Revoke in Bridge: Rules, Penalties and Examples

A revoke in bridge is a failure to follow suit when you hold a card of the suit led. If the revoke is noticed in time, you just correct it; once it is established, the director usually transfers one or two tricks to the other side at the end of play.

Everyone revokes sooner or later. A heart hides behind a diamond, or you pull the wrong card from a tired hand. The rule is not there to punish you; it is there to give the other side back what the mistake took away. This page explains the current rule (Laws 61 to 64 of the 2017 Laws of Duplicate Bridge), with worked examples and the cases where no tricks move at all.

The rule of the play is simple: if you can follow suit, you must. A revoke happens when a player:

• Discards or ruffs while still holding a card of the suit led, or
• Fails to play a card the laws require, such as a penalty card the player was obliged to play.

Revoking on purpose is cheating. Nearly every real revoke is an accident, and the laws treat it that way: no blame, just a trick adjustment.

Dummy cannot revoke in the usual sense, because declarer plays dummy's cards and they are face up for everyone to see. If declarer plays the wrong card from dummy, the revoke is corrected or handled by the director, but the automatic trick transfer does not apply.

When a player fails to follow suit, others at the table may ask if the player has none of the suit. The laws protect this question, because it is the cheapest way to stop a revoke before it becomes established.

The question is short: "No spades, partner?" or simply "Having none?" Many experienced pairs ask partner on every void, in a flat tone, so the question never carries a message.

If the revoke is noticed before it is established, it must be corrected:

1. The revoker withdraws the wrong card and plays a card of the suit led.
2. If the revoker is a defender, the withdrawn card becomes a major penalty card: it stays face up on the table and must be played at the first legal chance. The director explains the options this gives declarer.
3. If the revoker is declarer, the withdrawn card goes back into the hand with no penalty (declarer's cards carry no information to a partner).
4. Players of the other side who played to the trick after the revoke may take back their cards and play different ones. The revoker's partner may change a card played after the revoke only if the player on partner's right took a card back. If the revokers are the defenders, that withdrawn card also becomes a penalty card.

There is no trick transfer for a corrected revoke. The penalty card is the only cost.

A revoke becomes established, and can no longer be corrected, when the offending player or partner:

• Leads or plays to the next trick, or
• Names or otherwise designates a card for the next trick, or
• Makes or agrees to a claim or a concession.

So the window to correct a revoke closes when the revoker's side touches the next trick. Until then, the fix is simple. After that, the revoke stands, play continues with the cards as they are, and the director settles the tricks at the end.

There is one special case: a revoke on the twelfth trick must be corrected, even when established, if it is found before all four hands are returned to the board.

After play ends, the director applies Law 64A:

Tricks move only from tricks the revoker's side actually won on or after the revoke trick. Tricks they won earlier are never touched.

You are South in 4♠. On trick 6 you lead a diamond toward dummy's ♦K. West has one small diamond left but, sorting carelessly, discards a club. Dummy's ♦K wins the trick. You lead the next card from dummy and West plays to trick 7, so the revoke is established.

The play continues. The defenders win the ♠A and the ♥A later, and you finish with 9 tricks.

The revoker (West) did not win the revoke trick: dummy did. The defenders did win later tricks. So one trick is transferred: you are credited with 10 tricks, and 4♠ makes.

Same contract. This time you lead a heart and West, who still holds a heart, ruffs it with the ♠2 and wins the trick. West leads to the next trick, so the revoke is established. (A card from East to the next trick would have established it too: the rule covers the revoker's partner.)

The defenders take one more trick later. You finish with 8 tricks.

The revoker won the revoke trick, and the defending side won a later trick. So two tricks are transferred: the revoke trick plus one more. You are credited with 10 tricks, and 4♠ makes.

If the defenders had won no trick after the revoke trick, only the revoke trick itself would move.

Law 64B lists the cases where the automatic transfer does not apply:

1. The revoker's side won neither the revoke trick nor any later trick.
2. It is a second revoke in the same suit by the same player (only the first one counts for the transfer).
3. The revoke was a failure to play a card face up on the table, including a card from dummy or a penalty card on display.
4. Attention was first drawn to it after the non-offending side made a call on the next deal.
5. Attention was first drawn to it after the round ended.
6. Both sides revoked on the same deal, and both revokes were established.
7. It happened on the twelfth trick (it is corrected instead, as above).

No automatic transfer does not mean no remedy. In all these cases the director can still use the equity rule below.

The trick transfer is a standard fix. Sometimes it is not enough. If the revoke cost the non-offending side more than the tricks transferred, the director awards an adjusted score: the result the hand would most likely have had without the revoke.

A typical case: East revokes in diamonds early in a 6♥ contract. Because East kept the diamond, declarer misreads the count of the suit, takes the wrong line and goes two down. With the standard one-trick transfer declarer is still one down, but without the revoke declarer would have made the slam. The director gives declarer the slam.

The same law covers repeated revokes in the same suit (the director adjusts if the later ones also cost tricks) and the cases in the list above where no automatic transfer applies.

Rubber bridge has its own code, the Laws of Rubber Bridge, with a revoke rule close to the duplicate one: tricks move to the non-offending side when a revoke is established. In rubber bridge there is no director, so the players settle it themselves, and the rule is applied at the end of the hand.

Home games often use a simpler house rule, such as a flat two tricks for any established revoke. Either way is fine, as long as everyone at the table agrees on the rule before the first deal, not after the first revoke.

• Sort your hand with the colors alternating, so a black suit never sits next to a black suit. Most revokes are a club hiding among the spades or a diamond among the hearts.
• Count each suit when you pick up the hand, and again after a few tricks.
• Look at the card before you play it. Pull the card, look at it, then put it down.
• Ask partner "no spades?" every time partner shows out, in the same flat tone.
• Slow down when tired. Revokes come late in a session, not early.

Counting the cards also makes you a better player. In BridgeDummy's suit combination puzzles you play one suit card by card against the best defense, which trains exactly the habit of tracking every card in a suit.

For the full set of procedure rules, read the rules of bridge. If you want to learn the play of the cards from the start, how to play bridge and the beginner lesson on tricks are the place to begin.