Galligan v Blanchman and Cahill Pairs after 56

Nothing new on the Jack Premier and Master Pairs yet.
Maybe I could play 7 boards of the Jim Cahill Pairs and see how I go.

However I played a challenge this morning against Blanchman and I watched a Bernard Magee video on Strong Openings.

Here is the video on Galligan versus Blanchman. 16 boards .. winning 5 losing 3 and drawing the other 8 apparently for a 56.25% score

Galligan v Blanchman

Board 50 I got a 16 count and strong No Trump type hand. Opps opened a weak2 in hearts and I competed to 4D over 3H. Made 4D and got 100% score. All others sold out to Hearts part score.
Now Galligan is 48%.
Board 51 appeared and Eamon has 4441 with singleton diamond buys it in 3H and after trick1 note the opposition own 11 card diamond fit. 30% this time losing out to 5D doubled twice and 4S made.
Fair enough as we missed a game.
Board 52 11 hcp opposite 7 and I am in 1NT non vulnerable but opps don't have any fit as such.
Made it for 100% .. and am now 48.6%
Board 53 I was dealt 8 card club suit and after 2H P 3H I bid a silly 5C and collected 20% for going down 2 and minus 200 ....4H was making so somewhat unfair to only get 20%.
Board 54 ...another 20% for going down in 4D when 3S has some play.
Board 55 got some luck as 3NT-2 gave me 60%.
Board 56 the final 1 of this blog post ..

However board 56 where I scored 50% allowed Goodman Pownall to slip past me.
So Eamon lies in 9th place after 56 boards of 147 so plenty of home with 2 human pairs behind me and one awaiting Coyne and Walsh to pass me on the way up.

Jim Cahill Premier Pairs after 49 boards

Good afternoon folks

As per previous posts Galligan is tackling the Jim Cahill Premier Pairs event. After a cautious start Eamon gained some momentum in the last 7 boards and eased past Grandmaster O'Brien and Grandmaster Walsh. Also has gone slightly ahead of the powerful Midlands pair which is Fitzgerald and MacDonagh. So after one third of the event Galligan lies in 7th place of the humans and about 9th overall.

So as one can see from the screenshot Galligan is a tiny amount ahead of Eddie and Michael.
This event was held back in November from 9th to 11th and was a very nice event.
The matchpoints is less vicious for me as I have added in 4 GIB robots and then theree is also my table of 3 Jacks and myself.
I hope to overtake Coyne and Walsh soon as I know they lack stamina and I also know their final placing which I hope to be ahead of.
This event has already been promised for next year and I think they should run a little qualifier for it or suggest a national event to be the qualifier for about 3 pairs. Maybe not next year but the Master Pairs or the Moylan could be a qualifier or at least grant an invitation to some pairs. Not many but about 3 places could be offered to the top 10 in Moylan or Masters Pairs.

Premier Pairs Master Pairs and Mullingarman

Good afternoon all

Yesterday evening I continued my efforts at proving I should be playing in the Master Pairs. So far the proving is not going so well. Irish Bridge player Jim Cahill created and sponsors the Premier Pairs event for the last 3 years. Ann Tuite puts all the wheels rolling on the ground. They have a committee of about 9 who are mainly players in the event. Eamon does the vugraph with some helpers. Martin Brady does the TD job and Declan Byrne tends the Regent premises and deals thee boards and the myriad of other things that Declan performs for the Regent Bridge Club.
Anyway I made a tourney for my Jack bridge program and despite vugraphing most of the boards and even playing half a board I am struggling at the back of the field with my robot. Even worse I have my EW opponent robot running at 75% to give me the odd trick. However I need more it seems.

So after 42 boards theree I am ..last of the pairs. Even behind Eddie Fitzgerald and Michael MacDonagh. Not just behind but 2.5% behind. I also added in a GB replay of thee hands to flatten some of the scoring a little. Its a great tourney but personally for the vugraph purposes I think it needs to be scored as some kind of imps as folk watching vugraph like to watch imps.
I agree that high class matchpoints is a great form of bridge but I don't like being Paddy Last.
However thanks to Jim Cahill and Anne Tuite for this wonderful event even if it is matchpoints.
Still 105 boards to go so plenty of time for Galligan to rise.
.......................
Meanwhile down in Templeogue a few weeks back CBAI ran the Master Pairs ..
We made a Jack tourney for this as well but after 3 matches and 21 boards Galligan is reduced to middle of thee field. However one hopes to make some progress soon.

Finally some good news .. Galligan defeats Mullingar Man by 9 imps.
Galligan 18 Mullingar Man 9

The link above has the last 8 boards including the final board where Mullingar Man loses the 2 ends of a 2 Heart contract losing 140 and 200 for 8 imps.

Galligan tackles Master Pairs

This morning after much effort by someone else Galligan was able to play the Master Pairs comparing against all the players who played in it real time. So far I have played 14 boards which is 2 matches and trail a long way behind the 2 match leaders Ronan McMaugh and Marcin Rudzinski. However there is plenty of time left.

Board 14 was unfortunate for me

Here the robots stopped in 3NT and made 12 when I failed to find the Heart Ace cash looking at KJxx in dummy. Shame on me. 690 and 5 imps to the robots against the datum. 

That dropped me back to joint 28th place after 14 boards. Still there are about 80 pairs behind me.
Anyone who has the Jack bridge program or any other bridge program that plays pbn files is welcome to have the pbn file we made with all the names and scores.
eamongalligan@eircom.net if you want it.

The bad news yesterday is that James Heneghan arrived back in Dublin and no doubt disturbed the leafy suburbs of Griffith Avenue. There is even talk of re opening the Garda station for Xmas.
The good news is there is still another 4 years of James in USA to come.
Still James is a very capable bridge player and the proud owner of all of Martens bridge books.
Well he owns at least one copy of each.
www.martensuniversity.com

If you think you have some idea about playing bridge and you want to find out ... have a look at
the above website and you might get a shock.
Martens has been spotted sitting at a bar in the Rathmines area the odd time. He likes the guinness allegedly. So if you want a head wrecker bridge book Martens has about 20 of them.

A couple of months ago an irish bridge player ordered 2 Martens books and put my address on them as I provided some bidding hands for said bridge player.
One is called Guide Dog and the other is called Imagination .. I have seen some good stuff during my recent visits to the throne.
The most recent one was a player drew one round of trumps too many ...
Holding like AKQJTxx in trumps he thought drawing a round of trumps was a good idea.
His opponent on his left showed out and quickly deposited the HEART ACE as a discard ...
Nope it was not a signal ... he was just creating a later entry for his partner who held Qxx of HEARTS with Kxxx in the dummy.

So if you see James Heneghan discarding an Ace of Hearts you will already have drawn one trump too many.

The various Irish trials and Blanchman movie

Good morning folks

I hear something is afoot with the Irish trials for the various events. Seems there might be some kind of merger between NIBU and CBAI for Home International trials. This will be good if they organize some training weekends for the teams and hire Galligan to run it. No point in picking easy boards and some ordinary lad to talk about Stayman and Landy. Get the big lad in and throw some thought provoking hands at them. Eamon has been knocking lumps off Hanlon team for years and anyone else who showed any interest.

Today I played a bridgebase challenge against Blanchman and after a reasonable set I found poor Blanchman had gone into orbit and the final score was 78-4 over 16 boards.

Galligan versus Blanchman

Meanwhile back to those trials. I think the Moran team won the last Camrose Trials in a canter so even in their weakened state they could see off all challengers. The reason for this is they do far more work than anyone else. How do I know ..well I am still making some hands for them.

I got the message from the new kids on the block that NPC Grainne pointed them at me.
I contacted Tyroneman and put hands in his account.
He has been working through them and told me the hands showed himself and partner a thing or 2.

"Eamon we thought we were good but those hands knocked those thoughts out of us"

So IBU ... some team needs to beat the Hanlon Moran team.
By all means hold as many pairs trials as you want ...but only to select a team to take out Moran.

Some team should select THEGARVE ... he owns an irish passport and can play a little.

The 16 board Bridgez tournament

Today I played the 16 board Bridgez tournament. Its a good facility for practicing each day. The server is quick and one can blast through the 16 boards comfortably in 30 minutes or else take it more thoughtfully and take breaks thru the day.

I recorded todays session but I was also watching and listening to Bernard Magees videos.
I need to keep up with what the Malahide membership development folk are doing.
Then I can counteract their moves.

Below is my video. You might here Bernard Magee talking in the background as I had him rolling on
another PC behind my laptop. He puts the dog to sleep. When he is sleeping he does not pee so thats a good thing.

Galligan on Bridgez

Magee likes killing Kings with Aces

He also points out to all those notebook wielding defenders ... When dummy comes down there is loads to do. One should not be scribbling in some notebook or entering stuff into the bridgemate.
One should be focusing on that dummy and paying attention to partners lead.

After all declarer is already working on his plan and its disrespectful for one to be scribbling in a notebook instead of planning the defence.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Galligan loses to Mullingar Man again

This morning  played a bad set of boards going down 4 vulnerable on one part score board. Also dropped about 5 other things during the 16 board set. Could have been 50 imps on a bad day.

Speaking of Mullingar  recall a few tough "intermediate " opponents from back in my short few months as intermediate. Jim McAulliffe I think was the mans name. He suffered from some illness that confined him to a wheelchair and that was back in the late 1980s probably maybe 1990 at latest. However there was nothing wrong with his bridge or head.

Then there was Claffey ... who on seeing dummy might comment to the unknowing stranger "Could go down on a bad day " and Madam Claffey would sit up straight and defend like a demon and down you went none the wiser. You had jusr been Claffeyed and you did not even know it.
I think he is still around but he would not know me and I would not get "Claffeyed" these days.

Galligan 19 Mullingar Man 31

I was taught bridge originally by a now Mullingar resident .. I had no idea what was going on but they needed a 4th I think. There was no internet in those days. It was a distant thought in Bill Gates mind. Funny enough Bill Gates does play bridge at a high level. I saw had a look at him once .. baseball cap .. striped tee shirt and jeans. However not being one of those sucker up types and not being playing against him  I had no reason to examine him more closely. He had enough folk button holing him.

The Dallas Aces were a great Bridge Team of the 1970 and 80s. They were formed to defeat the Italian Blue Team. I ran into some of them too.

Mike Lawrence was in the Bankers Bridge Club in the early 90s
Bob Hamman was in Templogue and Swords in 2006
I played against and had a conversation with  Billy Eisenberg
I read loads of Eddie Kantar books. Some old lad that looked like him gave me a hiding at bridge once in the US Nationals in 2007.
Paul Soloway was in Templeogue in 2006
Bobby Goldman used to play on okbridge before BBO was invented in the early days of online bridge as did Soloway.

Galligan versus Kilkennyman

Today  played 12 boards against Kilkennyman.
However Kilkenny man failed to finish the 12 boards so we will have to add a small video with the results and analysis later.

Galligan v Kilkennyman

12 boards of matchpoints .. results to follow maybe

..................
Found a nice little app called Bridge CCAnalyser for phones .. Android maybe

Strangely enough  I was on one of my computers .. I think it was the all in one thing and  logged into Google and found the app. Suddenly a window popped up on my screen saying
"App will be installed on your phone shortly"

That afternoon  noticed a new app on my phone ...  guess it is the new world

This is a app of the program Suitplay for PCs ... by Jan Rom???? from Holland  think.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Mullingar Man gets lucky to defeat Galligan 32-21

This morning it was blowing outside.  I got a bowl of porridge and a cup of tea and sat down to play Mullingar Man.

Mullingar Man wins

Above the link to Mullingar mans victory

The country man has 6 spades to AKQ and AK outside and calls it a STRONG 2 clubs opening..
Gets to a slam and makes it just and wins 13 imps.

Then he accepts an invitation with a minimum and buys  a dummy that should bid game.

Finally some downgrading evaluation lost Eamon a non vul game swing when 9 tricks were on top in 3NT.
Even Mullingar Man can cash out 9 high tricks.

Galligan versus PW

Galligan versus PW

Galligan defeats the Man from Mullingar

This morning  took on the Man from Mullingar in a challenge on Bridgebase Online.
This man taught me how to play bridge and still considers himself a superior player despite receiving numerous beatings. A man of supreme confidence.
However there is nothing wrong with confidence. Even off a 15 handicap in golf ...he still does not geet it. 15 handicap means ..you take 15 more shots than par to get around. He calls it value for money. More shots then the scratch who pays same golf club membership fee.

Mullingar man gets good pasting

Anyway its nearly Xmas and the CBAI and all the bridge clubs will be winding down.

Therefore we will have to resort to the online places

www.bridge-now.com
www.bridgebase.com

And also

Bridgez
http://bridgez.net:3002/playonthecloud

One can knock up some practice on some of these sites

Time for the bowl of porridge here ... Flahavans and a microwave and a drop of milk.
Years ago one used to cry when one forgot to put the salt in the large pot of porridge but nowadays I think the salt is included or maybe I don't need it.

Stanza 3 of Jim Cahill Premier Pairs plus a video

I just played the 3rd stanza of 7 boards of the Jim Cahill Premier Pairs.
Jim gathered 8 capable Irish pairs to compete for some good prizes over the weekend of Nov 9th to 11th 2018.
I made a tournament for Jack using the results and adding in 1 play by the GIB robots.
After 21 boards I rank in 10th place of 12 but some well known bridge capabilities are behind me.
One is the incredible BJ O'Brien.
However on 41.9% I am a long way from my normal 55% plus  efforts at bridge. Maybe I am not as good as I think. I will keep playing even if I get dumped into the 30s.

Below is another video made from the Bridgebase challenges. This is a great new method of playing bridge against friends on BBO.

Galligan v PW

Master Pairs 2018 ...Moving Day

Good morning all.
Its Master Pairs Sunday and moving day. The only day.
Marquee Pair Adam Mesbur and Nicolas Fitzgibbon lead the way and are rolling along nicely with a 12 VP lead on the recent fast risers Delaney and Brady. Delaney Brady may have presented too early but as Delaney will say if we are to win we have to defeat and overtake the current leaders.
However it is hard to squeeze a trick out of Mesbur Fitz let alone put together 20 tricks and a convincing win. Any the first hour of Sunday morning will tell. I am with Adam and Nick.

Meanwhile the peleton are gathered behind these 2. There are lots of good Irish players in the top 40 places. Coyne Garvey will be climbing into the top 10but have to overcome the elegant Conor Boland and the snarling presence of Kelan O'Connor. However maybe Kelan has matured with age. John Phelan touts Boland O'Connor as the next FitzMes but I think there is about 40 years of work to be done first. It might have been a beer goggled thought.

. The new partnership of Moran MacAongusa can do damage due to training done and international experience. Gilligan Ronan two bulldozers from Malahide face up to the elegant Cian Holland and the intelligent Anna Onishuk. Would be an interesting match to watch. Goodman Keaveney meet the incredible BJ O'Brien and the solid citizen Ranald Milne. BJ is incredible as he reaches and makes incredible contracts. However some years ago BJ won 6 Nationals and podium-ed in the other 3. So not to be sniffed at. Porteus Barry meet Ronan Marcin. Wonder who will win between Wheels Fitzgibbon and Wooden Spoons Kenny. O'Lubaigh McAulliffe could be there with 3 rounds to go.
MacCormac Barr meet the brothers O'Briain. There is also the looming presence of Brays John Noonan and Carol Ann Cummins.

So lets see how it all pans out as we are reaching the scoring up time

a

Anyway they played the 4 matches of today and Fitzgibbon Mesbur won in a photo finish from O'Gorman Walsh with Delaney Brady a further 10 VPs behind.

Masters Pairs Final result

Galligan new video versus PW

After some pleading by regular opponent for a new video here we go. 16 board BBO challenge using South set at best hand. I played boards 1-5 and then stopped as I felt I was going bad.
Went into the kitchen and started recording. Seemed to be playing better

Galligan v PW 11 boards

Went down 3 on two boards once 150 non vul and not so costly but once vulnerable and minus 300 so that cost more. Also I butchered a 4H and went down 2 from a high double dummy of 11 tricks so I blew 3 tricks on declarer play.

Not as bad as one of my chess playing bridge partners who one day in Kilkenny managed to blow 5 doubled undertricks in 3 leads. A power packed performance. His explanation ... I am driving ..you can get out and walk if you mention it once more.

We will get back to the Ireland Premier Pairs shortly. We need to up our game severely there.
40% is a problem ... but more of a problem is my Jack 6 program has lost its ability to record my
score when it exits. Something to do with Galligan messing with the hidden and read only settings
of the files in the Appdata folder.

Meanwhile out in Malahide Regional Bridge Club I ran a teams competition which attracted only 11 teams. A 2 week event and the players wanted to play each team once and once only and also have direct matches. So 10 matches and an enforced sitout. Now as a reasonably  established tournament director I don't do sitouts if possible and here I had experienced players wanting to enforce a 5-6 board sitout on all teams .... Beats me ...
I grabbed the nettle and played 8 rounds of 3 board matches each week and no 5-6 board sitout.
Several players are still moaning about why I would not want to impose a 5-6 board sitout.
Sorry but I don't understand ...

Premier Pairs Stanza2

Good evening folks
I played another 7 boards of the Ireland Premier Pairs. Its tough going and my score is 40%.
I am going to have to play better.

Still though I am ahead of 4 Irish bridge icons. The one name club BJ Terry Rex and David.
Going to have to be much more cautious and play much better.

I have the full 147 boards made into a tourney for Jack 6 so if anybody wants it let me know
Also full pbn file of all 147 boards and all players and their efforts.

Ireland Premier Pairs first 7 boards

On the weekend November 9th-11th I attended the Ireland Premier Pairs event as vugraph co-ordinator. It took me about 14 boards to get fully going but eventually we got going in stanzas of 7 boards each,
This is an annual invitational event of matchpoint pairs sponsored by Irish bridge player Jim Cahill and co-ordinated by a committee led by Ann Tuite.
I don't know anything about how one gets to play in this event but it seems to be mainly grandmasters of bridge or full internationals approximately and one has to be available on the designated weekend.

The scoring is matchpoints which is not the normal food of the regular BBO kibitzer but thats the conditions of contest.

Myself and a chap called David Doran have made a tournament for Jack bridge program using the results of the Irish Premier Pairs and one run of 4 GIB robots. I played the first 7 boards and I am well placed for a comeback. I am currently in a tie with well known NIBU internationals Rex Anderson and David Greenwood. I must be decent to be in a tie with Rex Anderson.

So there you have it ... room to improve.
I don't feel I have made a mistake but am down there in 11th place by alphabetic ranking.
More to follow.

Premier Pairs after 2 sessions

1	7	Adam Mesbur & Nick Fitzgibbon	319	588	54.25	3	1
2	8	Tom Hanlon & John Carroll	309	588	52.55	3	1
3	1	Cian Holland & Anna Onishuk	305	588	51.87	4
4	4	Rex Anderson & David Greenwood	293	588	49.83	2
5=	3	BJ O'Brien & Terry Walsh	287	588	48.81	2	1
5=	5	Eddie Fitzgerald & Michael MacDonagh	287	588	48.81	3	1
5=	6	Peter Goodman & Mike Pownall	287	588	48.81	3
8	2	Ciaran Coyne & David Walsh	265	588	45.07	1

Well my first 2 horses are placed 1st and 2nd ... I got Coyne Walsh all wrong but a fast start tomorrow could rise them a little. Lets be fair though there is nothing between 4th and 7th. 

Mesbur Fitzgibbon Hanlon Carroll and Onishuk Holland have been the pairs in form so far. 

I have a 1 euro bet with Joe Coyne about Onishuk Holland against Goodman Pownell.

my horse Goodpown is 3% down at the moment and thats after 2 sessions so they better 

play well tomorrow. 

Now the more serious side of the event .. 

3 sessions with prizes for 1st 2nd and 3rd of 1000 500 250 for each session. 

Thats 9 prizes for the sessions 

Then 1st overall is 2500 euros 

.........2nd overall is 1500 euros 

.........3rd overall is 600 euros 

No pair may win more than 3 prizes

and curremtly 5 pairs have won a prize out of the 8 entrants ..

For vugraph we have help from Conor Boland Nathan Doyle Stephen Barr Michael McAulliffe Aoife McHale and I operated a few sessions myself.

Downstairs in the bar Barbara Seligman is talking about all the hands as they come up. 

Some of her favourite words begin with the letter G. Was it a ghostly contract ..

My account is enabled for voice commentary and I was hoping it was not turned on as I logged 

the PC in on my account. Would have been the best vugraph commentary ever. 

A player was late this morning and jokingly I offered to play a board and my offer was accepted. 

Sadly playing 5 card majors my style is short club opener rebids 1NT with balanced and will only show a 4 card major when unbalanced. 

So 

1C 1D 

1NT 3NT ...... when we had a 4-4 spade fit ... 

Board 35 I think and the Heart 9 was led. I was just about to declare for 10 tricks and maybe something in the wash when the late player arrived. I offered to finish the hand but I was sent back to vugraph operator. I would have walked home 10 tricks and had a shot at some guard squeeze in the wash for 11. So when I handed over my cards there was 10 on top but I was not so good at the vugraph operating and could only make 9 tricks 

Fair play to the partner for standing by its late partner and discussing the merits of a 4S contract 

when the truth is given a minute or 2 more I would have got the 10 or 11 tricks for 2nd top on the board. 

Maybe I should be playing in this event ... but then ..........

Ireland Premier Pairs 208

This weekend Nov 9-11 in the Regent Bridge Club we hold the 3rd renewal of the  Ireland Premier Pairs, This event is organised by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite and takes place in the Regent Bridge Club. They also have a committeee of another 7 or 8 people. 

We will broadcast on Bridgebase Online the full event. 

The event is scored using matchpoints so every trick counts if the players choose the same contract. 

Paeticipants are 

Tom Hanlon & John Carroll

Adam Mesbur & Nick FitzGibbon

Peter Goodman & Mike Pownell

Brendan O'Brien & Terry Walsh

Ciaran Coyne & David Walsh

Rex Anderson & David Greenwood

Cian Holland & Anna Onishuk

and late replacements Edward Fitzgerald and Michael McDonagh.... maybe its MacDonagh.

So who will win ... well I don't know but I will make a guess

but I think plus or minus a place should be available to me. 

8th McDonagh Fitzgerald

7th Anderson Greenwood

6th BJ O'Brien Terry Walsh

5th Cian Holland Anna Onishuk 

4th Peter Goodman Mike Pownell

3rd Ciaran Coyne David Walshe

2nd Hanlon Carroll

1st Mesbur Fitzgibbon

Now Greenwood wrote a book on pairs bridge but I don't think

Anderson read it. 

McDonagh Fitgerald are placed 8th in my estimation as they 

have not featured for many years as a partnership. 

O'Brien Walsh are down there as they are not a regular partnership despite being near the podium in many national events over last 20 years but not as partners. 

So play starts at 430pm tomorrow evening in the Regent. 

We will run a vugraph room down in the basement. 

Declan Byrne ... Regent premises 

Martin Brady ... Tournament Directing 

Eamon Galligan vugraph

Jim Cahill Anne Tuite eveything else

All day Saturday 

Sunday until evening

http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php

Thanks 

Eamon Galligan

 

Coen Trophy 2018 Mixed Teams

63 teams take the floor in the 2018 Coen Trophy.

The monsters chase the Trophy and the lesser players chase the B points.

So who will win.

The powerful Kenny squad should go well. Kenny Rigney Glynn and Keaveney.
The Coyne squad sporting the Spiro Cup winners along with Michael McGloughlin and Heidi Lillis.
The Pattinson squad sporting 2 Grandmonsters and two Reddans might manage it
Another squad worthy of note is the Kemple squad. 12 years ago Kemple explained to me how she was a better declarer than Galligan .... 12 years later she must have double dummy status.
Kemple also sports Grandmasters Goodman and Walsh in her bag.

Stewart Noonan Roche and Boland are other teams worthy of mention.

Stewart features the ever green Peter Pigot Junior along with legendary lady player Hilary McDonagh.
Conor Boland and Kelan O'Connor have teamed up with experienced Emer Joyce and LizAnn O'Reilly.
The Porteus squad has plenty of experience but might lack in the stamina department.
Noonan and Cummins are always near the top of Mixed events.

The NIBU squad of Murchan Connolly Fitzpatrick and Curran don't seem to be confident at the moment. However if Murchan has his bunny gun with him they could feature.
Murchan is one of the greatest bunny hunters in Ireland. However he has thin skin and loves roast beef. However you cannot shoot a cow with a bunny gun.

Ann Dillon sporting Cian Holland Maria Barry and Sean O'Lubaigh could do some damage although Cian has lots of eperience to carry on his back. Cian is one of the most under rated players in Ireland ...a real bridge player and tough opponent. I heard him touted as one of Irelands greatest bridge talents about 15 years ago.

I have looked thru all the teams line by line and I don't see the podium places  coming outside the above listed 11 teams ...

Lets see how I go

Good luck to all

CBAI Mixed Weekend 2018

This weekend sees the Spiro Cup and Coen Trophy  taking place in Dublin for Mixed Pairs and Teams. There are 112 pairs entered in the Spiro Cup and Galligans first task will be to pick the top 10 finishers in no particular order.

Dillon Holland
Cummins Noonan
Fitzgerald Coyne
Seligman Fitzgibbon
Joyce Boland
Gannon McAndrew
Phelans
Gililand VanWoerkom
Connolly Murchan
Whelan O'Connor

...........
Honorable mentions for

McDonagh Taaffe
Lillis McGloughlin
Galligans
McDonagh Stewart
Part O'Brien

So lets see how many make the top 15

.......................................
The Ireland Team headed by Mark Moran continued their preparation for the Camrose
Trials with a training trip to Vilnius Lithuania. However they lost one match heavily and thus
failed to make up the ground to make the top 2 places in their group of 6.
A 4th placing left them short of the semi finals.
............
Next was Teams qualifier and IRELAND were a long way short of making the TOP 8.
.....
Currently our 2 pairs play in the very strong pairs event full of powerful Polish players.
Moran MacAonghusa are in 19th place after 40 boards with Hanlon Carroll back in 48th place out of 132 pairs.
An indication of the strength of this field is the position of
B Gierulski J Skrzypczak in 132nd and last place at the moment.

They are a recognised and capped Polish pair.

Vilnius Cup 2018

The above link shows the resutlts and running scores

Drogheda Congress 2018

Drogheda Congress takes place this weekend with the redoubtable Fearghal O'Boyle at the helm one expects.

All details on everything on Drogheda Congress can be found at the link below

Drogheda Bridge Congress 2018

The Lady Milne trials took place last weekend with 8 pairs qualifying for the squad which will form 2 teams to take part in the Lady Milne Trophy in Gormanston in April 2019.

Congratulations to Gilda Pender and Hilary McDonagh who are the first pair to reach the magic 130 VP quota in just 10 rounds and qualify for the top 8 group.  They have just been followed over the line in round 11 by Teresa Rigney and Joan Kenny and also by Ann O’Connell and Valerie Burke-Moran.  Louise Mitchell and Maureen Pattinson along with Jean Kelly and Betty Cotter, Emer Joyce and Kathleen Vaughan , join the list of qualifiers after round 12.  That leaves just two places to fill in the last round!  Those two places go to Dolores Gilliland and Lucy Phelan and to Cathy Bearpark and LizAnn O’Reilly.  Well done to all.

The above running commentary as the pairs qualified has been taken from 

Fearghals website

All details on Lady Milne trials 2018 can be found there

While visiting Fearghals website I spotted a mention of the 2018 Camrose trials.
7 teams have entered

CBAI Camrose Trials
7 teams have entered for this years Camrose Trials.  The draw for team numbers will be based on the results of tonight’s Lotto draw (Wed 3rd October).  The first 7 numbers drawn on the night will be assigned to the 7 teams in the order listed below.  The teams will then be ordered in ascending order of their lotto number and then renumbered 1 to 7.  Lotto Numbers in brackets.

4.   Micheal O’Briain, Padraig O’Briain, BJ O’Brien, Ranald Milne (32)

1.   Tom Hanlon, John Caroll, Mark Moran, Donal MacAonghusa (3)

7.   Ciaran Coyne, Derek O’Gorman, David Walsh, Enda Glynn, Gay Keaveney, Pat McDevitt (46)

3.   Martin Brady, Paul Delaney, John Phelan, Lucy Phelan, Conor Boland, Karel de Raeymaeker (10)

5.   Thomas MacCormac, Ronan McMaugh, Marcin Rudzinski, John Connolly, Stephen Barr, Michael Donnelly (33)

2.  Diarmuid Reddan, Louise Mitchell, Bob Pattinson, Maureen Pattinson (4)

6.  Richard Elvin, Kathleen Vaughan, Maria Whelan, Eileen O’Donovan (35)

I wonder did Fearghal use those numbers .. I heard there was a winner in Dublin.

...........
I am afraid its still Team 1  Thomas Hanlon team for me. I knew the Hanlon team has something missing. McGann is gone on his holidays. However the new MacAonghusa Moran partnership is bedding in well.

Team 2 ... Diarmuid Reddan ... 4 person team ... stamina will wear them down despite the presence of their two grandmasters of bridge.

Team 3 .., Martin Brady .. 3 full internationals along with the experienced Brady Delaney and the intelligent Conor Boland. They are good swimmers but they are not sharks.

Team 4   O'Briain brothers plus BJ and Ranald.. well 3 of them can almost walk to the venue.
However a 4 man team with their best days behind them is going to tire as each day ends.
Maybe they need to have a couple of substitutes on the side just in case.
I would play 12 boards for 50 euros if they need.

Team 5 Thomas MacCormac ... Now here is a team that won't be phased by any other team.
4 of these lads have been attending US Nationals for the last few years and on one occasion took on the world reknowned NICKEL team in a 64 board match losing narrowly. (on each board)
They are the Irish arm of the Great American Bridge Tour.

Team 6 .. Richard Elvin ... This team will need to find much improvement on recent form to
remain competitive.

Team 7 Ciaran Coyne ...A 6 man team with plenty of experience who put it up to the full
Hanlon team in last years IBU trials and only fell away in the last stanza.

I will say top 3 teams will be MacCormac Coyne and Hanlon .. Its a round robin so one heavy loss
to another favourite could end a teams interest. I don't know the conditions of contest but I presume its first past the post. This means on Monday afternoon there could be room for some sportsman dumping. However Hanlon should be able to win from the front starting off with ELVIN.

I made a video of me losing to the country gentleman YET AGAIN ..

Galligan v Country Gentleman

Losing by 24 imps ..

Lady Milne Trials begin and Orlando continues

This evening in 15 minutes time the CBAI Lady Milne trials begin.
14 pairs take to the floor. I logged into Fearghal O'Boyles website to see how it is going.

I was greeted with a new fangled results service ..

Lady Milne running scores

Now I don't know yet if this is an upgraded Fearghal or if it is a different tournament director.
One never knows ... It could be John Royds .. He is progressive but Fearghal is technical.
All will be revealed. It could even be Diarmuid Reddan.

.............
Earlier this afternoon I was looking through the Open Pairs Semi Final A. I was reading from the bottom up. I spotted the drop in pair Mesbur and Fitzgibbon marooned in last place on 40% after 14 boards. Not far above lay Hanlon McGann. In the places 87-118 I can comfortably  count 30 world renowned players and there would also be several from the Far East whose names would not be familiar to me. So  Mesbur Fitzgibbon on 41% after 16 boards is not terminal as a good next 16 will bring them up to near half way. Hanlon McGann on the other hand are on 42% or so after 64 boards so they have a harder climb. However this is a serious level event. There are World champions in this bottom end too.

So an event with Irelands top pairs near the bottom must be serious level of bridge especially in this new cleaned up version of bridge.

Orlando World Championship results

Texan Aces fail in World quarter final

Early this morning I watched the World Bridge quarter final featuring Team Zimmerman and the Texan Aces. Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon featured as one of the Texan Aces pairs.
This competition started off with 114 teams and our lads and their team mates reached the final 8.

In the final segment with Texan Aces trailing by 75 to 97 with 8 boards to score it was time to make a move. Like when DON cardgame when you are trailing in the 2nd deal by a decent number you play out the BIG DON and hope partner has the ACE to get the ball rolling.
Anyway this hand came up

Now my man John Phelan had just sent me a private message stating Mesbur Fitzgibbon are Irelands greatest ever bridge partnership and he also started no disrespect to any of the younger pairs who also have many achievements in bridge.
However on this hand one felt the lads needed to bid and make 7 Spades to put the pressure on their illustrious opponents. Helgemo Helness regarded as one of the worlds best pairs aided by the legendary Gawrys from Poland and his younger partner Klukowski .. already a Bermuda Bowl winner possibly in his teens a few years ago. 13 tricks on top although its hard to be able to bid out the diamond queen as an asset but trailing by 22 with boards running out its time for a move.
You could do keycard blackwood and then specific kings ..and after that its on owning a QUEEN in the minors or at worst a finesse. Nobody is saying bidding the grand would win the match but it would add some pressure at their own table and add some confidence to their partnership.

Anyway it was not to be ...as they stopped in 6S for a flat board.
.................
Meanwhile our other pairs Hanlon McGann are struggling in World Pairs semi final A on 42% after 3 sessions and Carroll Garvey are in the B semi final but faring somewhat better. Of course the B final would be easier but with fewer to qualify. I think 52 pairs qualify for the Final but I don't know for sure or what the breakdown is for qualifying from each semi final.
...............
Finally I made another video of a bridge challenge that I played today.
Here it is .... Beware it is posted as made so no edits done

Galligan v ChallengerW

I won this one ...but after conceding the 16 imp handicap I lose out.

Lady Milne 2018 Trials Entries

The entries for this years Lady Milne trials are as follows. 14 pairs

1 Jeannie Fitzgerald & Frances Kelly
2 Antoinette McGee & Aoife MacHale
3 Gilda Pender & Hilary McDonagh
4 Louise Mitchell & Maureen Pattinson
5 Teresa Rigney & Joan Kenny
6 Brid Kirby & Marian Croke
7 Brid Kemple & Siobhan Part
8 Liz Taaffe & Bernie Lodewijks
9 Ann O’Connell & Valerie Burke-Moran
10 Cathy Bearpark & LizAnn O’Reilly
11 Emer Joyce & Kathleen Vaughan
12 Dolores Gilliland & Lucy Phelan
13 Jean Kelly & Betty Cotter
14 Maria Whelan & Eileen O’Donovan

I got this from http://fob.ie

Fearghal indicates that the top 8 pairs will qualify to form a squad which will eventually produce 2 teams of 6 and 2 pairs of reserve pairs. 

Personally I would get rid of the Lady Milne trials and put the whole 14 pairs into a training squad that trains one long day a month and the long day includes 3 matches of qualifying and some education on how to play bridge. Of course this could be changed to 2 day sessions once every 2 months. Then we get some learning and training done instead of a sprint for the top 8 places. 

Being honest I could not make any attempt to pick which 6 pairs will miss out. 
One would expect the longer standing partnerships to have a better chance in this
sprint format. New partnerships just will have less partnership agreements in place. 
I think nearly all partnerships have at least one Lady Milne cap if not 2 in the pair. 

Anyway it all kicks off on Friday September 28th with 3 matches starting at 6pm.
6 matches follow on Moving Saturday and 4 more matches on Sunday. 

The Lady Milne Trials 2018 are happening

Good afternoon all few of ye.

This weekend coming we have the Lady Milne trials 2018. This year as Ireland is the host we have 2 teams taking part, That means 6 pairs will qualify for the teams Ireland and CBAI.
I will head off to Fearghals website shortly to see who is playing this year.

In the meantime I will post the latest video I just made. This one has the final 8 boards of my latest challenge against Magic. Magic is a keen bridge player who used to sit beside me at work and I taught him bridge from scratch. He is now an A2 player in the CBAI. Since then I have also created Declan the Donplayer and Shane the Unblocker. Those two lads don't play much in bridge clubs but they have been taught the game. Declan the Donplayer is well known from my blog and he absolutely loves the game. Shane is a little less forward going as he thinks he knows it all.

Galligan v Magic

Now Magic should have won the above challenge in comfort but he lost 1100 twice and 800 once for
a total of 38 imps out. In short he made more and bigger mistakes than Eamon.
In the challenge today we had P 1H X P to me holding 5 card hearts. I made the stupid bid of PASS thinking we will beat this easily. If I put my brain in gear first all would have been well.  See the video on boards 2 and 3 for how not to play bridge.

Meanwhile on the way through Fearghals site I see a picture of Congress Pairs winners 2018 and to be honest I have never laid eyes on these two women in my life. So they must be visitors from afar.
I went on Fearghals results site and amazingly I cannot find the Congress Pairs result. So maybe it is one of Fearghals trick questions. He has a wry sense of humour this Fearghal. Two unknowns and no result on website. Whats going on. Congress Pairs 2018. Weird.

Whats also weird is the D/UAIS .. The prize awards went RM1 AM1 AM2 AM3 RM2
However in my world of prize awarding the first 2 MAs should win the RM2 prizes like normal.
Also no prize for Una O'Gorman Peter 'Meara ...can the presidents partner not win a prize.
and finally MR2 is given to a Regional Master when it should be already gone to an AM.
In short all RM and AM prizes should be taken by AMs no question ...so it beats me how that worked. Its just impossible .

Guess I will have to do the Lady Milne names tomorrow as its time for eats

Oh by the way ... the World Bridge Federation have a you tube broadcast each night at 1740 from Orlando. Its interesting as sometimes one gets different viewpoints than the normal commentary.
Last night they had Georgio Duboin Alfredo Versace and young italian superstar Donati. In all 7 world champions commentated. The first show was like 2 Mickey O'Ks talking about bridge but its much better now that they have learned.

You can find the videos here and they are interesting

World Bridge Federation Youtube videos

Unfortunately the team called Moran got beaten in the Round of 64 last night.
They were playing shorthanded due to a bereavement of one of their players.

Galligan v Country Gentleman

This afternoon I finished off my latest 16 board challenge against the country gentleman who fancies himself at bridge. I had 6 bad efforts in the first 8 boards so reckoned I was trailing badly. At the end as anyone who goes to the end of the video will see ..I was correct. I got killed on about 10 boards.
However some justice prevailed and I managed to only lose by 9 imps.

I think its a good video as nobody is really identified and nobody is libeled or bad mouthed.
Some good commentary happens and we see the results at the end.

A person watching this video could agree or disagree with my bids as an exercise.
However its up to the watcher if they get this far.

In this new GDPR world one has to be careful not to annoy anyone or even mention anyone by name.
I am lucky in that I have a few folk who have given me permission to speak away for the good of bridge.
One guy said to me the other day .. I want another video and I don't care what you say as its all good learning Its good to play the hands and later see how you thought as you played the same hands as me.

So here it is

Galligan v Country Gentleman

Please understand the above video and others are recorded live and published unedited at the moment. Also the content is unrehearsed so no preparation is done in advance like in most training videos.

Soon I will deliver some prepared content videos but I will have read the book first and the knowledge will be correct.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

PS ..If you don't play bridge and have somehow wandered here ..don't go away ..
go to  google and enter "Learn to play Bridge or ask me
eamongalligan@eircom.net or 087 9032505
Its a great game .. ..

PSS .. "I love this game " .. Declan the Donplayer ..

Duais Peadar Sept 22nd

This weekend down in Athlone at the Hodsom Bay hotel on one of the corners of Lough Ree the Presidents Prize will take place. A fine venue which even has parking for boats. So you could cruise to the Presidents Prize although there would have been a major blow out there today.  108 pairs are entered already including the incredible BJ O'Brien and the faultless Sean O'Lubaigh.
Funny thing though I did not see any Peters entered in the event. Guess the President is not allowed win his prize. At least Una Walsh is playing so thats okay but its the young chap opposite her one needs to watch.
After that it is Lady Milne trials with the long eye on Orlando for the World championship event starting on September 21st I believe.

The Talk that never was

The link above is to Bridgewinners where a long article about the legendary Blue Team exists.
However that might have been the way cards was played in that long ago era. Just like in my local drinking den.
Last night Declan the Don player pulled me up for playing out of turn ..,,,
I only had the SPADE 8 and had to follow suit ..I was not ready for his long pause and expected him to play in tempo. So when my card hit the table in tempo he started to cry about playing out of turn.
I watched the next hand and 3 times Declan played out of turn and nobody noticed.
Heart Heart Jack and the last chap had to play the 9. In Don the 9 is a scoring card and the cardplay is the same as bridge and whist. So now Declan the Blue Donplayer knows his partner has Heart Ace so wheels out the Heart King out of turn. His partner throws the 5 another scoring card and the game moves swiftly on despite my protects about out of turn .. Declan Donplayer satys .. "Eamon you are not playing in this one so shut up ..and let us get on with it.... our way "

Anyway enough about Declan the Donplayer ....

This morning I finished off the match against challengerW and it was a large success.
Here is the video ..

Galligan v ChallengerW

Match 4 Mixed Trials qualification

Good morning folks.

As some will know trials for Euro Mixed teams took place in Galway last weekend.
 I have already indicated my view on the format but that was looking through a players eyes.
From the selectors or organizers side one hopes to arrive at the best 3 pairs and hope they will function as a team.
The results show the organizers got close to the best selection.

Cian Holland and Anna Onishuk ... Anna the most competitive lady in the country at the moment meaning she is a damn good player. along with new Mixed Partner Cian Holland who at one time was touted to be the next Thomas Hanlon so thats one good pair.

Gay Keaveney and Teresa Rigney .. top of many piles of rish bridge events for years.

Michael McGloughlin and Heidi Lillis also regulars at the top end of many leaderboards for many years. McGloughlin and Keavney played for Ireland after putting together an impromptu partnership back in the early 1990s  i think.

The next runner would be Enda Glynn and Wooden Spoons Kenny. but they did not run fast enough.
So the organizers got a good result.

In order to sample the athmosphere I am playing some of the matches against JACK.
As I had slipped down close to the bottom after 10 8.65 and 4.21 matches I turned my robot opponents down a notch and was rewarded with 2 games going down. One was a wrong game and the other they went in 3NT with no HEART stop. So I won match 4 by 18 imps.

Match 4 Mixed Trials qualifier.

So after 4 matches I have about 39.5 VPs leaving me in about 14th place of 27
Still well short of qualifiying if  I was playing.

Mixed Trials Galway plus new 8 board video

Good morning folks

I will start by sticking up an 8 board video  I played against a friend of mine this morning.
He said he wants more videos and he told me say what you like as its all learning for me and just remember  I won the last 3 matches. Don't forget to tell the punters this inter B is taking you down.
So here are the first 8.
First 8 boards v Inter B

Last weekend the Mixed Trials were held in Galway. A large entry of 27 pairs showed up. The conditions of contest published before the event indicated if a number too large for a full round robin showed up there would be a 7 round Swiss Pairs to eliminate 15 pairs. Now it does not sound too good that 56% of the entrants will be on their way home after less than one third of the event.
Anyway thats the way it was ... over half the field booted out almost before they got warmed up.
And half of those 15 booted pairs had a sitout due to the uneven number of entrants.
The organisers could have invited a progressive Peggy Bayer pair to play instead of the sitout.
Good experience for them for the future. In this field we would still expect a pair like this to be near bottom but the sitout is gone. So above we mentioned less than one third of the event. For those who bagged a sitout it meant they only played 42 boards and they are gone.

First of all the above list contains many very regular top end CBAI players. A few names standout as well known players Peter Goodman Derek 'Gorman Michael McDonagh Terry Walsh and several other players who have represented CBAI in international competition. As many as 9 pairs contain at least one international but they are gone after less than 30% of the event.

Now  have played the first 14 boards of the event against my computers.  I was using Jack as my partner and two Jacks as my opponents. Match 1  lost by 3 imps and Match 2 was a draw.
This would leave me on 18.65 after 2 matches in 16th place.

Now just to show  I am not messing I will play the 3rd 7 board match and publish the video.
I played the 7 board match 3 and  lost by 16 imps. I dont' know what that is worth but at best I get 3.5 VPs. So  I am on about 22VPs out of 60 after 3 matches .
Here is the video of those 7 boards. Now my partner failed to tell me about club support on the slam hand.  I am a supporter of partners. When partner bids a suit that I have 4 card support I let them know. Simple as. However  I dropped a defensive trick in 3Cx also and lost a partscore. So a deserved hammering.
Mixed Trials match 3 video
So looks like  I won't be qualifying either.

Galligan v Teacher continues and some websites for playing on

This morning I was up at a reasonable hour and decided to play 16 boards against the lad who taught me bridge. However he taught me too well about winning so now he loses some matches.
These games take place on

http://bridgebase.com

This site is free to use but there are some parts you can pay small money for , such as rentiing robots or playing in very competitive tournaments.

http://bridge-now.com

Above another free site to play some hands on but sometimes it slows down

http://bridgez.net:3002/playonthecloud

16 board tourney here everyday .. if you like it you can make a donation annually of 15 euro but its free if you don't bother.

Finally we have the challenge on Bridgebase .. where Galligan defeated his challenger by 11 imps.

Galligan v ChallengerG

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Hmmm Magpie came in back door and saw dog and reversed out.

Mixed Trials ..Lady Milne Trials.. New Bridge Season

Good afternoon folks

This month September heralds the start of another bridge season. My own club Malahide Regional starts tonight with its Gala Pairs (members only). We will have 40 tables of various levels from the Great Master Terry to the newer N1 players.
Next weekend comes the Mixed Trials ..  understand 27 pairs will take to the floor and  I think it takes place down in Galway. I think they have some funny format where they qualify 12 pairs for a final round robin. Maybe a 7 round Swiss Pairs ....... so if you want to take part in the final 12 ..you best lose a couple of matches early and take 5 softer matches and cruise into the final 12. However don't go losing to a weaker pair as when you are arriving near the final 12 you need your conquerors to be in the 12 not chasing like yourself. There is no point in being in 7th to 12th after 5 rounds  with the front runners looking for fodder and you getting a trimming and getting booted into the side game. Now maybe folk have come to their senses and come up with a good format.

Also I think this is an IBU trials so why is it clashing with the season opening congress of the NIBU.
Surely the NIBU folks who might want to play should not have to choose between a local major event and travelling to Galway or Dublin or where ever Mixed Trials takes place.

Finally  I made another losing video against the guy who taught me bridge.  I lost by 5 imps so thats another hole gone and he now leads this round by 7-4 with 9.5 being the winner. However  learned two good things today. On 2 different deals I threw the wrong card off dummy and went down.
These wrong cards looked useless but turned out to be guards or promote-able cards. I saved them into my irritating folder. Either hand would get me a victory in the match.

Galligan v Teacher 8 boards

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Junior Trials Mixed Trials and ChallengerW video

Last weekend along with Bray Swiss Congress we had the Junior Trials.

The results of Junior Trials can be found on Fearghals website

www.fob.ie

However the results are no good to us as we don't know the conditions of contest.
The various pairs have Y P X and Z categories so I don't think it is first past the post.
Here is a picture of the final positions

 I have come across most of these players in the past but they were a few years younger when  I used to run the Schools  Pairs in Malahide Regional Bridge Club and the Schools teams in Galway.
Therefore  recognise the names but  would not be able to put faces on them except for some of the Gonzaga lads who I have met more often. Several of them work as bridge directors these days.

 I would have expected better from 9th placed Bolger and Childs as well as the 8th placed Connolly and Doyle. Smylie and Lightowler are partnering each other quite a while and I would have expected better from them. However as stated above I don't know the conditions of contest so who knows what it alll means. Y might mean Youths C might mean Camrose and P might mean Peggy. I don't know about X. If P means Peggy Bayer does that mean you cannot qualify for Junior Camrose.  I am sure all will be revealed by the Junior Committee soon or whatever committee is in charge. I expect the players all know the story.

Finally the next video .. unedited but soon we will start editing  I think.
Galligan v ChallengerW

We lost this challenge and are now 2-0 down to challengerw despite him being entitled to 16 imps handicap.

Bray Weekend and Galligan loses challenge

Bray Swiss Weekend continues about now. Presume they start the teams about 11am but maybe its a later start. 11am would be the CBAI National teams starting time but Bray are their own bosses.

Bray Bridge Club page

Above is the link to Bray Bridge Club page and you can find all results and deals for the Bray Swiss weekend. In the Swiss Pairs on Saturday legendary Irish pair Fitzgibbon and Mesbut outran local legends Noonan and Cummins to take the victory.
However the vagaries of Swiss Pairs meant the overall 2nd to 5th placed pairs never suffered the pain of meeting Mesbur Fitzgibbon as these pairs did not enter the dreaded 2nd or 3rd places to face the most practiced pair in Ireland. 35+ years on these guys found Bridgebase Online partnership bidding tables and added even more clubs to their impressive golf bag. Normal players carry a driver a wedge and a putter. These guys carry 1000 clubs in their bag. So most of the pairs who met Mesbut and Fitzgibbon were scoring out of 7.5 matches or less.Gagne and Harris hit the front in round 6 and survived their encounter with a 10 10 draw.

So many club players sit down 2 minutes before play and say ..4 and weak Ok partner ..
Then 2 boards in they don't know what transfers they are playing ..
  I sit down with a blank paper in Malahide and they all think  I am nuts writing down my Stayman and Transfers and clearing up a few other things ..However at least  I have made several agreements.

In Swiss Pairs if you are not the best pair in the field you get a good position around 20th place after 4 matches and you set sail for the podium being careful not to hit the podium before the end and running into the juggernaut. Many years ago like about 12 a country pair landed in 3rd place in the Master Swiss Pairs. Never heard of before and never heard of since. 45th place after 6 rounds of 8 and got 25 VPS in round 7 and another 25 in round 8 .. Swept thru the middle of the field into 3rd place.
Another good idea is if you get a great board in the 2nd last match ...maybe you might not enter it in the bridgemate as you are a little behind and continue to play slowly until the final round draw is made. Now enter your good score and finish up the match ..So what if someone gives you a 1 VP penalty ...you might get 7 VPS back from a good draw in the final round.
However now Fearghal will be watching ..... if he was not already there before.

This morning I had 8 boards of a challenge left so  duly played them. Had to be finished before 1044am. Got the job done but unfortunately the patient died ..

a Losing challenge to Mr Inter B      there is a video on the link.

16 boards played and  lost by 7 imps .. However  I blame my GIB robot for most of them.
 I made one mistake costing 4 imps ..

However  I will get him in the next match.

Junior Trials continue .. See www.fob.ie

Crockfords Cup Final takes place in England this weekend ... results on EBU website
featuring Hugh McGann from Fermoy and Rory Boland from Youghal.

Crockfords Cup results

Junior Trials Another video & ROSLER O'SULLIVAN win Bray Mixed

Good afternoon folks
Just spent another hour playing a bridge challenge. Happily victory was mine but more hopefully there is some good information for whoever watches my videos. Someone had a good look over the last 12 hours so hope it was useful.

Galligan v Challenger Bridgebase

I glanced into Fearghals website last night and noted Junior Trials were going to start today.

Junior Trials LIVE results

If you want to look or follow off you go ..

Bray Bridge Congress is in progress this weekend ..

Bray Swiss Congress results here

Having a look at Mixed Pairs ...looks like Horst Rosler and Marie O'Sullivan found a rich vein of form and led the field a merry dance.

That was a good session of bridge by Horst and Marie .. I think they are Kerry based. They probably
planned on being up for the All Ireland GAA final against the Dubs but the Kerry GAA got derailed.
A fine collection of capable bridge players left in their wake .. No red scores on the card. Always good. Have a good look at that field ...plenty of internationals and top players present.
And Rosler O'Sullivan did not even struggle home ...they done them like Seabiscuit did Rear Admiral. Its a local Swords saying ..." Done them like Seabiscuit" or sometimes Declan the Donplayer uses the short version ...."Seabiscuit"

All those Bray experts must have thought they were winning ...and noticed way up high and far in the distance was the good ship HORST and MARIE ... I think he used to be a chess player.
Maybe they might fix his name ... I think he is ROSLER .. not Rosier ..

Bridge challenge .. Galligan v Teacher August 31st

This morning I played a planned 16 board challenge against the man who taught me bridge. He still thinks he is better than me but I think the robots keep taking pity on him.
Anyway we played the 16 boards and the video is below. Happily I won but it was only small and I made a few errors.

Galligan v Bridge Teacher

I got 9 imps for making 4S when the teacher went off in 3S
I got 11 imps for making 4H when the teacher drove all the way to 7H and blamed his robot no doubt.

Last night I was directing in one of the Dublin bridge clubs and a lady told me the hands were too hard. She said she much preferred it when the hands were flatter and dealt by hand. I said so you like nice 4333 hands and 4432 hands with no singletons or voids.
So I said " Well we can deal by hand if your club prefers it but you need to ask the committee. Your club did after all spend 2.5 grand on a dealing machine for ye. "
So I printed her off a copy of last nights hands and said " Here you can study these and get better or light the fire in the morning with it " She said " I don't light fires .. someone else looks after that and cleans it out. "

On Wednesday night I was in the local drinking establishment after bridge directing and I was telling Declan the Donplayer about the above mentioned teacher. Declan Donplayer said .. " Don't forget to thank that man" I said "For What " ..
Declan Donplayer .. " The journey .. thank him for the journey .. if he never taught you bridge then you would never have taught me ..so we both got a journey out of it .. Tell him Declan Donplayer loves the game and thanks "
Teacher mentioned above thought that he was the only Donplayer left in Ireland ...but I was able to inform him that every man over 50 in this establishment can play DON. Teacher was amazed.
We play DON in Rivervalley Community Centre every Tuesday from about 2130.

Galligan v Mr Noname 10 boards

Today  played a challenge on Bridgebase against a friend of mine.  I had a few bad boards but its no good if you play a few bad ones and then decide not to bother publishing the video.
Hopefully somebody will get something out of my videos.  I speak it as I see it. Most of the commentary is sensible stuff but sometime the dog barks.

So here is my video. Its about 30 minutes and is placed on youtube.

Bridge challenge video August 29th 2018

On Monday night I was sitting in the local drinking establishment after directing in another bridge club when Thomas arrived over. Now Thomas does not play bridge but loves card games. I was playing Wbridge5 daily tournament and was going quite well. However faded near the end and only managed 65% or so. However Thomas the non bridge player was still willing to point out my errors.
Its interesting listening to a non-bridge player talking about bridge as they use non-bridge terms.

Give him control .... means let him win the trick ..
Do the 12 Trump thing .... means bid a Small Slam
Do the 13 Trump thing ... means bid a Grand Slam
Do the Aces thing ... means do 4NT Blackwood

Last night we played some DON in the local and on one hand the chap who was wanting to play fast ended up holding 4 trumps and WE had shown out of trumps .. This means a claim is in order as his side cannot lose any trick but he kept on playing ..  I pointed out Nick look .. you are winning the rest of the tricks so just CLAIM and get on with next hand. Despite touting himself as a great DON player he did not grasp it for a minute or two.

Later on while walking home Declan the Donplayer indicated that he might partner up with Thomas for a game of bridge in a club sometime. We had 6 DON players last night.
............
Meanwhile the new bridge season is almost upon us .
Bray Bridge Congress takes place this weekend.  I am told the venue is limited to 65 tables so get your entries in. Some Bray person read my blog and told me this.  I think she is President of Bray Bridge Club. The legendary BJ O'Brien is now the premier player in Bray Bridge Club.

 I notice there was a large fire in Belfast yesterday in the Primark building. I was not watching the news yesterday but  think the Primark building is near the Spinning Wheel shop which is run by a Northern Ireland bridge player. He might not be able to sell any curtains for a few days.
 I looked up the Spinning Wheel on facebook and saw a Northern Ireland bridge player doing a raffle.

https://www.facebook.com/thespinningwheeluk/

Jeez  I not realise it was so close to Primark building. Looks from Facebook like its closed off for now.

Galligan v Challenger on Bridgebase Online 11 boards

Good morning folks
This morning I made a new video. This time there is much less background noise.
I played 11 boards of  a 16 board challenge against a friend of mine. As it was not Magic Murphy we will keep quiet about his identity. I was also trying out a different kind of screen recording software.
I played back some of it and it looks good. For now I am keeping the format basic as better quality means bigger files.
This file is about 500mb and is in WMV format and is about 40 minutes long.

https://youtu.be/jxmx88D0ruI

The video is on my Youtube channel at the above link. I played 11 boards as South against 2 BridgeBase Online robots with one robot acting as my partner.
The Blogger site only allows upload of 100Mb or less size so its a little small for a challenge.
Therefore I upload to Youtube and then post the link as above.

It seems one has to be quite careful about what one says in a video as some people have thin skin or think everything refers to them. Therefore I am mainly making videos which star myself. Its not going to be much good suing myself for playing bad bridge on a video.

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Bray Congress is coming up next weekend and that takes place down in some hotel in Bray I expect.
I am sure the details can be found by searching for Bray Bridge Club on the web.

Found it .. http://www.bridgewebs.com/bray/

Pre-entry to all competitions ...
Details of Bray Swiss Weekend are there .. think August 31-Sep02.
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So the new season is almost upon us .. My home club Malahide Regional Bridge Club never stopped for the summer but "reopens" with the Annual Gala Pairs which is limited to club members of good standing last season I guess. It cannot be this season as you got to pay by September 30th.
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CBAI events coming up are IBU Mixed Trials which qualifies for some European event next year followed by Lady Milne Trials which qualify a team for the Lady Milne Trophy next April.
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We have a team qualified for some World Senior event in the near future or at least we have a place reserved for our entry. I dunno if they send the same team or if they hold new trials for that.
In these events its the organisation that is qualified not the 6 on the team. Hopefully whoever is playing will put in some training beforehand rather than hope the boards suit them. I see Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon in the bridge gym almost every week ....how come the rest of our players don't get it ...
Gary Player allegedly said " The more I practice the luckier I get "

Mennwhile our Irish "experts" are still bidding what they call "The Irish slam" on the continent.
Here come these 2 Irish dunces who keep bidding slams off 2 aces ..
Do they not know we have a convention for this ... We cash an ace and get signal for his ace.

Videoblog 2

Good afternoon folks

As promised the conclusion of the Galligan versus Magic challenge.
However I first got to go to Youtube and stick up the video.

Its now uploading and these are my very early attempts at video making.
The idea of these two is to play the hands live and give my thinking and see how it goes.

I expect the videos to improve as time goes by and I learn more about presentation and learn better manners. Fearghal often tells me to be nice so maybe I am a gruff tournament director.

Eamon v Magic conclusion boards 9-16

Above is the conclusion of the Bridgebase Online challenge match
Click the link to watch
At the end there is a brief description of why I lost the match ..

Hopefully there are some pointers about bridge bidding and playing and also some of the things
not to do at bridge.

We will see ...

Seems much easier to make a video and share ones thoughts than having to write it all up.

Have to examine these videos as there seems to be a background sound that needs to be gone.
Hopefully next time it will be better.