Full Tilt Bridge Masters next Saturday

The inaugural World 25 championships were held in Galway at the weekend and a lady called Mary Keary from Athenry was the winner. From reading the Full Tilt blog site written by a Gareth Chantler I see that well known poker player Andy Black participated.

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/blog/galway-festival-25-world-championship/

You can read the article on well known Irish card game 25 ..held during the Galway Poker Festival.
......................
Meanwhile the Irish Bridge Masters gets underway next weekend with 48 pairs entered so far ..
Entry list can be seen at www.fob.ie

I am going down to run one table of vugraph so folk who are not playing can keep up to date with the happenings and witness some of the play.

It seems to be a massive poker event with a Bridge and 25 event placed in the middle.
Thomas Hanlon first started advertising this event back in February at the Holmes Wilson National Bridge team championships. Now it has arrived and this is the richest prize I have ever seen for bridge in Ireland.

I once got 200 euros for a 2nd place finish in Ballina Congress Pairs and maybe I suppose the 150 punts that Robin Burns won me in Drogheda 2001 was a decent prize for 12 years ago. We did not even have euros then. However the winners of this event will trouser 5000 euros between them so it dwarfs any prizes I ever won or even witnessed in the distance.

Meanwhile the Poker events are in full swing .. and the Horse Racing starts today in Galway ..
Maybe some Dermot Weld winners will emerge ..I will have to check twitter for a few tips.

........................
Last Friday I was playing out in Malahide and after a Pass by North I as East ventured 4H.
South passed fairly quickly ..the stop card was out .. and West passed ..and I got ready to declare 4H.
Suddenly North emerged with a 4S bid ..and all passed ..

Now I never expected North to back in again as what passed hand could be doing something successful ofver 4H. However it was there in black ..a 4S bid and all passed ..

I would have gone down in 4H I think although it can make double dummy so I was happy with my 4S-1.

However what a dummy 4S bid picked up ..
In fairness I saw no break in tempo from the novice.inter B South ..

Its a tough game out in Malahide on a Friday night ..

Kay Cormican placed first ..in our direction

I was delighted to see Kitty Crossen making an appearance partnered by near neighbour Kitty Quinn who seemed forgetful at times but they still broke about even ..on the 3 boards.

On one board Kitty Crossan holding 4 opp AQJT7 in a suit led the 4 and played the 7 and when the 7 held the trick I was wonderiing whats going on here ..

Turned out Kitty pulled the wrong card and my partner Charles already had his little card ready to follow and his hands were already in motion before the club 7 hit the table and Charles does not have a reverse gear anymore .. Anyway 4S was always going off 1 and I think it dropped a few more tricks on the way.

......................................................

On the same night the imaginative Noel Cassidy bid 2 slams in a row against me .. His long suffering partner Angela wrapped up rhe first one 6H and not many matchpoints for Gallo..

However on the 2nd one I think there was 12 tricks around via a few finesses but Noel lost his way and we got some matchpoints. Would have been a sad night if Noel Cassidy put 2 slams past me in a row. 

One night some years ago I and my partner had massive hands and were pondering a 6 level or 7 level contract .. Noel pipes up and says I am non vulnerable and I have loads of spades and Eamon your fancy bidding cannot work against my spades so do your best .. .. Ye can bid as high as ye like but I have ye in SPADES.. Worse still I left it around to partner in case they could bid 7NT and they did'nt ...they did not even double ..

Noel Cassidy wins again .. 

.......................................................

.