Thomas Hanlon exits Spingold in wooden box

Early this morning Irish time a battered and bruised Thomas Hanlon was placed in a wooden box after being exited from the Spingold. Poor chap did not even make the finish line.
However his team provided great entertainment and went 3 matches deeper than expected of an original 17th seed.
Early on we noted a lad signing off in 4S and 2 rounds of bidding later same lad on the same board launches into 7S. Something went wrong with the bridge algorithm.
I did not watch all of the match but reports indicated that most of the 6 members of the Mittelman team produced some howlers ...
Here is a screen grab of the 3rd stanza where Team Diamond was nailing down the coffin lid.

All hands and records can be found on BBO vugraph project.
http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph_archives/vugraph_archives.php

Meanwhile out in Westmanstown the elderly gentlemen destroyed their field in the Rory Egan Congress Pairs. Well done to Adam Mesbur and Michael McGloughlin.
A near 70% first session set them up for a good dinner and a second session of 62% was enough
to gather in the shillings. The legendary BJ O'Brien was in a distant 2nd place with his partner David Jackson keeping the stats.
Meanwhile another Irish player Thomas MacCormac is these days attending many US Nationals.
This is a great game to be attending. More Irish should go to a US National.
If interested talk to Thomas as he would know all relevant details and issues to sort out.
Sometimes a lesser player needs a waiver to enter the big USA events and stuff like that.

Today the Kieran McGarry Memorial Teams event take place in Westmanstown.
I recall seeing Kieran and Rory Egan on Prime Time marching into the Red Cow to confront
an alleged scammer back in the days when scams were only beginning. Kieran also was heavily involved in the physical end of recent Dublin Summer Congresses in CityWest.
Those tables and all the other equipment don't put themselves out or put themselves away.
Kieran was also a very capable player at times. Kieran won 3 Wednesdays in a row in the Regent back in the day and at that time even one victory in the Regent Wednesday night game for a non-international was an achievement.

All results and running scores at
www.fob.ie

My understanding is that Rory Egan leads the group that organises this Dublin Summer Congress.
In the Congress Teams its hard to look behind the Mesbur Fitzgibbon powered BJ team or the Goodman team both of which are pretty power packed.

One also notes the presence in the Pairs and Teams field of the well known bridge teacher Peter Pigot junior. One understands he runs some good bridge seminars. I presume he has a website somewhere.

...............
Just to be clear ..Hanlon reaching the semi-final of the Spingold is a massive performance.
Especially given he was not in a team of all professionals.
Thomas partnered Leslie Amoils from Toronto and this is not the same as when operating in his 30 year partnership with Hugh McGann or if partnering another bridge peer.
The problem is to be counted as a winner of any major event a player has to play 50% of the boards.

The 30th anniversary of the Hanlon McGann marriage must be coming up shortly.
.

Thomas Hanlon arrives in Spingold semi final

Early this morning Irish time ... like at about 430am the Mittelman NPC team qualified for the Spingold semi-final in a nail biting finish to their Spingold quarter final.

Having started out with 3 double digit losses on Boards 1-3 many hours before and thus trialing by about 34 imps to 0 Team Mittelman got the train rolling and trundled along into a 6 imps after 54 boards of 60. Board 25 (55) saw Zia take the low road in 3S and making 12 tricks ... 5 imps to Hanlon and a lead of 11 imps. Board 26(56) saw Hanlons team mates make 2NT+1 and Hanlon was allowed declare 2C... Hanlon played well to guide home 9 tricks and another 6 imps in a double part score swing leaving Hanlon ahead by 15.

Board 27 looked like an action hand

1H from Zia and Hanlon found 2H michaels and after long thought Les Amoils left him play there.
Hanlon played like BJ O'Brien and steered this home for another 2 imps ..
Now leading by 18 imps ... the end of the tunnel was in sight and some much needed sleep for myself ,,Michael O'Kane and I understand Rory Boland was watching on the big screen down in Carrick. This was past 4am Ireland time ..

Board 28 landed on the screen ...

We expected Hanlon in Heat 4 at the moment to steer this hand safely into the 6NT port.
However the bidding took unusual turns ..

2C 2D
2N 3D
3N 4D
4H 4N
5S 6H

And they were in the wrong slam ...
What went wrong ...
Did 3NT throw Amoils
Did Hanlon think 4D was retransfer
Why did Hanlon answer 4NT in HEARTS Keycard
Did Hanlon think he had told his 2 card HEARTS story with 3NT

Anyway 6H had to go 1 down and the lead shrank to 4 imps with 2 boards to go.
Board 29 was a push in 2S ...Still 4 imps ahead ..

And the final board of this fascinating battle hit the table in both rooms. At this stage I was logged in twice on the web based BBO and the old client ..Upmark in the West seat put the DOUBLE on 4S by our team mates .. This was booked for 2 off and 300...and the Diamond 9 was tracked.
Meanwhile in our room Amoils passed as dealer and Zia Jansma arrived in 4S unmolested ...
This was booked for down 2 .....same D9 was tracked ...

Neck and neck ...it looked like a 1 imp loss for Hanlon ...

However both Wests contributed the Queen and the Diamond RUFFS were GONE ...
plus 100 for Upmark and plus 50 for Hanlon ...
2 imps swing ...

Hanlon and Mittelman NPC survive to fight in the Spingold semi finals ...

......................
Now eventhough the Spingold is one of the 3 Main Annual ACBL events ...many of the teams feature a lesser player who hires 4 or 5 stronger players to help him win one of these prestigious events.
These lesser bridge players are generally very high performers in their workplaces and businesses but have not spent the time to reach expert in bridge. However they allow bridge professionals a living.
I guess its like an investment in Bridge but otherwise playing bridge all over the world would be too expensive for many bridge proffessionals.
All of these lesser players have a great interest in bridge and are very capable players but just not the extra piece that the proffessionals have. Thus many professionals in these client partnerships seem to do what looks like bad plays but usually these "bad plays" can be connected to a carding error or bidding error by the client. Real small things to the ordinary bridge player throw a professional off much easier. It might be the play of a 7 instead of a 6.
Also the lack of long hours of partnership practice are lost to the professional so his or her regular partnership agreements are gone.
Thus a del Monte or a Hanlon might look to have done something stupid as they are not playing with their regular partners of 20 plus years. Hanlon might have presumed he had told his story with 3NT and thus Amoils must have 6 card hearts to insist on HEARTS..
Now Les Amoils in a damn good player and has played for South Africa in Bermuda Bowl I think ..
He seems to be Hanlons partner at the moment for North American Bridge events.
Del monte partners Bercuson who I had not come across before but that's due to my lack of attendance of NABCs since the last time in 2007 in San Francisco.

Anyway well done to the Mittelman team ...so far ... The Diamond team is a ferocious opponent though.

When I was in San Francisco I was out on a smoke break outside the Marriot and I was George Mittelman in a group of bridge players. They were approached by a beggar guy and as George searched for a small note ...he dropped a 10 dollar bill and quick as a flash the beggar guy bent down and made off with it ....gleefully thanking Mittelman as he moved quickly away ...
Mittelmans bridge friends clapped him on the back and indicated ... Thanks Mitt ..you paid for all of us or something like that. November 2007 that was...

I have been asked why is Mittelman NPC ... The answer is I don't know ..
Maybe its just cos he is from Toronto ..
Mittelman used to partner a young Fred Gitelman ... they were known as THE MEN.

NO OFFENCE is intended to any Hanlons or others mentioned in this article.

Thomas Hanlon v Nickell

Early this morning ...as early as 440am myself and Michael O'Kane from Northern Ireland witnessed a treat of bridge. Our man Hanlon plus 5 took on the bridge juggernaut that is number 1 seed Nickell who featured Meckstroth Rodwell Levin and Weinstein... arguably the greatest foursome ever assembled at bridge.

Stanza 1 Mittelman got our to an early lead of about 40 imps ...57 plays 16
Stanza 2 Mittelman added to that lead to build I think a 90-17 lead but lost some late imps to lead by 47 at the half ..
Stanza 3 .. Nickell powered back with a 53-5 set to lead by 1

Stanza 4 is above  ..

You can find it here
http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph_archives/vugraph_archives.php

Some great bridge in there .. Really worth a look ..

Now maybe some will say Team Hanlon played in luck .. but you need an awful lot of luck to defeat
a power packed team of bridge legends.

Also bridge at the table is not as straight forward as replaying a vugraph later.

................
Its like the tennis ... Wimbledon looks serene ...two lads batting a ball over a net ...
However that ball travels at something past 100 mph but TV gives no indication.

Sometimes in Fitzwilliam when I am bridge directing I see ordinary decent tennis players playing and I am shocked at the speed of the ball.
Yesterday I stopped for a look ... Some lad Barry from Ireland was playing a Storrie guy from England. This was not Wimbledon ..

1 chair umpire
2 end of court umpires ...one of who doubled as scoreboard operator.

The Irish lad served and added a shout to send the ball on its way.
The end of court umpire had to mind himself as that ball came hard and fast.
The umpire has nowhere to go ..he is up against the boundary wire.
No ball boys here or soft towels between games.
Nobody picking up the balls ...the players themselves did that.

It went 15-0 30-0 40-0 and game Barry who leads 5-3 ..
Then it was 5-4
and by the time I got upstairs to move the boards ..it was all over .. 6-4 to Barry and 2-1 win.

Now the Wimbledon lads probably are hitting 30% faster than last night ...
It is something like trying to catch a golf ball hit by a driver.

Meanwhile on the next court a large crowd was watching in the gallery between the courts.
My guess is Simon Carr son of legendary Dublin GAA captain was playing ..
I did not venture down there as it was a little far from the bridge room.

Sometimes the bridge is played in a room that opens out into the stand and I can watch more easily but last night there was a meeting in progress until near 11pm so I could not access the stand.

Still the lad called Sam Barry was picking up tennis balls 12 inches away from me as this non-tennis player had a look. I saw Phil Collins in the Aviva I think ... he was about a quarter mile away in a wheelchair.

I was also watching the early stages of the above vugraph as well and moving the boards in the bridge room.

Hanlon+5 make Spingold last 16

Last night or early this morning Irish time Irelands apparently finest bridge player reached the last 16 of the Spingold Vase. The Spingold is arguably one of the strongest events of the bridge calendar.
This year 102 teams hit the dance floor and at least 90 of those teams would win or go very close in the Holmes Wilson.
The multi championship winning Monaco team with Helness and Helgemo and Christy Martens on board got ambushed before the main event even took off. Seeded 14 they ran into a JOLLY team seeded 93rd. However JOLLY was kind of decent featuring 4 of the best American juniors including some Rosenberg prodigy. So it was goodbye Team Monaco probably the heaviest funded bridge team in the world.
Anyway back to Hanlon .... and a bid I found disagreeable.

Anyway this match was on vugraph and myself and Declan the Donplayer were nearing the end of our few late pints in the local speak easy. Declan having learned the bridge and got the bug always keeps a passing eye on my laptop just in case some transfers or other might appear.
I had pointed out to Declan about Hanlon up top being the best player in Ireland and I headed off to the loo. On my return for the final board of the set Declan greeted me .."Eamon are you sure this is the best bridge player in Ireland" .. I said "Oh yeah " .. Declan the Donplayer replied .." Well if I painted like he is bidding on this hand then I would not get many decorating gigs"
I had a look and I said ... "That's not too good .. Passing 4DX seems normal.
"Yes " says The Donplayer ...and he might even turn vulnerable by the end of the hand ..
"Eamon how does that vulnerable work anyway ?? Is it like the power play in cricket ? "

Anyway there goes Hanlon bidding 5 Clubs and going down for a flat board ..
The Donplayer who has only twice attended a bridge club recommends PASSING..

Partner is a passed as dealer hand and we have a 13 count. Well 15 but if our Diamond Queen is not eaten up then even more reason for passing as we get some uncounted TRUMP tricks.
However no doubt yer man will ask some of his expert buddies and they will all pat him on the back for lulling the other team into a false sense of security. However it beats me .. One down is normally good bridge.

Mind you one also notes the loss of 23 imps for not bidding on ...both doubled in other room but its 2 missed games and some imps could have been saved. Several ways to save some imps on boards 26 and 27 for Hanlon table.

However TONIGHT from 5pm we might get the chance to watch again .. 5pm 7pm and later midnight and 2am approx.

"Eamon I am from Sherriff Street .. I got baptised 9 times ..3 times as a girl .."

Anyway later on in the small hours Irish time when the pub was long closed Team Mittelman backboned by Thomas Hanlon won the final 2 sessions and qualified for the last 16.

I expect Nickel versus Mittelman to be on vugraph this evening but depends on the voting for the matches. Also if not on vugraph at the start then it depends on the players as North American vugraph folk put on the closest matches for sessions 2 3 4 ..

Anyway no matter who is on vugraph ... www.bridgebase.com and make an account and watch some great live bridge with 96 of the best players in the world in action ...including Westmeaths own Thomas Hanlon.

Hanlon is on the bottom right team .. Mittelman NPC. Seeded 17 and they will play the Number 1 seed Nickell in the next round. Last year we had the Irish juniors play Nickell in a similar event called the Vanderbilt. The Irish juniors failed to get over the line but they stayed to the end and were still running on after the last board .. However it was in the next field.

https://bridgewinners.com/     plenty of information on this and many other events on the site to the left.

Now its time to bring the dog for my 10000 steps

Might get to see a little Irish Open Tennis tonight in Fitzwilliam .. I direct the bridge in Fitzwilliam most Thursday nights and normally the bridge room opens up to the GODS seats in the stand.
Last year I saw Tommy Carrs son Simon play a match.

An Irish U26 attempts 3NT and gets doubled..

/Earlier this week I mentioned the minus 2200 I suffered and the whispering death across the table quietly mouthing DONKEY.. Well today I log in to check on the broken Irish U26 squad.
I knew they were playing the Netherlands and I knew a good trimming was coming ..

However on board 13 shown above .. the Irish North South figured 3NT was going to be a good contract so they bid it. Meanwhile the Dutch E/W were also figuring 3NT was a good place to play so they doubled it.

 2 East West pairs did attempt 3NT but only managed 8 tricks ...

Our brave Irish lad made THREE ......

Em tricks for MINUS 1700...

Now there could be an explanation ....maybe it was state of the match ...after all they were 40 imps behind at this stage ...so maybe trying for a swing ..

...............
One time in Irish Camrose Trials back in 2005 ..playing against the exempted team .. the heavies ...too good to play in the qualifiers .... My solid partner opened 1H and I held like a 2H response with 3 card hearts and 7 points ...
The exempted opposition regarded us disdainfully and bid 3NT ..which I chose to double..given my partner never opened with less than 13 hcp. and I had 7.
The more adjusted opponent tried to extract themselves into a 4 minor contract with his 55 via a redouble  but the partner was all out for blood attended by his two kibitzers ...one Mary Finn and one Fionnula who sometimes plays with the incredible BJ O'Brien.
The opponent managed to make THREE .....em TRICKS ...so that was 3400 ...6 off redoubled ..

I let them off the redouble to save embarrassment and breaking of the scoring system.
Reality is I forgot so only entered 1700 on the sheet ...was minus 170 in 2H+2 in the other room.

So 3400 or 1700 or 2200 need to be in the IN column ..

The Irish U26 strike back eventually

Having watched the 20th place Estonia dominate Ireland U26 this morning I departed my computer as they got ready to tackle Greece ..another 20th place team. Unfortunately Ireland got dominated again by this seemingly equal opponent. 18.5 VPs to 1.5 VPs.

So Ireland moved on to face a tougher team TURKEY.

Ireland got out to a 44 imp lead on first 10 boards.

Board 1 was 5DX which is cold versus 1NT making 9 .... 9 imps
Board 2 .. Turkey were a trick short in 6S v 4S both making 11 .. 12 imps
Board 4 .. Turkey declared 2NT on a 28 count holding while Ireland made the 4H game ..

So taking a tennis analogy looks like 3 severe unforced errors

Then board 8 sees the Turks tackle Irelands 4-3 fit 2S 16 count partscore and only get it
one off ... Ireland did have a 9 card Club fit they could have tried but guess they got tipped off
in the bidding that Clubs were breaking badly.
Ireland make the 24 count 4H contract that many other tables seem to be getting home in.
However it is no gimmee. Although I guess there are only 3 trump losers on a good view.

So after 10 boards its Ireland 44 Turkey 8 and not much bad weather approaching

....................
Lets go back live and see how last 4 boards go

Board 11 and 13 were flat

Board 12 saw Ireland lose 6 imps for gaining 200 for 2 off ...and losing the 4H game of 420.
One would think doubling 4C might be a good option if you are not chancing 4H.
Its plus 2 imps instead of 6 out ....8 imps swing

The final board is 14 ... one presumes Ireland will take this match with a victory

Danger lurks here ...one might bid a slam and go down on a weak club play.

17 VPs to 3 at the moment but various good and bad possibilities on board 14

1. Miss game
2. Bid slam
3. Make slam
4. Go down in slam

And we wait ....quick check on vugraph ..it is hardly on there

The long wait is over ...They probably forgot to enter score in bridgemate ..
No swing ...

17 VPS for IRELAND under 26 ... Glad I could bring good news ..

As before

http://www.eurobridge.org/ and go to Microsite for all information and results 

Watching the European Youth Teams hurts

This morning I was up early to put out the bins as its not good to miss the bins. So I put out 2 bins full of rubbish. So I was happy that was the end of the rubbish.

Decided to play Wbridge5 16 hands daily FREE tourney while waiting for Junior Bridge to start.
I play this somedays with the target of finishing ahead of the best player in Malahide. Most days I finish ahead but I always want to put 10% on him ...just so he knows ..

Today I managed about 9% win ...

Then the bridge started .. playing 20th and 21st today the lad says

Well the 20th place team is currently leading Ireland U26 by 70 imps after 8 boards ..
That's like when I used to come up against Pat Walshe Rory Boland  Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon all on same team in Regent Leagues. Maybe Nick was not playing that night ..It might have been Hanlon. Galligan Delaney Karel Anna got chewed up and spat out.

But this is our Great New Bridge hopes getting chewed up by Estonia ..

Board 2 was a 20 count facing a 6 count and our lads play in 3H+1 ..
They only have a 4-3 fit so 3NT is normal

Board 3 is a 3NT where there seems to be no play except wide open .. 3-3 diamonds and a heart finesse plus 3-3 break giving 4 Hearts 4 diamonds and spade ace ...There is no other line but our lad
finds a DOWN 2 line ..

Board 4 . 16 hcp opposite 10 hcp ... our lad is the only outlier .. the only lad to declare 1NT
The other 25 tables all declare 3NT ... as do all the grandpas and grandmas in bridge clubs across the country.... that's any bridge club ...even the one in the far west of Galway ..that always wins the Simultaneous Pairs ..

Board 5 .. and its not getting any better .. our lads choose to defend 2DX despite having a 4-4 spade fit ...4S is no gimmee so would forgive declaring a spade part score ...but minus 180 in 2D is not going to please teamies .. At least it did not cost much as Teamies lost 620 in 4S.

Board 6 ... if left alone North South might do the transfer to clubs and superaccept into 3NT but that's hardly going to be left alone as East West have a large diamond fit so will be competing in diamonds or might even find a 4-4 heart fit for some part score
Our lads paid out on 3NT in one room and 5 clubs probably a sac in the other room

6 boards gone and the score is 55-1 and growing ...this Irish team are broken ..

Board 7 .. brings some peace and fresh air ...we only lose 3 imps for down in 3NT in both rooms.

Board 8 .. Minus 760 ... and the opps have a 5-5 spade fit ... 1NT redoubled ...the excitement continues ... "We are playing the 20th place team resounds in my brain ..

Board 9 .. and Estonis are not finished yet .. .they have no choice but to smack 5 clubs
and when the fire is put out ...that's minus 800 ....83-1 after 9 ...

Board 10 brings a double part score swing .. some other tables even bid game in spades ...
It kind of makes on good lies in the cards .. lose 7 more imps .. so score is 90-1

Board 11 our lads begin the comeback ... 4 imps in the bag ... 5 plays 90 ..

Board 12 ... our lads make 3NT in Open Room ... Maybe the Estonians will go in 6 or 7 clubs going down ...We will see ... This match is still in play at board 12 ....

We will have a quick look at our other 2 teams ...

The Under 21s are battling in a 17 team event and its not going well. However this is a much less experienced squad than the aforementioned Under 26 squad. The U21s are here for experience.
The U26 had reasonable hopes of making the top half. However we need to be very aware that European U26s is a high level of bridge.. much higher than Junior Camrose and Peggy Bayer.

Our 3rd team are the Under 16s and again its an experience thing here too.
Ireland and Scotland are the whipping boys or "girls" in our case here.
We got our victory against Scotland ...and a 28-39 loss to the Netherlands could almost be counted as a win as Netherlands never send out bad teams in any bridge event.

...
So congratulations to all Irish participants as these are tough events to go to and find out some more work is required to even be competitive.
Its like Cavan GAA team going out last Saturday against Tipperary ... Half Time arrives and Cavan lads are leading 0-12 to 0-6 ... and Northern Sound commentators are gushing in their praise of these great Cavan lads .. Some lad making his debut called Caoimhin O'Reilly is getting great praise ... he scored 2 points I think is the first half ....Nobody noted the Tipperary lad hitting the crossbar just before half time... Those Cavan lads must have gone in the dressing room and listened to Northern Sound. I brought the dog for a walk as I counted my winnings ...
Came back with 7 minutes left to find ....Tipperary 2-13 ... Cavan 0-13 ... These great players had managed to score 1 point in 30 minutes of play ... while Tipperary banged in 2-7 ...
Meanwhile Northern Sound commentators were long gone ...they were over commentating on Monaghan putting 3-23 past Wexford ...

The Cavan lads thought it was over at half time ... Someone forgot to tell the opponents ..
Once you start going backwards ..things speed up ..

So with trepidation one will return to the Estonian Ireland U26 bridge match

Yes the 6 clubs forcast came through ...and Ireland banged in 28 imps to finish on a high.
However the damage was done earlier ...and the result remained 20-0 loss.
90 imps plays 29 ... I think one starts getting points at around 55 imps or lower.

The Irish Under 26 did well to gain some traction in the last few boards.
28 imps is a nice collection but no use in this match except to recover some confidence.

.............
So its Greece next for our recovering heroes ...

http://www.eurobridge.org/
All information and boards and results can be found at the above link by going to the Microsite.

www.bridgebase.com
Play of several matches can be watched live on Bridge Base Online ..
One is unlikely to see any Irish teams as normally they show leading teams playing other
leading teams ..