[croquetfan]

I have played in a lot of robot rewards and manage to keep my head above water, but there are some players who are very hard to beat, such as old_schate, k3nzo, maskio etc. I think some of this is down to internet speed because sometimes players are onto hand while my GIB is having a long think about its first bid!
I wonder whether BBO has thought about having a playoff of the top robot rewards players, maybe the top 48 as that's the max number at once. for this I would suggest that specs would be allowed, maybe even with some commentators.
I know people will say that players would not like to publicise their tricks for winning (I have figured out a few myself) but I think that this would be a nice advertisement for the whole robot tourney scene - if there were more players, there would be more for maskio et al to beat!

[barmar]

I think it would be difficult for commentators to keep up with the pace of players who excel at these games. They take less than a minute to bid and play each board (I still can't get near this rate). How much can you say to specs in that amount of time?

[Rain]

Funny that you mentioned internet speed. Quite a few of those players you mentioned probably have slow connections to USA. Our servers are currently USA based (though a few changes are in the pipelines), and Maskio, K3nzo, are Indonesians and have often talked to me about slow internet speeds forcing them to play at twilight hours for them just to get a decent game. Internet speed is definitely a factor - I swore off robot rewards personally whenever I'm back in slowapore.

Some of the GIB pauses are not due to internet speed. GIB is simulating.

Anyways, it's a good idea for a once off tourney sometime. It would be a rare commentator who can keep track of different tables playing different hands. This sounds, to me, like a tournament that will appeal mostly to the shortlisted players (why? perhaps more prizes?), though I can be wrong...

[Echognome]

I think a Tournament of Champions would be appealing to many. Perhaps the stakes can be higher and/or BBO can chip in some extra prizes. Having it set up as online Vugraph might be nice as well, even if the speed is break-neck. I don't know if the software can be used in that fashion, but it would be nice.

I also wonder if it can be set up as a sort of Swiss where the Vugraph always completes the current hand and then jumps to the leader's table (which may mean it stays where it's at). I'd have to think about how that can be done without jumping around too much. Maybe you stay with one table for a set time and then jump to the leader's table and stay there for a set time. Maybe that's too difficult or not ideal. However, it would be nice to have several tables to watch and people can watch their friends.

Finally, for further advertisement, I think it would be nice if the winner could be interviewed by someone at BBO and talk generally about their tactics.

[Rain]

I did give some tips in a series of articles, sourced from BBF, conversations with winners, the first tip email a champion sent me, and my personal experience as someone who wins more often than not. Was it because there was no "name" attached to it that it wasn't taken as seriously? I'll rerun it some time if there is interest.

The fact is, some players are willing to share tips, some are not. Others are unable or disinclined to separate their winning factor. The $5 games award prizes to about 40% of players. As long as you either make it lucky or play above average, there's actually a very good chance of winning a prize. But this also means you see some names pop up who win often, because they play every single tournament. Which means their winning factor is that they are in the top 30% at playing robots, but they play a lot, so a prize is won more often than not.

k3nzo (Private): just play my best, fast, and pray for my luck...lol

All the obvious tips are known and not secret btw. Pass with <15, etc. I think the one new thing I recently learnt is, Bridge skill is way important. I've lost out many times recently because I was unable to immediately recognize the safe plays and then executing fast.

[nathan2008]

there are a lot of tips u should keep in mind i think... Luck is very important as everyone has different hands ...