Lately I have been playing some with the bots. For 25 cents you play 8 hands with the stronger bots. As best I recall, I have not yet had a bidding misunderstanding with them. They don't declare, if our side wins the auction I then play the hand, switching seats if need be. I gather that I am always seated so as to have the best hand so we declare more often than we defend, but we sometimes defend.
Much to my surprise, I have no complaints about the bots. I would not say the same for the bots that are free on the first of the month, and cheap for monthly renatl. But the upscale bots seem pretty good. Somewhere between most and all of the bad results have been due to me, not my tin head partner. I will illustrate this below.
All this leads to a thought: When playing pick-up on IAC why not use the bot convention card? We don't usually have time to discuss a lot, so why not bot standard? The cc does not cover everything, of course not. I give an example below of a bid maybe not on the cc, but it would take care of a lot. And when things go off the rails, there would be a common starting point for discussion.
OK, now some hands.
Matchpoints:
http://tinyurl.com/ybnpafahAt the conclusion of the auction I was switched to North to declare the hand.
Was it crazy to take the first diamond trick? Maybe, it certainly did not work out well. But if the
Q is on my right [which it probably is not, given the play of the King] it is safe to do so, and if the Q is on my left it will be best to take the A whenever the
A is also on my left. So the issue is not where the
Q is, the issue is where the
A is. Anyway, I took the A and led a club. Down 1 for 38.2%. Oops.
Another hand, this time with a better result:
http://tinyurl.com/ybpu9xdnBoth the auction and the play matter here. I opened 1
in 4th position. Partner bid a drury 2C. We are of course going to play in at least 4
but I saw no point in going there directly. I bid 2
showing a full opener and partner bid 2
showing spades. That didn't sound so great to me so I settled for 4
. Some pairs were in 6
. There is no play for this, but that is not the bot's fault.
The opening lead is the
J ducked, and a
is continued. Ten tricks seem likely but this is matchpoints. Is there a play for 11 tricks? I think so. If clubs are 4-3 and hearts 3-2 this should come in. Making 5 was worth 82.8%. Again, those who are in 6 off 1, and those in 4 making only ten tricks, should not complain about the bots. [Added: It's true that if pard had the
K instead of the !d Q I have a decent but not certain play for 6. There is no certainty in bridge.]
Now an example of a bidding gadget from a bot. imps this time.
http://tinyurl.com/yb455pl81
on my right, I overcall 1
, X on my left and partner now bids 3
. The bots explain their bids and this was a mixed raise. I am not sure that you find this on their cc, but it was explained and it was just what I needed to bid 4
. Is it a sure thing on the auction so far? Hardly. That doubleton heart was a life-saver. But I thought it a good bet so I went with it.
Back to my general view of the bots. I see a lot of criticism of the bots. Being bots, I assume they do not take offense. But I have been pretty happy with the advanced ones. Other people also play with the bots, so using the bot cc as a default when playing pick-up might be an easy way to cope, ok to partially cope, with the "How do you play that, pard?" problem. Just a thought.