smerriman

You'll need to post a link to the hand you're talking about.

I don't know about others, but I'm perfectly happy to be left in 1♣ or 1♦. If partner can't come up with a single response (and they normally would on borderline hands), that means the opponents have the majority of the points - if they can't find a way to enter the bidding, even going down by a few can still result in a good score.

Congrats :)

The last paragraph here sounds like what you want: http://www.bridgebase.com/help/v2help/how-to-start-teaching-table.html

Ha. So it does. No idea how I missed that all of the times in the past, and when checking and double checking before replying here :/ Have used the free north/south robots so many times too.

Odd - I only use the desktop version. If you select Bidding Table, you're asked to choose "Opponents' bidding" from either "Pass throughout" or "Controlled by host" - in neither case can I set a robot West/East. (Robot North or South works fine, as long as you sit in the opposite seat).

I think you need to start a teaching table (also under practice) instead of a bidding table.

Yikes. steve2005, I would say that's true in terms of later bidding.. but it's pretty consistent when opening. How could it possibly pass that :/ Edit - OK, maybe I was wrong about it being consistent. Basic GIB passes as dealer with a 13 card solid spade suit. So who knows what the rules are.

This could be an issue with limited simulations as Olegru says. I suspect it may however be due to the double-dummy nature of GIB. It probably can't see anything wrong with leading a low diamond - if the queen is onside, you can return with a spade and finesse again; while if the queen is offside, you can take the club finesse. And maybe a low diamond helps with rarer cases (eg a singleton King onside?) The problem is, after the first finesse holds, it's no longer playing double dummy, and doesn't know where the queen is anymore. Now that it's messed up entries has to change tack. GIB is meant to have some logic built in which avoids the issue of always putting decisions off because it will 'know' the right thing to do later, but maybe it didn't hold up well here.

Uh, if you finesse the club first, exactly the same principle as your line applies. If it holds, you have 12 tricks after knocking out the king of diamonds. Whichever suit you finesse first, you have 12 tricks as long as one finesse works (not sure why zhasbeen thinks you need both - maybe the same reason you thought you needed both when playing clubs first :)). Far better than GIB's line.

It's standard to "show the Q" with a known 10 card fit - have never seen GIB do it with 9, so you might just be misremembering.

There are a few weird things with cuebidding: - jdonn has said in the past GIB sometimes makes a false cuebid when it is strong enough to cuebid but no other bid fits - sometimes a cuebid is described as denying something like a lower ace, despite the fact you couldn't cue it (due to that bid having a different meaning) - GIB usually launches into Blackwood despite having two quick losers in the suit you obviously wanted to check for None of these seems to be the case here, so it's very odd - the description of 3♠ matches its hand perfectly (or it could even cue 4♣, since while the description says K, that includes a singleton). So who knows what it was thinking.

It deducts a point for an honor in a short suit, so the honor doubletons don't count for any shortness points. As above the systemic bid is 2♦. The 5 seconds is GIB simulating a lot of hands, figuring out how the bidding would proceed for each potential choice, and deciding whether any bid results in a better outcome on average than a 2♦ bid. It's not completely incomprehensible to see why the results of that simulation might cause it to prefer 2♣ over 2♦ (or 2♥) - a raise of 3♣ gets you to 3NT, so it's really just weak hands like 4324 which would turn out bad (but would that be worse than the result after a reverse)? I'd rather GIB just opens 1NT if it doesn't want to reverse though.

Ha. If you thought that was bad, basic GIB rebids 2♦ :/ I guess this is one of those edge cases when it thinks it's too weak to reverse (requires 18 total points) but doesn't take that into account when opening.

Yeah, that one is annoying.

I'm afraid that's impossible as well; East has promised a heart stop. Yes, I know it shouldn't assume so much from the bidding, and I've posted about that flaw many times, but it does. *Given the bidding assumptions*, you're still yet to find a hand where a heart is obvious :) It's harder than you think.

If GIB thinks you have that hand, a heart return and a diamond return are equivalent double dummy. So that isn't a good example for proving your point (though it does suggest a low club) - any others? That real issue is that diamond is probably fine double-dummy (just like it was in the original hand), but requires partner getting the switch right (had to switch to a club). Double dummy analysis is the crux of any robot program though, so I'm not sure how that's avoidable.

If diamonds are 3-3, you have 14 tricks from the word go? 8 spades, 4 diamonds, and 2 hearts; of which overtaking one doesn't cost..

Being able to play well in a GIB challenge is a very different thing to being able to play well live :)

Not sure what I'm watching. Opps had 11 cashing tricks, then declarer gave an extra one away for no reason. Or was GIB declarer somehow?

I think you misread - 3 was only an entry if West throws all hearts. If West keeps a heart, then he can only keep three diamonds, giving you the last 4 tricks in diamonds. (Though you throw your heart on the last spade, not the J of diamonds).

[hv=http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?bbo=y&lin=st%7C%7Cmd%7C4SAJ2HQT8432DAJC62%2CSQ98753HA6D93CQJ5%2CST4HJ5D862CAKT873%2CSK6HK97DKQT754C94%7Csv%7CE%7Cah%7CBoard%206%7Cmb%7C1D%7Can%7CMinor%20suit%20opening%20--%203%2B%20%21D%3B%2011-21%20HCP%3B%2012-22%20total%20points%7Cmb%7C2H%7Can%7CAggressive%20weak%20jump%20overcall%20--%206%2B%20%21H%3B%204-9%20HCP%7Cmb%7CD%7Can%7CNegative%20double%20--%204%2B%20%21S%3B%207%2B%20HCP%3B%208%2B%20total%20points%7Cmb%7CP%7Cmb%7C2N%7Can%7C4%2B%20%21D%3B%203-%20%21S%3B%2011-14%20HCP%3B%2012%2B%20total%20points%3B%20stop%20in%20%21H%7Cmb%7CP%7Cmb%7CP%7Cmb%7CP%7Cpc%7CH4%7Cpc%7CH6%7Cpc%7CHJ%7Cpc%7CH9%7Cpc%7CD6%7Cpc%7CDK%7Cpc%7CDA%7Cpc%7CD3%7Cpc%7CH3%7Cpc%7CHA%7Cpc%7CH5%7Cpc%7CH7%7Cpc%7CD9%7Cpc%7CD2%7Cpc%7CD7%7Cpc%7CDJ%7Cpc%7CHQ%7Cpc%7CS3%7Cpc%7CC8%7Cpc%7CHK%7Cpc%7CDQ%7Cpc%7CC2%7Cpc%7CS7%7Cpc%7CD8%7Cpc%7CDT%7Cpc%7CC6%7Cpc%7CS8%7Cpc%7CC3%7Cpc%7CD5%7Cpc%7CS2%7Cpc%7CS5%7Cpc%7CCA%7Cpc%7CD4%7Cpc%7CSJ%7Cpc%7CC5%7Cpc%7CC7%7Cpc%7CC9%7Cpc%7CH2%7Cpc%7CCQ%7Cpc%7CCT%7Cpc%7CS9%7Cpc%7CST%7Cpc%7CSK%7Cpc%7CSA%7Cpc%7CHT%7Cpc%7CCJ%7Cpc%7CS4%7Cpc%7CC4%7Cpc%7CH8%7Cpc%7CSQ%7Cpc%7CCK%7Cpc%7CS6%7C]400|300[/hv] Yeah, just standard GIB behavior after you make a 'crazy' (from GIB's perspective) bid really. As usual, it assumes you didn't lie, and bases everything on that assumption.

In GIB's case (since we're talking about Just Play etc) it plays 2♠ as Minor Suit Stayman, with 2NT as a minor suit transfer.

For why GIB doesn't bid 4♦ - while 3♠ does promise 21-22 points (with no mention of hearts), the description still only promises 3 diamonds. That of course is impossible (would have opened 2NT or 2♣), but sadly there are a number of situations where GIB can't figure out in retrospect that you must have opened a long minor. Its 4♦ bid therefore promises 5 diamonds - 2 more than it has, which I guess it considers equally bad / worse than promising 2 extra hearts. 3♦ instead of 3♠ shows 6+♦, 3-♥, 17-20 points, which might have been a bit safer.

Given the disparity between the polls and the results last time, this seems consistent :)