Currently most of the online players in the world know something about the recent "news" on
Bridgecheaters
Bridgewinners
There is indication that two top international players are "at it "
However I remain to be convinced. I have gathered lots of hands from the pairs recent successful events and less than successful events. When I say lots of hands I mean I am taking all the hands from the matches/events referenced by Bridgecheaters.
In the local den of iniqity close to where I live I have sourced a large number of cardplayers.
They all play a game called DON which is a follow suit game like bridge. The difference is that in DON the scoring cards are ...
Trump 9 .. Big DON is 18 points
Trump 5 .. Little DON is 10 points
Other 9 and 5 cards score as face value
AKQJ of trumps score as 4,3,2,1 points
One night about 2 months ago while playing DON with these lads I noticed the CLUB 9
had a nick in it. However it seems to have been marked on a previous night by some player.
I figured being a bridge player this information is worth far more to me then anyone else so
I said nothing. We play for 1 euro a corner and it takes most of 30 minutes to win that euro or lose it.
So after 2 hours I had 3 euro in my pocket. I threw the deck of cards in the bin.
In DON they term anything non kosher as BILLYING..and they don't have signals like we have in bridge. Anyway 2 nights later I mentioned the nicked card and my partner knew there was a marked card but did not know or recall which one it was.
Now I learned this DON game 2.5 years ago from scratch. Some of the other players have
been playing for 40 years. Its a kind of working mans bridge played by painters and decorators.
It apparently was very popular in the Dublin Airport canteen.
I showed some of them BRIDGE and told them it is 100 times more complex than DON.
They laughed at me. One guy came to the bridge club one night I was directing and was intrigued.
He saw an 85 year old man playing his bridge and sucking on a can of guinness.
Declan the Donplayer said to me .."Eamon thats me in 20 years time .. Can of guinness and a hand of cards and a big smile"... You have given me a new sense of life..
So Declan learned bridge and came back to me and told me if he was allowed to cheat himself and another DON player would destroy me at bridge. Now I can play a bit at bridge. I won an 8 board match once against Boye Erik Simon and Espen. 14-6 VPs .. a few over tricks and a partscore.
The VPs are painful in England.
......................
So back to business... I looked at hand 1 of Holland v Israel in Euro 2014...
So the lad after lots of thought cashed an ACE against 6D ... What was the "much thought" about.
Is it different if he cashed an ace nonchalantly.
Now its written in my bridge bible that if one cashes an ace against a slam one has hopes of another trick. So many years ago ...maybe in Galway when I was ramping up my game..BJ O'Brien layed down an Ace against my slam ...(I was 10% of the player I am today back in 1996 but I was moving)
I had read in a book that when an ace is cashed and you need to find the trump queen look in the hand that cashed the ace. So slam makes.. BJ asked why did you play that way..
I said .."Its written in the book I have at home " .. So whats the difference about finding a JACK..
I continued onto Hand 2 ...I see Holland defending 2 doubled contracts and losing 14 imps ..
How can one persuade 4 world class players into 2 contracts by being "AT IT"
I continued on and looked at the next 6 hands ...
Now I have to make marmalade on brown toast
Video Link to Holland Israel hand 1
Link to BBO record
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
