[Tom E]

I had a stark example of robot inconsistency in the play of the hand. I was playing a daylong 'just declare' tournament (so bidding is the same for all competitors). My contract was 5 clubs. The E-W robots took three high-card quick tricks then started a cross-ruff. I watched helplessly as they took the first seven tricks. Down 5.

I figured my score would be around 50% because everyone else who played the hand would be in the same boat. Wrong. My score for the hand was 30%! Shouldn't an algorithm always produce the same result?

[barmar]

You should take a look at the other results, they probably played different cards on some of the first 3 tricks, and this caused the bots to play different. The bots can be very sensitive to which spot cards you play, since it causes them to produce different deals in their simulations.

[Tom E]

barmar, on 2018-October-11, 11:55, said:

You should take a look at the other results, they probably played different cards on some of the first 3 tricks, and this caused the bots to play different. The bots can be very sensitive to which spot cards you play, since it causes them to produce different deals in their simulations.

Thanks, a valuable insight I never considered before.