[mgoetze]

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[ahydra]

Hehe. Some would bid 4S with West - but not GiB who knows that North will erroneously pass for a good score?

ahydra

[ArtK78]

Funny subtitle. And all too true.

[aguahombre]

Good job by the North Robot. He saved the partnership from the -800 it deserved. Or, perhaps the colors are posted differently from the hand and N/S were headed for a better result.

[ahydra]

What's so bad about south's X? Correct shape, correct point count... Now if West had bid 4S like most people would, and then North had bid on and that had gone for 800, I would understand.

ahydra

[aguahombre]

ahydra, on 2012-February-21, 11:05, said:

What's so bad about south's X? Correct shape, correct point count... Now if West had bid 4S like most people would, and then North had bid on and that had gone for 800, I would understand.

ahydra

4H would be 800. "Bad" is not a term I am willing to use in judgement debates; some people don't think a rather normal 1-bid with no special shape is enough to suggest the 4-level. They would have accidentally been right on this hand.

[ArtK78]

ahydra, on 2012-February-21, 11:05, said:

What's so bad about south's X? Correct shape, correct point count... Now if West had bid 4S like most people would, and then North had bid on and that had gone for 800, I would understand.

ahydra

A takeout double in direct seat over a preempt should be sound. It should have perfect shape with normal high card values OR extra high card values OR both. This hand is a marginal takeout double of an opening 1♠ bid. I would not double a 3♠ opening on these cards.

Having said that, the conversion of the takeout double to penalties by passing out 3♠x is just terrible.

[jamegumb]

Would either Robot double 4H? And does West alone have enough to double it? Partner presumably could be much weaker, and North/South could have much better shape.

[AyunuS]

Probably neither robot would double 4H as neither has all that much strength, and even their high trump cards they don't really value as much as most players would when considering if they should double. You'd probably be okay on 4H. Anyway, the passing of the double with that kind of hand is pretty much a known feature of GIB, but I agree that I wish it would bid something more often with that kind of hand.

[Bbradley62]

Piling on... South doesn't have what he showed, but that's not the point here in the GIB forum... http://tinyurl.com/7hnx3wg

[aguahombre]

I don't understand the apologists for that hopeless double who say that East might not double in return for penalty.

Robot or not, at these colors a double by East would be good Bridge. We get to penalize the opponents' joke calls. East didn't raise 3S to four; do we think he failed to take that reasonable action because he was going to subside peacefully?

South's no-win double deserved a worse fate than minus 630. It was no-win, because his partner could balance with any hand when game is remotely a good thing; and he lost the opportunity to defend 3S if the East robot made a close judgement to pass instead of raise.

[mgoetze]

aguahombre, on 2012-February-26, 00:13, said:

It was no-win, because his partner could balance with any hand when game is remotely a good thing;

Of course, and I would not double opposite a human, but the fact is that GIB is not very good at knowing when to balance, so I double somewhat more aggressively in direct seat playing with GIB. I did not open this thread to discuss that, however.

What I truly don't understand are the apologists for North's pass...

[aguahombre]

mgoetze, on 2012-February-26, 08:24, said:

What I truly don't understand are the apologists for North's pass...

The North Bot somehow fielded the body language (botty language?) of the other two bots, and chose the least minus avaiable.

Being a BOT, he wouldn't care if we hurt his feelings on these fora by describing his pass as idiotic. He was purely acting in South's best interests.