[bluff10]

I have probably played 20,000 BBO Robot Tournament hands and don't recall ever getting a hand where S can open a conventional (5-10 hcp) weak 2 bid. E/W open weak 2's fairly often. N does occasionally, but if S responds 2NT, N always rebids his suit, never gives a feature (maybe because they are always only in the 5-7 point range when they open weak 2). Both things need fixing for the sake of variety and practice for the 'real world'.

[mgoetze]

LOL.

[helene_t]

Hi Bluff10, welcome to the forum.

The hands are shuffled fairly so all four seats get the same number of hands suitable for a weak two opening. Of course it could be that you open 2M less often than the robots do because you have stricter criteria for suit quality etc.

The robots show a feature if they have one by my impression is that their style is fairly pure so they rarely have a feature when they choose to open a weak two.

[barmar]

The robot duplicate tournaments are "best hand", meaning that South always gets the hand with the most HCP. So South can never have less than 10 HCP.

[mgoetze]

barmar, on 2016-January-14, 12:20, said:

The robot duplicate tournaments are "best hand", meaning that South always gets the hand with the most HCP. So South can never have less than 10 HCP.

What I don't understand is why BBO is so averse to offering non "best hand" tournaments. The 25¢ games fill up very easily at the moment, I don't see how it could cost you to try offering one "random hand" tournament an hour.

[bluff10]

barmar, on 2016-January-14, 12:20, said:

The robot duplicate tournaments are "best hand", meaning that South always gets the hand with the most HCP. So South can never have less than 10 HCP.

That is exactly my point 'barmar', I'd like them to adjust the software so that occasionally N is given the 'best hand' and S is give a hand
with 5-10 hcp and a 6-card suit.

[Zelandakh]

bluff10, on 2016-January-14, 18:47, said:

That is exactly my point 'barmar', I'd like them to adjust the software so that occasionally N is given the 'best hand' and S is give a hand
with 5-10 hcp and a 6-card suit.

Is it a good idea to preempt when you know that partner holds the best hand at the table? Indeed, is it a good idea for you to know that at all?

[barmar]

mgoetze, on 2016-January-14, 13:01, said:

What I don't understand is why BBO is so averse to offering non "best hand" tournaments. The 25¢ games fill up very easily at the moment, I don't see how it could cost you to try offering one "random hand" tournament an hour.

When we first added best hand tournaments, we continued to run normal tournaments as well. The non-BH tourneys were not very popular, so we killed them.

[bluff10]

Zelandakh, on 2016-January-15, 09:19, said:

Is it a good idea to preempt when you know that partner holds the best hand at the table? Indeed, is it a good idea for you to know that at all?

Yes zel, I think its a good idea to 'preempt' with a weak-2 if this best describes your hand...you may 'know' or hope partner has the 'best hand', but that could be a wide range from say 12-25+ hcp, and its still a challenge to decide whether to bid game or not and whether to play in suit or NT. Partner may also have a better 6-bagger. These various responses require skill and practice.