[ArtK78]

Same ACBL Robot IMP pairs game. 2 boards later. All vul.

I am in second seat holding:

AQx
AQx
Qxxx
Kxx

After RHO passes, I open 1NT. CHO (GIB) transfers to spades, and I bid 2♠. This is passed to RHO (GIB) who balances with 3♥ (!). I pass, and LHO (GIB) raises to game. Now CHO comes back to life with a 4♠ bid! This is passed around to LHO (GIB) who bids 5♥! This is just too much for me, and I double it for a one trick set. Here is the whole hand:

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Bidding like this is really very silly.

[1eyedjack]

The 5H bid is certainly both absurd and costly. Given that 4H makes they need to be finding the double of 4S. The bidding certainly supports a double on principle, although the actual hand that doubles may feel queasy.

Some of the earlier bids may be long-term losers, but on this hand every decision by GIB in any seat prior to 5H actually stood to gain, not that that is a conclusive argument that they were reasonable choices.

I expect a few humans would open the East hand 2H, but I gather that GIB places suit quality limitations on weak 2 openers. Vul may play a part?

What I find rather strange is that in my experience GIB is normally very conservative about sacrificing, both at the 5 level and at the 3 level. So when it does decide to sacrifice, you would expect it to be gold-plated. Which this one certainly is not.