[johnu]

In one of the recent ACBL NABC practice sessions (matchpoints), GIB trotted out RKC for hearts with 1 keycard without the queen of hearts. Amazingly enough, I had 2 keycards and the queen of trump so my response to 4NT was 5♠. Whoops Who could have guessed that a 2 key card and queen of trump response would lead to a slam missing 2 aces

I suggest that the programming be changed so GIB needs a minimum number of keycards to use RKC.

Some preliminary thoughts,

When partner has the stronger hand,

If spades are trump, at least 1 key card
If hearts are trump, at least 2 keycards if not holding queen of hearts
If hearts are trump, at least 1 keycard if holding queen of hearts
If diamonds are trump, at least 2 keycards
If clubs are trump, at least 3 keycards (BBO notes say GIB uses 0314 responses)

Other restrictions???

[jdonn]

The problem with saying what you want GIB to NOT do, is, in each situation you also need to say what you want GIB to actually do. It works very badly to simply prevent things, since then GIB often makes far worse choices.

[johnu]

1st question to ask is what would GIB do if it didn't play RKC. I don't know the answer and obviously the answer depends on the actual hand, but a further cue bid, raise to 5 in trump suit, or pass are the 3 possibilities I can think of. I think jumping to slam should not be an option if you are worried about keycards. Presumably simulations would come into play at this level.

[Mbodell]

If the alternative is to contrast blast or pass with making a keycard call that may lead to a bad answer, that still might be the right call. For instance if the blast and pass answer says to blast, then trying keycard even if it may get you too high may be advisable if when you (surprisingly) get a really low answer you can stay lower and/or if you get the very positive answer you can show all the keys and allow for a 7 to be in play. I'm not saying that GIB is bidding right in all cases or in your case, but I think there are times when the bid is sensible even if there is some chance for a bad situation.

[johnu]

Mbodell, on 2017-July-14, 02:31, said:

If the alternative is to contrast blast or pass with making a keycard call that may lead to a bad answer, that still might be the right call. For instance if the blast and pass answer says to blast, then trying keycard even if it may get you too high may be advisable if when you (surprisingly) get a really low answer you can stay lower and/or if you get the very positive answer you can show all the keys and allow for a 7 to be in play. I'm not saying that GIB is bidding right in all cases or in your case, but I think there are times when the bid is sensible even if there is some chance for a bad situation.

Why blast or pass??? Cue bid or raise trump suit to 5 level are clearly intermediate choices and I have seen GIB do that before.