[TARIK]

Hello

I have started this topic to emphasize the long-lasting headache in BBO: Robots.
Yes, it's true that BBO is otherwise a good site, offering many interesting and entertaining options to play bridge.
But, and a very big BUT, the way robots bid, makes me sick, really sick. (how they play is another issue, but the bidding is a real headache)
I once remember a BBO announcement, stating that "if you don't like robots don't play with them"!! I consider this a very unfortunate declaration of a platform, which I considered to be #1 in online bridge world, or at least it was until i read this declaration.
Bridge is more beautiful when you play with humans. But very often, one logs in here and there is no one around. So you sit and try to play with robots. Either a tournament, a challenge or whatever. You even have to pay to play a robot tournament.
the bidding mistakes and discrepancies they make in the play made me quit in the middle of the game many times. What kind of mistakes are they? these things happened to me many times, only the ones I remember right now:
1. first of all, they are not consistent with their own alerts. That's incredible. a robot is a program (I am a retired software engineer by the way). When you program something, you might have some "limitations", but not stupid inconsistencies. Robot bids something and alerts it as say "9+ hcp and something". you bid accordingly up to a level, and when you play the contract you might see 4 or 5 points in robot's hand. For god's sake, can't you make a robot count points in their own hand??
2. robots make stupid preferences to choose the contract. you bid a second suit, which absolutely shows 4 cards. but instead of supporting it with 4-cards in their own hand, they give false preference to your first suit with 2-cards!!
3. you bid and rebid a suit, and it gets doubled. robot has zero cards in your suit and 7-card suit of it's own. they do not run to their long suit, and let you go down 1100 or whatever.
4. After a bidding ends at a low level, opps bid once more. and having an unbalanced hand, you rebid your last suit hoping you can make the contract at one higher level. And what happens next? the robot continues bidding after stopping at part-score level and takes you to an impossibly high level, as if you last bid promised extras. you get doubled again and leave the game!

This list may be expanded with similar illogical behaviors. I complained about these things to BBO a few times. The answer was "We use GIB's inherent system", meaning there is nothing we can do!! Suppose you get something from a market, it turns out to be rotten when you get home, and when you complain the market help guys answer: this is not our product, we get it from a supplier!! If you chose and use a tool in your system, you cannot defend yourself on the grounds that it was not developed by you!!

So why am I writing all that? I want everybody to share their thoughts on the topic. And post here the same stupid things robots do that make them sick. Why should we do this? Because I don't think that BBO gives a damn to that topic. I see them focused on things of their own interest. They changed the appearance of tournaments screen and is heralding us about that big improvement! as if it was big news, as if they developed something revolutionary. Being a programmer, I can say "funny". to put a few filters or change the appearance of a page is something we never mentioned in our programming days, unless it was crucial to notify the users about the change.

WE WANT BBO TO PUT A HAND ON THE ROBOT ISSUE RESPONSIBLY, WHICH IS A VERY IMPORTANT FEATURE IN THIS PLATFORM. I PERSONALLY AM READY TO PAY MONEY FOR GOOD ROBOTS. THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE PLAY NOW AND THEN WITH ROBOTS HERE. SO DO WHAT YOU SHOULD DO. IMRPOVE THE BIDDING OF THE ROBOTS. DO NOT SPEND TIME ON TRIVIAL APEERANCE CHANGES, MAKE AN IMPROVEMENT ABOUT THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN THIS PLATFORM: ROBOTS. HIRE PROGRAMMERS TO CORRECT THEM, AND DONT WORRY WE WILL PAY BACK YOUR EFFORTS WHEN YOU COME UP WITH GOOD BIDDING WITH ROBOTS.

So if you agree with me, please support this thread. Even if i don't get a single support, from today on I will post bidding catastrophies I encounter playing with robots here, until it draws attention of people.

[johnu]

FYI, Benellis58 has a long thread where he documents GIB misbids, misplays, and misexplanations.

Benellis58 thread

[mw64ahw]

So no different from some human partners I come across.

[lorserker]

Tarik, you have my attention.
You are welcome to post examples.
Thank you for your contribution.

[TARIK]

lorserker, on 2026-January-25, 03:39, said:

Tarik, you have my attention.
You are welcome to post examples.
Thank you for your contribution.

[TARIK]

Great, thank you. I was going to paste my first hand. But I couldn't. Can anybody please tell me how to insert a hand I have played?

[TARIK]

I found no way to post my hand here as a picture. I am not surprised that people cannot easily paste their hands here..Why give people that opportunity??? Clever.

[pescetom]

lorserker, on 2026-January-25, 03:39, said:

Tarik, you have my attention.

If he has your attention, maybe you could start by commenting on his point 1?

[TARIK]

pescetom, on 2026-January-25, 15:31, said:

If he has your attention, maybe you could start by commenting on his point 1?

I don't know now..Should I be worrying? Hope he has no connection with ICE!

[mycroft]

TARIK, on 2026-January-25, 14:45, said:

Great, thank you. I was going to paste my first hand. But I couldn't. Can anybody please tell me how to insert a hand I have played?

Where you see the history, there's a "hamburger" menu (three lines like a big equal sign). In that menu, one of the elements is "export", and "handviewer link" should be useful.

you get a "tinyurl.bridgebase.com" URL - here is one of my last hands (expanded and tweaked to anonymize the rest of my table).

[TARIK]

mycroft, on 2026-January-25, 17:11, said:

Where you see the history, there's a "hamburger" menu (three lines like a big equal sign). In that menu, one of the elements is "export", and "handviewer link" should be useful.

you get a "tinyurl.bridgebase.com" URL - here is one of my last hands (expanded and tweaked to anonymize the rest of my table).

Yes I know that, but i cannot paste the hand visibly, just the link. I am not sure if anybody will bother to open the link and inspect the (mis)bidding.
But anyway, better than nothing. But now the hand is in my history. But I am sure I can find new hand everyday.

[lorserker]

yes, export links like above are ideal for me to check.

[lorserker]

 pescetom, on 2026-January-25, 15:31, said:

If he has your attention, maybe you could start by commenting on his point 1?

The causes of Tarik's point 1 are:
a. bugs
b. the logic for "what to bid next" and "what does it mean" are related, but not completely the same
c. the robot explains the system, not what it holds, and it is capable to deviate from the system. when it does deviate, it still gives the same information