Help
I am new to this forum but not to Bots, having played with them for almost 3 years in tournaments. Of the many Bot problems, perhaps my least favorite is the following, oh too frequent auction at MPs:
You (with best hand) bid 1 club, LHO: 1 spade; Bot: pass; RHO: 2 spades.
You have a 14-15 count with 6 clubs unsuitable for a 1 nt opener, but you want to compete, so you bid 3 clubs. LHO passes but now the Bot coms to life with a cue bid of 3 spades.
My success rate with these situations is low: if I bid 4 clubs we're usually too high, and if 3 NT we're down 2 because the bot is "forcing to 3nt" but rarely has a stopper (or it might have bid 1nt on te first round.) The Bot doesn't realize that you are "competing" for the contract and may not have the 17-20 points it assigns to your bid. Conversely, it won't compete on its own, so you're stuck with overbidding in those situations.
One could say that the solution is to pass 2 spades, but that almost always results in average minus
A practical solution that I've noticed in checking actual results is that top MP players, with averages of 59-60, will open any/all hands with about 14- 18 points 1NT, even with a singleton! I think their idea is that the Bot bids better when it has a first round knowledge of your actual potential. Sure, they wind up in 5-1 fits when the bot transfers into their singleton, but the Bot's ability to compete to the right level makes up for those kinds of negative tradeoffs.
I can't get myself to open a 14 ct (or an 18 ct) with a stiff, 1 NT.
Anyone else out there run into the "unwanted 3 level forcing cu bid" ?
Mike Hess
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Theinfamous 3 level cuebid Bot passes on rd 1 the forces at the 3 level with a cue
#2
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Posted 2010-November-08, 17:10
hessmike, on 2010-November-03, 20:08, said:
I am new to this forum but not to Bots, having played with them for almost 3 years in tournaments. Of the many Bot problems, perhaps my least favorite is the following, oh too frequent auction at MPs:
You (with best hand) bid 1 club, LHO: 1 spade; Bot: pass; RHO: 2 spades.
You have a 14-15 count with 6 clubs unsuitable for a 1 nt opener, but you want to compete, so you bid 3 clubs. LHO passes but now the Bot coms to life with a cue bid of 3 spades.
My success rate with these situations is low: if I bid 4 clubs we're usually too high, and if 3 NT we're down 2 because the bot is "forcing to 3nt" but rarely has a stopper (or it might have bid 1nt on te first round.) The Bot doesn't realize that you are "competing" for the contract and may not have the 17-20 points it assigns to your bid. Conversely, it won't compete on its own, so you're stuck with overbidding in those situations.
One could say that the solution is to pass 2 spades, but that almost always results in average minus
A practical solution that I've noticed in checking actual results is that top MP players, with averages of 59-60, will open any/all hands with about 14- 18 points 1NT, even with a singleton! I think their idea is that the Bot bids better when it has a first round knowledge of your actual potential. Sure, they wind up in 5-1 fits when the bot transfers into their singleton, but the Bot's ability to compete to the right level makes up for those kinds of negative tradeoffs.
I can't get myself to open a 14 ct (or an 18 ct) with a stiff, 1 NT.
Anyone else out there run into the "unwanted 3 level forcing cu bid" ?
Mike Hess
You (with best hand) bid 1 club, LHO: 1 spade; Bot: pass; RHO: 2 spades.
You have a 14-15 count with 6 clubs unsuitable for a 1 nt opener, but you want to compete, so you bid 3 clubs. LHO passes but now the Bot coms to life with a cue bid of 3 spades.
My success rate with these situations is low: if I bid 4 clubs we're usually too high, and if 3 NT we're down 2 because the bot is "forcing to 3nt" but rarely has a stopper (or it might have bid 1nt on te first round.) The Bot doesn't realize that you are "competing" for the contract and may not have the 17-20 points it assigns to your bid. Conversely, it won't compete on its own, so you're stuck with overbidding in those situations.
One could say that the solution is to pass 2 spades, but that almost always results in average minus
A practical solution that I've noticed in checking actual results is that top MP players, with averages of 59-60, will open any/all hands with about 14- 18 points 1NT, even with a singleton! I think their idea is that the Bot bids better when it has a first round knowledge of your actual potential. Sure, they wind up in 5-1 fits when the bot transfers into their singleton, but the Bot's ability to compete to the right level makes up for those kinds of negative tradeoffs.
I can't get myself to open a 14 ct (or an 18 ct) with a stiff, 1 NT.
Anyone else out there run into the "unwanted 3 level forcing cu bid" ?
Mike Hess
I have run into the same situation several times. And you are correct about the NT opening bids. I checked the hand results after one ACBL Robot tourney and found out that the best score on one hand was where the human South opened 2NT with a singleton ♦Q while most of the field was opening with 1♥. True, the hand had the required HCP for 2NT, but with a 5-card major and singleton Q, opening 2NT just goes against good bridge.
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