[benellis58]

GIBBO robots often foolishly and illogically bid a minor when they should be bidding a major. Here, though, it seems they are doing the reverse:

After North fails to open the bidding in second seat, East opens 1S in third, and South doubles for takeout.

West bids 2S.

North looks at his hand: 95, 7642, QJ10976, K. He is red against white. Should he pass or should he bid?

Well, as far as I'm concerned, it's not even close. He should definitely, one hundred percent, bid. For once, GIBBO and I see eye to eye, because, to his credit, North does bid...but...

He bids three HEARTS. Yes, I understand that majors are "better" than minors and usually should take priority...but I think THIS hand is an exception. North is bidding at the three level, red against white, so he wants some safety and security. Diamonds provide both far more than hearts. In terms of quantity, he has SIX diamonds but only four hearts. In terms of quality, his SIX diamonds are very respectable, with almost perfect solidity from the queen down: QJ10976. Compare that quality to his FOUR hearts: the absolutely woeful 7642.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/j6f3x7bk

[benellis58]

"Return a HEART at trick two? Are you crazy? Why would I ever want to return a HEART after my PARTNER led them?" asks a visibly agitated East.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/2p9dx3e2

[benellis58]

North's 3S bid: He tried his BEST to put us into a 3-3 (!) "fit" but fortunately he didn't succeed. Note, BTW, that he has one fewer spade than his own GIB definition promises and ALSO one fewer club than it promises. Moral: Don't ever trust a stinking GIBBO robot. Corollary: That means don't ever trust any GIBBO robot, because they all stink.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/3jchx5ws

[benellis58]

As South, I have quite a good hand, within the context of having "only" 12 HCP, but I "only" raised to 2S because:

A. I do have "only" 12 HCP, even though the hand is worth 15 "total" points.
B. North passed as dealer, so he has at most 11 HCP.
C. North, a cursed GIBBO robot, is - like all of his hopeless brethren - a lousy bidder in general but a notorious overbidder in particular.

After East bid 3C over my "mere" 2S and North and West both passed, I had an easy and obvious 3S call in passout seat. West passed, and now...

NORTH...bid...FOUR spades. Remember I said he was "a notorious overbidder"? See? Here's the proof that I didn't lie.

Note that he ALSO committed a typical CARDINAL sin of the execrable GIBBO robots: His partner competes/balances, and then the robot HANGS his partner for doing so. More often than not, he turns a plus into a minus, or he turns a potentially profitable sacrificial minus into a LOSING minus by making it a bigger and potentially doubled minus.

Here, it actually worked out well (more on that later), but that does NOT justify North's typically stupid and illogical 4S bid. Consider:

A. He MIGHT have competed over West's 3C, but he didn't. He didn't even think he was strong enough to merely compete to the THREE level, but now...NOW...his hand has MAGICALLY become strong enough to RAISE partner South's merely competitive call of three spades to four!
B. And it's not as if SOUTH has suddenly shown greater values, because (comically) the GIB definitions for BOTH (!) 2S AND 3S are IDENTICAL: "5+ hearts; 4+ spades; 11+ HCP; 12-16 total points".

So, there is absolutely NO justification, reason, or logic for North to be so inconsistent in his bidding, or to put it in more straightforward terms, North is an I.D.I.O.T.

I made 10 tricks for plus 420 and a score of 96.88 % on the board, tied with one other human who had the same result. The board was played in spades 12 times, and 10 of those times the human took fewer than 10 tricks.

At my table, regardless of layout or result, the EW "defenders" showed their typical "ability". East made one of his beloved (and often stupid and costly) leads: His stiff trump (spades). West won and shifted to a club. When East won his heart king at trick three, he shifted to a diamond. As so often happens, it looks like the "defenders" were at cross-purposes throughout and had no coherent strategy.

https://www.bridgeba...HT%7Cmc%7C10%7C

[benellis58]

82.14 % for going down "only" one in 3NT. Given the bad splits in BOTH red suits, it looked like my only chance to go down "only" one was to play for a suicide squeeze against East. Thus, at trick seven, I exited with my spade 10. West won and safely cashed two more spades in tricks eight and nine. Then at trick ten he cashed his heart 10.

At this point (the conclusion of trick ten), NS had taken 6 tricks, EW 4. These were the three cards remaining in each of the four hands:

West, the "defender" currently on lead, had the high 8 of hearts and the J8 of clubs.
North, the dummy, had the 6 of hearts and the Q3 of clubs.
East, the other "defender", had the high queen of diamonds and the K10 of clubs.
South, the declarer (yours truly), had the 7 of diamonds and the A4 of clubs.

At trick eleven, West now...made the error of cashing his 8 of hearts, which created the suicide squeeze that I had envisioned at trick seven...because...North followed suit with the heart 6, but East had NO WINNING PLAY. If he pitched his high queen of diamonds, I would pitch my 4 of clubs and take the last two tricks with my club ace and my now-established diamond 7. And if East instead pitched a club from his K10 dub, I would pitch my diamond 7 and take the last two tricks with my club ace (at trick 12) and dummy's club QUEEN at trick 13, since East's now-STIFF king would have been played at trick 12.

So, a perfect suicide squeeze as I had envisioned at trick seven...BUT...West could and should have prevented it! At trick 11, rather than foolishly cashing his high 8 of hearts, he should have led a club. Whatever I did, the defenders would establish a club trick. If I played low from dummy, East's 10 (OR West's jack, if he had led that card from his J8) would force my ace, and I would be left with a losing club and a losing diamond. And if I played dummy's club QUEEN at trick 11, East would have covered with his king, forcing my ace, and again leaving me with a losing club and a losing diamond.

By defending correctly and NOT cashing his high heart 8 at trick 11, West would NOT have "assisted" me in the suicide squeeze. He would have NOT scored his HEART trick, but he would have been MORE than compensated by his partnership scoring TWO of the last three tricks rather than JUST one.

This was a defensive error perhaps more forgivable than most, since it was a more complex issue, but the fact nonetheless remains that when the GIBBO robot sitting West was presented with a test of his defensive ability, he FAILED it...as expected for these clueless jabronis.

https://www.bridgeba...CC8%7Cmc%7C8%7C

[benellis58]

96.15 % for "only" going down one in 4S (shared top with someone who went down one in TWO spades), so I'm certainly not complaining, but I'm not impressed by North's bidding, despite our good result. My OWN bidding is obviously EXTREMELY "conservative" for the USUAL reasons, and this is quite obviously a true FREAK of a hand, but ignoring everything up to and including South's 3NT call, it certainly seems that four CLUBS by North would be a more accurate description of his hand (given that he had SEVEN clubs and "only" six spades) than four SPADES.

https://www.bridgeba...CHK%7Cmc%7C9%7C

[benellis58]

Thanks for the gift of your VERY helpful, and very questionable, lead, Mr. West: a lead which offered me a score of 100 % on a platter without even breathing hard, while you got to add another complete zero to your TRULY impressive MASSIVE collection. So: Maybe we're BOTH happy for different reasons.

https://www.bridgeba...DT%7Cpc%7CDQ%7C