[pilowsky]

I was dealt this hand in an ACBL tournament, where I bid it perfectly and played it preposterously. Here is the traveller.
For -10.29 I managed 7S-4, gazinta bid it the same way and played it perfectly.
Working out where I went wrong was the easy part.
My problem is three-fold and is not a Bridge problem.

First, the ACBL uses advanced robots. I know that doesn't mean they are always right - sometimes they give me gifts. But they will always do the same thing in the same thing in response to the same bidding. It's just a computer program. So, when I took the hand to the Prime 'club' which is advertised as giving me advanced robots at all times, I expected to be able to replicate the bidding. Not so.
Second problem. Before I could get to the first problem I had saved the hand into a folder that I keep in my deal archive titled 'hands I failed to make'. I did this at the time of playing the hand by using the export - save deal as - etc.
Then later, when I tried to open the deal on a teaching table in the prime 'club' I get the following error message 'uploaded deal rejected'.

Undeterred I checked some of my other failures - they upload fine. I change the filename. Still no good. So I export the deal into a new window where it looks fine, then I snip out the relevant part of the hand and insert it into a bit of lin file code in a text editor (qx|o8|md|2SAQJ9HDKT972CKJ87,S86HAKJT843D84CT2,ST432H962DAJ3CAQ3|rh||ah|Board 8|sv|0|pg||), Save it with a new file name.lin, and re-import it. Hallelujah. Now it works.

Third problem. The advanced robots on prime do not bid the same way as the advanced robots in the ACBL. Specifically, they do not raise the 3H preempt. This is, therefore, a different computer program.

Here is the movie where I stuff it up.

Here is gazinta's movie with the correct line.

There were 16 players in between us with better results than me: obviously.
Fwiw here's what happens if I let the robots on Prime bid and play it they reach 5S-1 https://tinyurl.com/y6rbb3ew

So, to summarise.
I'm paying for advanced GIB in Prime, can I please have it. I would like to know that the program that I'm using in one part of BBO world is the same as in every other part. As far as BBO sells it there are only two types of Program.

There seems to be a problem with the file save/upload mechanism.
I have a workaround, but it's a bit tedious.
I don't care if GIB doesn't make the contract - sort of a relief really.

This problem with not being able to load hands onto the teaching table is not a one-off. It has happened to me at least three times now. It must be a bug.
Please explain why the Prime robots are not the advanced robots that were advertised to me.

[johnu]

pilowsky, on 2020-October-04, 20:37, said:

For -10.29 I managed 7S-4, gazinta bid it the same way and played it perfectly.
...

Here is gazinta's movie with the correct line.

gazinta certainly did not play it perfectly and deserved to go down if West had a singleton club. The heart opening lead should be ruffed with ♠Q or J, so dummy declarer can lead ♠10 and hold the lead if East does not cover.

[nige1]

Over Pilowsky's double, his "advanced" Robot partner evaluated its hand as part-score material When Pilowsky pushed to game, it re-evaluated its hand to be worth a grand-slam Not completely unreasonable, given the East-West bidding and Pilowsky's ♥ cue-bid.

West's weak pre-empt and a count of vacant places are considerations that might help Declarer divine the winning line: finessing East for ♠K and ♦Q
-- After ruffing the ♥ lead high as JohnU points out.

---

[johnu]

nige1, on 2020-October-05, 06:06, said:

[hv=lin=bbo=y&myhand=M-433573879-1601841601]300|300|
Over Pilowsky's double, his "advanced" Robot partner evaluated its hand as part-score material When Pilowsky pushed to game, it re-evaluated its hand to be worth a grand-slam Not completely unreasonable, given the East-West bidding and Pilowsky's ♥ cue-bid.

Of course pushing to 7♠was unreasonable. It was, it is, and it will in the future totally ridiculous for 4♠ to show 25+ points. You basically never play partner to have absolutely nothing in a competitive auction. You assume partner has a fair share of the outstanding assets. As for 5♥ showing 28+ points, I have to admire an alleged bidding system that caters to 28+ point hands in a competitive auction when you have 11 HCP and the other 2 players are both in the auction. Clearly pilowsky didn't check the meaning of 4♠ or 5♥ (and 3♠ showed 4+ spades, less than 20 points!!!). I don't know how you are supposed to have a reasonable auction under the circumstances.

[Lovera]

nige1, on 2020-October-05, 06:06, said:

Over Pilowsky's double, his "advanced" Robot partner evaluated its hand as part-score material When Pilowsky pushed to game, it re-evaluated its hand to be worth a grand-slam Not completely unreasonable, given the East-West bidding and Pilowsky's ♥ cue-bid.

West's weak pre-empt and a count of vacant places are considerations that might help Declarer divine the winning line: finessing East for ♠K and ♦Q
-- After ruffing the ♥ lead high as JohnU points out.

---

There are, for me, too many "favoureble circonstances" in N/S line as two ultherior double fits but, also, that you have two finess getting right ! Although with this type of hands in slam zone, a player can be strongly tempeted to bid a grand. Interesting, then, the indicating for 5♥ about 28+ total points and the cues.(Lovera)