[wuudturner]

The title is not really a serious question.

It was time to play a bot game today. Nothing special. No goulash. Just a mild bot game before breakfast.

To no surprise since I don't have that many high cards, East is able to open the bidding with 1♣. I'm debating how to show this monster as South, as a blast to the 6 level, maybe if 4NT shows a big 2 suiter, or can I walk the dog a bit to get doubled in a slam. I decide to go slow, with 2NT. It will show the red suits. A nice thing about a bot game is I know I have the biggest hand at the table in terms of high card points. So with 13 points, I know that nobody else has more than 13. I am still hoping to find partner with some decent values. If North has not too much more than the heart ace for example, a grand would start to look inviting.

West now bids 3♢. The bots play a variation of UVU - unusual versus unusual. 3♣ shows a limit raise or better in clubs. So 10+ total points with club length. That leaves room for few values for my partner. So when partner passes, I expect that the heart ace is unlikely. But after 4♣, I need to find a way into a small slam in a red suit.

This is when you need to look carefully at how your bot partner will treat your various bids. After scanning through options like 4NT, 5♣, 5♢, 5♡, 5NT, etc., I decide that the one which will force partner to make a choice in the red suits is 5♣. Of course, it does show 29+ HCP according to the bot system. I do have decent spot cards, so 29 seems a good assessment of the hand.

East rolled out a double, giving me a chance to roll out a fairly rare penalty redouble. Yes, that was arguably greedy, since it might have pushed them into a sacrifice - one of those who knows what will make bids.

---

+2070 was one of the coldest tops I've had in a long time. Of course, 6♠ makes for them, and either black suit grand makes for them if we get off to the wrong lead. As it turns out, the redouble was completely unnecessary, as the pairs who were in slam were all making singly doubled diamond slams.

Two pairs did try 7♡ though. They were forced to sacrifice in 7♡, because they gave E-W time to find the spade fit (and thus the spade slam) in the bidding. In my sequence, 2NT forced West to decide between showing a 5 card spade suit, or a 7 card club fit for partner.

[gordontd]

wuudturner, on 2019-January-04, 07:44, said:

As it turns out, the redouble was completely unnecessary, as the pairs who were in slam were all making singly doubled diamond slams.

Not only unnecessary, but might have pushed them into their making slam.

[gordontd]

wuudturner, on 2019-January-04, 07:44, said:

The title is not really a serious question.

But to answer if for the benefit of others who might wonder, when you get hands this extreme you should stop thinking in terms of points and try to anticipate how many tricks you (and the opponents) might be making.

[The_Badger]

Of course, it does show 29+ HCP according to the bot system. I do have decent spot cards, so 29 seems a good assessment of the hand.

23.6 on K&R evaluator. That North bot certainly trusted you bidding 6♥

[rmnka447]

If playing UvU, there's no reason for West to suppress the ♠ suit. Therefore, the correct bid would be 3 ♥ showing ♠ and values, then if necessary keep bidding ♣. Opener raises ♠ and a sacrifice/make 6 ♠ will be bid.

This is a classic example of failing to show a suit and then losing it.


I agree with gordontd. You look at the trick taking power of the hand of extreme distribution hands. Your hand is a 2 loser hand so bidding a lot with it is OK.

[neilkaz]

Nice bidding except for the XX which risks losing what will still be a good score if playing vs decent humans, who might even now find a 6♠ bid with plan of bailing to 7♣ if no fit is found. Also, humans playing UVU can show ♠ earlier.

[johnu]

The_Badger, on 2019-January-04, 09:57, said:

Of course, it does show 29+ HCP according to the bot system. I do have decent spot cards, so 29 seems a good assessment of the hand.

I'm not sure if The_Badger is joking or not, or what the description of 5♣ actually say, but this is basically true.

The bot system is that if you voluntarily bid a game (except for clear weak preemptive bids) opposite a partner who has shown nothing, you show about 25+ points for a major suit game and 29+ points for a minor suit game. Apparently it is outside the programming parameters for GIB to assume that the bidder is assuming that partner has their fare share of the outside high card points.