[wuudturner]

 mycroft, on 2020-November-05, 14:04, said:

Pass-pass-pass, face-down lead, "any questions?"

Many years ago, partner's response after my face down lead was "Yes, what makes you think it is your lead?"

[mycroft]

I can ask "did 3♥ deny spades?" or "the blackwood response shows 1 or 4?", but not "what did he bid after 2NT" or "which minor suit did he show/bid?"

Anything you need explained about what we did or didn't do, you can ask. What the calls were? You can't.

I'm allowed to tell you in answer to "what did declarer show?" "12-14, no interest in a mild diamond slam try"; you're not entitled to "1NT-2♣!;2♦!-3NT".

[mycroft]

 wuudturner, on 2020-November-11, 18:44, said:

Many years ago, partner's response after my face down lead was "Yes, what makes you think it is your lead?"

I usually phrase that as: "My partner's most common question is 'Why [] are you leading, partner?'. What goes in the brackets depends strongly on how well we know our opponents and where and when the game is being held."

As a Director, it's still my favourite question, because dealing with the fallout of that is much faster than if it were face up/the question wasn't asked...

[ekspres]

 arepo24, on 2020-November-05, 10:47, said:

Someone mentioned that you were legally permitted to ask the opposition "what did you mean by 'such and such bid?'" after the bidding was over but before play of hand has begun.
I always thought that you must ask that question at your turn while the bidding was taking place and not after it was over.

Another question is: Are you, on BBO, playing in "first available seat", permitted dt ask partner "what do you mean by your bid?". Partners are supposed to understand each other.

[mycroft]

Legally? No. You're supposed to take 5 minutes to work out your card before starting.

In actual play? nobody's willing to wait 5 minutes every 3, 4 hands. So the default is "allow them to make a base case - "your profile, pard?" and then "allow" pickup pairs to talk, or even ask.

As far as I am concerned, pairs that don't allow for a discussion before play for pickups and also don't allow "what keycard are we playing?" or "What's our defence to NT?" during play when it comes up, are pairs that can find yet another opponent.