[bixby]

GIB's hand: A854 / K74 / 973 / KJ7

My hand: KQJ10632 / 9 / A5 / A109

I was third hand. The bidding went:

P P 1S P
2C (1) P 3H (2) X
4H (3) X P (4) P
P (5)

(1) Drury
(2) Splinter - thinking that we could have slam if GIB has, e.g., xxxx / Axx / Kxxx / Kx
(3) Shows HA, denies DA, CA
(4) Not sure what to do, but thought that it might be better to pass and let GIB try Blackwood than to try it myself. If GIB bids 4S I can still decide whether to continue
(5) ??

What?? Hey, I want my money back!! Sheesh!

Seems like a bug.

[HardVector]

Are you sure that GIB thought 3h was a splinter? It looks like it thought you had a good 5/5 major hand...which is what I would have thought as well.

[zhasbeen]

bixby, on 2019-September-01, 07:59, said:

GIB's hand: A854 / K74 / 973 / KJ7

My hand: KQJ10632 / 9 / A5 / A109

I was third hand. The bidding went:

P P 1S P
2C (1) P 3H (2) X
4H (3) X P (4) P
P (5)

(1) Drury
(2) Splinter - thinking that we could have slam if GIB has, e.g., xxxx / Axx / Kxxx / Kx
(3) Shows HA, denies DA, CA
(4) Not sure what to do, but thought that it might be better to pass and let GIB try Blackwood than to try it myself. If GIB bids 4S I can still decide whether to continue
(5) ??

What?? Hey, I want my money back!! Sheesh!

Seems like a bug.

[zhasbeen]

Always run your mouse over the call to see how Gib interprets it. I've learned that the hard way, yet I still make an occasional assumption that I live to regret.

If you think that's a bug you ain't seen nuthin' yet. I find it a bit confusing myself.

[johnu]

HardVector, on 2019-September-01, 09:39, said:

Are you sure that GIB thought 3h was a splinter? It looks like it thought you had a good 5/5 major hand...which is what I would have thought as well.

Still, If GIB expects 5-5 in the majors, GIB should take a preference to spades with 4 card support for at least a 9 card fit, instead of passing in what would looks to be an 8 card fit.

Of course, making a preference bid with more cards in one of partner's suits than the other often seems to be too difficult for GIB.

[smerriman]

3H is definitely a splinter.

But hey, you got super lucky. At least you didn't have to play it redoubled.

[bixby]

Thank you all for these replies. Yes, I checked the description of 3H before bidding it. The descriptions given above are GIB's own descriptions of the bids involved. The full description of 3H is "Splinter -- 1H; 5+ S; 21- HCP; 18-22 total points; forcing to 3NT."

[bixby]

And smerriman, yes, your experience was even worse!

[johnu]

johnu, on 2019-September-01, 13:51, said:

Still, If GIB expects 5-5 in the majors, GIB should take a preference to spades with 4 card support for at least a 9 card fit, instead of passing in what would looks to be an 8 card fit.

Of course, making a preference bid with more cards in one of partner's suits than the other often seems to be too difficult for GIB.

If 3♥ was actually a splinter, then there is a lot of bad programming going on.

1. 4♥ shows ♥A? A misdescription for no good reason.
2. Why would you want to show ♥K opposite a splinter? There is absolutely no reason to do that opposite a splinter. This reinforces the fact that beyond knowing how to make a splinter bid, GIB doesn't revalue the hand to take into account fit.
3. Why would you want to bypass a club control? If you are forced to cue bid, 4♣ is the cue bid to make.
4. Why wouldn't you just bid 3♠? The splinter severely diminished your hand for cooperating with a slam try. You have 8 working points.
5. How can you (in effect) pass a splinter bid when you have a known 5-4 spade fit? Deficient programming of GIB is the only explanation.