[benellis58]

GIBBO robots often foolishly and illogically bid a minor when they should be bidding a major. Here, though, it seems they are doing the reverse:

After North fails to open the bidding in second seat, East opens 1S in third, and South doubles for takeout.

West bids 2S.

North looks at his hand: 95, 7642, QJ10976, K. He is red against white. Should he pass or should he bid?

Well, as far as I'm concerned, it's not even close. He should definitely, one hundred percent, bid. For once, GIBBO and I see eye to eye, because, to his credit, North does bid...but...

He bids three HEARTS. Yes, I understand that majors are "better" than minors and usually should take priority...but I think THIS hand is an exception. North is bidding at the three level, red against white, so he wants some safety and security. Diamonds provide both far more than hearts. In terms of quantity, he has SIX diamonds but only four hearts. In terms of quality, his SIX diamonds are very respectable, with almost perfect solidity from the queen down: QJ10976. Compare that quality to his FOUR hearts: the absolutely woeful 7642.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/j6f3x7bk

[benellis58]

"Return a HEART at trick two? Are you crazy? Why would I ever want to return a HEART after my PARTNER led them?" asks a visibly agitated East.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/2p9dx3e2

[benellis58]

North's 3S bid: He tried his BEST to put us into a 3-3 (!) "fit" but fortunately he didn't succeed. Note, BTW, that he has one fewer spade than his own GIB definition promises and ALSO one fewer club than it promises. Moral: Don't ever trust a stinking GIBBO robot. Corollary: That means don't ever trust any GIBBO robot, because they all stink.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/3jchx5ws

[benellis58]

As South, I have quite a good hand, within the context of having "only" 12 HCP, but I "only" raised to 2S because:

A. I do have "only" 12 HCP, even though the hand is worth 15 "total" points.
B. North passed as dealer, so he has at most 11 HCP.
C. North, a cursed GIBBO robot, is - like all of his hopeless brethren - a lousy bidder in general but a notorious overbidder in particular.

After East bid 3C over my "mere" 2S and North and West both passed, I had an easy and obvious 3S call in passout seat. West passed, and now...

NORTH...bid...FOUR spades. Remember I said he was "a notorious overbidder"? See? Here's the proof that I didn't lie.

Note that he ALSO committed a typical CARDINAL sin of the execrable GIBBO robots: His partner competes/balances, and then the robot HANGS his partner for doing so. More often than not, he turns a plus into a minus, or he turns a potentially profitable sacrificial minus into a LOSING minus by making it a bigger and potentially doubled minus.

Here, it actually worked out well (more on that later), but that does NOT justify North's typically stupid and illogical 4S bid. Consider:

A. He MIGHT have competed over West's 3C, but he didn't. He didn't even think he was strong enough to merely compete to the THREE level, but now...NOW...his hand has MAGICALLY become strong enough to RAISE partner South's merely competitive call of three spades to four!
B. And it's not as if SOUTH has suddenly shown greater values, because (comically) the GIB definitions for BOTH (!) 2S AND 3S are IDENTICAL: "5+ hearts; 4+ spades; 11+ HCP; 12-16 total points".

So, there is absolutely NO justification, reason, or logic for North to be so inconsistent in his bidding, or to put it in more straightforward terms, North is an I.D.I.O.T.

I made 10 tricks for plus 420 and a score of 96.88 % on the board, tied with one other human who had the same result. The board was played in spades 12 times, and 10 of those times the human took fewer than 10 tricks.

At my table, regardless of layout or result, the EW "defenders" showed their typical "ability". East made one of his beloved (and often stupid and costly) leads: His stiff trump (spades). West won and shifted to a club. When East won his heart king at trick three, he shifted to a diamond. As so often happens, it looks like the "defenders" were at cross-purposes throughout and had no coherent strategy.

https://www.bridgeba...HT%7Cmc%7C10%7C

[benellis58]

82.14 % for going down "only" one in 3NT. Given the bad splits in BOTH red suits, it looked like my only chance to go down "only" one was to play for a suicide squeeze against East. Thus, at trick seven, I exited with my spade 10. West won and safely cashed two more spades in tricks eight and nine. Then at trick ten he cashed his heart 10.

At this point (the conclusion of trick ten), NS had taken 6 tricks, EW 4. These were the three cards remaining in each of the four hands:

West, the "defender" currently on lead, had the high 8 of hearts and the J8 of clubs.
North, the dummy, had the 6 of hearts and the Q3 of clubs.
East, the other "defender", had the high queen of diamonds and the K10 of clubs.
South, the declarer (yours truly), had the 7 of diamonds and the A4 of clubs.

At trick eleven, West now...made the error of cashing his 8 of hearts, which created the suicide squeeze that I had envisioned at trick seven...because...North followed suit with the heart 6, but East had NO WINNING PLAY. If he pitched his high queen of diamonds, I would pitch my 4 of clubs and take the last two tricks with my club ace and my now-established diamond 7. And if East instead pitched a club from his K10 dub, I would pitch my diamond 7 and take the last two tricks with my club ace (at trick 12) and dummy's club QUEEN at trick 13, since East's now-STIFF king would have been played at trick 12.

So, a perfect suicide squeeze as I had envisioned at trick seven...BUT...West could and should have prevented it! At trick 11, rather than foolishly cashing his high 8 of hearts, he should have led a club. Whatever I did, the defenders would establish a club trick. If I played low from dummy, East's 10 (OR West's jack, if he had led that card from his J8) would force my ace, and I would be left with a losing club and a losing diamond. And if I played dummy's club QUEEN at trick 11, East would have covered with his king, forcing my ace, and again leaving me with a losing club and a losing diamond.

By defending correctly and NOT cashing his high heart 8 at trick 11, West would NOT have "assisted" me in the suicide squeeze. He would have NOT scored his HEART trick, but he would have been MORE than compensated by his partnership scoring TWO of the last three tricks rather than JUST one.

This was a defensive error perhaps more forgivable than most, since it was a more complex issue, but the fact nonetheless remains that when the GIBBO robot sitting West was presented with a test of his defensive ability, he FAILED it...as expected for these clueless jabronis.

https://www.bridgeba...CC8%7Cmc%7C8%7C

[benellis58]

96.15 % for "only" going down one in 4S (shared top with someone who went down one in TWO spades), so I'm certainly not complaining, but I'm not impressed by North's bidding, despite our good result. My OWN bidding is obviously EXTREMELY "conservative" for the USUAL reasons, and this is quite obviously a true FREAK of a hand, but ignoring everything up to and including South's 3NT call, it certainly seems that four CLUBS by North would be a more accurate description of his hand (given that he had SEVEN clubs and "only" six spades) than four SPADES.

https://www.bridgeba...CHK%7Cmc%7C9%7C

[benellis58]

Thanks for the gift of your VERY helpful, and very questionable, lead, Mr. West: a lead which offered me a score of 100 % on a platter without even breathing hard, while you got to add another complete zero to your TRULY impressive MASSIVE collection. So: Maybe we're BOTH happy for different reasons.

https://www.bridgeba...DT%7Cpc%7CDQ%7C

[benellis58]

Another 100 for NS, but more amusingly, YET another complete zero for the two GIBBO imbeciles sitting EW...and a VERY well-deserved zero at that! Lots of silly "defensive" plays as usual, but the absolute STAR of stupidity is the way these braindead robots played the CLUB suit. That butchery belongs in the Stupidity Hall of Fame. Why were these hopeless GIBBO robots not destroyed long ago and replaced with COMPETENT robots?

https://www.bridgeba...CC4%7Cmc%7C9%7C

[benellis58]

Since the other three players at the table are GIBBO robots, I do some typical operating in the bidding.

West makes a normal lead that happens to be an unfortunate one for his side, although East MIGHT have aided the EW defensive prospects by inserting the Curse of Scotland at trick one. He chose, however, to win his ace, and probably can't be criticized for that.

At trick two, East shifted to a spade, but TYPICALLY for these woefully inept all-time losers, he couldn't even manage to play the CORRECT spade. Although the GIBBO robots play FOURTH-best, the addlepated piece of trash played his FIFTH-best ( the 3 rather than the correct 6). This, I guess, is in keeping with the fact that these abysmal REJECTS seem to treat all spot cards as equals. It's about time that these REJECTS abandoned the game once and for all and gave up their "jobs" to COMPETENT robots!

West won his spade ace and...tried a THIRD suit, clubs. That's THREE different suits in THREE tricks...suggesting that they have NO strategy and NO idea what they're doing.

South...CLAIMED. EW had gone to bed with their spade king. No, the robots did NOT get a good score on the board. (Do they EVER? Well, yes, sometimes - but CERTAINLY not often!)

https://www.bridgeba...C3%7Cmc%7C11%7C

[benellis58]

West exposes his MASSIVE ignorance with his TRULY imbecilic REVERSE (!!!) of 2S. Please toss each and every GIBBO robot into a bottomless pit and then cover it with tar (and maybe a few feathers). These useless robots are a huge pimple on the face of bridge.

https://www.bridgeba...S5%7Cpc%7CH2%7C

[benellis58]

I don't like several of the definitions here. I particularly don't like the definition of 3D. Forgetting about his actual hand, if he could have as FEW as SEVEN (!!!) HCP as the definition claims, then why would he be "forcing to 3NT" as the definition also claims?

I also don't like the 3D call itself. It is a typical GIBBO misuse/abuse of a cuebid that says NOTHING useful and that is made out of the blue at a relatively high level of the auction.

Plus: East's lead seems silly on the auction.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/48h9wyht

[benellis58]

Fatal and foolish diamond pitch by West at trick 7.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/3ehtphs3

[benellis58]

A good East-West pair (which obviously immediately eliminates any and every pair of the contemptible and useless GIBBO robots!) would have held me to 10 tricks, as they would score two red aces and a diamond ruff.

These C.R.E.T.I.N.S. here, being GIBBO robots, allowed me to take ELEVEN tricks, and the reason is probably their inexplicable passion for leading worthless doubletons, which they stupidly do with great frequency.

Thus, when East led his STIFF (this time!) diamond 10, I played the 7 from my 75 doubleton, and West, who had WON his diamond ace, didn't know who had the ONLY outstanding diamond (the 5) that he could not see in his hand or in dummy South. If these abject M.O.R.O.N.S. did not SO often stupidly lead doubletons, West would have had a strong inkling that his partner had led a singleton and might well have provided the ruff.

GIVEN all that, though, EAST should probably have cashed his heart ace at trick one, and THEN led his stiff diamond at trick two, making it obvious for West to provide the diamond ruff at trick three.

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/yc5939ef

[benellis58]

The GIBBO robots get only two of their three TOP tricks, thanks to Johnny Halfwit's stupid trump lead.,

https://tinyurl.brid...se.com/yw2rvk55

[benellis58]

The hideousness of the GIBBO robots is staggering.

The greatest joke in the history of the universe must be that GIB stands for "Ginsberg's Intelligent Bridgeplayer" (sic!).

As I have suggested several times, the "I" in the acronym should perhaps stand for "ignorant", "I.D.I.O.T.I.C.", "infuriating", "incompetent", "incapable", "ineffective", "irritating", "impossible", "ignominious", "illogical", "inept", or "inconsistent".

Take your pick or add your own, but for sure the ONE thing the "I" should DEFINITELY not stand for is "intelligent", because these GIBBO pieces of garbage are the most UNintelligent "bridge players" I have ever, ever, EVER encountered.

[benellis58]

We were lucky to score 77.56 % on this board for going down "only" two in 5C. I'm posting this hand because (like just about EVERY hand these GIBBO pieces of dirt are involved in), the absolute absurdity and worthlessness of GIB definitions are exposed in all their sickening "glory".

East has 104, K9, AQJ10853, 54. Nobody is vul, and his RHO North passed in first seat. He...passes. This seems strange to me, and all the MORE so, since I have on multiple occasions seen these GIBBO dirtbags open FAR weaker 10-counts simply because they had some random six-bagger of FAR weaker quality than this seven-bagger in a super diamond suit.

South opens 1C in third, West passes, North responds 1H, and East leaps to 3D. Note that by bidding in the manner he chose, he has given his NS opponents the opportunity to exchange information that they would have been less able to accurately describe had he bid his diamonds earlier.

East's 3D is defined as "Aggressive weak jump overcall...". If THAT is GIB's idea of "aggressive", then GIB is the biggest wimp on the planet.

South considers his options. He has an excellent club suit, but for a variety of reasons does not want to bid FOUR clubs. He has moderate heart support, but does not want to overstate it, especially since he knows that his "partner" is a complete madman who is always a mere hair away from going off the rails and immediately leaping into the stratosphere. "Hmm, "thinks South, "maybe doubling would be a possibility. I'll see how GIB defines it."

GIB defines it exactly as we would suspect: in other words, wretchedly. It is such a pathetic definition that we'll tear it apart piece by nauseating piece:

"4+ clubs". Okay, I suppose, but that's not telling us much, since South opened 1C.

"1- heart". Really? WHY, pray tell?

"17-21 HCP". Okay, if you say so, GIB, but I'm still waiting for some useful info.

"3 card clubs". What? WHAT? What the HELL? The very FIRST statement of this same definition was that the double showed at LEAST four clubs and possibly more, but NOW, Mr. GIBBO, NOW you are saying that the doubler has THREE clubs? What happened? Did someone burst in and steal most of his clubs at gunpoint, allowing him to keep only three of them? OR...is this just another example of how inconsistent, illogical, ridiculous, and totally useless your GIB definitions usually are?

"Biddable diamonds". If you say so, GIB, but what exactly do you mean by "biddable" within the context of this auction, and WHY are you saying it? Is this some subtle way of implying that this is a PENALTY double? If so, then why not say that specifically? And if it's not a penalty double, then why are you even mentioning his "biddable diamonds"?

"22- total points". Not even worth looking at, since GIB is completely ignorant on the subject of "total" points.

Note that this worthless GIB definition NEVER explicitly states the PURPOSE of the double. Penalty? Takeout? Card-showing? Support? DSI? Other? Who KNOWS? Because, as is far too often the case, the pathetic GIB definition FAILS to tell us the MOST IMPORTANT piece of information! Yet these same GIB definitions persist in telling us COMPLETELY useless nonsense such as 1C or 1D is a "minor suit opening", that a IS response to a 1C opener is "one over one", that a 2D response to a 1S opener is "two over one", that 3NT is "game"...and NUMEROUS other annoying, worthless garbage of the same kind.

So, South passes, as does West. Note that at this point, ALL South has shown in this auction is that he has at least 3 clubs and at least 12 HCP.

North has K765, AJ83, K62, 86, so he has a bit of a dilemma also. He chooses to bid 3S - using his typical philosophy of REVERSING at a HIGH level. In fairness, he DOES have 11 HCP, he DOES have at least four hearts and four spades (the two suits he has bid), and he DOES have a tough call.

East passes and South again has a problem. Should he bid 4H with his moderate heart support? That could certainly be "right", but he checks various definitions and sees that 4C would show "3- hearts; 3- spades; 21- HCP; twice rebiddable clubs; 14-22 total points" and observes that his hand fulfills every criterion of the definition, so he bids 4C.

West passes, North raises to 5C, and all pass. 5C is not a very good contract. This hand was basically a death trap for NS from the beginning, and both NS players had difficult bidding decisions with no clear answer. Having said that, however, North's 3S basically committed NS to SOME game, even though he had only invitational values. Still, I have sympathy, because the auction had been jammed and NS really had no room to maneuver. I think though, that double rather than 3S would have been a superior call...but that depends on how GIB defines the double.

https://www.bridgeba...CDJ%7Cmc%7C9%7C

[benellis58]

Two words: Stupid lead.

Three words: TYPICALLY stupid lead.

https://www.bridgeba...H7%7Cpc%7CC2%7C

[benellis58]

Not complaining about our 94.55 % score on this board. I like to periodically remind people that this thread is never about complaining about a bad result or bragging about a good one. The one and only purpose is always to follow what I consider the mission statement of this thread. That mission is to "bash" the GIB/GIBBO robots, and I adopted the responsibility of that mission from the title Diana gave to this essential thread when she was inspired with the excellent idea to create it in August 2025. Her title, of course, is "Benellis58 GIB Bashing on Repeat" and she even gave it the clever subtitle "Groundhog Day", which perfectly underscores that in one sense playing with and against GIBBO robots is indeed like Groundhog Day (Bill Murray version), as EVERY day is like the one before...with the GIBBO robots inevitably playing disgustingly poorly on hand after hand after nauseating hand.

The entire thread is written in the hope that the powers that be at BBO will either HUGELY improve their wretched, hopeless GIB/GIBBO robots, system, and definitions, or...better yet...MUCH better yet...get rid of these disgusting atrocities once and for all and replace them with DECENT alternatives. BBO players, members, and customers would have a vastly improved experience, and BBO itself would be the biggest winner of all. It would keep customers who might otherwise opt to migrate to another website because of disgust at the GIBBO robots, and it would also help to attract new customers to BBO...if BBO had DECENT robots. As it currently stands, BBO is a fine bridge site but has one glaring weakness: GIB/GIBBO, and sadly that one weakness greatly tarnishes BBO's overall image.

Anyway, back to the hand in question. NOT complaining about the result, just mentioning that I think the GIBBO use/misuse/abuse/non-use of Stayman is one of GIBBO's countless, unending errors.

Ironically, the issue I am critiquing here is one where many HUMAN players would "side with" GIBBO against me, as many HUMANS play Stayman the same way. I firmly believe, however, that it is a HIGHLY inferior method. On this hand, for example, with 5-5 in the majors, North arbitrarily and unilaterally opts to bid 2D, transferring to hearts, and then forever keeping his mouth shut. Why NOT just bid STAYMAN? Of course, he CAN'T do that because oh, boo hoo hoo, don't you know, he has ONLY 6 HCP (sob). To which I reply, "Yeah, and so WHAT? Who CARES?" It gives him the best chance of finding the best fit on this and countless other hands, and if South has no four-card major and responds 2D, again..."So WHAT!" Just bid a NON-forcing 2H over 2D...or use whatever other wrinkle you want to invent. In "my" system, I never have a problem (that obviously does not mean my results are always perfect - just that any resulting bidding can EASILY be handled in "my" system).

The actual hand linked below is not even particularly relevant (even though we played in our five-THREE heart fit rather than our five-FIVE spade fit because of GIBBO's foolish and cowardly Stayman "ban" due to "insufficient" HCP). It just sparked my impetus to once again rant about what I consider a silly bidding philosophy. Obviously, some HUMANS will disagree with me on this, but that's fine with me.

https://www.bridgeba...CT%7Cpc%7CC9%7C

[benellis58]

Below is a link to another interesting thread. I thank the poster for reporting this hand, which exposes just how twisted, illogical, and downright stupid and hopeless the GIBBO robots are. As you'll see if you read his entertaining post, the GIBBO fleabrain in the North bid 4NT, asking his "partner" South to identify his preferred minor. South obliged by bidding five clubs...over which the GIBBO numbskull in the North leapt to...six...DIAMONDS!

Your first and most obvious question might be "If he was going to bid DIAMONDS even if his partner preferred CLUBS, then why did he even bother asking for his partner's opinion?"

Your second question would probably be about an even greater absurdity: "Why did he bid 6D even knowing that his partner preferred clubs...and...even MORE laughably: looking at his OWN hand and SEEING that HE had SEVEN...GOOD...CLUBS (KQJ10532!)...but ONLY (!) FIVE (!) WEAKER (!) DIAMONDS (QJ863)?"

All bridge players make mistakes - some big, some small, some understandable, sone not...but GIBBO takes the cake for an ABSURD frequency of errors AND for the fact that most of them are COMPLETELY indefensible, illogical, unforgivable stupidities such as this!

I am not happy that I have to use the word "garbage" so often in this thread, but that is unfortunately the word that best describes the GIBBO robots, system, and definitions.


https://www.bridgeba...f-pick-a-minor/