[Zelandakh]

lamford, on 2015-March-24, 21:13, said:

Ace and another would never gain, as the person with Kx would just unblock, and dummy would be endplayed.

Given that declarer has already missed an unblocking play from their own hands, do you find it unreasonable that they might also miss one from the defenders? Calling that more careless than the previous one seems strange to me.

[lamford]

Zelandakh, on 2015-March-25, 06:57, said:

Given that declarer has already missed an unblocking play from their own hands, do you find it unreasonable that they might also miss one from the defenders? Calling that more careless than the previous one seems strange to me.

We have no evidence that he missed the earlier unblocking play, but we ruled that he would have done because he did not state it. I suppose that, to paraphrase Wilde, to miss one unblock may be regarded as a misfortune, to miss two unblocks looks like carelessness, so we should rule that he misses both and goes three off. That does not seem to tally with the requirement to adjudicate the claim as equitably as possible, however.