Daniel Jackson June 9, 2018

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1 Daniel Jackson June 9, 2018

3 Bridge Base Online - BBO ( 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)

4 Go to Click LOGIN / REGISTER

5 Click INSTANT TOURNAMENTS You can play two per hour

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

7 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

8 It s fun! Life Master ranks Impairments Play in higher bracket

9 Prior to January 1, 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, Total points 75 Black points 75 Silver points At least 100 red/gold/platinum, including at least 50 gold 250 can be anything!

10 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!

11 Bidding Declarer Play Defense

12 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?

13 Bots use a NT 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.

14 West Deals Both Vul Q Q J 4 Q A K W N S E 7 A A J 7 3 A Q 4 3 J 10 2 K K 6 4 K J 9 West North East South cake_eater Pass Pass Pass 1 NT Pass 2! Pass 2 All pass 2 by South Made 2 NS +110 Making 2 spades was worth 78% on this hand. Note the three aces.

15 Bots play 1NT forcing that doesn t mean you have to! Same thing for inverted minors. Pass 1D-2D if you have 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.

16 Notrump ranges open 1NT, open 2NT, 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.

17 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.

18 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

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

20 QT Ax The opponents never bid, and they lead this suit. Against a human? Against a bot? Suit contract or notrump?

21 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.

22 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

23 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.

24 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.

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

26 Two-way finesse for the queen: If they don t cover, they don t have it. Axxx KJTx dummy 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.

27 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.

28 Avoid defending!

29 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.

30 I am user cake_eater on BBO. If there is interest, I am willing to start a weekly with hands that I find interesting. Please feel free to 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!

BASIC OVERCALL and TAKEOUT DOUBLE BIDDING

BASIC OVERCALL and TAKEOUT DOUBLE BIDDING OVERCALLS AT THE ONE LEVEL. A simple suit overcall at the 1-level shows only a decent to good 5-card suit, KQT9x, for example, and 8+ HCP. There s no promise to bid again. Partner will lead that suit whenever