[calm01]

http://tinyurl.com/6u6j67u

There have been reports about GIB not giving partner a chance of a trump promotion by leading a non-trump suit.

Here is an example where GIB fails to ruff high in third position (it used the 5D rather than the 10 diamonds) when a different kind of trump promotion might be possible. It would not have worked here but there seems to be a significant gap in GIB defending skills when defending trump contracts.

When some bridge players get past beginner stage they just love trump promotions of various kinds because it seems like magic to them.

My experience is consistent with GIB not having been programmed with any concept of looking for and/or exploiting possible trump promotions.

When do you feel might be practical to 'educate' GIB past the beginner stage in this respect?

If the answer is it too difficult then perhaps it might be another argument in favour of replacing GIB with a better program that is easier to both enhance and extend.

[barmar]

I don't think there's a possibility of trump promotion on this hand. Suppose the Q and J are swapped, and North ruffs with the 10 to force declarer to overruff with A. Declarer can simply finesse the 9 to pick up the suit. This isn't just double dummy, it's also the correct SD play because of restricted choice.

I've explained this many times. GIB isn't programmed with ANY strategies in the play. It's just not the way it's written. Except for a few simple rules about opening leads, it's all based on simulations and DD analysis, and we don't have anyone who can redesign it.

There are better bridge robots on the market these days, and I agree that it would be easier if we could replace GIB. If or when this might happen, I can't comment on. For now, we're concentrating on fixing the GIB problems that don't require major redesign (mostly bidding issues).