[goldfolk]

Has anybody else noticed that the robot bidding seems to be a lot worse recently; for example:

Robot held x
xx
QJx
AKQxxxx

Robot opened 1 club, 2H overcall, double from me, pass 3C from robot, pass, 3NT from me, pass, 5C from robot. 3NT makes 10 tricks and 5C goes 2 off.

On a second occasion I doubled a 3H pre-empt on my right and left robot bid 4H and the robot passed with a 4-2-2-5 12 count with 4S an easy make.

Just wondering if anybody else has had similar issues because while I don't expect the robots to play like geniuses and they do have certain well-known foibles I do expect them to know the basics.

[smerriman]

The robots haven't been touched in years. I don't think they've gotten worse, but they frustratingly consistently make the same mistakes. (It's possible the play has gotten a bit worse due to the server load resulting in less time to calculate, but not bidding database issues like these.)

[Butchie T]

Robots don't seem to react well to doubles and robots will rarely allow a closeout 3NT bid to stand. They often push to ridiculous slams.

[Peter_f]

I often wish for an aggressivity controller for robots, e.g. from 1-9.
Then I would turn this down from nine (current position) to four or five.

[pilowsky]

smerriman, on 2021-December-09, 13:22, said:

The robots haven't been touched in years. I don't think they've gotten worse, but they frustratingly consistently make the same mistakes. (It's possible the play has gotten a bit worse due to the server load resulting in less time to calculate, but not bidding database issues like these.)

In stark contrast to just about every other computer based online game with the possible exceptions of Pong, Snake and Tetris.
Mind you Snake is still pretty tough - you can play it in your browser here: https://playsnake.org/


All the same, they still bid and play better than most.
Robot+robot regularly score well in tournaments.

[pescetom]

pilowsky, on 2021-December-10, 21:58, said:

Robot+robot regularly score well in tournaments.

This is often repeated here, but it's not my experience from club tournaments: they average below halfway at MP against modest but regular human partnerships. Of course they do better against casual pickup pairs or regular pairs that are still unused to robot opponents. It wouldn't be surprising either if robots get along better with a robot partner than with the average human partner.

[pilowsky]

I thought GIB had a decent albeit not fantastic position on the EBU NGS.

[pescetom]

pilowsky, on 2021-December-11, 16:05, said:

I thought GIB had a decent albeit not fantastic position on the EBU NGS.

I don't know and am curious: I looked at the 2021 pairs ranking but found only EBU humans, including a familiar pair at an impressive 60.75%, but no robots.
Maybe someone from EBU can enlighten us here.

[pilowsky]

pescetom, on 2021-December-11, 16:24, said:

I don't know and am curious: I looked at the 2021 pairs ranking but found only EBU humans, including a familiar pair at an impressive 60.75%, but no robots.
Maybe someone from EBU can enlighten us here.

From this thread on the other site - https://bridgewinner...ots-ngs-rating/

https://www.ebu.co.uk/ngs/DIU/M/I
25.Basic BBO Bot A55.98J
26.Advanced BBO Bot B55.92J

Looks like the Basic Bot is slightly ahead ATM.

[pescetom]

pilowsky, on 2021-December-11, 18:14, said:

From this thread on the other site - https://bridgewinner...ots-ngs-rating/

https://www.ebu.co.uk/ngs/DIU/M/I
25.Basic BBO Bot A55.98J
26.Advanced BBO Bot B55.92J

Looks like the Basic Bot is slightly ahead ATM.

Thanks, that's interesting although limited to one club and rather ambiguous.
What I was commenting on was the the performance of a pair of basic bots: I don't doubt that a skilled human botmaster can do well with an advanced bot.
As often, I fail to understand the comment of Robin Barker.
I can't see anything about BBO robots in the current overall NGS data.

[pilowsky]

pescetom, on 2021-December-12, 17:13, said:

Thanks, that's interesting although limited to one club and rather ambiguous.
What I was commenting on was the the performance of a pair of basic bots: I don't doubt that a skilled human botmaster can do well with an advanced bot.
As often, I fail to understand the comment of Robin Barker.
I can't see anything about BBO robots in the current overall NGS data.

Maybe they decided to be anonymous.
Perhaps Gordon can assist?

[9NTredbl]

No.

[pilowsky]

Botmaster or robot wrangler?

[thepossum]

How many games does it take in official Bridge circles for individuals or pairs to get a meaningful ranking?

Curious because I've been trying to rank me and Gib for a few years now

[ehaa9488]

robot hand JT64 AT643 983 3
Auction goes 1C by robot partner, 1S, neg dbl, 2C, 2D, P, 2S, 3H, P and the robot with a 5cd h suit and a 5 cnt with 3 diamonds to the 9 bids 4 DIAAMONDS. On what planet is this ever right - the height of root stupidity!!!

[barmar]

ehaa9488, on 2022-May-30, 13:49, said:

robot hand JT64 AT643 983 3
Auction goes 1C by robot partner, 1S, neg dbl, 2C, 2D, P, 2S, 3H, P and the robot with a 5cd h suit and a 5 cnt with 3 diamonds to the 9 bids 4 DIAAMONDS. On what planet is this ever right - the height of root stupidity!!!

It's hard to tell which robot is doing what bidding -- please post a proper hand diagram or a link to the hand record.

Also, we have a GIB Robot Discussion forum where you can post questions like this. Or use the Robot Report menu item from history.