BBO Discussion Forums: Play with a partner against two robots - BBO Discussion Forums

My wife and I are new to BBO. We would like to first be able to practice against two robots. Is this possible?

What is the best way for us to practice our bidding techniques? Are their aids that can help us know what our options might be for selected hands?

Thanks.

pearl1952, on 2019-December-29, 12:17, said:

Have patience; the forum can be a little slow at times, especially on weekends, but I’m sure somebody will be able to help you on Monday, if not later today.
I’ve been playing here a couple years, but only with me and 3 robots. I’m curious to know the answer to your question.

Good luck

You can practice bidding by setting up a Bidding Table. From the main screen, select "Practice -> Start a Bidding Table". This screen gives you a few options, but to get robots you will want to set the Opponents' bidding to "Pass throughout". You can also reserve North-South seats for yourself and your partner.

Now when you click Start Table, you can click on East or West and add robots. Then when the two of you take your seats you will get hands to bid.

The next thing you want to do is to set some criteria for the hands you want. Click on the top left menu (the blue box with lines) and choose "Deal source". This area is not the most intuitive, but it allows you to set one or more sets of criteria for the hands. The simplest option is to create a Constraint Set by clicking on the '+' sign and choose some minimum number of points - 22+ works well for part-score and higher, 23+ for game bidding, etc. You can also set shape requirements for each hand.

That should be enough to give you most of what you want, so give that a go first.

There is a more advanced option that requires some basic script writing. Go to the "Advanced" tab on the Deal Source window and you'll notice an area that reads "Use this input for the Dealer program". If you have chosen a point range, you should have something like:

((hcp(north) + hcp(south) >= 22))

You can put something much more complicated in there if you want to practice specific things. There is a link on that page that gives you more information, and you can also test what you want to do at:

http://www.bridgebas...aler/dealer.php

It's a bit fiddly, but can be valuable to practice specific things.


If you want to play against robots (rather than just bid), you need to rent bots from BBO. This costs a bit of money. I've never done it before so don't know details about how to add money to your account. But once you have done so I think you can just start a table and add the robots the same way as adding them at a bidding table.

As it seems so difficult to set myself up with a partner please can l have my money back. 3 robots kept coming up. There seemed to be no guidance on how to play with my partner.

lisatorr, on 2024-June-18, 06:04, said:

Hi,

Here's a video if it helps:

https://www.youtube....h?v=P-elAkGAgJU

We refunded your robot rental as well, however, you still have the robots active and you can try to get this going.

Hope you manage to sort it out and play with your partner.