ACBL NABC Online July 23-25
Reflections of a champion

blue robot

Get Fuzzy

Fuzzyquack, whose ACBL masterpoints inserted him solidly into the B strat, upsetted a lot of hot favorites to squeeze into the top spot in the Spring NABC Online. He gave an interview at the time and we can see now after the conclusion of the first pair of practice tourneys the Fuzz is a strong contender for this season's NABC Online once again. We revisit Fuzzy 4 months after his triumph to see if our second NABC Online titleholder has insights to impart to this season's questers.

But what is the NABC Online "mission" we've been talking about? The NABC Online is the cheapest NABC level event and you can save even more money if you sign up by this Friday July 20th. Early registration fee is $40, versus the full price of $50 if you pay after Friday. So if you want to try to win some Red or Gold points or shoot for the only NABC title you can win from the comforts of your home, enter BBO's ACBL World and sign up fast.

Fuzzyquack's thoughts
  • You won the Spring NABC Online. Do you intend to play the Summer one as well?
    • I generally intend to play but I'm not sure about it now.

  • If you're playing would you use the same strategy? (Only change is you get double the time to complete your boards now.)
    • I'll prefer five minutes per hand to have extra advantage. :;-})

  • After you won in the Spring, you said you weren't sure whether you'll have time to play more live bridge. So how was life post NABC title? Did you get to play more, receive interesting offers, or people treated you differently?
    • Not much real bridge.

  • Could you offer a tip or two for players new to the format and to playing with robots? And tips for experienced players?
    • Bots and the best hand have special features one must include in the plan.

    Since your hand is the best, it implies quite a lot about the HCP distribution. If you have 10, all others must have 10 too, which is very rare on probabilistic grounds. If you hold 11, your bot has 7-11 HCP. You should open all flat 11HCP hands with 33M to be able to pass any response. Bots are terrible in competing, so you almost always buy the hand.

    Bend your openings toward 1N/2N even with a small stiff, especially in the minor. Even though as of relatively recently bots sometimes lead from their good suit against 1N, the first lead is usually as passive as it can get. Also, stretch to open 2N with 'bad' 19HCP and the longest minor of three cards - bot could pass 1m with six spades and a void in your minor.

    Never give up in hopeless contracts - bots defense is not sterling to say the least. If in such a contract, try to think in categories of giving opportunities for defensive errors. Of course the same applies to playing for extra tricks in kosher contracts.

    Always look what you bid would mean before committing. For instance, 3N overall shows 25+ and bots are merciless in raising to 6N with two queens.

    If you have time, I recommend practicing bot-specific skills in 55% BBO tourneys - there the competition for milking bots is really fierce.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Everyone here should know about Josh Donn by now. One of this continent's top players, Josh specializes in winning NABCs and already has 3 titles under his belt before turning 40. Josh also happens to be one of the best Robot players in BBO. He has given a number of lectures targeted towards improving your game in a robot tournament. Here are some of my favorites that I think are particularly relevant for a major event like this.

  • Working around robot's deficiencies.

  • Matchpoints and robot strategies.

  • Declaring at Matchpoints.

  • Summary of how to improve your results with Robots.

    • There are many more lectures by Josh and other notables like Leo LaSota or Roger Lee. But if you want to do well yet have limited free time, these 4 lectures will help greatly in improving your score.

    This concludes your mission briefing for today. This message will self-destruct in a few days. Good luck, BBOer.



    For a quick video guide on how to register, please watch this short clip. If you are using a mobile device, watch this clip instead.

    Keep an eye on the news to be updated on all the NABC Online related happenings on BBO. Or Click this link to sign up for updates and reminders.



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