As a much younger card player than I am now, I remember playing my way through Yu-Gi-Oh! Power of Chaos: Kaiba’s Revenge on a laptop in my aunt’s office over the course of several weeks.

I was meant to be preparing for mid-term exams. Beating Kaiba was a worthy exercise between studying and not.

I got pretty good.

The amount of total games eventually inched into the hundreds. The game went home with me from there, and I continued playing it.

Years later, I was introduced to other online versions of the TCG. Here, I was playing Duel Monsters against humans, not bots. And I lost one game after the next.

I realized then that playing bots wasn’t the exact same as playing humans.

Here’s what I learned playing cards against bots (versus humans).

It’s A Different Game

Bots and humans are different.

Different in the way they think strategy, different in the way they store data, and different in the way they apply this data during the game.

One isn’t less (or more) than the other, but you’ll notice an immediately different approach.

Winning against humans doesn’t mean you can beat bots. Beating bots doesn’t mean you can win against humans.

It’s a good idea to practice against both.

Humans Remember YOU

Bots can collect your moves, and adapt their strategy.

But humans remember you.

Human players can remember others in terms of more than cold data. They remember a face, they remember hesitation, they remember the last time you played that bid or card and how it went.

It means that human players adapt differently to you upon the next time you play.  When playing bridge with humans, remember this.

Humans Can Deceive With Intent

Bots like GIB can make deceptive moves as part of a larger strategy.

Humans can make deceptive moves with intent.

It’s something to keep an eye on when playing with or against human players.

When they’re giving up their good cards, it could be deliberately deceptive with a stronger move around the corner. When humans make a move that would be called “weird” if it was done by a robot, it’s usually for a reason.

Humans Feel Their Moves

Bots make use of statistical analysis and data banks to find moves appropriate for the situation. Decision trees are sometimes used to find the right trick or bid.

Simply, this isn’t how most people think or reason.

We’re not made up out of pure statistics, and we don’t think with all numbers.

Humans have feeling, and humans feel their moves. Use it.

When playing against humans, emotion factors in. Anger, confusion, deception, confidence, even over-confidence can play a role.

Humans Are Habitual

Humans develop habits. Bots have patterns instead.

It’s human nature to be habitual, even when we’re trying to avoid it. We like certain things and we dislike certain things; we do some things in specific ways because that’s how we taught or that’s what we’re used to.

Bots don’t. When playing with (or against) humans, the habitual nature can be a great asset, or a great enemy. Remember to watch other players, and don’t wear your own habits like an ace on your sleeve.