What are Robot Tournaments?

Each table in a Robot Tournament consists of a single human player, sitting South, and three robot players sitting in the other three seats.

We offer several types of Robot Tournaments on BBO:

• Robot Duplicate Tournaments:
  29 cents entry fee. 8 boards, 30 minutes, MP or IMP scoring. BBO Points awarded to top finishers.


• Robot Rebate 55% Tournaments:
  1 BB$ entry fee. 12 boards. 45 minutes. MP scoring. BBO Points and BB$ prizes awarded to top finishers. Must score 55% or higher to win 1.5 BB$


• Robot Reward Tournaments ($1 or $5):
  1 BB$ or 5 BB$ entry fee. 15 minutes long, can play as many boards as you wish until the clock runs out. Total Points scoring. BBO Points and BB$ prizes awarded to top finishers.


• Daylong Tournaments:
  39 cents entry fee. 8 boards, 24 hours to complete them. MPs, IMPs and "Just Declare" variations. Can exit tournament and resume play later through the day. BBO Points awarded to top finishers. Massive field, extra BBO Points awarded.


• Instant Tournaments:
  45 cents entry fee. 8 boards, untimed, MP or IMP scoring. BBO Points awarded to top finishers. Instant comparisons, instant results.

Robot Tournament features:

• Best Hand
  The human player is usually dealt the "best hand" (defined as the hand with the most high card points) at the table unless otherwise stated.


• Human Declares
  The human player is switched into the North (Robot) seat whenever North is the declarer. The human player then declares the hand. When the hand is over, the human is switched back to his original seat.


• Deal Pool (in Daylongs)
  For every board in a Daylong tournament, we deal multiple instances. (ie Not everyone gets the same board 1, board 2, etc.) This is a security measure.


• Just Declare (in Daylongs)
  Just Declare daylongs have predealt, prebid hands with players as declarers always. Just Declare tournaments are not Best Hand.


• Prizes:
  BBO Points are awarded to the top finishers in all types of Robot Tournaments. Some tournaments also offer BB$ prizes.

About the robots:

The robots used on BBO are called GIB (Ginsberg's Intelligent Bridgeplayer). You can find out more about GIB's bidding system by clicking here.

The GIBs used in BBO play a relatively simple and natural 2/1 bidding system. You can find out the meaning of any bid by clicking on that bid as it appears in the bidding diagram. Furthermore,when it is your turn to bid, moving your mouse over the buttons for the various possible bids will cause an explanation of the bid you are considering (as your GIB partner will understand it) to be displayed. These explanations can be somewhat cryptic, but reading them carefully before you bid will help you to avoid misunderstandings with your GIB partner.