[iandayre]

Having been playing in GIB tournaments for about a year now, I thought I was familiar with the program's strengths and weaknesses. I have never seen it make such a ridiculous call in this type of situation before though.

http://tinyurl.com/p6hvn5r

Double??? Come on Uday, let's fix some of these egregiously bad bids. I was fortunate to be playing human best hand, just bid 4S which was the normal spot. That aspect saves you quite often, and is why I would never play with GIB against human opponents.

[1eyedjack]

Not to condone the double on the cited hand, which is clearly atrocious, your decision not to play with robots in human tourneys is of course yours freely to make, and for whatever reasons however valid. And clearly you have enough experience with robots to make an informed decision.

I would just direct you to this thread:

http://www.bridgebas...post__p__805070

and

http://www.bridgebas...post__p__756610

One thing that worries me is the possibility that "improvements" to GIB with each upgrade may introduce unplanned and unforeseen bugs in areas where it was previously operating normally. I wonder, for example, whether all previous versions of GIB would have doubled on the hand that gave rise to this thread.

[iandayre]

I would explain GIB's success in these competitions to the fact that it counts every hand, never miscounting or forgetting. This is a tremendous long-term advantage over humans below the expert skill level. Its declarer play, helped by counting of course, is a strength as well. Bidding-wise it handles some complex auctions quite well, while often manufacturing bizarre calls that no human at any level would consider.

[iandayre]

iandayre, on 2014-December-07, 13:23, said:

I would explain GIB's success in these competitions to the fact that it counts every hand, never miscounting or forgetting. This is a tremendous long-term advantage over humans below the expert skill level. Its declarer play, helped by counting of course, is a strength as well. Bidding-wise it handles some complex auctions quite well, while often manufacturing bizarre calls that no human at any level would consider.

By playing in the Robot tourneys we do neutralize one of GIB's strengths by having the human declare every hand.