[blml] claim

[Alain Gottcheiner]

At 00:26 6/07/2006 -0400, Ed Reppert wrote:

>No? Suppose he thought they wouldn't be a problem because they were
>breaking 4-2 or 3-3?

One doesn't claim just because one merely thinks cards are dealt in a 
certain way. One does because one knows all problems of the deal are 
solved. Claiming is the same as saying "I'm 100% certain where my tricks 
are coming from".
Here, declarer knows he has all tricks from the spade suit. Except that he 
hasn't, of course.

Look at the timing of the claim. He claimed after testing spades once. This 
means he thought that "now each defender has followed suit, spades can't be 
badly breaking anymore".

I saw it at an exam for the title of local TD : if you have 8 trumps, pull 
2 rounds and everyone follows twice, and then you claim, it means you're 
conscious that, now, trumps can't be breaking badly, so the fact that you 
don't state there is an outstanding trump isn't a problem. You're supposed 
to pull a third round. However, if you pull 1 round, play on another suit 
and then claim, you're supposed to have forgotten there is a trump at large.

Regards

    Alain