
The standard penalty for an established revoke is one or two tricks transferred from the revoking side to the other side.
You transfer two tricks if the revoking side won the trick where the revoke occurred. You transfer one trick if they didn’t.
Example: You’re defending. Declarer leads a heart, you revoke by playing a spade, and your spade wins the trick. Later this gets discovered. The penalty is two tricks transferred to declarer.
Exception: You can’t transfer more tricks than the revoking side actually won. If you revoked but went down three, you can’t suddenly be down five. The penalty is limited to what actually happened.
When There’s No Penalty
Sometimes there’s no penalty for a revoke:
- It happened on the 12th trick (last card in everyone’s hand)
- The non-revoking side didn’t lose anything by it
- Both sides revoked on the same deal (penalties cancel out)
But even with no trick penalty, you still have to correct the trick if it’s caught before the round ends.
Discovering a Revoke Later
What if you discover the revoke after the hand is over but before the next round starts?
Call the director immediately. They’ll reconstruct the hand if possible and apply the appropriate penalty. This is why you keep your played cards in a neat line in front of you, vertical for tricks won and horizontal for tricks lost. It makes reconstruction possible.
If the round has moved on and the boards are shuffled, it’s usually too late. The result stands.
Insufficient Bids
An insufficient bid is a call that’s lower than it needs to be. Partner opens 1♥, and you meant to bid 2♠ but accidentally pulled the 1♠ card instead.
The Options
When you make an insufficient bid, the director gives you three options:
Option 1: Make it sufficient in the same denomination
You bid 1♠ when you needed to bid 2♠. You can change it to 2♠. No penalty, auction continues normally. This is the best outcome.
Option 2: Make any other legal call
You can make any other sufficient bid, double, redouble, or pass. But now there’s a penalty: your partner must pass for the rest of the auction. They’re barred from bidding.
This is painful. You bid 1♠ instead of 2♠, you correct it to 2♣, and now partner has to pass for the rest of the auction. You might still be able to bid your spades later, but partner can’t help you.
Option 3: Pass
You can pass, but again, partner is barred for the rest of the auction. This rarely makes sense unless the auction is about to end anyway.
What About Unauthorized Information?
Here’s the subtle part. If you make an insufficient bid and correct it to something else, your partner has to pass. But they also can’t use the information from your insufficient bid.
You bid 1♠ instead of 2♠, then correct to 3NT. Your partner now knows you considered spades, but they’re not allowed to act on that information. If you end up declaring 3NT and there’s a guess about where the spade queen is, partner can’t help you with their discard. They have to pretend the insufficient bid never happened.
This can be tricky to police. Directors will watch the hand and make an adjustment if they think the unauthorized information affected the result.
Bids Out of Turn
You bid when it’s not your turn. Maybe you thought partner had opened but they actually passed. Maybe you just weren’t paying attention.
What Happens
It depends on whose turn it was.
If it was your partner’s turn:
Partner’s call is cancelled. Your bid becomes a “comparable call” situation. If you can make a legal call now that’s comparable to what you tried to bid, you can do it with no penalty. If not, partner is barred for the rest of the auction.
Example: Partner is dealer. You think they opened 1♥, but they actually hadn’t bid yet. You bid 2♣. When it comes around to you legally, if you can still bid 2♣ and it has the same meaning, you’re okay. If not, partner has to pass for the rest of the auction.
If it was opponent’s turn:
The opponent can accept your bid (let it stand) or reject it. If they reject it, different penalties apply depending on what you bid out of turn.
Most commonly, the director will let the auction proceed with some restriction on your partner’s next call.
If it was your right-hand opponent’s turn:
They can accept the call or cancel it. If cancelled, when it’s your turn, you have to make any legal call, but if you make a different call than what you tried before, your partner may be barred.
These situations get complicated quickly. This is exactly when you call the director and let them sort it out.
Leads Out of Turn
This one happens more often than you’d think. The auction ends, and the wrong person leads.
Opening Lead Out of Turn
The auction ends. Dummy thinks they’re on lead and leads a card. Or a defender thinks they’re on lead when their partner actually is.
The declarer has options:
- Accept the lead (let it stand from the wrong hand)
- Reject the lead and require a lead from the correct hand
- If it was dummy who led, declarer might be able to forbid or require a specific suit from the actual opening leader
The exact remedy depends on who led out of turn and when it was discovered. Call the director. They’ll sort out the options.
Lead Out of Turn During Play
Less common but still happens. The wrong person leads to a trick.
If it’s noticed immediately (before everyone plays), it can usually be corrected without penalty. The card goes back, the correct person leads.
If it’s noticed later (after everyone has played), it’s treated as a revoke. The director determines the appropriate penalty.
Claims and Concessions
Declarer or a defender claims the rest of the tricks. “The rest are mine.” This seems simple but causes endless disputes.
Making a Claim
When you claim, you have to state your line of play. “I’m pulling trumps and running diamonds.” You can’t just throw your cards down and expect everyone to agree.
If everyone agrees with your claim, great. Write the score and move on.
Disputed Claims
If anyone disputes the claim, call the director. Don’t argue about it.
The director will ask the claimer to state their intended line of play. Then they’ll rule on whether that line would work.
Here’s the key: the director will rule against the claimer on any ambiguity. If there are two ways to play the hand and you didn’t specify which, the director assumes you’d play it the losing way.
Example: You claim with the ♥AK32 in your hand and ♥Q54 in dummy. You need to pick up ♥J10 doubleton in one defender’s hand. You claim “hearts are good.”
But you didn’t say whether you’d play the ace first or the queen. The director will rule that you’d play it wrong and the hearts aren’t running. You should have been specific: “Queen of hearts, then ace, picking up the jack-ten.”
Concessions
You can concede tricks too. “You can take the rest.” This is binding.
Be careful conceding. Make sure you actually know they can take the rest. If you concede and it turns out you had a winner, too bad. The concession stands.
Penalty Cards
A penalty card is a card that was exposed when it shouldn’t have been. Most commonly, this happens to defenders.
How Cards Become Penalty Cards
You drop a card on the floor and everyone sees it. You pull two cards from your hand and they both show. Your card sticks to another card and both come out. You revoke and correct it, and the wrongly played card becomes a penalty card.
Major vs. Minor Penalty Cards
A minor penalty card (spot card, 9 or lower) must be played at your first legal opportunity. That’s the only restriction.
A major penalty card (10 or higher) stays face-up on the table and creates more restrictions. It must be played at the first legal opportunity, and declarer can forbid or require your partner to lead a specific suit when they’re on lead.
This can be devastating. Partner exposes the ♠K. Now it’s face-up on the table, and when you get the lead, declarer can require you to lead a spade (killing partner’s king) or forbid you from leading a spade (stopping you from setting up partner’s suit).
Declarer and Dummy
Declarer can’t have penalty cards. If declarer exposes a card, there’s no penalty.
Dummy can’t have penalty cards during normal play, but if dummy touches cards when they’re not supposed to (like telling declarer what to play), that’s a different infraction with its own penalties.
Hesitations and Tempo
This isn’t exactly an infraction, but it causes problems. You hesitate before making a call or play. Your partner now has “unauthorized information.”
Unauthorized Information Rules
Your partner can’t use information from your hesitation, your facial expressions, or anything other than the legal auction and play.
You hesitate for a long time before passing. Your partner now knows you considered bidding. They’re not allowed to act on that knowledge.
If there’s a close decision and partner makes the aggressive call after your hesitation, the director may adjust the score. “You knew partner had something from the hesitation. You’re not allowed to use that information.”
Protecting Yourself
If partner hesitates and you’re facing a close decision, you have two choices:
- Make the passive call (don’t use the information)
- Call the director before you act
Tell the director: “Partner hesitated. I’m facing a close decision. I want to bid 4♥, but I want you to know about the hesitation first.”
The director will note it. If 4♥ makes and your opponents appeal, the director already knows you declared your intentions before acting. This protects you.
Appeals
You think the director made a wrong ruling. You can appeal.
How Appeals Work
After the director makes a ruling, you can say “I’d like to appeal this ruling.” The director will note it, you finish the round, and later an appeals committee will hear the case.
Don’t argue with the director at the table. Don’t refuse to play. Accept the ruling, note that you’re appealing, and continue.
The appeals committee (usually 3-5 experienced players) will hear both sides and make a final decision. Their ruling is final.
When to Appeal
Appeal when you genuinely believe the director misapplied the law or made a mistake in judgment.
Don’t appeal just because you don’t like the result. Don’t appeal to intimidate opponents. Don’t appeal frivolous rulings.
Appeals that are clearly without merit can result in disciplinary penalties. The committee can tell you “this appeal was ridiculous, you’re penalized for wasting everyone’s time.”
Common Misconceptions
“The revoke penalty is automatic”: No. Sometimes there’s no penalty if the non-revoking side didn’t lose anything.
“You can take back any bid before the next person acts”: No. You can correct an inadvertent call in very limited circumstances, but you can’t just change your mind.
“If both sides agree, we can ignore the laws”: No. The laws protect everyone in the game, not just the players at your table. You can’t agree to break them.
“The director is punishing me”: No. The director is applying the laws. It’s not personal.
“I didn’t know the rule, so it shouldn’t count”: Ignorance isn’t an excuse. You’re responsible for knowing the basic laws.
Preventing Problems
Most infractions happen because of carelessness, not malice. Here’s how to avoid them:
Pay attention: Know whose turn it is. Watch what suit was led. Stay focused.
Slow down: Take a breath before pulling a card from your hand. Make sure it’s the one you intend to play.
Count your cards: After every trick, you should have one fewer card. If you have the same number, you revoked.
Arrange your hand: Keep suits separated. This makes it harder to revoke.
Ask questions: If you’re not sure what a bid means, ask. If you’re not sure what the ruling should be, call the director.
Why the Laws Matter
The laws exist to make the game fair. Without them, every irregularity would be a negotiation. Strong players would intimidate weak players. Home games would make up rules on the spot.
The laws protect everyone. They ensure that a mistake has defined consequences, not whatever your opponent decides. They give you recourse when something unfair happens.
Learn the common ones. Know when to call the director. Follow the procedures. The laws are there to help you, not to punish you.
And remember: everyone makes mistakes. You’ll revoke eventually. You’ll bid out of turn. You’ll make an insufficient bid. When it happens, don’t panic. Call the director, let them apply the law, and move on to the next hand. That’s what the laws are for.