[TimG]

I've recently noticed some very good players (NABC champion, star players) playing in ACBL Robot Duplicates. I'm curious what the motivation might be. Is there some learning from these that I have overlooked? I do not expect the players I have seen are doing it for the masterpoints. Maybe there are some prop bets in play?

[uday]

What are prop bets ?

[mike777]

"In gambling, a proposition bet (also called a side bet, prop bet, prop, or exotic) is a bet made on an outcome or a proposition. These can be anything from statistics and happenstance in a regular game to personal, one-of-a-kind bets. Examples of the former include betting on which team scores first in a match, or which cards are flopped in poker. An example of a one-of-a-kind bet, detailed in the book "The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King", was David Grey betting Howard Lederer, a vegetarian due to gastric bypass surgery, $10,000 that he wouldn't eat a cheeseburger. (Lederer ate the cheeseburger, and won.)"

http://en.wikipedia....Proposition_bet

[CarlRitner]

One possibility is that BBO has made changes to the GIB bidding, and is asking players of a particular skill level to test it out and comment.

That's just a random surmise.

[uday]

I wish

[maggieb]

It's just mindless fun that nobody takes too seriously. It is entertaining to some people to see how far they can mess with GIB (and believe me, that is the name of the game).

[Quantumcat]

Yes it is probably just a bit of fun, and you don't have to deal with any annoying opponents. Perhaps their partners cancelled their practice at the last minute and they need something to do. They can also win points that they can spend on GIBs which is handy for practicing with their partners too (having GIBs as opponents) since you can't practice competitive bidding or defence on the partnership bidding rooms.

[mike777]

I have never played the acbl robot duplicate but in talking with several Diamond Life Masters they love the option of playing in these games. They are very fast and enjoyable and well worth their entertainment dollar. From what I understand they do not attempt to game GIB in anyway. Yes, GIB makes errors but they do not seem to feel that the number of errors are large or unusual. They find GIB to be a wonderful online partner.

No doubt the next generation of GIB will play even better.

Bottom line they highly recommend this game if your fav. live partners are not online.