[benellis58]

The GIBBO response structure for 2C is pathetic. It's bad in many ways, with the worst of all being its monumentally stupid use of the 2NT response. I have railed against that many times and I have also explained in detail why that particular part of the system is lunacy for a multitude of reasons.

This post is also about the miserable 2C system, but in this case it does not involve the insane 2NT response.

Here, after 2C by South, 2D waiting by famed dimwit Sylvester Balboa in the North, and 2H by South, Balboa bids 3C, defined very poorly (as usual for a GIB definition) as "Cheaper minor - forcing to 3H". Note that those entirely USELESS five words say absolutely NOTHING - NOTHING (!) - about North's hand. You would think that in a DECENT system (obviously not the trash called GIB!) a DECENT player (obviously not a braindead twerp such as a GIB/GIBBO robot!) would want to...DUH...actually provide useful info to help his partner. Whoever designed the useless trash that passes for GIB's system and definitions apparently is unaware that this might be a good strategy.

Since it's a matchpoint game, South decides to go for the gusto by bidding 3NT. His braindead "partner" Balboa then does what these imbecilic GIB/GIBBO monstrosities so often LOVE to do: He blithely, stupidly, unilaterally, and completely unscientifically makes an insane leap to 6NT, wasting a full three levels of bidding where the partnership might have been able to intelligently discern the best contract.

In addition to all the obvious lunacy of Balboa's call, the ignorant GIBBO M.O.R.O.N. doesn't even have either the wit or the discipline to follow his own GIB definition of 6NT, which says that it shows "8-10 HCP". Superstooge Balboa has only six HCP.

All pass, and West leads the spade 3 against 6NT. Declarer South sees that even if enemy hearts break 3-3, and even if the diamond ace is onside, the hand, barring some sort of miracle in the black suits (such as QJ dub in either, or a stiff jack or queen of clubs in the East...followed by a successful guess of the club layout) has virtually no play. Consequently, declarer decides to play for a swindle or a defensive error. He wins his stiff spade ace at trick one and leads his club TEN (from A108) towards dummy South's K9762. He is hoping that West will cover, and he (South) will then NOT win dummy's king. If clubs are 3-2, or if West has the enemy club length, South might be able to take four club tricks (if East does not overtake a potential West jack with a potential East queen). If all that happens, declarer will have a chance...as long as EAST has the diamond ace and West fails to find a diamond shift after winning his hoped-for club honour.

A lot of luck will be required, but desperate times call for desperate measures! South crosses his fingers and leads the club 10. Good news...MAYBE...because West covers with the JACK. Declarer would have preferred to see the QUEEN, because he REALLY doesn't want East to overtake with a potential queen and then find a diamond shift.

Declarer crosses his fingers again and follows through with his plan by playing dummy's 2 (from K9762). East plays the...THREE of clubs. So far, so good, but the slam is still FAR from a given. Just to BEGIN with, the defenders can now IMMEDIATELY beat it (by cashing the diamond ace) if West finds a diamond shift. And even if West DOESN'T find a diamond shift, declarer will still need to hope for a 3-3 enemy heart break...AND to find a TWELFTH trick (with a GOOD chance of now doing so in clubs, or barring that, perhaps through a squeeze).

At trick three, West plays...the FIVE OF CLUBS (!), because these stone cold C.R.E.T.I.N.S....stupidly LOVE to play the suit DECLARER is playing. But in any case: Phew (!) because West FAILED to find the OBVIOUS diamond shift. There's still hope! Declarer plays dummy's 6 and is pleased to see that East follows with the 4. Declarer wins his ace. He is now guaranteed 4 club tricks in all (including the ace he just won) and 2 spade tricks in all (including the stiff ace he won at trick one). That adds up to six...but he STILL needs hearts 3-3. If that happens he will actually have THIRTEEN tricks, but will obviously be credited with "only" twelve, since West has already won a trick. But he will MAKE his virtually impossible slam. If hearts DON'T break 3-3, he'll be down...possibly a FEW tricks. He can cash out for down three, but that probably won't matchpoint very well!

Lo and behold, South's luck is IN, because hearts ARE 3-3 (hallelujah!), so he takes 12 tricks and rolls up his slam. Needless to say, he scores 100 % on the board...but HERE is the punchline: WEST had the ace of diamonds! WEST, who WON trick two with his club jack,...did not cash the setting trick with his diamond ACE at trick three! This unbelievable GIBBP I.D.I.O.T. thought it was a MUCH better play to...continue CLUBS, the suit DECLARER was playing!

This is an example of how UTTERLY, MIND-BLOWINGLY hopeless these GIBBO pieces of garbage are!

https://www.bridgeba...H6%7Cmc%7C12%7C

[benellis58]

West's double of 4H is defined as "takeout", which is insane. He PASSED North's THREE heart bid but is now doubling FOUR hearts (after originally doubling ONE heart for takeout), and GIB says it's for takeout???!!! This tells you ALL you need to know about the trashcan that is GIB: Either the SYSTEM is ridiculous...or the typically pathetic DEFINITION is wrong...or BOTH. GIB stinks.

Meanwhile, speaking of stinking, North bid 1H, fine, and then he bid 3H, fine (at least within the confines of the stinking GIB system), but why the HELL is he bidding FOUR hearts, ESPECIALLY in a matchpoint game? Doesn't this GIBBO piece of trash know that NT scores higher than hearts? Or is he so astoundingly stupid that he thinks all his heart tricks count only in hearts, not in NT? The clueless jackass has ALREADY described his hand with his 1H and 3H calls, but as well as being one of the worst players in the history of the game, he proves with his dumb 4H call that he's also a truly rotten partner. GIB/GIBBO stinks from top to bottom, inside and out, backwards and forwards.

After East's typically imbecilic double of 4H, West has the choice of passing and going minus 790 or bidding 4S and going for minus 800. He, being a GIBBO "bridge player", opts to go for the BIGGER minus number and bids 4S.

Seriously, is there anyone...ANYONE...anywhere...who STILL is so fantastically deluded that they claim the GIB/GIBBO robots are "better than most human players"?

I play robot games almost every day, and I realized the first time I ever played them (9 years ago) that GIB means hopeless robots playing a hopeless system with hopeless definitions. Each and EVERY time that I have played since that first day, my conviction only gets stronger: GIB/GIBBO is nothing but garbage!

https://www.bridgeba...CH8%7Cmc%7C7%7C

[benellis58]

And here we have another in the never-ending series of pathetic GIB definitions: 3C is defined as "4+ clubs; 4+ diamonds; 11-21 HCP; 3- card diamonds; KQ of spades; 12-22 total points". Not only is it a piece of useless trash that typically says NOTHING helpful (for one thing because of the RIDICULOUSLY broad ELEVEN-point {!!!)} range), but it also contradicts...ITSELF! The second entry in this piece of trash states that the bid shows "4+ diamonds"...but then the fourth entry says that it shows "3- diamonds". Is whoever wrote this piece of unadulterated trash PROUD of the job he did? Does he think he did GOOD work? We know for SURE that neither he nor anyone else EVER bothered to verify or proofread this...or if they DID, they were either blind or incapacitated at the time. Why are the GIB definitions so poorly written? Why are they SO often either incomplete or just plain wrong? Simply put, why are they so wretched?

Then, for more I.D.I.O.C.Y. courtesy of GIB, we have this laughable definition of 4NT: "Quantitative invite to 6NT; 4+ clubs; 4+ diamonds; 14 HCP; 3- card diamonds; KQ of clubs". To begin with, the same FOLLY is repeated whereby the diamond length is described with conflicting information. Then we are told that the bid shows EXACTLY 14 HCP...even though North has only 12. Why did the creator of this bilge even waste his time writing it if he wasn't going to attempt to provide at least a TINY bit of accuracy, consistency, and quality?

https://www.bridgeba...HT%7Cpc%7CS8%7C

[benellis58]

Why is East redoubling, which is defined as showing "8-11 HCP" when he has ONLY (!!!) SIX (!!!)...AND when the definition claims that his redouble shows "a balanced hand" with "2-5 cards" in each of the four suits...although his shape is ACTUALLY 4-5-3-1???

GIB is CONSTANT, unrelenting garbage. GIB/GIBBO is the worst, bar none.

https://www.bridgeba...CD4%7Cmc%7C8%7C

[benellis58]

Another example of the hopelessly pathetic 2C structure foolishly espoused by GIB. What is GOOD about bidding 2NT over 2C with North's hand? And as usual he follows it up with an unscientific, unilateral leap to 6NT over South's 3S. This imbecilic call not only wastes ALL the bidding space between THREE spades and SIX no trump...in an uncontested auction where they could have intelligently exchanged information, but the just plain STUPID bid could be wrong in MANY ways:

Maybe NT is the wrong strain. Maybe they have a grand slam. Maybe they don't even have a small slam. But GIB/GIBBO says, "Nah, why should I try to bid intelligently when I can just take a wild guess?"

Note also that this could EASILY be from the wrong side. For one thinh, the harebrained GIBBO North has a diamond "stopper" of 752 tripleton.

And if you want a REALLY good laugh, just consider that the GIB definition of 6NT claims that it shows "14-16 HCP". "Fourteen to sixteen"??? The piece of dirt has...TEN (!) HCP...a full SIX (!) fewer than his "promised" maximum, and even more importantly, a full FOUR fewer than his "promised" MINIMUM!

GIB/GIBBO sucks pumice...and HAS sucked pumice at LEAST since 2017 when I played it for the first time. I can't comment on its "quality" prior to 2017, but I sure as Hell won't be betting the family fortune that it was GOOD.

https://www.bridgeba...S9%7Cmc%7C12%7C

[benellis58]

Although we scored 100 % here for making an "impossible" EIGHT (!!!) tricks in 1NT, I think it shows what a wretched, useless, antiquated, illogical, unworkable JOKE of a system GIB uses if it doesn't have a way to show a hand such as North's that is FIVE-FIVE in the minors. Maybe the creators were too busy writing the worst definitions of all time to bother about designing a system that actually made sense. GIB definitions stink and the GIB system stinks.

Okay, so the GIB system rots and the GIB definitions stink. But hey, maybe the robots defend well. Let's be positive. Let's keep an open mind. Let's see how they "defended" on THIS hand:

I, South, am in 1NT. I need seven tricks to make it. They need seven tricks to beat it. What a nailbiter!

Oh, oh, looks BAD...for ME...because they have SEVEN...TOP tricks: five spades and two hearts. Curtains! THAT'LL teach me to open a 15-17 point 1NT when I have ONLY 14!

Or...maybe NOT, because they only manage to take THREE (!) of their FIVE (!)...TOP (!) spade tricks. They manage to LOSE (!) the fourth one to ME (!), and they pitch the fifth one.

Not only do I make the seven tricks required for ny contract (when THEY could and should have taken the FIRST SEVEN TRICKS against me), but I make an EIGHTH (!!) trick (the spade 9) to score an OVERTRICK in a contract that they could have beaten on the fly! TAHT'S how "well" GIBBO robots "defend".

https://www.bridgeba...HK%7Cpc%7CCT%7C

[benellis58]

East wins the heart JACK at trick one. Does he continue hearts, as a raw beginner would do? Of COURSE he doesn't. He switches to clubs at trick two and when I duck, he continues clubs at trick three, which I also duck...as West OVERTAKES to play a THIRD round of clubs at trick four.

I pride myself on being polite to my robot opponents, so I very humbly and sincerely thank them...for turning my NINE tricks into TEN.

https://www.bridgeba...D4%7Cmc%7C10%7C

[benellis58]

West finds the killing lead of the club queen against my 3NT contract. Well done, Mr. Robot!

East, with K63...playing STANDARD signals...follows with the...THREE. West shifts (!) to the QUEEN of SPADES (Looking at the AJ dub in dummy).

I take TEN tricks. They take...THREE...instead of the FIVE...TOP...CLUBS that they SHOULD have taken on the fly.

What was that I often used to hear about the GIB robots being "better than most human players"?

https://www.bridgeba...CK%7Cpc%7CH7%7C

[benellis58]

STERLING "defence", gentlemen, positively STERLING. You blew ONLY two tricks.

https://www.bridgeba...H4%7Cmc%7C11%7C

[benellis58]

Another hand in the endless parade showcasing the absurdity of the GIB system:

Having to bid 2NT with North's hand is utterly ridiculous and all the more so when he follows up on THIS auction with 3S to show his four-bagger there. On THIS auction, who CARES if the trout has four spades at this point?

Note also that Frick and Frack combine to produce one of the most scintillatingly horrendous "defences" since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. These GIBBO imbeciles allow me to take all 13 tricks. GIB/GIBBO is the worst ever.

https://www.bridgeba...H6%7Cpc%7CHA%7C

[benellis58]

Another interesting thread:

https://www.bridgeba...34#entry1098034

[benellis58]

Typically pathetic GIB definition of the double. Typically wretched "defence" by Halfwit and Dumbo. Typically wretched score on the board for Halfwit and Dumbo. In Halfwit's defence, though, at least he doesn't use as much makeup as sleepy, old, frail Dumbo.

https://www.bridgeba...HT%7Cmc%7C10%7C

[benellis58]

We scored 82.14 % for "only" going down two in 4S after a typically poorly-judged 4S call by the GIBBO trout in the North.

https://www.bridgeba...CD5%7Cmc%7C8%7C

[benellis58]

Let's just say that bridge has seen better "defences" than this laugher where Frick and Frack can't even manage to collect their two top clubs.

https://www.bridgeba...C9%7Cpc%7CS8%7C

[benellis58]

Yeah, we missed 6D. We ALSO "missed" 3NT, because as usual Sylvester Balboa in the North thought that his SEVEN diamond tricks would ONLY count in diamonds but NEVER in NT. Yes, Sylvester IS a GIBBO robot and a very good friend of both Johnny Halfwit and old, feeble Donald J. Dumbo.

https://www.bridgeba...CJ%7Cpc%7CCK%7C

[benellis58]

West, a GIBBO robot (of COURSE!), feels that his pancake flat 4-3-3-3 11-count will produce a game...facing a "partner" who...could not even open the bidding in THIRD seat NON-VULNERABLE.

Mind you, the fact that East DIDN'T (!) open his hand under those conditions makes it very clear that these two jabronis deserve each other!

https://www.bridgeba...CS8%7Cmc%7C9%7C

[benellis58]

Halfwit and Dumbo join forces to block the spade suit and ensure that they get only two tricks in the suit.

One word: C.R.E.T.I.N.S.

https://www.bridgeba...CHJ%7Cmc%7C9%7C

[benellis58]

GIBBO "defensive" BRILLIANCE at its "best":

East, for once in his miserable existence, actually finds an intelligent lead. Who would have guessed that would ever happen? Certainly not I!

Playing standard signals, the ignorant and repulsive GIBBO zombie in the West stupidly follows with his six of spades from Q986. That I would have guessed, because I always expect these M.O.R.O.N.S. to do something stupid.

East wins his heart ace at trick two. Does he continue his good work by leading another spade, thereby beating my contract of 3NT?

Of COURSE he doesn't. HE'S a GIBBO robot, so he shifts...to the...king of clubs! I waltz home with TWELVE (!) tricks, thanks to the VERY generous and helpful assistance so graciously provided by Johnny Halfwit and sleepy, old, frail Donald J. Dumbo.

https://www.bridgeba...SJ%7Cpc%7CSK%7C

[benellis58]

This thread has received over a million views. It was Diana who had the inspiration, foresight, and wisdom to create this essential thread and to give it a title and a mission. Without her it would not exist. All those who read it are able to do so because one person - Diana - was a true visionary. Here's to Diana!

[benellis58]

I've been pondering a difficult question lately: Which aspect of bridge are the wretched GIB/GIBBO robots worst at?

We know it's not declarer play. Even though they are certainly not good at it, they are still considerably better than they are at other aspects of the game.

Defence? Well, their "defence" is certainly by FAR the worst I have ever seen by any bridge players anywhere.

Bidding? By golly, their horrendously hopeless bidding is also by FAR the worst I have ever seen by any bridge players anywhere.

Logic? Consistency? Partnership skills? System? Definitions? In all cases, they are the worst I have ever seen by any bridge players anywhere.

But all in all, as sickeningly, disgustingly bad as the GIB/GIBBO robots are at EVERYTHING bridge-related, I think what they are the worst at is opening leads.

GIB/GIBBO rots at absolutely everything, but it rots MOST at opening leads. GIB/GIBBO is beneath contempt.