CoreyCole

I ran into a similar situation today. [hv=pc=n&s=skq8hakq52dt5cak2&n=s92h3d6432cqj9754&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=pp2cp2dp2hp3cp]266|200[/hv] I thought about bidding 3♥, but mouseover showed this would show something like 29 points. Finally I settled on 3. As I clicked on it, I saw to my horror that it showed at least 4 diamonds - I thought it was an artificial waiting bid, since BBO showed 3♣ as "forcing to 3♥". The robot jumped to 5♦, not a big success. (Down 6 for -600). The "correct" contract is probably 3NT, hoping opponents don't reel off 4 diamond tricks and the spade Ace to start. Clearly BBO needs to define what it means by "cheaper minor". It obviously isn't the very weak 2nd negative most of us expect. Had I realized that 3♣ showed a real suit, I could have raised it. Although I'm not at all sure it is a real suit, it appears that way in this deal and in OP.

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?sn=CoreyCole&s=SAQT32HAKQT985DKC&wn=Robot&w=S765H2DAQJT6CKQT6&nn=Robot&n=SJ84HJ6D2CJ987542&en=Robot&e=SK9H743D987543CA3&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=PP2C(Strong%20two%20club%20--%2019+%20HCP%3B%2023+%20total%20po)P2D(2D%20bid%20waiting%20--%2011-%20HCP%3B%2012-%20total%20points%3B%20forcing%20to%202N)P2H(Opener%27s%20suit%20--%205+%20H%3B%2019+%20HCP%3B%2023+%20tota)D(Takeout%20double%20--%203+%20C%3B%203+%20D%3B%202-%20H%3B%203+%20S%3B%2014+%20total%20points)3C(4+%20C%3B%202-%20H%3B%2011-%20HCP%3B%202-12%20total%20points%3B%20forcing%20to%203H)3D(5+%20D%3B%2011-%20HCP%3B%207-12%20total%20points)3S(4+%20C%3B%205+%20H%3B%2029+%20total%20points)P5C(4+%20C%3B%202-%20H%3B%2011-%20HCP%3B%203-%208421%20HCP%20in%20C%3B%204-12%20total%20points)5D(5+%20D%3B%2011-%20HCP%3B%207-12%20total%20points)5S(Cue%20bid%20--%204+%20C%3B%205+%20H%3B%207-%208421%20HCP%20in%20H%3B)P6C(4+%20C%3B%202-%20H%3B%2011-%20HCP%3B%203-%208421%20HCP%20in%20C%3B%204-12%20total%20points)P6H(4+%20C%3B%205+%20H%3B%207-%208421%20HCP%20in%20H%3B%208+%208421%20HC)P7C(4+%20C%3B%202-%20H%3B%2011-%20HCP%3B%203-%208421%20HCP%20in%20C%3B%209-12%20total%20points)PPP&p=H2HJH3H5SJSKSAS5HAC6H6H7DAD2D9DKS7S8S9STSQS6S4C3H4HKD6C2C8CAS2CTD7H8DTC4C7D8S3CQDQC5D4H9C9D5HTCKDJCJD3HQ I've had three occasions now when a BBO robot repeatedly bid its weak 7-card suit after I showed a powerful one- or two-suited hand. In the above diagram, as I showed a slam-level major two-suiter, the robot proceeded to bid 3♣, 5♣, 6♣, and finally 7♣ on a 7-card suit headed by the J987 with just two other Jacks in the hand. Highly uncooperative, particularly considering doubleton Jack support for my first bid suit. I think I should have jumped to 6♥ rather than bidding 5♠ in the auction, but there is no way the robot should have called 6♣ over the 5♠ bid or 7♣ over my 6♥ correction.

On two or three occasions in the last month, I have been delicately searching for the best contract, only to have the robot jump directly to 6NT with a clearly inappropriate hand. For example, yesterday the robot had Q1052 / AQ63 / KQ532 / VOID and I had A7 / J98 / A94 / AKQ54. The auction (I dealt) went 1C - 1D - 2NT - 3H - 3NT - 6NT. While the robot can rightfully get excited about my 2NT call with his distributional hand, 3NT is a signoff suggesting a misfit. If the robot is going to jump to slam, the call should be 6D, showing an extremely distributional hand, rather than 6NT. But 4D (clearly forcing) is probably better, as it gives me a chance to show delayed support for one of his suits. 6NT is unilateral and can't be right. The only pairs to play this in 3NT lied about their points by rebidding 1NT over 1D, a terrible call in my opinion. In general, I find that the robots regularly count distributional points in No Trump auctions. This seems like an evaluation error. You can add some long suit points for No Trump, but the robots should also deduct for very short suits (singletons and voids) to end up with a more reasonable total. We could easily have been off two Aces - and possibly a runnable club suit - on the auction I gave.

In a tournament the other day, the auction went 3C on my right, Dbl by me, all Pass. I expected to find my partner with a club stack, but here were the actual hands: 9 8 7 5 3 Q 9 6 5 6 3 A 6 K 10 6 4 10 8 7 A 4 Q J 9 7 5 4 K Q J 7 K 10 9 8 5 4 2 A Q J 2 K J 3 2 A 10 8 2 3 Why would North pass the double with that hand instead of responding 3S with his 5-card suit? I have had this happen on at least two previous occasions. This time I took the time to record all four hands to I could report it. The occasion was an ACBL MP robot duplicate tournament.

Prior to the USA1 / USA2 challenge match, you posted a contest in which one could guess the winner and win BBO$10. As it happens, I guessed correctly, but I have not received the BBO$. There was also a side competition for the "best post". Where can we find the winners of the side competition, and how (or when) can the players who voted for USA2 get credit for the 10 BBO$?