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 ..