[estanton]

The robots lead on a nontrump bid is consistently wrong. It frequently leads a doubleton.

[barmar]

The robots in BBO Prime are the same as the rest of the site (except you get advanced robots without paying extra).

If you have issues with the robot, post them in the GIB Robot Forum.

[johnu]

estanton, on 2019-November-30, 11:03, said:

The robots lead on a nontrump bid is consistently wrong. It frequently leads a doubleton.

I can suggest reading "Winning Notrump Leads" by Bird and Anthias. On a double dummy basis, more often than you would think, a doubleton (and shockingly, sometimes a singleton) lead is your best lead.

So, just because the lead against NT is from shortness does not automatically make it a bad lead. What makes it a bad lead is when GIB seemingly does not "listen" to the bidding and leads from shortness anyways.

[zhasbeen]

barmar, on 2019-December-05, 13:28, said:

The robots in BBO Prime are the same as the rest of the site (except you get advanced robots without paying extra).

If you have issues with the robot, post them in the GIB Robot Forum.

Hey Barmar,

It does zero good to post issues, file bug reports, etc. It had been almost 2 weeks since anyone posted here, and months since jdonn has bothered to stop by (maybe a year or more?). BBO management either won't, or can't fix GIB's problems. Virtually all serious problems are no better than they were more than 2 years ago when I played my first robot tournament. Most of the regulars have quit posting, and the few that have stayed post less frequently than they used to.

How do I know? I am probably one of BBO's most frequent ACBL Daylong Robot Individual players, and would bet that I have more results data than any other player. For example, you have played 208 ACBL Daylong Games at matchpoints since 12-22-2018. I can also tell you your average scores, masterpoints won, and how you did in relation to ANY other player when you were both in same field. Since you are a regular, I often have other info such as power rating, masterpoints, etc.

Why to I continue to play?
It is definitely in spite of GIB rather than because of "him". If I significantly cut down number of games I play, or quit completely, GIB will be the reason. No doubt about it. Other than that I think BBO has a great web site and I do believe that playing in the tournaments will help you become a better card player. The hands are usually challenging and make you think, plus you can download replays of any boards that you've played. Too bad GIB is such a poor partner, and I mean "partner" in the truest sense of the word. It often seems that he is programmed to make things as difficult as possible for us. I know, it's the same for everyone and probably doesn't affect matchpoint scores in the long run, but it sure does have a negative effect on enjoyment of playing.

Drop me a private email if you want to know more. I won't post any other info about you other than what I just did without your permission; and what I do have is info that you have made public.

This post has been edited by barmar: 2019-December-10, 19:45
Reason for edit: fixed quote

[barmar]

We update the BBO robots every 4-6 months.

However, almost all our work is on its bidding database, not the algorithms in its declarer and defense play. None of the BBO programmers have the AI expertise needed to make significant changes to Ginsberg's design.

[zhasbeen]

barmar, on 2019-December-10, 19:50, said:

We update the BBO robots every 4-6 months.

However, almost all our work is on its bidding database, not the algorithms in its declarer and defense play. None of the BBO programmers have the AI expertise needed to make significant changes to Ginsberg's design.

Barmar,

Until now I wasn’t aware of any BBO staff (or contractor) who worked with the robots and is also a regular participant in the ACBL robot games. Since the largest fields and most (but not all) of the best players are in the ACBL Daylong fields, I’ve always wondered why a few regulars who post intelligent commentary so often here, but not play in those games. If there are some who do, they must be using a different handle than the one they post with. Knowing that you actually play in these tournaments adds a lot.

Fwiw, I’ve never assumed that fixing GIB is something that could easily be done, or was even possible. There are hundreds of bridge players who are, or have been, programmers. My 3 regular partners are programmers and 2 of them play in the robot tournaments. If it was easy to fix GIB it would have been done a long time ago. What bothered me was when I read that BBO would be sticking with GIB indefinitely, with another comment that had a “take it or leave it” flavor. The closest I've ever come to programming is Excel macros.

You are lucky that you live on the other coast. If you were on this side I’d be talking your ear off. I wish I would have known that you were playing in the nationals. I was there on both weekends for 0-10000 and A/X/Y swiss events. I live about 40 min from SF when traffic is not too heavy.

Hopefully you will continue to post here