[benellis58]

Another example of the worthless, useless, antiquated GIBBO system:

As far as North knows, South's 2H is merely a natural game try. In a LOGICAL Drury system, North could now bid 2S (for play, rejecting the invitation), 4S (for play, accepting the invitation), OR...3S (passing the decision back to South, basically saying "My hand is too good to merely sign off, but not good enough to leap to game by myself. It's an in-betweener, so now that YOU know that, dear partner, YOU decide whether you want to pass, stopping in our 3S partial, OR bid 4S, hoping that we have enough for game"). In a GOOD Drury system, there would be other options also, but I'm keeping this short here.

In the NOT good (read: hopeless, inferior, antiquated, pathetic...) GIBBO system, 3S is stupidly defined as "3+ spades, 11 HCP, 12 total points, forcing". Why the HELL is it "forcing"? His partner South made, as far as he knows, a GAME try, so he should reject it, accept it, OR pass the buck back...but in the GIBBO piece of trash system, it seems the poor dolts have NO way to pass the decision back if they have an in-betweener, but they NEEDLESSLY and WASTEFULLY have TWO ways to get to the game. Imbecilic as usual! Are the powers that be aware that their system is garbage, their definitions are garbage, and their robots are garbage?

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/3yz4x9h9

[benellis58]

I never thought I'd say this about a GIBBO robot, but North actually makes two good plays at tricks five and six. Declarer West, however, runs true to GIBBO form by not playing well. His line works only if I have a doubleton spade. I think he's better off inserting dummy's 10 on the second spade and just hoping the queen is onside. That gives him a 50 % chance, and on this random layout it happens to work.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/bdtjhu6m

[benellis58]

The stinking piece of GIBBO trash in the North leaps to 6NT with his 12-count. It has no play. And North has no ability.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/mszfbdvr

[benellis58]

Looks to me like the GIBBO declarer in the West makes an anti-percentage spade play and lucks out. Fortunately, he still scores only 17.9 % on the board.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/2p8r6223

[benellis58]

"Beautiful Losers" was a novel by Leonard Cohen that was published 60 years ago.

Would the same title be a good one for a biography of the GIBBO robots?

No, I don't think so. While it's true that "Losers" is an excellent description of GIBBO robots, "Beautiful" is a word that I would never use in describing the abominable misfits.

[benellis58]

Brand new month.

Same old GIBBO robots continuing to be useless pieces of trash with no idea about how to play bridge.

[benellis58]

The contract being played is 2D doubled, declared by East.

After the completion of trick three, the remaining hearts (a side suit) at this point are positioned as follows:

Defender South, who will be on lead to trick four, has the stiff 9.
Dummy West has the 108 doubleton.
Defender North has the J6 doubleton.
Declarer East has a void - no hearts left in his hand.

South leads his last heart, the 9.
Which card does declarer East call for from the dummy - the 10 or the 8?

He calls for the...EIGHT!

Yes, declarer East is INDEED a...GIBBO robot! But tell me - how did you EVER guess that he was?

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/2p8jryfc

[benellis58]

In the GIBBO system, a double of 1NT by a passed hand shows at least 5-5 in the majors. If that's something that they or anyone wants to play, who am I to object? No problem, if they think it's a useful treatment. BUT...

The GIBBO robots play all the time - including by a passed hand - that 2D over an enemy 1NT shows the majors. So WHY do they ALSO use a passed hand double to show basically the same thing? It's one of many examples of the very inefficient GIBBO system WASTING two (or sometimes even MORE!) calls to show essentially the same thing. NOT clever.

ALSO not clever is East's MISUSE of the tool in this hand. Holding Q9875, A853, 7, J93 in the passout seat and as a passed hand, he COMMITS a double, defined, as per their previously described system, in their own GIB definition as "5+ hearts; 5+ spades; 11- HCP; 9-12 total points".

To begin with, this is, as usual, a very poor definition. "11- HCP" literally means zero to eleven, so that tells us NOTHING and is absolutely worthless. As for "9-12 total points", which UNSCIENTIFIC, MEANINGLESS hat did they pull THAT rabbit out of...and how do "total" points even enter into the picture when.....no fit has yet been identified?

East makes this call VULNERABLE. He's "promising" five or MORE cards in each major...even though he has ONLY four hearts in an EMPTY suit apart from the ace. He does have five spades (wowee, zowie) but it's not exactly a suit of the quality that anyone would boast about. In the minors, where he is SUPPOSED to have at MOST three cards, he has four...and they're ALL losers (just like the GIBBO robots). His very poor choice of this conventional double "earns" his hopeless partnership yet ANOTHER pure zero to add to their huge lifetime collection.

BTW, West's 2H is inexplicably and STUPIDLY (what else?) defined by GIB as "3+ hearts; 6-10 total points". WHY, pray tell? PARTICULARLY the pure LUNACY about "6-10 total points"! He could have more, he could have less - his partner showed the majors and he's simply trying to survive by making what he hopes will be the best call.

As a side issue, regardless of this random layout or the result, WHY would my GIBBO "partner" lead a SPADE on this auction? Answer: BECAUSE he's a GIBBO robot and these world-class dolts LOVE to lead the ENEMY suits.

Yep: new month, but same old useless GIBBO robots.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/2p8f66xt

[benellis58]

At trick six, West plays and wins his heart king from AK109. His "partner" East should surely play the queen on this (from QJ3), but being a clueless and contemptible GIBBO robot, he woodenly follows with the 3. West shifts to a club, even though he can SEE that the dummy has FIVE tricks that will then be immediately cashed!

EW score a miserable 10.7 % on the board for their incompetent joke of a "defence". They are probably not at ALL bothered by the fact that they could have held declarer to "only" 8 tricks rather than the 9 he actually took (if they even REALIZE what they could and should have done!), but they MIGHT be bothered that they failed to add another total zero to their world-famous collection. Collecting ZEROES is the one and only thing that these bozos have any talent for.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/4634n8xk

[benellis58]

At trick three, a competent North would play the heart queen. North is a GIBBO robot, however, the polar OPPOSITE of competent, so he stupidly and woodenly plays a club. Fortunately, in spite of his typical lack of reasoning, logic, or intelligence, we score 100 % on the board anyway, proving yet again that we are very fortunate in GIBBO robot games because we are only playing "WITH" one total imbecile, but we are playing AGAINST two of them,

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/n5bzd7se

[benellis58]

I believe it was Stephen Sondheim who composed "Send in the Clowns". I wonder if the final word of his title was inspired by GIBBO robots? Look at this, for example:

East chooses to lead a SPADE of all things INTO North, who is declaring 3NT after having earlier bid one...SPADE. He leads the SIX of spades from KQ1065, thereby GIVING declarer a FREE spade trick on the fly.

But East is not yet finished being GENEROUS to declarer, because with his FIRST pitch, at trick three, and LOOKING at dummy South's FOUR diamonds, East pitches...a...DIAMOND (!) from HIS four-card holding, thereby IMMEDIATELY presenting declarer with a FOURTH diamond trick.

The word "garbage" does not even come CLOSE to describing how totally useless these GIBBO jerks are at bridge. They rot, through and through. They are the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low, and a true embarrassment to the game.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/yc84ejtd

[benellis58]

Typically stupid lead by West, who, like ALL GIBBO robots, perversely and illogically LOVES to lead enemy suits.

https://tinyurl.bridgebase.com/6d7zpzp

[benellis58]

Lousy GIBBO auction, as expected.

Meanwhile, look at the ridiculous, illogical, and useless GIB definition of East's nonsensical double of 2H. We'll do it piece by pathetic piece.

"3- spades". If you say so, but his earlier forcing 1NT could sometimes produce three spades in at least two possible scenarios: a hand that he merited as being worth a response but not good enough to make a 2S bid that might encourage partner...OR a limit raise of spades with "only" three spades.

"12+ HCP". First, saying "12+" is vague, because the lazy, sloppy statement "12+" literally means 12-37. Second, this is inconsistent, since his earlier 1NT was described (lazily and vaguely - AGAIN) as "12- HCP", which literally means 0-12. Furthermore, I don't think I have ever seen a GIBBO robot bid a forcing 1NT with as many as 12...AND on THIS hand East has "only" 11 HCP, so either he is ignoring his own GIB definition or the definition itself is inaccurate, misleading, and dishonest. In other words, total trash by the system, the definitions, AND the robots - all of which are ALWAYS expected.

"12- total points". Sigh, here we go AGAIN. First, just about ANY time the pathetic GIB definitions refer to "total" points, it's meaningless drivel, because there is virtually never an actual REASON for these figures and they're usually just random numbers pulled out of some hat. Second, as I've mentioned many times, high-card points can be less than or equal to "total" points, but they CANNOT be more, because "total" points are derived by ADDING any applicable distribution points to the existing base of whatever the high-card points are...but the STUNNINGLY inept GIB definitions almost always get this SIMPLE concept backwards, just as this particular piece of trash does. And BTW, why are "total" points even MENTIONED here, since at the point the dimwitted East robot commits his ridiculous double, EW have thus far not identified ANY fit. The only excuse I can give for East is that he is handcuffed by an incredibly bad GIBBO system and always pathetic GIB definitions. Give a piece of trash some MORE trash to work with, and what you end up with is...DUH...TRASH!

"Forcing to 3NT". What? WHY? Where the HELL did THIS come from, and with East's actual hand of (a mere) ELEVEN HCP, WHY the HELL would he be forcing to 3NT? INVITING I could sympathize with, but FORCING is ridiculous.

So after a series of questionable bids, within the context of a hopeless, antiquated, very poorly constructed GIBBO joke of a system, explained by pathetic and often incorrect GIB definitions, these two useless bozos get to a no-play contract that, of COURSE, fails.

In other words, no surprises at ALL.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/yvx7nu3m

[benellis58]

The definition of East's double of 4S is "5+ hearts; 13-21 HCP; 14-22 total points", which is totally, completely useless GARBAGE.

From his opening 1H bid, we already knew that he had five or more hearts and we already knew that his HCP were in basically that range. The "14-22 total points" is ENTIRELY unscientific, as GIB just employs its usual USELESS method of adding one point to each end of the HCP, so that 13 HCP magically (and for absolutely NO reason) become 14 "total" points, and 21 HCP magically (and for absolutely NO reason) become 22 "total" points.

The insane definition of the double means that it would apply to - and is apparently RECOMMENDED (!) by GIB for...the VAST MAJORITY of (in fact, almost ALL) hands that East would have opened 1H with. And what USEFUL information does it give to his "partner" West? NONE. None at all. The NINE-point range from 13 to 21 is way too broad and vague to be of ANY assistance to West. As for East's shape, West has learned NOTHING new. He ALREADY knew that East has at least five hearts. Does East have more? Who knows? Does East have a two-suiter? Who knows? If he does, what's his second suit? Who knows? Does he have a THREE-suiter? Who knows? Does he have a mere 13 HCP or a STRONG 21? Who knows? Is he suggesting defending or declaring? Who knows? Yeah, a really GREAT system you have there, Mr. GIBBO, and a really USEFUL definition you've so kindly provided, Mr. GIB. No WONDER your hopeless robots so often get things wrong!

On THIS board, the EW robots score...ANOTHER total ZERO. That is NEVER a surprise when you talk about these pitiful rejects. I almost feel sorry for them.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/4c86452m

[benellis58]

Is it difficult to find a hand where you can criticize GIBBO?

I think not.

Choose any hand at random, as long as it has at least three GIBBO robots participating in it, and carefully examine all definitions, bids, and plays. I suspect you will find at least one, and probably more, examples worthy of criticism, because the system, definitions, and robots are all so excruciatingly bad that it is VERY unlikely that a hand would occur that did not feature some sort of stupidity.

[benellis58]

North-South make 3D plus an overtrick (thanks to the club blockage) for plus 130 and a score on the board of 85.7 %.

Note that East-West, who never do anything other than pass (!!!) on this hand, are ICE COLD for 4S and will actually almost always make 5S. They will be limited to ten tricks ONLY if South plays a diamond after winning his club ace AND West plays his king rather than his 7.

These hopeless GIBBO robots are usually OVERbidders, often bidding on virtually nothing (to their detriment!), yet when they SHOULD be bidding, they keep their mouths shut. They are absolutely pathetic.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/3r9fkfcs

[benellis58]

A few comments on this hand.

First, the hopeless, pathetic, antiquated, illogical JOKE of a GIBBO system is once again exposed, as it so often is, as being a piece of trash. Over East's 3C, if South chooses to double (which he does not - but that's irrelevant to the issue being discussed here), it will be takeout. This makes on sense at all. South has already narrowly defined his hand through his 1NT opening, so his partner North KNOWS that South has a relatively flat 15-17 HCP. Thus, North does not need to be PRODDED into bidding. Since he ALREADY has a good mental picture of South's hand, he can and will bid (or double) if he thinks it's "right", and he will PASS if it's not. In fact, by making a TAKEOUT (!) double, South would effectively be bidding the SAME VALUES twice - which, of course, is NOT a good strategy. By making a TAKEOUT double, South - who has ALREADY shown his hand (!) on the previous round, two levels LOWER (!), would be FORCING his innocent partner (who, in a GOOD system, could conceivably have a YARBOROUGH!) to bid. (Yes, I realize that because of the - lousy, in my opinion - Stayman structure of GIBBO, South knows that North has some values.) This could easily lead to a totally avoidable disaster (EVEN if North DOES have some values), because without South making a TAKEOUT double, North could just PASS East's 3C if it seems "right" to do so. Furthermore, by playing this double as TAKEOUT, NS are giving the opponents carte blanche to rob them blind in the bidding, knowing that thanks to NS's decision to play a double here as TAKEOUT, South cannot double East for penalty. (Yes, I realize that NORTH could double, but that opens up a whole other can of worms that I won't waste time discussing here.

Next: North's 6D bid. Yes, it was successful, as the hand made with an overtrick. Bravo. BUT - it could just as easily have been a complete failure. North did NOT have someone pointing a gun at his head and saying he must IMMEDIATELY name a final contract. There was NO need for him to arbitrarily and unilaterally decide that 6D was the perfect spot, NO need for him to leap THREE LEVELS and GUESS...when he had all that available space to exchange information with his partner South and intelligently and scientifically determine the best contract.

Then, finally, there's East's FATUOUS lead of his stiff heart. I guess the "logic" of this complete ignoramus was that he DESPERATELY wanted a heart ruff. But consider how naive that is: He ALSO has a stiff trump...so he needs his partner to specifically have the ace of hearts , to win it, and to return one. Is it REALLY likely that his partner has an ACE...especially when he himself has one (the ace of clubs) and his RHO has just leapt to slam? Moreover, this is a MATCHPOINT game, so surely it's best to lead his club ace. Here it would at least have prevented the overtrick.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/2p8mr2r4

[benellis58]

Seems to me that West's 2H was fine but 3H was pushing it. West scored a lowly 7.1 % on the board when he went down two.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/yckju7nb

[benellis58]

With the spade ace onside and hearts not 5-0, I can always make 6H on any lead (even a club), so West was always getting a zero on the board and his lead was not the reason - but it was STILL a SILLY lead on the auction, given that diamonds was KNOWN to be North's second suit.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/ccpsevc8

[benellis58]

Instead of masking the normal, obvious heart lead staring him in the face (with QJ1084), West leads his stiff diamond, PRAYING (I guess) that he'll get a diamond ruff. WHY, pray tell - given that he is HIGHLY favoured to score a NATURAL trump trick with the K7 doubleton of spades (trump) BEHIND the 2S bidder.
BTW, I made the bizarre 2S bid for two reasons: I was playing with a GIBBO robot and against two other GIBBO robots, and going in, I was well aware that all three were hopeless "bridge players",...and it was a "best hand" game so I "knew" that our partnership had roughly half the deck but had no game.

At trick two, West showed his cowardice by foolishly popping his spade king. Had he had the guts and brains to play low, he WOULD have obtained that diamond ruff he so desperately craved, and his partner East (with AJ dub of spades behind dummy's queen) would have scored two natural trump tricks. That would have held me to 9 tricks rather than the 10 I took. Of course, a NORMAL heart lead would also have held me to nine, but West - a GIBBO robot - found a COMBINATION of bad plays (the silly diamond lead and the cowardly pop of the spade king) to allow me to make 10. Thank you, Mr. West: You GIBBO bozos - oops, sorry, I mean you GIBBO gentlemen - are always VERY generous when you "defend".



https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/mvh4u69y