Ruling — Bridge

You asked

How do I play?

Abstained — no grounded answer; closest passages below counted as honest abstain

Asked with: Bridgebg-2181-en-1e

I looked through Bridge's rulebook and couldn't find a solid answer to that one — and I'd rather tell you so than guess at your table. Try asking it another way, or ask me about setup, turns, or how the game ends: those I know cold.

The closest rulebook passages are below — check them before ruling.

RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook · p.35 · A. Placement of Board · B. Removal of Cards from Board · C. Returning Cards to Board · D. Responsibility for Procedures

When a board is to be played it is placed in the center of the table where it shall remain, correctly oriented, until play is completed. Each player takes a hand from the pocket corresponding to his compass position. Each player counts his cards face down to be sure he has exactly thirteen; after th

RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook · p.43 · B. Discovered during the Auction or Play · C. Surplus Card · D. Play Completed · A. Hand Found Deficient before Play Commences

If the Director judges that the deal can be corrected and played, then the deal may be so played with no change of call. At the end of play the Director may award an adjusted score. Otherwise when a call has been made with an incorrect number of cards, the Director shall award an adjusted score [see

RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook · p.53 · F. Explanation of Calls

on the instruction of the Director , replies should be given by the partner of the player who made the call in question. The partner of a player who asks a question may not ask a supplementary question until his turn to call or play. Law 16 may apply and the Regulating Authority may establish regula

RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook · p.36 · A. Movement of Boards and Players · B. End of Round · C. End of Last Round and End of Session · A. Drawing Attention to an Irregularity

The Director instructs the players as to the proper movement of boards and progression of contestants. Unless the Director instructs otherwise, the North player at each table is responsible for moving the boards just completed at his table to the proper table for the following round. In general, a r

RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook · p.46 · A. Players' Use of Information · B. Extraneous Information from Partner

A player may use information in the auction or play if: (a) it derives from the legal calls and plays of the current board (including illegal calls and plays that are accepted) and is unaffected by unauthorized information from another source; or (b) it is authorized information from a withdrawn act

🔧 debug — where this ruling came from

outcome

ABSTAINED — Abstained — no grounded answer; closest passages below

warm abstain

this ruling — W1 — generic warm abstain · receipt: none (generic)

corpus profile

live,vps

answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only)

gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70

timings

search 93 ms · ask 2608 ms · total 2702 ms

single-flight (PR-5)

queued 0 ms · generation 2702 ms

retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read

[{"page": 35, "score": 0.048412, "snippet": "When a board is to be played it is placed in the center of the table where it shall remain, correctly oriented, until play is completed. Each player takes a hand from the pocket corresponding to his compass position. Each player counts his cards face down to be sure he has exactly thirteen; after th", "headingPath": "A. Placement of Board · B. Removal of Cards from Board · C. Returning Cards to Board · D. Responsibility for Procedures", "sharpsignalDocId": 170}, {"page": 43, "score": 0.046244, "snippet": "If the Director judges that the deal can be corrected and played, then the deal may be so played with no change of call. At the end of play the Director may award an adjusted score. Otherwise when a call has been made with an incorrect number of cards, the Director shall award an adjusted score [see", "headingPath": "B. Discovered during the Auction or Play · C. Surplus Card · D. Play Completed · A. Hand Found Deficient before Play Commences", "sharpsignalDocId": 170}, {"page": 53, "score": 0.045921, "snippet": "on the instruction of the Director , replies should be given by the partner of the player who made the call in question. The partner of a player who asks a question may not ask a supplementary question until his turn to call or play. Law 16 may apply and the Regulating Authority may establish regula", "headingPath": "F. Explanation of Calls", "sharpsignalDocId": 170}, {"page": 36, "score": 0.045743, "snippet": "The Director instructs the players as to the proper movement of boards and progression of contestants. Unless the Director instructs otherwise, the North player at each table is responsible for moving the boards just completed at his table to the proper table for the following round. In general, a r", "headingPath": "A. Movement of Boards and Players · B. End of Round · C. End of Last Round and End of Session · A. Drawing Attention to an Irregularity", "sharpsignalDocId": 170}, {"page": 46, "score": 0.045688, "snippet": "A player may use information in the auction or play if: (a) it derives from the legal calls and plays of the current board (including illegal calls and plays that are accepted) and is unaffected by unauthorized information from another source; or (b) it is authorized information from a withdrawn act", "headingPath": "A. Players' Use of Information · B. Extraneous Information from Partner", "sharpsignalDocId": 170}, {"page": 33, "score": 0.044733, "snippet": "Players change their initial compass direction or proceed to another table in accordance with the Director's instructions. The Director is responsible for clear announcement of instructions; each player is responsible for moving when and as directed and for occupying the correct seat after each chan", "headingPath": "B. Change of Direction or Table · A. The Shuffle · B. The Deal · C. Representation of Both Pairs · D. New Shuffle and Redeal", "sharpsignalDocId": 170}, {"page": 32, "score": 0.043752, "snippet": "The same sequence is repeated for Boards 17-32 and for each subsequent group of 16 boards. No board that fails to conform to these conditions should be used. If such board is used, however, the conditions marked on it apply for that session. Four players play at each table, and tables are numbered i", "headingPath": "LAW 2 THE DUPLICATE BOARDS · LAW 3 ARRANGEMENT OF TABLES · LAW 4 PARTNERSHIPS · A. Initial Position", "sharpsignalDocId": 170}, {"page": 54, "score": 0.04257, "snippet": "(b) The player must call the Director and inform his opponents that, in his opinion, his partner's explanation was erroneous (see Law 75B) but only at his first legal opportunity, which is: (i) for a defender, at the end of the play. (ii) for declarer or dummy, after the final pass of the auction. I", "headingPath": "F. Explanation of Calls · G. Incorrect Procedure · A. Call or Play Based on Player's Own Misunderstanding · B. Call Based on Misinformation from an Opponent", "sharpsignalDocId": 170}]

citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show

[]

boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)

no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 170 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true

base rulebook doc 170 boosted

answered-before recall

no past answered ruling for this game matched closely enough

similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)

debug row recorded

Sep 5, 2026 12:11 UTC

retrieval — what the passage search returned

what this block IS: the PASSAGE SEARCH's own results — the same search that fills this page's closest-passages list — and NOT the passages the answerer read. Answering runs its OWN retrieval: a far wider candidate pool, re-ranked down to a final handful, plus floors this search never applies — the base rulebook, surviving errata corrections, and one slot per book on a multi-book read. Each of those armed only if THIS ask sent what it needs: the boost block names the ids it forwarded, and the scope line names the books it read. A document the answer CITES that no row here names is therefore EXPECTED, not a defect: two searches, two candidate pools, two orders. The answerer's own final rows are shown in their own block below, beside these and never mixed into them.

score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. This ruling ran the THREE-ARM fuse (full-text + vector + the doc-priority boost arm, which carried the base rulebook and/or the errata corrections this query matched), whose arithmetic ceiling is 0.04918 — all three arms ranking the same chunk #1 (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60). The measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 was measured on TWO-arm asks and does not bound this one: its high end is the two-arm ceiling, and a third arm has room above it. A chunk only one arm ranked highly lands near 0.016 (that one arm's #1 vote), so 0.03 here is an excellent hit, not a 3% match.

per-arm ranks (the rank each search arm gave a chunk): NOT DISCLOSED by the gateway. Fusion happens gateway-side and only the FUSED score crosses the wire, so rulesage cannot show them without a gateway change. The rank column below is the FUSED rank (position in the returned list), which is real.

token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.

fused rank	document	heading	page	fused RRF score	snippet chars
#1	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	A. Placement of Board · B. Removal of Cards from Board · C. Returning Cards to Board · D. Responsibility for Procedures	p.35	0.048412 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#2	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	B. Discovered during the Auction or Play · C. Surplus Card · D. Play Completed · A. Hand Found Deficient before Play Commences	p.43	0.046244 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#3	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	F. Explanation of Calls	p.53	0.045921 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#4	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	A. Movement of Boards and Players · B. End of Round · C. End of Last Round and End of Session · A. Drawing Attention to an Irregularity	p.36	0.045743 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#5	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	A. Players' Use of Information · B. Extraneous Information from Partner	p.46	0.045688 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#6	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	B. Change of Direction or Table · A. The Shuffle · B. The Deal · C. Representation of Both Pairs · D. New Shuffle and Redeal	p.33	0.044733 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#7	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	LAW 2 THE DUPLICATE BOARDS · LAW 3 ARRANGEMENT OF TABLES · LAW 4 PARTNERSHIPS · A. Initial Position	p.32	0.043752 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#8	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	F. Explanation of Calls · G. Incorrect Procedure · A. Call or Play Based on Player's Own Misunderstanding · B. Call Based on Misinformation from an Opponent	p.54	0.04257 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300

what the answerer read — the passages it actually had in front of it

what this block IS: the passages the ANSWERING read put in front of the answerer, in the order it read them — the other half of the two reads described above, and the one that decides what the answer could possibly say. Each row names the book it came from and where in that book it sits, what it scored when the search arms were fused, which arm carried it there, and whether the re-ranker chose it or a floor guaranteed it a slot. A row here that no passage-search row names is EXPECTED: a far wider pool, re-ranked, with floors the passage search never applies.

candidate pool: the answering read scored 49 passages, out of a ceiling of 80 set gateway-side. Both figures are reported by the gateway for THIS ask — measurements of what actually happened, not constants read out of anyone's source and printed here on faith.

floors armed for this ask: the base rulebook — armed · surviving errata corrections — not armed · one slot per book on a multi-book read — not armed. Every floor is stated on every ask, armed or not, so a floor that did not apply here is never mistaken for one this app does not know about.

arms fused for this ask: vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm. Stated separately from the rows because an arm that ran and carried nothing is a different fact from an arm that never ran.

read at	document	heading	page	fused rank	fused RRF score	carried by	how it got its slot
#1	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	A. Placement of Board · B. Removal of Cards from Board · C. Returning Cards to Board · D. Responsibility for Procedures	p.35	#1	0.048412 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	B. Change of Direction or Table · A. The Shuffle · B. The Deal · C. Representation of Both Pairs · D. New Shuffle and Redeal	p.33	#6	0.044733 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#3	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	A. Movement of Boards and Players · B. End of Round · C. End of Last Round and End of Session · A. Drawing Attention to an Irregularity	p.36	#4	0.045743 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#4	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	A. Players' Use of Information · B. Extraneous Information from Partner	p.46	#5	0.045688 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	B. Discovered during the Auction or Play · C. Surplus Card · D. Play Completed · A. Hand Found Deficient before Play Commences	p.43	#2	0.046244 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	Definitions	p.29	#11	0.028778 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text	the re-ranker chose it
#7	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	F. Explanation of Calls · G. Incorrect Procedure · A. Call or Play Based on Player's Own Misunderstanding · B. Call Based on Misinformation from an Opponent	p.54	#8	0.04257 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK Bridge — Rulebook (corpus doc 170)	F. Explanation of Calls	p.53	#3	0.045921 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 93 ms · first delta 2598 ms · total 2702 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 0 ms · retrieval 93 ms · ask 2608 ms · gateway work 2702 ms · total 2702 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 2648
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 9
tok/sec: 187.5 tok/sec — 9 output tokens in 0.048 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 29s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 8s ago)
answerer node (the seat proxy's own header — this probe, not this ask): node1
stream path: streamed — the gateway pushed at least one accumulated draft
watchdog: first-token watchdog: 30s per arming window (rulesage.table.first-token-watchdog-seconds), re-armed once by the passages frame — so the worst case before a reader falls back to polling is 60s. Whether it actually fired is a BROWSER-side decision that never reaches the server, so it is not recorded here. The stream path above is the server's half of that story: whether a delta was emitted at all.
num_ctx · think posture: both are the CHILD's settings, not rulesage's, and no ask reply carries them — an answer never states which context window or think posture produced it. The live-seat line above reads them from the running child instead, where the gateway can answer for itself; it describes the child NOW, not this ask.

disposition

outcome: ABSTAINED — Abstained — no grounded answer; closest passages below
abstain rationale: I don't have enough information.
BOILERPLATE, not reasoning: this is the answerer's fixed abstention phrase, the same sentence it emits whenever it declines. It records THAT the answerer declined and never why — no per-ruling reason was captured, because none was sent. Hostile corpus/LLM text, rendered escaped

setup-shape — why the checklist band did or didn't render

decision: NOT_SETUP_SHAPED — no setup-shape pattern matched this question

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 93), so "no registered errata card matched" above could never have matched one

Errata scope: the gate above matched this ruling's own edition only. When an ask also reads an expansion, that expansion's own registered errata cards stay outside the match — a stated phase-1 limitation, not a failed lookup.