[barmar]

Any time that a the defenders could conceivably claim, declarer could presumably claim without showing his hand -- the bidding and play to that point has made everything obvious.

[bluejak]

phil_20686, on 2012-January-30, 16:33, said:

If declarer has claimed, he has by definition faced his cards, unless he is an Italian international, in which case he has gestured vaguely at dummy and put his cards back in the box. At least that is my experience

Not in my experience. Typically players hold their cards in the air in a very annoying fashion so that you can see about half their cards or fewer. If you ask to see their cards they look at you as though you have grown a second head and say "Huh?".



I don't understand the majority of posts here, so let me just tell you my views.

Declarer claims. At rubber bridge the defenders may require him to play on, and may show each other their hand, and object to declarer not following his statement. That does not actually give them the right to say "play a diamond" which earlier rubber Law books did, but showing partner a hand with no diamonds and a trump should be sufficient clue.

At duplicate the TD is called and play ceases. Since play has ceased players may talk to each other. Discussion of the hand is legitimate. There is nothing to stop one defender saying "Look, I have a diamond void" and his partner saying "Let's not accept the claim" and calling the TD.

It is similar with defender's claims though complicated by the fairly stupid Law about partner objecting to a concession.

[barmar]

bluejak, on 2012-February-03, 11:45, said:

Not in my experience. Typically players hold their cards in the air in a very annoying fashion so that you can see about half their cards or fewer. If you ask to see their cards they look at you as though you have grown a second head and say "Huh?".

I must be the luckiest bridge player around. I hear people say things like this, yet it practically never happens to me. Claimers show their cards, CC's are mostly filled in (unless they're a last-minute pick-up and didn't have time), players usually alert and announce when necessary (but novices aren't so good about this). There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part people seem to behave reasonably. Yet other posters seem to have the exact opposite experience, that reasonable is the exception rather than the rule. Is the Boston area really that much of a panacea in comparison?