Card rules · 2026-10-29
What a Provisional Result Actually Means
A provisional result is a displayed result whose status is not yet final under the applicable procedure. It should not be rewritten as either “confirmed” or “cancelled”.
A provisional result is a displayed result whose status is not yet final under the applicable procedure. It should not be rewritten as either “confirmed” or “cancelled”.
Separate the value from its status
Imagine a practice-hand record showing a score of 8 with a pending label. Later the same record shows 8 and confirmed. The score did not change; its confirmation status did. A review that reports “the score increased” would misdescribe the evidence.
Another record might change from pending to withdrawn. That transition should be recorded, but it does not reveal the reason by itself. It would be unjustified to invent a cheating finding, a calculation error or a technical failure without supporting information.
Which consequence is waiting?
The rules should identify what depends on confirmation: inclusion in a table, finalisation of the hand or another specified outcome. An animation celebrating a number is not a substitute for this condition. Nor does the passage of a few minutes prove that a pending entry has become final.
A later entry is comparable only when it belongs to the same hand. Keep the hand identifier beside the score and status: a confirmed eight and a pending eight can describe the same result at different stages, rather than two separate scores.
A correction can affect status without changing points
Keep one row for the original entry and another for its later state, joined by the same hand identifier. If a list previously omitted pending entries, confirmation may make the eight points appear in its total. That is inclusion of an existing result, not evidence that a second eight-point hand occurred. Check the identifier before adding both rows.