Gib pulling a penalty double

[xeno123]

In the following tournament hand, 3♠ doubled, down one, scored 100%, while when I bid this hand, Gib pulled that double to 4♥(??) which I was forced to correct to 5♣, scoring 0%. Note that for Gib's proposed 4♥ contract, our side's combined heart holding was the 97432!

 

http://tinyurl.com/llyk5hb

 

Any idea of what happened here? If Gib wanted to pull the double, why not 4♣ instead of the bizarre 4♥?

 

I've noticed that GIB generally seems to pull nearly all competitive penalty doubles, and if you ever have the temerity to bid "one more" to compete for the contract (after having previously been willing to pass out at a lower level), Gib seems to take this as a sign that you suddenly found a few heretofore missing Aces and gaily raises your competitive bid to game.

 

Comments?

 

Peter

[cloa513]

Totally typical. If this due to programming- that programmer is the worst bridge player.

 

And yet there are place where you'd think double should be "takeout" but its not like 1S,-,1NT,2C,-,X.

[xeno123]

Totally typical. If this due to programming- that programmer is the worst bridge player.

 

I think that is an unfair comment. Programs don't understand bridge in the same way that people do. In general, Gib does a pretty remarkable job in most situations. Once you get into competitive bidding situations things become much murkier and it's hard to devise general decision rules.

 

What's needed here is some sort of tweak - perhaps there truly is a bug; or perhaps there needs to be a general rule that additional bids by partner after a pass do not necessarily show new-found strength.

 

Peter