smerriman

Wow. Looks like just an outright bidding hole in the database where GIB doesn't know what to do and passes :( Without a diamond stopper to bid no trumps, it seems to think it requires 4 clubs to go back to clubs..

You can click on the bids to see what they mean. 5NT = even key cards and a void.

GIB's 2♣ bid is ridiculous, but you got into further trouble when you showed 4 spades :) Just keep bidding your diamonds?

GIB really doesn't understand cuebidding :( It doesn't play that 4♥ denies an ace, so 5 level bids are still only showing aces, thus it has no way of denying a king - so you basically have to completely ignore descriptions like that. As for the lack of double, well it's obviously silly, but when to double a slam isn't really something that can/should be done based on points rules which is all the free robots do. Best left to the advanced robots, who would easily get that right.

Points for bids like these are just automatically generated and not normally related to the actual hand (I think jdonn said they would have preferred not to always have to describe numbers of points, since in scenarios like these points are somewhat meaningless, but it was a requirement for some reason so high level bids normally just carry some arbitrary point constraint). Yeah, I know, but this seems to have been posted so many times recently (and see the topic title) that it was implied the first 999 times were just glitches and something else was expected to happen the 1000th time :) Once or twice seems enough to get the point! Though in saying that, pigpenz is right, this was meant to have been added, I forgot that..

No, it doesn't. The description says that 2NT shows the minors. 4NT shows nothing. GIB doesn't play 4NT takeouts - the simple solution is, stop bidding it!

West will have plenty of distribution points so doesn't necessarily need all the HCP to make up the 16 total. I think I'll go with leading a small trump and covering what East plays - that picks up a 0-4 split, and in other cases surely we have some sort of minor suit squeeze if needed.

Nope, the description really does show 4+ ♣, 3- ♥, 15-16 total points :/

[hv=http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?sn=smerriman&s=SAJ2HAQ4DQT5CQ952&wn=Robot&w=SKQ9876HK9853DC73&nn=Robot&n=ST54H2DJ6432CAKJ6&en=Robot&e=S3HJT76DAK987CT84&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=PPP1N(notrump%20opener.%20Could%20have%205M.%20--%202-5%20%21C%3B%202-5%20%21D%3B%202-5%20%21H%3B%202-5%20%21S%3B%2015-17%20HCP%3B%2018-%20total%20points)2D!(Cappelletti%20-%20majors%20--%205+%20%21H%3B%205+%20%21S%3B%2011-%20HCP%3B%2011-12%20total%20points)D(9%20HCP%3B%20likely%20stop%20in%20%21H%3B%20likely%20stop%20in%20%21S)2H(My%20better%20major%20--%203+%20%21H%3B%2010-%20total%20points)D(2-5%20%21C%3B%202-5%20%21D%3B%202-5%20%21H%3B%202-5%20%21S%3B%2015-17%20HCP%3B%2018-%20total%20points)P3D(4+%20%21D%3B%209%20HCP%3B%20likely%20stop%20in%20%21H%3B%20likely%20stop%20in%20%21S)P3N(2-5%20%21C%3B%202-5%20%21D%3B%202-4%20%21H%3B%202-4%20%21S%3B%2016-17%20HCP%3B%2018-%20total%20points%3B%20partial%20stop%20in%20%21H%3B%20partial%20stop%20in%20%21S)PPP&p=H5H2HTHQDTS9D2DKH6H4H3S4HJHAHKS5DQS8D3DAH7C2H9D4H8D6D7C5SKSTS3SA&c=8]400|300[/hv] GIB's double of 2♦ shows "a likely stopper in both spades and hearts", but doesn't appear to have either. Isn't this meant to be a penalty double (of the majors)?

According to GIB 3♣ can be made with just 11 points, so GIB only bids 3NT with extras. Perhaps with GIB it's best to force to game with 2♠ first; you'll get a 2NT response and can bid 3♣ if you feel like showing your clubs. Probably doesn't make much sense for GIB to play 2♣ as 8+ points and 3♣ with 11+ points, with neither bid described as having an upper bound.

(I assume by draw trumps you mean play the top 3, leaving the J with West). Well, I'm stumped. If clubs break 3-2, we just play clubs from the top and make 12 tricks. So I'm guessing we're meant to figure something out when West has 1 club. West therefore has 3 diamonds. So ruffing a diamond now (or after cashing 1 club) won't help; West will just ruff the second club and play a diamond or heart winner. Playing two top clubs doesn't work; West will again ruff and return a heart or diamond, after which we'll lose another club. Playing the club Ace, seeing the J or T drop from West, and then running the 9 doesn't help either; West can just discard a diamond and we're down 2 (even if he ruffs we're down 1). If we had kept the heart Ace, then that last line does work. But given that we didn't, I don't see anything other than hoping for a 3-2 break.

It's not speculative according to GIB (it bids the same way). If you're going to play at the 4 level regardless, 4♥ surely can't be the worst bid in the world though.

Also, if you're hosting a team match, make sure you tell people you've turned it off. Had people leave once (resulting in the match aborting) because they thought nobody was playing at the other table :(

Put +slow+ in the table description to triple the time limit.

In a BBO tournament, sure. When playing in the MBC, with unknown partners, I disagree and agree with the OP. Why risk ruining the board entirely by guessing, incorrectly, what form of Blackwood your partner plays? It's not like it will be a one-off; you guess wrong, your partner will probably leave the table, and you begin all over again with the next one. You can have some information in your profile (but then they might too - do you assume they're playing your profile? you're playing theirs?), but for casual MBC games, it's pointless trying to agree every convention in advance.

To be precise, GIB plays unusual vs unusual and is showing hearts - definitely not promising any spades: Constructive, 4th suit - 5+ ♥, 10+ total points That's the right bid. Was the second hand with advanced robots? I can't replicate either the 1♠ or the 4♠ bids with basic robots. Also, the description of the 1♠ bid definitely doesn't show 6-8 points. Do you have a link to the full hand?

That doesn't make any sense, since the hearts have already been played.. how many each player originally had is irrelevant. East had to discard something! After the 8 of spades is played, East has 8 vacant spades to West's 7, so the drop is 53.3%. Monte Carlo simulations will therefore prove the drop works out better - in the long run. But when it's close, that may need to be a very long run indeed. If you run 100 tests, the results will come out with the finesse leading over the drop about a quarter of the time. So GIB would get this right 3/4 of the time, but wrong 1/4 of the time. And I suspect much fewer simulations are run - if only 10, GIB would get it right only about 60% of the time. (And when I say get it wrong, I mean make the suboptimal play - basing the results on 100 simulations it would still make the contract ~51.6% of the time, just less than the 53.3% humans would.)

This was meant to be fixed with the last GIB upgrade according to http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/78116-pass-with-one-hand-open-with-the-other/page__view__findpost__p__944490 and http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/66702-gib-release-notes-updated-with-each-new-version/page__view__findpost__p__945231 . Seems they missed some cases.

I know you're from NZ too, but I'd still beg to differ.

Looks good to me. An alternative calculation is 4^13 / (52C13) which gives the same result. Edit - incidentally, I just discovered you posted this exact same thing 4 years ago.

This is one of those silly scenarios where GIB describes the responses as follows: 3♥: 4+♥, 20- total points 3♠: 4+♠, 20- total points 4♣: 4+♣, 20- total points Obviously, telling partner you have 20 or less total points isn't really that helpful. Why on earth it chooses 4♣ over 3♥, who knows. Incidentally, give GIB the same shape and no points (probably not possible on the auction, but anyway), it will bid 3♥. It will continue to bid 3♥ with 4 hearts and 5 clubs and no points. Yet it's not like 4♣ is showing points, since give it 5 clubs and 3 hearts and 0 points, and it will still bid 4♣ as expected. And just to cover all cases, swap the 6 of clubs for the 6 of spades in the original hand, and it will bid 3♥. So not like it thinks 3♥ is weak either. Overall, just nonsense.

Weird. Basic GIB bids 2♠ instead of 2♥. But also corrects 2♥ to 2♠ if it is bid. Sometimes the advanced robots seem worse than the basic ones.. must have fallen asleep while simulating hands.

Try typing: 5332 1nt site:bridgebase.com/forums/ into Google.

Yep. Throwing a diamond on the club King will then allow your line to work, with a double loser-on-loser play. Throwing a spade on the club King also works (and was the line I had figured out after analysis) - with the added twist that you now need to duck a diamond before making a single loser-on-loser play. Overall, I don't know whether this line is better than winning the spade Ace immediately and playing as others stated - but I thought that the club timing along with the loser-on-loser play (with a diamond duck) was pretty cool - and your double loser-on-loser play equally cool :) [hv=http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?sn=smerriman&s=SA762HAK654DAT8C2&wn=Robot&w=SKQJT3H92DQ9CQJT8&nn=Robot&n=S95HJT3D743CAK765&en=Robot&e=S84HQ87DKJ652C943&d=w&v=e&b=16&a=PPP1H(Major%20suit%20opening%20--%205+%20%21H%3B%2011-21%20HCP%3B%2012-22%20total%20points)1S(One-level%20overcall%20--%205+%20%21S%3B%208-11%20HCP%3B%209-12%20total%20points)2H(Free%20major%20raise%20--%203+%20%21H%3B%206-10%20total%20points)P4H(5+%20%21H%3B%2021-%20HCP%3B%2017-22%20total%20points)PPP]400|300[/hv]

Excellent, now we're on the right track :) East does have enough diamonds, but unfortunately also has 3 clubs. After you lead the third spade, East throws a club, then West returns another spade. You again can't ruff, so throw another diamond, East throwing another club. Now when West switches to a trump, you can ruff a diamond, but are then stuck in dummy - not able to cash both clubs without East ruffing. Can you improve that line?