[smerriman]

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Nice use of Blackwood. I didn't bother replying.

[smerriman]

 finesse157, on 2023-February-28, 11:02, said:

I would whole heartedly disagree with the "bid very well" comment. Playing in the free daily, Argine has a WTF ratio of about 1 in 8 hands.

I would whole-heartedly disagree with the "about 1 in 8 hands" comment. It's far more than that. Today..

On board 1 we have Argine doing its usual thing of escaping from a doubled contract to use Blackwood with a measly 1 HCP to get to a worse doubled contract.

On board 2 Argine brings up the broken 1♦ showing 1+ ♦ response, leaving it stuck for all future bids; it decides to show an 8 count as a 10 count and gets us to a no-hope game.

On board 3, Argine brings out the undefined leap to 5M, expected every tournament. (Yes, I know the Acol opening bid is 1♠, but that's no excuse).

And on board 7, Argine decides an 8 count in diamonds is a slam invite opposite a balanced 15-17.

It's time to start working on GIB again, now that the 'I wish BBO would switch to the much better Argine' strategy has been tested. Kudos to the original GIB developers for being much better than anyone realised, but it can be improved.

[smerriman]

LOL! Argine just asked for keycards, found it was missing one, and thus bid the grand slam. That's a new one.

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[pilowsky]

After I bid 4NT - which apparently means "quantitative invitation to slam - Non forcing".
Argine responds by telling me "6♦ blah blah blah - fit".
But a fit in what?

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[smerriman]

Not sure what you're misunderstanding. Seems to match the definition precisely:

Quote

Fit: 1. sudden attack of convulsions and/or loss of consciousness

[pilowsky]

What lead does the double suggest?
And btw, how does North investigate a slam in spades using ArgAcol?

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[helene_t]

https://tinyurl.com/2q6phlgj

The defence should be an open book due to the 3nt opening so it's hard to see how East can blow it up. Maybe all the sims gave North a club void so that any non-club lead at trick 2 leads to one down, and then it chooses randomly?

[pilowsky]

 helene_t, on 2023-March-22, 02:13, said:

https://tinyurl.com/2q6phlgj

The defence should be an open book due to the 3nt opening so it's hard to see how East can blow it up. Maybe all the sims gave North a club void so that any non-club lead at trick 2 leads to one down, and then it chooses randomly?

I've used G3NT a few times with Argine and only once did it respond 4♣p/c
I'm still not certain what criteria it uses to decide.

With a human partner would you still pass with the South hand?

[helene_t]

 pilowsky, on 2023-March-22, 05:17, said:

I've used G3NT a few times with Argine and only once did it respond 4♣p/c
I'm still not certain what criteria it uses to decide.

With a human partner would you still pass with the South hand?

Good question. I usually pass 3NT without much thoughts since 3NT isn't doubled and 4♦ may not be any safer.

But on this hand I probably should have bid 4♣ as 4♦ just requires partner to have no more than two hearts, or maybe opps don't take their heart tricks on time. Also, 3NT-1 (or -2 depending on how the heart split) is a likely bad score as it doesn't look like opps can make anything.

Another option is to bid 5♦ to rightside the contract. On a spade lead it is easy for them to find the heart switch if my hand is in dummy. Unfortunately, 4♦ isn't to play so if I want to declare myself I have to bid 5♦. On a good day, partner has a stiff heart so 5♦ is cold regardless of who declares.

Then again, if I pass I can bid 4♦ if they double it.

I don't think it should matter what fabric opps are made off. Except that now I know about this specific Argine weakness. Unless it was a simulation fluke.

[thepossum]

The Daylong that just closed
I made 6H on this and wondered if there was a squeeze or advanced play available, am either not good enough or couldn't see it so claimed all but one of the remaining 5 tricks
I did wonder how a couple of tables made 7, checked DD. Here is one of the (anonymised) beneficiaries - or expert exponents should I say

Apparently there was a unique squeeze available. You need to wait to the penultimate discard. I am still looking hard just in case I can see a menace that I missed - always play to the last trick at MPs

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[pescetom]

 thepossum, on 2023-March-25, 17:14, said:

The Daylong that just closed
I made 6H on this and wondered if there was a squeeze or advanced play available, am either not good enough or couldn't see it so claimed all but one of the remaining 5 tricks
I did wonder how a couple of tables made 7, checked DD. Here is one of the (anonymised) beneficiaries - or expert exponents should I say

Apparently there was a unique squeeze available. You need to wait to the penultimate discard. I am still looking hard just in case I can see a menace that I missed - always play to the last trick at MPs

Was it Argine that made the 7♥ bid, which looks senseless given that partner has denied a spades control and may well lack one in diamonds too?
I may be wrong but don't see any squeeze available.

[thepossum]

 pescetom, on 2023-March-26, 15:26, said:

Was it Argine that made the 7♥ bid, which looks senseless given that partner has denied a spades control and may well lack one in diamonds too?
I may be wrong but don't see any squeeze available.

It's a joke squeeze

Did you follow the hand - there is one - a couple of people knew it was there

I only bid and made 6, because I didn't know there was a squeeze available and stupidly conceded a trick to the West bot

The whole thing has thrown me into so much doubt I still think I must have missed something

Maybe I have to start thinking like a young child hanging onto their winner to the very end

And sadly it had to throw one away - trick 11, sorry I should have set up the hand to start with the fun - but I keep replaying it from the beginning to get the full joy. It had been doing well. East was covering spades, west was covering diamonds and had another winner just in case

I thought one major advantage bots have over humans is perfect memory of the cards
Sadly it had not been counting trumps, clubs or anything much

[helene_t]

https://tinyurl.com/2p999cgz

The bad news is that I overlooked the marked finesse which gives me a very simple 13 tricks (unless ♠Q is a falsecard but I wouldn't expect a robot to come up with that).

The other bad news is that the squeeze doesn't work.

The good news is that the pseudo compound squeeze works when E discards a heart in trick 11, thereby trapping its partner in a red suit squeeze.

I just wonder - doesn't Argine play count signals so that E should have a complete count?

Something else - 5NT is explained as "choice of slam", showing 1+ in each suit. Hopefully the real meaning of 5NT is a bit more specific.

[helene_t]

https://tinyurl.com/2ppxh5qx

My 3♦ bid is an underbid according to the hover info, so I thought we should be in the slam zone opposite partner's forcing 4♦ bid.

Probably I am in the wrong also by not simply asking for keycards as I have all controls. But the 4♦ bid is not only an overbid by two HCPs (not even taking into account that is is a very quacky hand), it is also illogical because the hand should have no slam interest opposite my limited 3♦ bid.

[helene_t]

https://tinyurl.com/2pa45d9w

The 4♦ bid has a very wide range. I think that with a minimum it would have passed 3♦ but on the other hand, with invitational+ values it should have taken action over 3♣ so I wasn't sure. Maybe the actual hand is the type of hands that can reasonably bid like this if it couldn't act over 3♣ without forcing to game.

Anyway, I guess my point just is that 4-14 points is too wide a range.

[helene_t]

https://tinyurl.com/2h4nymwv

Given that a double of 1NT is defined as 12+ (which is obviously wrong but that's another story) it seems to me that partner should take it out with 0 points and a 5 card suit.

[helene_t]

Another 6ntx-12. I suppose I could have limited it to 11 down.

Apart from bidding slam without slam values after they have doubled us in game and choosing nt without a stopper in their 10card fit and asking for Kings with two kc's missing, there's also the issue that and overcall over a preempt has a range of 7 to 17.
https://www.bridgeba...s%20a%20keycard)%20-%20Forcing|mb|P|mb|5D!|an|6+!H;%20HCP%207-17;%200%20or%203%20key%20card(s)%20-%20Forcing|mb|D!|an|3+!D;%205!H;%20HCP%2012+;%20lead%20directing|mb|5N!|an|2+!H;%20HCP%2011-;%20Blackwood,%20asks%20how%20many%20Kings%20-%20Forcing|mb|P|mb|6D!|an|6+!H;%20HCP%207-17;%200%20or%203%20King(s)%20and%20not%20counting%20King%20of%20trumps%20-%20Forcing|mb|D!|an|3+!D;%205!H;%20HCP%2012+;%20lead%20directing|mb|6N|an|2+!H;%20HCP%2011;%20to%20play|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|DA|pc|DT|pc|D2|pc|DQ|pc|D4|mc|0|

[pescetom]

 helene_t, on 2023-April-01, 10:30, said:

https://tinyurl.com/2h4nymwv

Given that a double of 1NT is defined as 12+ (which is obviously wrong but that's another story) it seems to me that partner should take it out with 0 points and a 5 card suit.

Indeed the supplied explanation is 6+ HCP, which the hand hardly matches.

[pilowsky]

And here we get to see a fish trying to ride a bicycle.

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[helene_t]

1x-1y
2NT
is 18-19, so
1x-1y
3NT shouldn't be 19, it should be something else, for example a solid x with shortness in y r some such.