GIB hangs on 'tough' hand

[kfgauss]

I have version 4.3.8 and gave GIB (at a teaching table) the problem:

None vul.

103/A3/AK964/Q1086

P P 3H ?

 

It stalled and wouldn't answer. I had been trying various example hands:

103/A3/AKQ96/QJ86, 103/A3/AK964/QJ86, both of which it bid 3N on, and I made the hand weaker to see how long it would keep bidding 3N, but when I changed the !CJ to !C10 (or !C4) it stalled (it's still running as I type -- has been many minutes). I tried this multiple times at various speeds and it stalled every time except when I put it all the way to "fast". When I weakened the hand further, to 103/A3/AK964/8654, it passed in normal tempo.

 

Andy

[fred]

Can you please describe the step-by-step things you did in order to pose this question to GIB? Did you try more than once?

 

The method I used seemed to work (GIB bid 3NT).

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[kfgauss]

I tried it multiple times, changing the hands to other things that worked and then changing back.

 

I set up an invisible teaching table in the main bridge club, sat at N, E, S and put GIB in the W seat, entered the hand as west and gave N the rest of the hearts and C32 and S the rest of the spades and D32 (using "x" to do all of this). Then I entered P P 3H and waited for GIB to bid.

 

Trying this morning I did also have GIB bid 3NT. I then changed the clubs (by erasing the club suit, erasing East's lowest club, and entering a different club suit) to CQ864 and it stalled again. I've switched between these two twice now today and it's bid (3NT) each time on Q1086 and stalled each time on Q864.

 

I just hit undo, entered 3H again, and it bid 3NT on Q864 in normal tempo (~3 seconds or so). I've changed it to J864 and it's stalled again (> 1 min) and then when I hit undo, it passes (~1 second).

 

Now I changed it to J1086 and it thought for ~5 seconds and led (!) the DK (auction is still P P 3H ?). I hit undo (twice -- 1st one undid the lead) and bid 3H again and it bid 3NT (~3 seconds).

 

I have been having occasional connection problems (not with my internet connection though) -- being disconnected and not being able to get back on for several minutes or until I restart my computer [which takes a minute or two, so maybe this isn't really doing anything] (this is not more than once an hour), but I haven't been having problems while doing this. Indeed, I was chatting with someone while it first happened.

 

I just restarted my computer to see if it persisted, and it bid on Q864 immediately, but then I tried J1094 (a hand I hadn't tried before -- could be relevant?) and it stalled (& then after ~1 minute I undid and bid 3H again and it worked in ~3 seconds). As for the "hadn't tried before" theory, I just put back in J1086 and it's stalling again (several minutes -- I went and did something else & left it). It again bid 3NT after ~3 seconds when I undid & bid 3H again.

 

(While trying today, I haven't changed the tempo from the default setting -- looks like 3/4 the way to fast.)

 

Andy

 

PS Are these 3NT bids in any way normal/good? I've been surprised by them all except perhaps the 1st one (the one with the DQ too) which seemed to me to be aggressive but possibly ok.

[kfgauss]

I just remembered something that seems relevant, given the DK lead on one of the above hands:

 

Twice yesterday, after I'd "sent" another hand to try again, but hadn't yet posed that altered problem to GIB (I don't recall the precise circumstances), one of those GIB answer boxes (ie the box that appears when you ask for advice) popped up with "I'd lead the S10" or some such. (I may have been sitting around talking to someone for a minute or so before getting to posing the next problem -- I don't recall whether this happened immediately or not.)

 

Andy

[fred]

I have figured out the problem - "Sending" a hand to a teaching table was not reseting GIB properly. It will be fixed inthe next version.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com