The Case of The Missing Heart
Editors note — pertinent comments
Alec McQueen July2026
An interesting scenario occurred recently, and I would love to get some feedback from people on what I should have done.
We were playing the board below, and E ended up in 3S. I was sitting in N, and had bid Hs during the bidding. So my partner knew to lead a H, and the 8H was led. As you can see, I had very nice Hs indeed: all the honours down to the J. Dummy came down and had 4 Hs. Calculation time: I can now see 10 hearts (5 in my hand, 4 in dummy, and 1 on the table from partner). So they could split 2/2 and I could make 2 H tricks, and maybe a ruff. Or if partner has only 1 then we will get 3 tricks and perhaps a ruff as well.
Dummy plays low, I play the J, and declarer plays low. All good. Time to see who’s got what. I put the A down, declarer plays the 10H, and then partner discards the 2D. OK, the split was 3/1: declarer’s got 3. So I can take 3 H tricks off the top and then maybe partner can ruff the 4th if declarer doesn’t ruff high enough. Looking good.
So I play my K next expecting another round of Hs with a discard by partner. But no, declarer trumps with the 6S. And then partner quickly overtrumps with the 7S. Declarer calls for another low H from dummy.
I leave my K face up while I process what’s just happened. The others have turned their cards over and partner has already made the next lead… I said: “Errr sorry, I want to see those cards again please.” All the cards from the 3rd H trick get turned over and I think hard. Really hard. I mean REALLY hard.
Thinking… I’ve seen one round of 4, another of 3 (partner discarded the 2D), and I can see 2 in dummy, and I have 3. That’s 12. Where on earth has the other one gone???? My thought process was: declarer must have revoked. I will need to watch her play very very carefully. I say thank you and turn my K over very slowly. Partner leads her next card, and we proceed. At some point in the play I win the lead. I don’t really have a great lead to make, so I lead my QH… declarer trumps (obviously), and partner plays the 6H.
Oh cripes, partner had the Missing Heart! It wasn’t declarer who revoked, it was us!! I glance at partner who mouths… sorry. But neither declarer nor dummy have noticed. We proceed with the play, and we get them 2 off, making 7.
At the end of the hand my partner immediately turns to declarer and says: I am sorry, I revoked during that. I say: we should call the Director, which we do. Scenario explained to Director, and he explains that we have a 2 trick penalty… so they make their 3S contract, a very fair outcome IMHO.
So, this leaves me with questions:
- What should I have done at the end of the 3rd trick when I was almost certain someone had not followed suit? Should I say something? Should I just proceed? Should I call the Director?
- Should we have called the Director as soon as we discovered the revoke when partner played the 6H?
- Should we have declared the revoke to the opposition as soon as it became clear that we had?
- Were we right to declare the revoke at the end given that we hadn’t when we discovered it, and the opposition had not spotted it? My view of this is a strong YES!
- Did I break etiquette by glancing at my partner when I discovered the Missing Heart?
All your answers are very very welcome, along with any appropriate scolding, disgust, or derision you see fit. A jail term I will view as excessive.
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