Issuing Penalties

After any penalty is issued, the attending judge should explain the infraction to the players in the match, the recommended procedure for resolving the infraction, and the penalty applied. During any deviations from recommended procedures, the Head Judge is expected to explain the typically recommended penalty and procedures, the intended course of action, and the reason for deviating from the presented guidelines.

If multiple infractions related to an error are made and multiple penalties might be applied, only the most severe penalty should be applied.

Penalties should only be applied to the root cause of an infraction. As an example, if an error based on private knowledge occurred or originated from a game rule violation based on public information, the error would not be a Private Card Error but would instead be treated as a Game Rule Violation and penalized accordingly.

Judges may investigate whether players have received penalties for the same infraction over the course of the tournament and upgrade the penalty if deemed to be a fair punishment. Players may not lie to judges about previously received penalties during that tournament.

These procedures and recommended guidelines for managing infractions will offer corrective steps for the initial violation. It is recommended that judges do not deviate from these procedures and that Head Judges only deviate if absolutely necessary and in exceptional circumstances. This is to ensure that any corrective actions taken are standardized and fair for all players regardless of game state or other extenuating factors.