[blml] claim

[Adam Beneschan]

Alain wrote:
 
> 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".

That's true if the "one" in your sentence is me.  But I'm especially
careful about claims.  Many players are not.  I've seen plenty of
claims where declarers just assume that the key suit won't break 4-0
because they didn't think of that possibility.

(In fact, the reason I'm especially careful about claims is that I
made a bad one in Seattle in 1993.  The low-intermediate players I
played against didn't notice there was anything wrong with the claim,
and they accepted it.  But I realized halfway into the next round that
all the problems hadn't been solved, and that there were possible
layouts that would make my claim unsuccessful.  I resolved after that
never to claim until I was 100% sure there were no more problems.)

I'm not saying Ed is right about what this declarer thought.  But from
my experience, it's a definite possibility.

                                -- Adam