KIBITZ: the design of a bridge-bidding program utilizing simulated human judgement

Abstract

The design of a program utilizing simulated human judgement to bid bridge hands is presented. The program is a new application of a technique developed by Peter G. Ossorio and H. Joel Jeffrey, which transforms a body of expert judgements into orthogonal matrices referred to as "judgement spaces". The process by which the bids are produced is compared to the operation of a finite state machine: the states reflect the condition of the auction, the bids themselves move the machine from one state to the other, and the characteristics of the bridge hands -- as perceived by the experts -- control the state-to-state transitions. A description of the mechanics of bridge bidding is appended.