Ireland Open Team played Russia in Round 1.
Tommy Garvey broke one of the best known rules of bridge. Problem is whoever made up these rules made them up for lazy people who play bridge by rule. God or DNA or some entity gave us a brain and 90% of bridge players want to play by rule
Board 17
at a first glance and backed up by GIB button cold as ice.
However it does not appear we have the transportation for all this work.
A deeper look at the club spots indicates after seeing the Club 109 appear that a ruffing finesse
position has emerged and this is what the all seeing GIB has found to make the contract cold.
However Tommy Garvey on lead against 6S tabled the Diamond 4 ...
HE UNDERLED his DIAMOND ace ...
Never underlead an Ace I hear the teacher call as I pass the beginners classes in my local club.
and here we are watching top European players and the first thing one does is underlead the ACE.
I don't know whether Georgi Matushko would have made the slam if he got a normal lead but Tommy Garveys underlead of the Diamond Ace made it nigh on impossible ..
"How did he do that .. How did he find that lead .. a vugraph commentator typed ..
Ireland led 20-0 early on but Russia tacked on 33 imps very quickly in the middle of the match and led 33-20 I think
Board 20 saw John Carroll in trouble in a guessy auction and he broke another of the teachers rules.
The 5 level is for the opposition.
Unfortunately for John it was toss a coin ..He could not tell very much from the auction and Orlov's 5H bid
left John with a pure guess in my view and possibly his view too ..
John is well aware of 5 level for the opposition but John uses his brain but I guess the Russian lad used his brain first and gave John the last guess ... A good 5H bid I think was the problem here ..
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Board 21 saw Thomas Hanlon and Hugh McGann hitting the dance floor ...
Thomas Hanlon doubled 5C here and it made plus 1 when he failed to find the tough diamond lead.
I don't know what the agreements are here but I am aware that most simple 1 spade overcalls won't be able to take down a freely bid game so possibly the Double is related to I have 2 tricks ..can you help me otherwise bid 5S.
You don't get rich doubling the opponents when you got an 11 card spade fit unless the opps are in spades
when its probably best not to double anyway.
So I don't know what if anything went wrong here ...
McGann and Hanlon and most top players play wide ranging overcalls so can be something like 9-18 hcp for a 1 level overcall at RED. So currently I don't know the inside story on this hand except it was about 14 imps out when double dummy defence got it 7 imps in so about 21 imps swing.
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Board 28 saw Ireland gain a fortuitous 12 imps when the Russian misguessed clubs.
I felt Garvey should not have discarded his last diamond on this hand as it appeared to allow the Russian to
guess the hand.
Board 32 saw us lose 12 imps when the Russians played 3NT against our 4H ...
Another deeper bridge rule rears its head here ... Don't give them the NINTH ...
Tommy Garvey led his partners suit and that was the 9th trick for the Russians.
All of this commentary is written seeing all 4 hands and is therefore not faced with the same pressure as the players at the tables. No offence is intended to any player and our lads are big boys and hopefully won't be offended.
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Irish Ladies Team captained by Paul Porteus had a good start with 2 wins against Netherlands and Romania. There is a nice picture of the incredible BJ O'Brien in the Bulletin today.
You can keep up with goings on at the above link ... Bulletins and Results
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