[wbartley]

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/yc5e3754

[benellis58]

Although you are certainly quite deserving of sympathy, your victimization at the hands of the repulsive GIBBO robot is (sadly!) no surprise at all. You were forced to play the hopeless, antiquated GIB/GIBBO system (complete with its truly ridiculous 2C structure), and you had the extremely bad luck of having a perpetually clueless GIBBO robot as your "partner". On top of everything else, you were inviting seven and yet the typically worthless GIBBO simpleton in the North PASSED...five! GIB/GIBBO is a reprehensible, humiliating stain on the game of bridge.

[msheald]

Hello! For my own education, I'm curious why you went to 3D when you wanted to explore small or grand slam.
I realize that with RONF, it forces another round of bidding (though I've read that partnerships are starting to restrict that applicability, and robot does not appear to play RONF). With robot's response that promises 8+ HCP, robot (or any partner) should always be in game of some sort, especially with a 5-card club suit, IMO.
I'm curious why you did not start Gerber over the 2NT or 3NT robot responses. Intermediate players seem to shy away from 6NT especially with a void, but it is rare, IMO, that 6NT is inferior to a suit slam, especially with distro as given. Also, Gerber would have kept you in control as opposed to Gib (what a relief!) of the auction. 4C - 4D - 5C - 5S for two kings, and then you could have bid 7NT.
After your 5 NT invite that promised that the partnership had 35 to 37 points, robot should have at least bid 6NT. I am an aggressive bidder, and with Gib's holding, I would have gone onto 7NT, but I would not fault a timid partner for not going to 7NT since 5NT would only guarantee that partnership had 35 points (without promise of a likely longish suit to run), though I would have faulted him for not going to 6NT! But that is part of knowing the bidding style of one's partner.
So, for my own education to help me improve for future play, since there are pluses and minuses to any bid, what did the 3D and 5NT bids gain for you that you felt them better than a traditional Gerber sequence? Thank you and best regards. Mike

[steve2005]

msheald, on 2026-October-23, 07:25, said:

I'm curious why you did not start Gerber over the 2NT or 3NT robot responses. Intermediate players seem to shy away from 6NT

GIB gives wrong responses to Gerber

[wbartley]

My reason for bidding 3♦ was to lay the foundation for any subsequent grand slam try. If the Robot runs simulations when trying to decide whether or not to accept an invitation, I wanted it to have the information that I was long in diamonds. Will this information always help my partner? No. But isn't it better to have more information than less?

You suggest that asking for controls might be an effective way to reach a grand slam. Well, control asking bids are primarily for the purpose of staying out of slams with no play. Since I hold first round control of every suit and first and second round control of two suits, control asking bids aren't necessarily the best way forward. For example, if I told you that partner held both of the missing kings, what would you say the probability is that the hand makes a grand slam? If it does make a grand slam, in which strain should the grand slam be?

If the final contract is 7NT, my partner will be declarer and yet I hold a tenace in both majors. 7D could be cold even when partner is missing one of the major suit kings while 6NT might go down when he holds them both.

Give him Kxx Kxxx Jxx Qx and 6NT isn't even odds on. Give him Kx Txx QTx QJxxx (one less HCP) and 7D is about 70%.