Saturday, May 31, 2014

Careful with the doubles when GiB is your CHO

Playing a 8-board robot tournament on BBO after a long-time, I got off to a rather poor start when my robot partner pulled my penalty double:


5H down 1 was a 38% board.  4Sx down 3 would have been a lot better of course.  But I had paid my 25c, and by golly, I was going to get my money's worth.  I decided to hunker down and finish the set.

By the 7th board, I was at 70% overall, and in first place.  This was the 7th board and after my RHO bid 4S, I had a decision to make.


Should I pass, double or bid 5H?  I recalled board 1, where my partner took out a clear penalty double.  What would the robot do with a cooperative one? I decided to bid 5H as insurance and when dummy came down, I thought I had blown it, and passing was the right call.  It turns out that 4S makes. Many of the other tables were in 4Sx, so my Center Hand Opponent would have passed the double this time, so 5H undoubled and down 3 was worth 82%.

The last board of the set was another double-or-not decision. This was the board:

After I doubled 3S for penalty and CHO took me out, I decided to not push my luck by doubling 4S for penalty.  It turned out that 4S down 3 was worth 95% anyway.  Doubling was not needed.

This sort of fielding partner's propensities is something that you always have to do with human players -- there are players who will sit and players who will run. It appears that GiB will take out his partner's doubles even at high levels.  And I can not figure what the robot's logic is regarding which doubles are for penalty and which ones are cooperative.  Any suggestions and/or pointers are appreciated.


3 comments:

  1. When to Double is one of the big weaknesses of GIB. If I've bid twice, it seems to think I must have 20 or more HCP and doubles them with no sign of a trick. But if you pull it, that is the time they actually have their bid. I love playing with the bots, but it can be mucho frustrating.

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  2. I forgot to add, I've been playing on BBO in Individual Tournaments, and I'll do a post about it soon. The players you find in these games make GIB look like Barry Crane in his prime.

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  3. There's little point trying to adapt your game to the bots. Very often their bidding makes little sense.
    Look at the first hand: a pass by East over 2D, but suddenly, apparently finds an extra card or two, and can bid 3S on the next round. Bizarre.

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