[RonW9975]

Robot games on BBO are a relatively recent concept. And, robots as partners have several good qualities. For one thing, they don't cheat. They're also silent when I make a mistake, and play with the utmost consistency. They're also superb defenders. It's no wonder that robot games are so popular on BBO. I've often wondered whether Match Point (MP) or IMP scoring is a better measure of a players skill in competitive robot games. MP scoring is unweighted and far more popular than IMP (weighted) scoring. But, which is the better way of scoring a risk/reward game like duplicate bridge ? Appreciate any thoughts on this.

[pilowsky]

I take it that you are talking about the $0.29 duplicate challenge format IMP tournaments and the $0.45 MP tournaments.
For all the reasons that you mention, I think they are great.
There are usually a variety of players, the outcome is stratified and they are generally well-paced.
The challenge format means that if you complete your boards early you can kib other players and watch your standing change.
I prefer the IMPS format because even up to the end there is a chance of a swing to compensate for errors at the start. Plus they are a few cents cheaper .
Either way, great value and a lot of fun. I hope they continue.

[Vampyr]

RonW9975, on 2020-August-10, 15:09, said:

Robot games on BBO are a relatively recent concept.

Robot games are not new. In fact, over quite a few years probably the largest category of threads was the robots and how poorly they play. People have mainly given up as few improvements have ever been made.

As a result GIB is probably no longer in the top five bridge robots, and depending on how many exist, probably not in the top ten.

Bridge Base’s dominant market share means they don’t really need to produce or lease a decent bridge robot. It is a pity.

[sparekh01]

How do I interpret IMPs displayed during each hand? Also, they seem be to be changing as you play. What does that mean?

Appreciate youR reply, in advance.

[barmar]

sparekh01, on 2020-August-12, 13:54, said:

How do I interpret IMPs displayed during each hand? Also, they seem be to be changing as you play. What does that mean?

Appreciate youR reply, in advance.

You interpret them the same way as in any other IMP Pairs tournament. Your result is compared with each other result, the IMP differences are calculated, and the total of all of them is divided by the number of other results to get an average.

In a robot duplicate, they change as you play because other players finish each hand at different times. So at one time there may be only 5 comparisons, a few minutes later there will be 10, and the IMPs are recalculated.