Beating the Bots Daniel Jackson June 9, 2018

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What is Robot Bridge? Bridge Base Online - BBO (www.bridgebase.com) Bridge on BBO started about 10 years ago BBO pays ACBL $500,000 per year for the right to award masterpoints You play with a robot partner against two robots. You get the most HCP (10 or more)

How Do You Play? Go to www.bridgebase.com Click LOGIN / REGISTER

Next … Click INSTANT TOURNAMENTS You can play two per hour

Select IMPs or Matchpoints Pick whichever form of scoring you like better. In order to get ACBL masterpoints, select ACBL. You will have to pay $1.25.

Daniel versus the Robots Started in late April of 2017 More than 30,000 hands played More than 1,200 masterpoints won on BBO Placed in top 100 of both robot championships

Why play against the bots? It’s fun! Life Master ranks Impairments Play in higher bracket

Life Master Rank Requirements Prior to January 1, 2010 300 Total points 50 Black points 50 Silver points At least 50 red/gold/platinum, including at least 25 gold 150 can be anything! After January 1, 2010 500 Total points 75 Black points 75 Silver points At least 100 red/gold/platinum, including at least 50 gold 250 can be anything!

Other Life Master Ranks “Bucket List” goals: Gold, Sapphire, Diamond, Emerald Five players in our unit have an open national championship win and thus are eligible to be Grand Life Master, except they don’t have enough points. Bonus points if you know all five!

Where can we look for bot-beating strategies? Bidding Declarer Play Defense

Bidding Strategy It is critical to remember that you have the most HCP. If you have 11 HCP, partner will have 11 or less. What bid gives the most information about your hand?

1 No Trump Bots use a 15-17 1NT opener I advocate opening all 14 to 16 1NT. Maybe a “bad” 17 but those are rare. Open any 13 with AKQxxx in a minor. Small singletons in a minor are fine. Flannery-type distribution (4-5 in the majors) is fine Two unstopped suits are fine. Singleton in a major is okay if the rest of the hand is suit- oriented. Why do this? Because bots make passive opening leads.

Making 2 spades was worth 78% on this hand. Note the three aces.

Passing Forcing Bids Bots play 1NT forcing – that doesn’t mean you have to! Same thing for inverted minors. Pass 1D-2D if you have 11-12 HCP. Bots play forcing free bids – Pass if you think you are getting too high. You are protected because you know partner is limited in high cards. For example, you hold: KJ Qxx Axxx Jxxx You open 1D, 1S overcall, partner bids 2H. Just pass.

When else do you lie to your bot-partner? Notrump ranges 14-16 open 1NT, 19-20 open 2NT, 21-23 open 2C and rebid 2NT RKC – Give wrong response or pass Blackwood at times. Stayman: You hold: AJT 6543 KQT KQT9 Do you really want to bid hearts after you open 1NT and partner Staymans? Just bid 2D over Stayman.

Pass forcing responses at the one-level You hold: xx AJx AKxx xxxx You open 1D, bot responds 1H. A pass will work out well here, even if bot-partner is an unpassed hand.

Other bidding tidbits Do not open 1D and rebid 2C with 4-5 in the minors. The bot will rebid a long suit all the way to the 7-level, if you keep pulling its bids. “Mouse hover” over the bot’s bids and your possible bids, it will tell you what it thinks the bids mean

Declarer Play Declarer play skill is crucial to success against bots. If you get a bad board, take a minute to look and see why!

How do you play this card combination? QT Ax The opponents never bid, and they lead this suit. Against a human? Against a bot? Suit contract or notrump?

King or Jack? KJ63 32 You lead a small card towards dummy, LHO Bot plays small. Against a suit contract, play the jack. Bots will rarely duck when holding the ace. In a notrump contract, this is much less likely to be true.

Another guess which is not a guess… Atxx Q9xx This suit combination, missing king and jack, comes up often. Play the ace first. The bot will come up with the king if it has the king

Bots splitting honors If a bot wins a trick with an honor or plays an honor third hand, that bot will never have the next lower honor, guaranteed. AJTx  dummy xxx When you play a small card to the jack, the bot plays the king. This denies the queen.

Splitting your honors as declarer Split your honors with the higher one. You have KQTx and they lead the suit on your right. Play the king. The bots will frequently continue the suit.

If it hesitates, shoot it! If the bot is thinking, it has something to think about. The bot simulates possible outcomes.

Deception Two-way finesse for the queen: If they don’t cover, they don’t have it. Axxx  dummy KJTx Lead the jack and if they do not cover it, play the king and the low to the ten. Keep in mind that there can’t be visible honors in the dummy. This will not work nearly as well if KJTx is in dummy.

This also works for other suit guesses….. Kxxx  Dummy QT9x Lead the ten. If they don’t fly ace or cover with the jack, go up with the king, then finesse the 9 on the way back.

Two words about defense….. Avoid defending!

Other resources for bot strategies Search for online classes from Leo LaSota, the number one bot player Look for threads on Bridgewinners.com for discussions of hands played during the ACBL robot championships. Ask local players who have had a lot of experience playing against bots.

Final Thoughts… I am user cake_eater on BBO. If there is interest, I am willing to start a weekly email with hands that I find interesting. Please feel free to email me at djackson3789@hotmail.com if you would like a copy of this Powerpoint deck, or if you have any feedback on this lecture. Thank you!