Here we go again!

This March 16-18 will see the fifth running of the ACBL “human and a robot partner versus two robots”  tournament. If you win, you get 48 MPs and a national championship title. In this tournament, you are always South, and you always have the best hand. You and your partner will have 20+ points five times out of six. The robots have a lot of inadequacies, including not being able to read signals, and playing you for what your bid(s) indicated even when it is impossible for you to have remaining in your hand what your bid(s) promised. Players familiar with the robots have learned their idiosyncrasies, and make bids that take advantage of them. Here are a couple of examples:

South holds  KJ9532   Q    AQ86     AQ…opening 1C and rebidding 3NT earned 99.62%

South holds  AQ82     K964    5   A1082.. opening 1D and ending in 3NT earned 99.6%

What this has to do with bridge as we know it is …….nothing, and, in my opinion, certainly does not warrant awarding a national championship to the “winner”. It does bring in additional revenue, so maybe there will be a national championship as well for winning a “Bingo Bridge” tournament where, instead of the bingo board having numbers, it has 25 different contracts. When your side makes one of those contracts, you daub that square, and go on to the next hand. Imagine needing a contract of 2D for a “bingo”, and you and your partner have 38 HCPs between you. Think of the monetary possibilities here in writing books, charging for courses, opening a “Bingo Bridge” center…….there’s gold in them thar hills!