Antrax

GIB doesn't play by human rules like returning the suit led or leading your longest and strongest. Because of the way it's built it tends to prefer passive leads over active leads. In this case it blew two overtricks, but that's not always the case.

Weird; I was just taught "a hand that refuses to play 3♣" with the example being a strong 4=4=4=1

Can't you just break the transfer with 3♥? I think that shows less than the cue bid.

I have a lot of experience with this type of issues, having ran other forums in the past. The best solution was to use a simple quiz similar to what Vampyr was suggesting. How many different suits exist or how many cards in the deck, trivial for a human but require customized bot scripts to defeat which is normally not worth the operator's time. I just asked both communities to come up with questions, it's a lot less annoying for humans than captchas are and more difficult for bots to defeat due to reliance on specialized knowledge (in this case, Bridge). Barring that, just de-standardizing your registration form often helps. Give all the form fields random names and move them around a bit, and if you want to feel extra safe you can change the prompts tot - instead of "Username" use "Nickname", etc. That again requires customization of the bot to BBO specifically, which goes against what bot operators aim for. It takes them a while to notice the bots fail on BBO and then when they adjust you can shift everything around again. The down side to the second approach is that it can screw Google Analytics, which also relies on form fields having some logical names.

2♠ for me is a natural as though there was no double (be warned, for GIB it might be a cue bid) so no problem yet. Why not just fast-forward to the hard part of the auction?

Presumably his dad threw him out of the house afterwards.

1♦? Not really seeing the issue. Did it AP on you?

Not quite. Cascade didn't say you should bid 2♥; He said that IF you evaluate your hand as strong enough for 3♦, then it's also strong enough for 2♥, and 2♥ is more descriptive.

Dunno, better ask South. Do you really not understand how GIB works? Or do you expect BBO to herald a new age in computer AI?

I don't understand why context matters. The hand I showed makes 6♣ cold. GIB knows that's what you're holding, because that's what the bid told it. Why on earth would GIB not bid the slam?

Dunno. I just read "no ♠AK, 21+ TP" in the 5♣ description.

Opposite ♠QJ ♥AKQJ ♦A ♣KQJ which is the hand you promised with your 5♣ bid more or less, North's spade singleton is what you're missing to bid 6.

I'm... I'm not sure how to feel just now.

As an aside, I wrote a Greasemonkey script to hide signatures on this forum. If anyone's interested, it's below (in spoiler tags to not stretch the page too much). If you only want to remove signatures (and not the "interests" field under a poster's name) just comment out or delete the last line (RemoveInterests())

For GIB 1NT-3M shows 1345 hand with minors 4-5 either way.

W never ruffed. When the deal was actually played I led a trump to W's queen after ruffing two hearts and eliminating clubs, and found out E started life with ♥KQTxxx and out so the play was both useful and necessary. A human would open 2♥ with the E hand but GIB counted only five beans.

N has ♠KQxx and four lousy hearts, so you'd end up in 3NT after a spade splinter.

[hv=pc=n&s=s762hj5da743ckqj7&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1dp1hdp1npp]133|200[/hv] In the diagram position, 2♣ is artificial, showing 3+♦, 4+♥, 19-22 TP and forcing to 2♥. Why?

Alright, this is what I thought. About a quarter of the people who've played the hand on BBO just blasted 3NT and were rewarded (4♥ goes 2 off, 3NT makes on the nose) and I was wondering if there's some principle here I'm missing. It's not even hand-hogging as GIB would play either final contract.

Yep. There's no reason not to lose the trump then. At worst, W has a heart left and you fall back on the ♦ finesse.

That's almost the line I had in mind, very nice. W indeed has a singleton club but after you ruff all your hearts and run clubs he just pitches diamonds on them. So now you're here: [hv=pc=n&s=s6hdaq2c&n=sj7hdt7c&d=e&v=n&b=2]130|200[/hv] With the lead in north.

[hv=pc=n&s=s6h6543dkj93caqjt]133|100[/hv] IMPS, all vul. Partner deals and opens 1NT (15-17). Stayman or blast 3NT?

[hv=pc=n&s=sak6h432daq2ckqj2&n=sj75432hadt7ca543&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=p2n(Hogging%20the%20hand)p4h(Transfer%20to%20%21S)d(Lead%20%21H%20please)4sp5c(I%20have%20%21CA)p5d(Well%20I%20have%20the%20%21DA)p5h(I%20got%20%21HA.%20Slam%3F)p6s(Slam)ppp]266|200[/hv] W leads the ♣6, E follows. Over the course of drawing trumps you find out The opponents are bean counters with no defensive signalling (in other words, this is a tweaked hand played against GIB)

Ha, he's got you there, fromageGB. I can't believe that didn't occur to you when you made your post.

Nothing, unfortunately. The description is identical to 2♥, except now you're a level higher. Neither sets trump - it's currently impossible to set trumps in GIBberish after a 2♣ opener.