[Huibertus]

I came across this hand in the Goulash with Ben 2026-01-05 tournament. Had I had the same hand in goulash social after hours game we had at my club when we were young I would have said to East : "I'm going to bid 7 ♠ I dare you to double and you can lead and defend with all 4 hands open but I'll redouble."

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The fun part? Given this was the Ben tournament 4♥ 4♠ 5♥ was what the 3 bots did in front of ALL 369 players.

ONLY 157 bid 7 ♠ the rest sold out to 5/6 ♥ doubled or not, of bid 6 or 5 ♠ which got doubled. 25 of them redoubled 6 ♠ which if this was hoped for and done on purpose is great, otherwise risky as they might NOT double, one of them did not make the overtrick? So I expected a 50% push board, got almost 72%. Incredible!

By the way can someone comment on the 4 ♠ bid by the bot?

Is it programmed differently for goulash tournaments or would it do the same had this hand been dealt randomly in a normal tournament? I’m not sure if I like it or not but I was surprised by THIS dummy. I would have expected a lot more (wasted) HCP in ♣ and ♦.

[pescetom]

I only once played with Ben, but if it's trained on human bidding I don't find 4♠ very surprising, unlike 5♥ by East.

[Huibertus]

pescetom, on 2026-January-07, 01:57, said:

I only once played with Ben, but if it's trained on human bidding I don't find 4♠ very surprising, unlike 5♥ by East.

5♥ looks questionable too, I agree, although i feel it's better then passing.

[pescetom]

Huibertus, on 2026-January-07, 03:11, said:

5♥ looks questionable too, I agree, although i feel it's better then passing.

Agreed, but arguably worse than 5♦ or 6♦.

[thepossum]

I don't want to sound like a party-pooper but I can't see the appeal

PS I do know it is a party game after everyone has had a few too many and nobody cares

[Huibertus]

thepossum, on 2026-January-08, 03:00, said:

I don't want to sound like a party-pooper but I can't see the appeal

PS I do know it is a party game after everyone has had a few too many and nobody cares

You can like it or not, that's fine. It DOES however enhance players understanding of hand evaluation, when to take out or not, insurance premiums and slam bidding potential big time.

[Cyberyeti]

I've had one where the conversation went: (with the lead face down)

Me: If you've got what you should have, I can claim
Pd: You'd better play it

Unusual Auction: 3N-6♥. I had something like void, AKQJxxxx, xx, KQx, partner's diamonds were AKJ10xxx but they behaved

[mikeh]

Back in the day, when we played a relay method, and we had friends as our opponents that match, I claimed 7N, announcing my winners, before the opening lead was made. That was at a time when we actually knew our methods🤔

[thepossum]

 Huibertus, on 2026-January-08, 08:21, said:

You can like it or not, that's fine. It DOES however enhance players understanding of hand evaluation, when to take out or not, insurance premiums and slam bidding potential big time.

Looks like a gambling game to me

[Huibertus]

thepossum, on 2026-January-08, 23:24, said:

Looks like a gambling game to me

Try it, especially for an amount of money you can't afford to lose. You'll learn from it, YES it is a form of gambling.

That's actually the point of the learning experience. Normal randomly dealt bridge hands that run in to high level competitive bidding always have elements of gambling in it, it is useful to understand which gambles are percentage plays and which are not. Goulash does this for you.

[Huibertus]

mikeh, on 2026-January-08, 11:59, said:

Back in the day, when we played a relay method, and we had friends as our opponents that match, I claimed 7N, announcing my winners, before the opening lead was made. That was at a time when we actually knew our methods🤔

That's great. Would have been a better approach on this hand then NOT bidding 7♠.

"You don't have a !♠ to lead, you don't have a♥ to lead, lead a ♦ dummy ruffs, cashes !c Ace, then cross ruff the rest. Lead a ♣, dummy's Ace takes, then a high cross ruff. Have a !♠ after all, we can afford to have 1 round of trumps drawn. Have a ♥ after all? Ruff in hand, !♣ Ace, cross ruff"