I'm often the dummy when playing with robots

[LCarey13]

I'm really sorry if this has been brought up before and answered.

 

When I play with robots on this site, I'm very often the dummy. I'd say nearly 1/2 of the time. That's a complete waste of time, obviously. Any possible learning experience from being a dummy and watching robots play is wiped away by the speed of play, so it's hard to even follow the game.

 

It seems to me that the only human playing (and paying) to play with robots shouldn't EVER be in the position of dummy unless the hand has been misbid.

 

Am I missing a setting? Is there a setting where I don't want to be sitting here doing nothing while the robots play?

 

Thanks, and sorry if this has been asked before.

[pilowsky]

It is an excellent point that I have raised before. When playing in the Prime area it would be helpful if you could set the table so that you were Declarer even if your partner 'won' the contract as normally happens in robot tournaments. I have made this suggestion in "Suggestions for Software" before, but for some reason, that area of the Forum does not seem to be monitored - or if it is, there are no replies.

It is also fun to set 4 robots against each other to generate sets of hands to see how robots play, but not for very long.

Your point seems to me to be a valid one.

Good luck getting a response.

[smerriman]

Most of the robot-based tournaments on the website - daylongs, challenges, etc - are human declares, which means if you become dummy you automatically swap seats with the robot so that you can declare yourself. Most also force the human to have the best hand, which means you are likely to declare more often.

 

If you're playing in one of the casual rooms with rented robots, there is no setting to emulate this. You can manually repeat some of the conditions, like removing the robot and moving to its seat, or adjusting the table settings to restrict the type of hands dealt. Or just hit redeal if you become dummy. But nothing automatic.

[pilowsky]

It's annoying, especially when you are paying in the Prime area so that you can practice. It would be great if BBO would at least respond to multiple requests about this. Possibly it is impossible/costly/bothersome to implement. Although given that it is normal elsewhere this seems unlikely. Why can't it just be another table option during set-up?

I do not know enough about computers to know if it is difficult or not. I do know that responding to the request is courteous.