armant2k

I/N players learning basic defensive partnership rules/maxims - 4th best leads, signaling, returning partner's suit, discarding, etc., etc. - and using those inferences as Declarer, require playing lots of bridge. There is no way around it - you learn and improve by playing LOTS of hands. But it is impossible to gain that necessary and valuable experience by playing/practicing with the GIB basic robots because they do not do these basics or follow these maxims. Instead, newbie pairs practicing against robots will randomly get 'rewarded' with good score results for NOT applying them. As a result, they learn nothing, or worse, convince themselves to expect good results from bad decisions. Basic defensive partnership skills/habits are NOT reinforced. Even the way the GIB robots follow suit (e.g. tossing the highest card of two equivalent remaining cards) is NOT what IN players will encounter from human opponents, or partners. I do not recommend advising newbies to rent and play against BBO robots, nor do I think most advancing players enjoy playing against or partnering with GIB robots for the same reason - you cannot use the 'muscle memory' skills you are trying to develop. Perhaps the Advanced robots have these skills (can anyone speak to this?), but I refuse to pay the $$$ BBO wants to find out. Does anyone agree/disagree the GIB robots are doing a disservice to the game we love?

UPDATE: Just saw saw missing DDA trick count on a few cards played clicking "Next Trick" in History on my Win10 PC, so it's apparently not just happening on the Android app (although much less frequent on the PC). Haven't tested but perhaps won't happen at all using "Next Card"?

When viewing my Online Friends under People, I can see if they are already playing in a game or Solitaire, but I cannot tell if they are Registered and waiting for a game to start. I think they are Available and proceed to Invite them to a game as MY Partner - they Decline but then feel they must Chat me a polite explanation as to why. This wastes both my time and theirs in inviting/declining registration offers. Meanwhile, I must look for another partner, who may also be unavailable. I suggest displaying a status of "Registered" for such people - it would make finding an available partner much easier.

Just wanted to give you a heads up in case you wanted to do this for multiple people or more frequently than 2x a year ... I think I heard/read somewhere that BBO restricts a user account to one such transaction every 6 months. Can someone official from BBO confirm (or correct) the above?

I am writing only because of the curious Robot behavior that was starkly exhibited during this hand. (url="http://https://tinyurl.com/y2mh2ugn") We were playing against 2 robots, and my wife left me in my 3NT opener (26 HCP). With her long Clubs, I had 11 tricks cold after the opening lead wasn't a Spade. I also had 6 Diamonds, ♦AKQ2 in my hand, ♦94 in Dummy. During the first 9 tricks the E Robot discarded 2 Diamonds, so rather than claim 12 tricks, I lead the ♦A to test the waters, although I still fully expected to lose the 13th trick. I was surprised to see W drop the ♦J and E drop the ♦T. Could E have started with 6 Diamonds and E a stiff ♦T? Curious, I continued with the ♦K and found the E Robot was out of Diamonds. The W Robot followed with the ♦5, and put the ♦6 on my ♦Q. He kept the ♦3 to beat my ♦2 on the last trick. (I wonder if E had instead originally held ♦T763, would he have held onto the ♦7 to win the final trick, just to make his robot partner buy him a beer? ;) ) The GIB robots apparently are programmed to toss the highest of equivalent cards, and since they 'remember' every card played, the W Robot in this case 'knew' the ♦3 was equivalent to the T, 6, or 5. I have noticed in the course of many hands played versus the basic GIBs robots, it appears that the GIB program addresses "Restricted Choice" situations by (almost?) always discarding from the top.

VACB (Virtual ACBL club) games are awarded ACBL Masterpoints (normally Black points), with a 50% bonus awarded above&beyond normal game scoring, which is based on # of tables played. # of boards played, whether the game is an Open or Limited, as well as a few other factors. I say 'normally' because ACBL has also occasionally announced a week where the points awarded in VACB games were given in other pigments (Silver, Gold, ...), and with different % bonus. For example, recently there was a week of 100% (2X) Silver. What you see in Live for Clubs is your final total - BBO results are displayed with a message telling you to go to Live for Clubs for the final official awards earned. BBO Points are not recognized by the ACBL - you can only accumulate BBO points in games where BB$ are spent, and BBO uses them to calculate a 'rating' to tag your user name. Click on your Account-Profile-Masterpoints for their detailed explanation of their rating system and tags.

I frequently start a Teaching Table and use Deal Source rules to limit EW robots to present my wife who is learning basic conventions (Stayman, Transfers, Blackwood) with teachable hands. But I am unable to Undo (screen shows 'Undo Accepted' but nothing is undone), while my wife (who was invited to my table) can Undo her bids and tricks. I have the 'Crown', I am the Host, I control showing hands, etc, but cannot Undo. What is going on here? This severely hinders a teacher's ability to discuss and show students different lines of play (e.g. when to draw trump, holding up, taking finesses, preserving communications, etc) BTW, I know I can reload the same hand to the table from History after the 13th trick, but that is a poor substitute for rewinding 1 or 2 tricks and playing out a different line. Even if you simply want to play the hand over from the start, you need to painstakingly bid exactly the same as the first time played or the robots will change their opening lead. Please don't suggest sitting in 3 seats - that does not address the fact that Undo should be controlled by the Teacher, not the Student.

When checking the opponents convention card, why doesn't the convention card window open wide enough to to view in its entirety? I have to increase the window size to see the info. Should be easy to fix this in the next version of BBO!

I agree completely - COUNTING is the key to playing well. ABC - (Always Be Counting) - even when it doesn't seem to be important in the situation with the hand you are holding. It is the only way to develop and hone the skill so it available to you when it IS important. BTW, the full title of Hugh Kelsey's book is "Killing Defense at Bridge". I also like "The Art of Card Reading at Bridge" by Fred L. Karpin, and William S. Root's "How to Play a Bridge Hand" and "How to Defend a Bridge Hand". All emphasize early, and then through out their texts, that counting is critical to playing well.

I agree it would be very useful to be able to save (and restore) teaching hands. It would also be very useful to those learning be able to save and replay the bidding and play of the 13 tricks. This would help in learning by first showing the WRONG (or a poor) way to play a hand, then the RIGHT (or a better) way. Can someone point me to documentation of the various formats that exist for storing Bridge hands, which save bidding & play, and which programs or websites accept which formats as input??