Subject: Penalties for Rules Violations Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 13:52:27 -0400 (EDT) From: John Edward Slaughter To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Several points: 1. The penalty for drawing an extra card at the beginning of the duel (i.e., in the opening hand, such as accidentally drawing a 7th card after having mulliganed) should be a warning wtih a random card reshuffled into the deck, so long as it is noticed immediately. 95% of draws are for 7 cards at the beginning so it is a very easy mistake to make, and if noticed immediately, it can be easily fixed and evidently not be a matter of cheating. In PT-NY, I mulliganed against Tony Tsai, drew 7 cards, which he & I immediately realized. A judge was called over, I got a warning, a card was shuffled back in, and play went on. No big deal as long as play hasn't begun; this is easily rectified and should not be overly penalized. 2. Referring specifically to "Boogie's" message, just because you have an extra card does not mean you should get a match loss. I have a friend (very honest) who had an additional card than his opponent, that he likely did not draw (i.e., his opponent likely underdrew). My friend was winning for several turns, and just before he won, his opponent called a judge over a card discrepancy. A match loss for this would mean that all a person would need to do would be to underdraw once in a match, claim the other person drew an extra card, and get a match win. Ridiculous. It is important for the severity of penalties to be reasonable based on the infraction, including the nature of the infraction, the likelihood it could be due to cheating, and the ability for the act to be remedied. Slaughter, Esq.