GIB Release Notes - updated with each new version

[rigbyrigz]

More to the above. I got curious, so started checking other boards samePAY Mini Tourney from today.

 

Auction goes 1N p 3N.

 

Robot on lead has QTxxx AJx Jx Txx

 

On one deal the GIB leads a Spade.

On another deal it leads J of D. Same exact 1N - 3N auction.

 

Huge difference in the result.

 

Hoe can these tourneys be fair with such goings on? And we pay $

[barmar]

I am all FOR upgrading GIB as appropriate.

 

But if you play in a PAY-mini Tourney with all robots, and your robots GIB-s/w has version 2017-upgrd-2, and the 14 player deals you are compared against all used some much older version, it is extremely unfair. And this is INDEED happening Today!

This only happens during the 2 weeks after a new GIB version is released. We need to allow time to build up a collection of tourneys that have been run with the new version, so it continues using tourneys from the previous version as the source for instant tourneys.

 

I play lots of instant tourneys, so I share your frustration during that fortnight.

[diana_eva]

There was a small GIB update today. Just minor tweaks, but it catches a fix to this bug.

[zhasbeen]

Man, I was ready to start a thread of my own titled “Is it just me?”

While I’ve always felt that the robot tournaments have far more wild distributions and traps than you’d find in live clubs and tournaments, it seems like they have taken it to another level t this past week or so. To compound my frustration, the bots have been making the worst bids I can remember since I playing my first tournament here in mid-August.

 

Yesterday, while on a 70% pace I picked up a balanced 15 with two 4-card majors and 3-2 in minors. Bot responded 2C stayman I showed my hearts and bot rebid 2NT. This sequence does not promise a 4-card major since 2NT is a relay to 3C. To make sure I had it right I ran my cursor over the help bubble, and it couldn’t have been clearer: “Invite 2 3NT, no-card major – 3-h, 3-s; 9 hcp”

I passed, and the first thing I saw when dummy came down was J 10 9 6 of spades. I was starting to boil already this was nothing compared to the rest of his hand. He had A Q 10 9 x x of clubs, 2 little hearts, and a stiff diamond.

Still, the sadists that set this hand up were just getting warmed up. The bot sitting east promptly reeled off 6 diamonds and the ace of spaces, to set me 2 tricks.

Interestingly, there were several other players that got into spades, so I looked at the traveler to see how they did it. In most cases they showed their spades at 3 level after bot’s 2NT rebid. Either they had experience with this sequence before or they don’t bother reading those bid-meaning messages that you get when you run cursor over them. The hand made 4 and 5 spades. Meanwhile, it ruined a nice game for me but I wasn’t giving up...that is until board 10.

I guess I have only myself for what happened on this one, board 10, since I’d already been burned for it on 2 counts—I’ve had takeout doubles left in by robot before, and I just got burned reading the help explanation as noted above. The robot had zero defense to leave the double in, btw, but he had J 10 9 5th of diamonds to go with my KQx. The bid meaning was equally clear as the other one, reading: "Takeout double" and the symbols that followed it suggested nothing else.

 

One more and I’ll stop complaining:

During the last game I played today the north bot opened 1 of minor and I responded 1 heart. Bot rebid 1NT and I raised to 4NT with my balanced 19. However, glutton for punishment that I am, I read that #%^&! help bubble again before I made my call. True to form, it laid down the cutest little 4-3-3-3 twelve pointer you ever saw after taking the invite to 6 in a split second.

Down one for me. You guys all know when bot leads a spade, dummy holds A x x and you hold Q x x. That’s right, you guessed it, but you can only hope for a miracle. There was not a potential 12th trick elsewhere, so I was put out my misery early. Of course he didn’t have the king.

 

This “bid helper” message they have is a serious problem, and from what I’ve heard it has been happening for a long time. From a competitive standpoint I know it’s the same for everybody, but I’m not as excited as I was even a few weeks ago when I had hopes of seeing some improvement.

At the top of this thread it says:

 

“GIB Release Notes…A place to keep track of GIB upgrades “

After checking it out I see that the last upgrade was in 2011!!

 

Also, I don’t see any GIB programmers sticking their heads in here like I was told when I contacted support. It makes me wonder if they even have a staff for this department.

[Bbradley62]

At the top of this thread it says:

 

“GIB Release Notes…A place to keep track of GIB upgrades “

After checking it out I see that the last upgrade was in 2011!!

 

Also, I don’t see any GIB programmers sticking their heads in here like I was told when I contacted support. It makes me wonder if they even have a staff for this department.

No, the thread was begun in 2011. That first post indicates that Version 19 was installed in October 2011. SMerriman's post from August 2017 links to the most recent announcement, stating that Version 37 was installed.

 

And BarMar did stick his head in here, two above your post.

[zhasbeen]

Gib doesn't "understand" bidding. It has preprogrammed responses that make it looks like it does. It has some rules, but some our silly like passing when it can't find a bid.

It doesn't understand captaincy where 1 partner is in charge. It gives value to shortness in partners suit and in NT. The list is long.

 

"It has some rules, but some our silly like passing when it can't find a bid"

 

Your entire comment is so well put, and this particular problem is one I have encountered on several occasions. The more I hang around here the less I feel the need to point out problems I run into. If even half of the major issues that have already been pointed out by others were fixed it would be plenty enough for me.

 

I'd rank this one high up on the list of priorities.

[diana_eva]

A new robot version has been released. This is GIB version 39. For a week or so, Instant Tourney players please note that your robots may behave differently from the comparison robots.

 

Changes:

• GIB will now always pass after opening 2 of a major, responder bid 2N, opener bid anything, and responder bid 4 of the major. Before, it was sometimes bidding blackwood there.
• GIB will sometimes show a queen as a feature after a weak 2 bid, in order to do something other than rebidding his suit on good hands.
• After 1x - (2y) -, responder will properly bid 3 of a new suit on hands he had been passing, like 1♠ (2♥) 3♣ with 6 clubs and an 11 count where before it just passed. Also on the same auction, he will only bid 2N with the proper shapes now (before he would sometimes do it on weird shapes like 3055).
• Fixed a bug where GIB was sometimes passing 4NT bids that were obviously for the minors, like when someone bid unusual 2NT and then 4NT next round.
• Fixed a bug that was causing GIB to sometimes pass hands that obviously should be opened either 1 or 4 of a major.
• Improved definition of when certain jumps in competition are natural and when they are splinter bids.
• GIB no longer plays lebensohl after takeout doubles of weak 2 bids when the takeout doubler is a passed hand. 2NT there is natural now.
• Improved the requirements for GIB to show majors with a 2♦ overcall of a 1NT opening (before it had restrictive suit quality requirements even when the hand was strong and shapely).
• Other minor fixes and improvements.

[diana_eva]

After almost a year of tweaking, we've just released a big patch to the robots. GIB version 40 has been released.

 

This is mostly bug fixes and more than 100 various tweaks and patches. Most noticeable ones are:

 

 

• Fixed a bug where GIB used to cuebid a partial stopper without having any.
• Fixed a bug where GIB used to not bid its 5 card or better suits after a 1NT - 3x auction.
• Improved the 2C-2D-2M-? sequence; GIB will now be smarter when selecting between 3M or 4M.
• Changed the Soloway Jump Shift convention logic.
• GIB will now do a negative X at the 1 level with 6+TP instead of 7. Also, GIB will now prioritize showing its 4 card major instead of showing support in minors.
• GIB will now splinter if appropriate in the following sequence: 2C-2D-2M-?

 

As usual Instant Tournament players will notice discrepancies between the new bots and the older bots for a week or so, until new tourneys with the latest GIB become available.

[smerriman]

• Changed the Soloway Jump Shift convention logic.

To what?

 

https://www.bridgebase.com/doc/gib_system_notes.php#Soloway_Jump_Shift looks to have been updated to say only jump shifts to 3♣ are natural and invitational, but that's definitely not right.

[johnu]

To what?

 

https://www.bridgebase.com/doc/gib_system_notes.php#Soloway_Jump_Shift looks to have been updated to say only jump shifts to 3♣ are natural and invitational, but that's definitely not right.

I only see anything about 3♣ in the Soloway Jump Shift section, only

 

Strong jump shifts are only from the 1 level to a higher suit on the 2 level. Jumps to a lower suit on the 3 level are natural and invitational.

Hearts are lower ranking than spades, so 1♠ - 3♥ should be invitational according to the notes, and that agrees with your example.

[smerriman]

Yep, looks like they updated the notes again since I posted.

[smerriman]

There were 6 more pages of posts after the one you're referring to. The last update mentioned above was early 2019, but based on the lack of responses to anything about the topic, it seems unlikely there'll be another one.

[Gunnar60]

Is there any list of updates for each version from no.1 available?

 

I just like to be able to refer back to these after they've disappeared from "BBO Today", so I'm copying it to here...

 

A new version of GIB was released on Oct 18, 2011. Please go to BBO Discussion Forum to discuss the robots. We call this GIB version 19.

Tweaks:

 

GIB's 1 Minor openings and continuations has been improved.

Filled in the gaps in New Minor Forcing continuations.

Improved Inverted Minor sequences.

Improved GIB's Texas Transfer logic.

GIB's Long Suit Game Try sequence is now more logical.

Improved Minor Stayman logic and subsequent sequence.

GIB will now pass a 6NT decision after a suit RKC instead of insisting on bidding the suit in a grand slam.

Improved GIB's logic after his partner makes an overcall.

Some other bug fixes and changes.

 

We hope you enjoy the new improved robot. This is the 6th upgrade for GIB we've pushed out in 2011 and we'll continue to strive for excellence in our robot. Every robot report you send in is read, so please keep sending in bug reports or tweak suggestions. To participate in discussions with us, please visit BBO's GIB forum.

 

To play with the GIB, either

 

Rent them at $1/week (Basic Robot) or $1/day (Advanced Robot) or

Join a robot tourney or

Wait for the 1st of November where all BBOers will be able to play with robot free.

[areed]

After almost a year of tweaking, we've just released a big patch to the robots. GIB version 40 has been released.

 

This is mostly bug fixes and more than 100 various tweaks and patches. Most noticeable ones are:

 

 

• Fixed a bug where GIB used to cuebid a partial stopper without having any.
• Fixed a bug where GIB used to not bid its 5 card or better suits after a 1NT - 3x auction.
• Improved the 2C-2D-2M-? sequence; GIB will now be smarter when selecting between 3M or 4M.
• Changed the Soloway Jump Shift convention logic.
• GIB will now do a negative X at the 1 level with 6+TP instead of 7. Also, GIB will now prioritize showing its 4 card major instead of showing support in minors.
• GIB will now splinter if appropriate in the following sequence: 2C-2D-2M-?

 

As usual Instant Tournament players will notice discrepancies between the new bots and the older bots for a week or so, until new tourneys with the latest GIB become available.

 

On my home computer I have GIB version 6.2.0 (variously known as 620 or 6.20)

 

Is the BBO version based on the older 6.1 version of GIB and that the new BBO release might be more accurately described as 6.1.40