[helene_t]

arrows, on Mar 14 2009, 11:10 PM, said:

Are the boards duplicated?

I guess not?

when I am still struggling, some other guys already run away with 5000+.

They are indeed not duplicated. This is to avoid cheating.

[jdonn]

It's so funny reading back at myself bragging about playing 23 or 24 hands. Ever since an upgrade or two to gib I get in 35 to 40 regularly now lol.

Also I made my openings a bit sounder over time. Now I open 18+ balanced NV (sometimes even pass 18) and 16+ balanced vul (sometimes pass 16).

[TimG]

How many non-passouts? The most I've managed to play is 19. The most deals I've played is 34 (with 17 passouts).

I tend to open balanced hands only if I would accept an invite, so a minimum of 16+-17. But, it is frustrating getting passed out there so I've been thinking about bumping that up a tad.

I read in one thread or another that you sometimes open these ~17-18 point hands 2NT. Are you still doing that?

How is your success now compared to when you had the challenge match with Justin?

[jdonn]

I don't know how many non-passouts, but there are a lot of passouts.

I think it's completely wrong to upgrade those hands to 2NT. In fact I believe you are thinking of someone else.

My scores are a bit higher now (my highest is 13,280 or something and I've broken 10k several times) but I probably don't come in quite as well. I don't play in nearly as many any more, I play less in general and more ACBLs than robot races. Also I more often play while doing something else, not totally focused on playing as fast as possible like I used to be.

[TimG]

I was referring to this.

[jdonn]

TimG, on Dec 8 2009, 01:21 PM, said:

I was referring to this.

That comment was facetious (about how I'll never learn), and my bid was both abnormal for me and completely tactical. I believe I was 2272 that hand.

I also mentioned in my first post in this thread that I think it's wrong to upgrade into 2NT in these tournament.

[TimG]

jdonn, on Dec 8 2009, 03:57 PM, said:

TimG, on Dec 8 2009, 01:21 PM, said:

I was referring to this.

That comment was facetious (about how I'll never learn), and my bid was both abnormal for me and completely tactical. I believe I was 2272 that hand.

I also mentioned in my first post in this thread that I think it's wrong to upgrade into 2NT in these tournament.

I hadn't read your first post in this thread (or at least don't remember reading it). I thought you might not have been serious about the 2NT opening, I can't imagine GIB not bidding to a too high level after mis-describing by an Ace, but well sometimes strange things are right in these tournaments.

[barmar]

GIB frequently raises 2NT to 3NT with 4 counts, so stretching to open 2NT is clearly a bad idea.

I generally only open 1NT with 16 HCP, majors with 15 HCP, and minors with 15 HCP and something in the majors. I probably should bump those up a point. But it sure gets monotonous passing them out.

What I frequently wonder about this is how confused the GIB defenders get when I pass opening hands, then North opens, and I bid game. GIB deals out hands that are consistent with the bidding, but it doesn't know anything about these psychic passes. Do you think it makes them defend worse, so they're unlikely to find the killing defense if there is one?

[suokko]

Sometimes it looks to me that GIB understands possibility of psyche and plays for distribution that is not possible if biding was correct. But it could be very well just bad defense or declarer play from GIB.

[helene_t]

Funny, my impression is the opposite, that whenever I become declarer after having made a bid that GIB wouldn't have made (like opening 1NT with a 5-card major), it induces defensive mistakes.

This is probably ok though, the reason why it doesn't work as well against humans is that humans are not as good at counting as GIB is. Maybe if I played more against good defenders I wouldn't notice much of a difference, except when playing against humans who knew which of my bids they can't trust.

Of course it can happen that something impossible happens, like partner's count signal being inconsistent with declarer's bidding. Dunno about GIB, but what Jack would do is gradually to decrease the level of reliability of all actions until it finds at least one possible layout. I would expect GIB to do something different. (Newer versions of Jack will learn to distrust humans, i.e. if you generally bid undisciplined it will learn to trust other robots above you, whether as a partner or as opp).

[Phil]

Is it possible to speed up the GIBs if you don't subscribe to GIBs?

[helene_t]

You mean for robot reward tourneys? No, there the speed is set by BBO. Otherwise everyone would set them to the highest speed to make their defense as bad as possible.

[JoAnneM]

Why, when I go to select Autoplay Singletons is it grayed out and I can't select it?

Nevermind, I got it.

This post has been edited by JoAnneM: 2010-January-11, 17:05

[tmgrl4]

So...GIB plays Blackwood, but it is RKCB?

Thanks everyone! These posts were great. I am a novice, and playing in the bot tourneys is teaching me a lot (some of it not so good, I am sure).

Also, for Best Hands, are all of the hands played different for all players? Do we all get the same hands? Not so for Random Hands? Robot Reward, too...same hands for all or not?


terri

[helene_t]

No, ar robot race and robot rewards you get different hands. Except for the robot duplicates, there everyone get the same hands.

[tmgrl4]

That's what I thought, too. Except for duplicates, others are different hands. At least once in awhile, I place in the non-duplicates...the pointers here should help too.

The GIB has a lot of benefits to a novice, in that I am beginning to recognize conventions that were only names before. Down-side is that it is 2/1 and I am working on SAYC...building my way into that. Have only played bridge for seven months..retirement treat to myself and I play it all here!

[barmar]

Yes, it's RKCB, with 3014 responses. You can read the robot's CC here:

http://www.bridgebas...ystem_notes.php

Although SAYC is the popular system for pick-up partnerships on BBO, in the real world 2/1 is probably more popular (it's the most common system among tournament players in the US). So it would be a good idea to learn it, and playing with GIB should help.

[gwnn]

Nowadays my results have been going bad, I am barely breaking even, if at all. I've been wondering if it's because of my opening style being too strict:

-only open 1M if I can (comfortably) bid game over 2M.
-only open 1m if I can (comfortably) reverse/jump rebid over partner's 1 level response.
(i.e. never open 1NT)

The result is that of course I have a higher chance of getting good hands but also that GIB's open in front of me etc. Do you think I'm too strict? What are your favourite requirements at the moment?

[cherdanno]

gwnn, on Apr 18 2010, 04:21 PM, said:

Nowadays my results have been going bad, I am barely breaking even, if at all. I've been wondering if it's because of my opening style being too strict:

-only open 1M if I can (comfortably) bid game over 2M.
-only open 1m if I can (comfortably) reverse/jump rebid over partner's 1 level response.
(i.e. never open 1NT)

The result is that of course I have a higher chance of getting good hands but also that GIB's open in front of me etc. Do you think I'm too strict? What are your favourite requirements at the moment?

I never open 1NT. However, when you have a major suit AND you can invite opposite any rebid AND you are vulnerable then I think it must be right to open. It may still be right non-vulnerable.

(You should clearly open more frequently when you are vulnerable, and when you have the majors - your rules don't seem to reflect that.)

[gwnn]

are you talking about 1M.. 2N rebids? not clear what you mean. If so, of course I open them too