janeball

I got very excited when I saw the National Online event. This seemed an opportunity for less experienced players to win gold points. However National events are not stratified and the online one isn't either. It would take a lot of luck for less experienced players to win against the likes of Leo and Kenny. Can we have online Regional events? Gold Rush events at a Regional allow people with less than 750 points to compete for gold points against their peers. Something like this National online event but stratified would give all players a hope of gold points. I know that a club can run parallel to a regional and award gold points and I am looking into doing this. Now this National Online event opens up all sorts of possibilities.

National Online Tournament FAQ paragraph 7 I asked what was TP and the response I got from the help desk was 'HCP plus 3 for a void, 2 for a singleton and 1 for a doubleton' Isn't this what Goren taught? I have problems with it because modern beginner teaching does traditional HCP plus one point for every card more than 4 in a suit. This to me is much more sensible. What use is a void in your partner's suit? The help desk also said HCP was the traditional 4,3,2,1 with nothing about that extra point for every card over four. Are we really using Goren? That might explain some of my bidding problems. There were a couple of times last night where the robot having passed before decided to bid the opponents suit at the three level thereby guaranteeing I went down.

What ever the legal issues the most popular tournaments are timed. Can you imagine speedball when everything stops for the director to come and allow an undo. Some people already procrastinate in hope of getting a good board

What is wrong with leading your partners suit? Don't we teach that? I had 3 tricks off the top with declarer in 5S doubled and he leads an unbid suit from three to the seven. It is down if he leads my suit. It happens frequently. I just had to vent.

I understand that the person can play the the hands when the robot is declarer. Can you please add that function to the ACBL tournaments? To get 59% including a zero because of the way the robot played a hand is very frustrating. What happenned to 8 ever 9 never? The logic to decide to take the finesse instead of the drop is far to complex for the robots to handle.

I was doing quite well until board 12 and in 4th seat 3S P P dbl Isn't this take out in everybody's system? The robot had S:xx H:Axxx D:Qxxx C:JTx He passed and then he led a spade end of good round

Is it possible for Bar Hearts and Bar Spades to be added to the robots repetoire of conventions?

I accept that GIB will make one or two tricks less than I will. It is the bidding that frustrates me so much. It doesn't matter how well you play the cards when you are in the wrong contract. In one session tonight I made 3 good bids that GIb with no reason bid on and good boards became zeros. I made a competitive 3H bid and GIB decided to go down 4 in 3NT I made a good 4 heart bid with 4-4 in hearts and GIB decided that down one in 5C on 5-3 fit was better. He bid twice with a hand without enough strength to bid once.I can make my bid but he can't make his. That is 25% of the boards in one session.

Our real disaster when I look at it I realise was my mistake but: P P P 1NT P P 2C* 2D P 2S P P * one suited hand Surely after opening 1NT with no bid from my partner if I make a free bid at the 2 level I am promising a five card suit. Gib had 3 diamonds to the King and four spades to the King so why bid spades? For the second time tonight GIB is playing spades in a 4-2 fit.

My teacher - guymath is brilliant and he says I should have doubled rather than bid 3C.

I can go back and it says '4+C, 4+H 3-S 11+ total pts Exactly what I had, my hand is perfect for the 2H bid. S:J H:KQ983 D:K42 C:AKxx Aren't the robots JT of hearts just peachy? I had 15 points and I am red against white so I definitely had my bid, A simple suit preference that prefers a doubleton to a singleton would seem a simple rational choice to me.

Don't get me wrong I think the robots are great. Big blue beats humans at chess but a bridge program has not yet been developed that can beat a human. I know my problems are ones that can be fixed and in my opinion should be. Why would the robot assume that my minor is longer than my major? This is another example where the robot does not make a simple suit preference. There are many. The robot had 2 honours in the first bid suit. The second one is a recurring problem. Who ever bids KC is the captain and the robot should never over rule them at the six level. This is the rule in my human bridge partnerships. I don't think they would last very long if I went around 'correcting' my partner at the 6 level. I know there are 6 level bids that extend KC but does the robot recognise them? I have just reviewed the robot CC and according to that they play the basic 4NT - 5NT bids with the normal responses. The 6 level bids I use are not listed so I assumed they were not coded.

Playing in Robot tournament 6194 board 12 My rh robot opened 1NT, 1NT 2H* 2S P P 3C P P P *Hearts and a minor My partner robot had JT of hearts and a singleton club and left me in 3C Same session Board 4 I bid 4th suit forcing and my partner chose to play the fourth suit in a 3-3 fit at the 6 level instead of in a very makeable 4-4 fit in clubs. The opponents did not bid 1H 1S 2C 2D 3D 4NT 5H 6C 6D Given the difficulties of bidding 4NT with a minor suit I bypassed 4C because if the robot bid 5C there was no way I could do key card. It had bid two clubs and 6C is probably making. I realise this logic is harder to program than the first one it shouldn't be too tough if realperson bids 4NT key Card then they become the captain and should be allowed to place the contract at the 6 level and the robot should subsequently pass.

I have to vent because he did it again tonight. I placed a slam with a 7 card suit to the AKQ and he decided he would rather play it in his 4 card suit to the 9

To me 3C would be NMF and certainly the hand fits that explanation. I am not saying it helps with what to bid but it is a better description than the one you were given

I am never sure if I should open 1NT with a 5 card major. I know the robots don't but sometimes it works well sometimes it works badly. Today I decided I was too good for 1NT - opponents passing through out S:xx H:AKQxx D:K97 C:KQx 1H 1S 2NT 3D 3NT 6S 3NT is the perfect place to play this contract. The robot had S:KJxxx H:x D:AQxxx C:xx It has heard no support from me for spades, it is missing 2 aces and never checked, it never mentioned 5 diamonds only four. I had a good round going Do people do anything with these comments? Too often the robots go to six in this way when if they checked for aces they would find they are missing two.

#683 ACBL Board #6 The bidding went 2C x 2NT P 3H P 6NT Ofcourse a club was led and they took the first two tricks. The GIB declarer had JTx of clubs and dummy had Kx. By blasting to 6NT GIB completely ignored the double of 2C and took away any chance we had of finding our 4-4 fit in spades. As a general rule too frequently GIB bids 2NT over an opening 2C bid. This takes up too much room and puts the big hand on the table. Much better to bid 2D and see what the 2C opener has to say.