The sun continues to shine strongly in Ireland. The European Junior Bridge championships have just finished.
Ireland fielded two teams in the Juniors and the Youngsters. Both teams struggled throughout as they were up against much stronger opposition then they would ever meet in Ireland or in their local school. One player on the Danish team has already won a US National major event. No doubt there were other superstars of the junior game taking part.
I have not studied the events results in depth as the Ireland teams were not gathering in two many VPs each match so it was hurting my head. It was like when I used to play Pat Walshe and Thomas Hanlon led teams in the Regent League. Regularly getting beaten ... not sure by how many imps but 60s and 70s and higher were common. However these good beatings provided good learning material and gradually either my teams got stronger or I got better and the matches got closer. Sometimes we got lucky or played well and managed a small victory against well known opposition.
These days I mostly direct or move boards but when I do get to play I am normally on a decent team which has a shot at winning most matches it plays. However back in the day I was the cannon fodder.
So hopefully our juniors and youngsters will decided that they too will put in extra work and next time win a few more VPs.
CBAI President Thomas McCormac noted to me during the week and I quote "I myself have wooden spooned in the European Juniors events and I am hardly a bad player" He also indicated at least one other legend of the Irish game who finished last in European Juniors in the past.
So onwards and upwards.
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I spotted a new website for bridge
www.bridgechallenge.com
I have used it a little today and it seemed cumbersome but it has possibilities to bid boards and compare with experts and other players. Also seems to have a facility to bid hands with your partner. I don't have a partner and even if I did chances are it would not have the patience to use a cumbersome interface.
However maybe if folk use it a little it might turn out worthwhile.
Its a French website but one can translate.
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Last night on BBO vugraph I watched Thomas Hanlon partnering Zia Mahmood in Deauville Bridge event.
It started off with imps scoring but it was actually board a match and Hanlons team won.
http://www.deauville-bridge.fr/
There is the link above but maybe you got to understand French to figure it out
They only seem to play in the night time when its cooler.
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http://www.fulltiltpokergalway.com/bridge/
The Pokerstars Bridge events begins to emerge on the horizon. Organisation for the overall poker event is now in full swing as the poker starts on July 27th.. However the bridge will be played August 3rd and 4th.
Entries to Fergal or David as per website above
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I notice the Great Mulall is in full training on BBO. 359 hands in the past month and he has gathered in a surplus of 163 imps ..This is not a bad return. I suspect the Great Mulall has lined up a new partner and is getting in some practice so he will be ready for the new season. Possibly it is just that the sun is too hot for him to venture outside. A man of his stature would be closer to the sun then a shortass like me. One of the advantages of being short is distance from the sun and thus it takes longer for me to shrivel up.
I notice the Great Mulall has given up playing Wbridge5.
http://bridgez.net:3002/connexion.html
This is a great program and James Heneghan said "The robots might be dogs but it really sharpens up ones game" Great Mulall has decided his game is sharp enough. However I am with Heneghan and continue to play the 16 boards a day. Most days I cannot beat Heneghan or BJ but as I keep my score regularly in the early 60s my average beats those guys. They have 50% days to offset their big days.
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I also notice the re emergance of Murphyslaw on the BBO scene and he even made a couple of appearances in the Malahide live peoples club. The problem for murphy is he can rant and rave and headbutt his monitor when playing in his bedroom but when he emerges into the human bridge world he has to hold back these tantrums. A more major issue for murphy is that he has not built a solid foundation to his bridge and thus from time to time a disaster happens and murphy does not understand why. He was programmed himself to play bridge from the fantastic book "Watsons Play of the Hand" Regularly Murphy produces some fantastic ducking plays and communication plays but often he applies the wrong page to the wrong hand and the ducking play is not applicable to the hand in question.
Murphy has a partner in crime out in Malahide sometimes. This character fits whatever hand he has into the convention he is playing at the time. So Michaels shows the majors ..but our lad only has 3-3 ...Thats not a problem ...our man bids 2S michaels anyway ..His partner might have 5 or 6 of one of the suits.
However if our man Murphy would play in the inter Bs which is his CBAI ranking he would be a star player and could build up to being an Inter A and beyond.However unfortunately Murphy thinks he can catch up with Galligan ....and that is a bridge too far for the moment as Galligan has been playing too long and has made enough mistakes to learn lots of bridge.
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