[donnamf]

I’ve been playing in individual games recently. System is designated 2/1. All bids are explained, including your own, which you can preview before you commit.

Why do so many players ignore the explanations? Since none of us have any pre-agreed understandings, just go with the bot system. I know the bots have a couple of quirky bidding conventions, but I’m talking about fairly standard treatments, not obscure bidding subtleties. For example, the system uses Cappelletti over their 1NT, but I would estimate that 90% of 2D overcalls I see in these games show diamonds and not the majors.

A bunch of random players thrown together all need to be on the same page, hence the BBO-given bidding system. If you’re not sure what your bid will mean, check it before you make it. If it’s wrong, check the other possibilities until you find the one that conveys the right meaning.

Thanks for letting me rant.

[pescetom]

You have a good point but picked a bad example: Cappelletti is little known outside North America and one could never play it profitably by following the GiB explanations (which are poor documentation of a poor version of a poor convention).

[barmar]

In pair games you have an incentive to follow agreements because you usually expect to play with the same partner in the future, and it's best for long-term partnership harmony.

Individual games have no such expectation, so it's every man for himself. If you don't like it, don't play individuals. It's not clear what you expect anyone to do about people ignoring the convention card.

[pescetom]

barmar, on 2026-April-20, 10:07, said:

In pair games you have an incentive to follow agreements because you usually expect to play with the same partner in the future, and it's best for long-term partnership harmony.

Individual games have no such expectation, so it's every man for himself. If you don't like it, don't play individuals. It's not clear what you expect anyone to do about people ignoring the convention card.

As a Director in a "real world" individual tournament I would annul any advantage gained by ignoring the prescribed card and penalize anyone clearly doing it intentionally.
But I can't see how BBO could easily do that in an automated tournament, agreed.

[johnu]

Sorry, but playing in an individual game is totally random. Players pass forcing bids, make minimum bids when they have game forcing hand, can't evaluate the strength of their own hands, don't understand common conventional bids, are bad declarers, and even worse defenders. Of course, you may get lucky and play with, or against somebody who actually is a good player. In fact, BBO's testing has shown that robots are better than the average player on BBO. If you think robots aren't that great, just imagine how bad the below average players on BBO are.

You're probably better off playing in the main bridge club, and start your own table so you can eject players who don't meet your standards, or who are abusive. Eventually you should meet some compatible partners who you can start a partnership with.