[Wozness]

My friend and I have been playing on BBO for quite a while now. We have always been satisfied with the level of expertise of the Bots, no real complaints, the odd glitch, but lately the Bots have been doing some very strange and stupid things. I had one hand today where 7 tables made a 3NT, 4 didnt (my bot included). And I have seen this many times in the past few months. The bots are also overbidding, going totally overboard. My friend and I also came across a number of examples where 10 or more tables made the contract, and we get 0%, failing. We could see absolutely no reason why, as the tricks we lost could not possibly be won ? Until we looked at the other hands, and found that a different suit lead had occurred. On one hand up to 20 people had made the contract, we were the only one that failed. The Advanced Bots are making the crazy overbids. Is BBO in the process of testing a new version of the bots ? In which case, I work in IT, and I understand how programs can go wrong inadvertently. But its getting pretty bad now. Any Admin, please feel free to take a look at some of my hands.

[glen]

If the bots are bidding and playing terribly, they are functioning as normal

[Cyberyeti]

 Wozness, on 2020-September-26, 06:19, said:

My friend and I have been playing on BBO for quite a while now. We have always been satisfied with the level of expertise of the Bots, no real complaints, the odd glitch, but lately the Bots have been doing some very strange and stupid things. I had one hand today where 7 tables made a 3NT, 4 didnt (my bot included). And I have seen this many times in the past few months. The bots are also overbidding, going totally overboard. My friend and I also came across a number of examples where 10 or more tables made the contract, and we get 0%, failing. We could see absolutely no reason why, as the tricks we lost could not possibly be won ? Until we looked at the other hands, and found that a different suit lead had occurred. On one hand up to 20 people had made the contract, we were the only one that failed. The Advanced Bots are making the crazy overbids. Is BBO in the process of testing a new version of the bots ? In which case, I work in IT, and I understand how programs can go wrong inadvertently. But its getting pretty bad now. Any Admin, please feel free to take a look at some of my hands.

Put some hands up, maybe you bid contracts differently changing the lead.

Maybe the bots weren't overbidding, maybe the system was strange and your bids showed more than you thought.

Most likely the bots were just bad, there have been some strange things happening recently.

[johnu]

 Wozness, on 2020-September-26, 06:19, said:

Any Admin, please feel free to take a look at some of my hands.

Even if there was a BBO programmer who would look at bugs, they would never have the time to search through all of your hands and try to figure out what hands you are talking about. Export the questionable hands and post a link to them (or display them directly in your post, you'll have to search to find out how). Even then, don't expect any resolution.

[pilowsky]

On the plus side, you have a friend!

[rama3347]

How to get prime membership on bbo? Can anyone enlighten me?
?

[rama3347]

My tournament completion rate is poor. Because I have been leaving some stand alone matches like challengers etc midway. How to improve this rating or get it condoned as a one time concession?

[rama3347]

 Cyberyeti, on 2020-September-26, 09:12, said:

Put some hands up, maybe you bid contracts differently changing the lead.

Maybe the bots weren't overbidding, maybe the system was strange and your bids showed more than you thought.

Most likely the bots were just bad, there have been some strange things happening recently.

[rama3347]

 Cyberyeti, on 2020-September-26, 09:12, said:

Put some hands up, maybe you bid contracts differently changing the lead.

Maybe the bots weren't overbidding, maybe the system was strange and your bids showed more than you thought.

Most likely the bots were just bad, there have been some strange things happening recently.

[rama3347]

I find bots going off the way whenever I bid unconventional. Discarding affects bots’ table play.

[smerriman]

 rama3347, on 2020-September-26, 19:02, said:

My tournament completion rate is poor. Because I have been leaving some stand alone matches like challengers etc midway. How to improve this rating or get it condoned as a one time concession?

Challenges / daylongs, any other one-player tournament do not count towards your TCR. The only ones which do are those that negatively impact other human players; the only way to improve it is to not leave such tournaments before they are finished.

[Wozness]

Lol, mucho Lol.

[nudnikbp]

Are you playing with standard or advanced robots? You have to pay a card fee to play with the advanced robots. The advanced robots play better, not to be confused with perfectly. I'd recommend paying .39 to play an eight-deal BBO daylong tournament with the advanced robots.

[pilowsky]

 nudnikbp, on 2020-September-27, 05:40, said:

Are you playing with standard or advanced robots? You have to pay a card fee to play with the advanced robots. The advanced robots play better, not to be confused with perfectly. I'd recommend paying .39 to play an eight-deal BBO daylong tournament with the advanced robots.

If you want to play with advanced robots join the prime area. You can bang out hands endlessly for $4.99/month (IMP's or MP's) and get a free masterpointed 12 board weekly tournament. BUT make sure you read the GIB system notes.
Or you'll definitely blow your dough.

[GAMMA57309]

I'm not the OP but I have also been noticing this. Here's an example hand from yesterday where the bot simultaneously denied our fit while lying about the length of their suit. https://tinyurl.com/y4e5wby5

[MP7601]

 GAMMA57309, on 2020-September-27, 10:11, said:

I'm not the OP but I have also been noticing this. Here's an example hand from yesterday where the bot simultaneously denied our fit while lying about the length of their suit. https://tinyurl.com/y4e5wby5

Your hand looks like the robot was programmed to think "there's no game because my partner is a passed hand, so let's get out at a contract below 2NT", but was NOT programmed to think "I can pass this non-GF 2/1"

[Thadjcole]

---

yes they are malfunctioning. Twice tonight ,while on defense, the bots have ruffed my good trick to blow a trick on defense.

[pilowsky]

It's mainly the West robot that malfunctions. The others are pretty good, although they do take them out periodically for maintenance and put in a substitute human player.
Some of the substitute human players don't know the system very well. That could be the cause of your problem.
To be fair the robots have been in service for many years. It's hardly surprising that they're getting a bit tired.

[barmar]

There have been no changes to the robots. We always announce it when we upgrade the robots.

Very little robot development has been going on since the pandemic, we've been too busy increasing capacity and adding features for NBOs and clubs to move online.

[pilowsky]

 barmar, on 2020-September-28, 08:30, said:

There have been no changes to the robots. We always announce it when we upgrade the robots.

Very little robot development has been going on since the pandemic, we've been too busy increasing capacity and adding features for NBOs and clubs to move online.

Really? Even the West robot? Shame on you.