[Bbradley62]

I am copying one of Jane's hands here, because I think it's worth reporting GIB's bizarreness.

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First, is North really a transfer-and-pass strength hand? Isn't it worth a direct invitation?
Second, at the tables where South passed in the direct seat over 2♠, North competed with 3♥. Why would North bid hearts in the one case but go to no trump in the other, when partner has stated she prefers hearts and maybe doesn't even have a spade stopper?

[mgoetze]

North thinks South has a super max - 3♥ is described as 18 TP but South only has 16 TP. This is not entirely sensible but apparently it's the system. Now North counts again and thinks, oh, well then we do have enough TP for game after all. Then North checks whether he has a "likely stop in S". And we have all learned by now that J9 is a pretty good stopper in GIB's book...

[cloa513]

mgoetze, on 2011-July-07, 03:04, said:

North thinks South has a super max - 3♥ is described as 18 TP but South only has 16 TP. This is not entirely sensible but apparently it's the system. Now North counts again and thinks, oh, well then we do have enough TP for game after all. Then North checks whether he has a "likely stop in S". And we have all learned by now that J9 is a pretty good stopper in GIB's book...

South has more than 16 TP as its nearly all ace and kings- great for suit play no so great for NT if your partners long suit is moderate to low quality like that GIB hand was. If it was high quality then it is just a cash out 3NT.
GIB should automatically with such an overall hand bid 4♥. It really an invitational hand anyway.

[G_R__E_G]

GIB uses simulations to make decisions. After S accepted the transfer, GIB would have run simulations and they would have told him that passing 2♥ was best. If these same simulations were run again it might come to a different conclusion. The same goes for bidding 3NT after the 3♥ call. While it may seem strange, from the information that GIB had it figured that the best contract was 3NT based upon the results of simulations. It's hard to believe that with a known 9 card fit that this was the most successful bid but with running a relatively small number of simulations it's not overly surprising that 3NT might be the choice.