Aoife wins Ireland Imp Pairs .. Peter Goodman 2nd

Tonight we had an exciting set of boards from the 90s ..

Aoife and Peter placed first ...

The BBO results

 play through Carolyns 7S

The below piece is written totally in jest but thegarve decided he needed to raise the bat for  his partner.

"A couple of pointers. (1) Carolyns has an apostrophe; (2) hen pecked, as she will tell you, is both untrue and is only one word (3) Caz has made plenty of grand slams. Quite condescending that too."

Thats the kind of partner everyone should have.. 

Anyway it reached the last trump and the hidden hand got down to AQxx of diamonds

and the North hand had HK and 4 diamonds to 109 and fell from grace allowing 

the non  henpecked Caz to roll home the rest of the tricks. 

The night before North had told me he was a good friend of zaczaczac but hardly meant to give

her a free grand slam. Thus Caz made her very first grand slam in bridge for this month. 

Meanwhile Caz and Martin went to work on MrT in 4S

There are 10 tricks according to the flogger which everyone swears by when waving it at their partner. However this is not always the way things work out. To make the flogger score on a deal one might need to do many things correct and any one of them leads to down 1 or 2.

Anyway the all conquering MrT of the night before found the going a little tougher tonight. 

I am told the above hand is fascinating by a capable player.  

The re playable version

Anyway the Empire hit back with a vengeance last night holding the accomplished Mr and Mrs T to a mere 10 imps of plus ... The Jam factory door was slammed shut.

However I expect the Ts to return tonight or soon with another large imp collection.

Speaking of imp collectors .. I once played on a team with a chap called John Armstrong ...
Now it was Pivot and he did not have to partner me but I heard him described as an Imp machine.
It was the Seagull Cup in Portcrawl ....as Patrick Jourdain said at the time ... something about getting dumped on by seagulls .... It was for those knocked out of the two main events in Portcrawl Congress.

April 29th Ireland Imps Pairs ..the renault masterclass

Loads of free stuff for Tranmers   135 imps worth in the plus. No wonder Michael O'Kane is
an avid fan of MrT2000 ....so much to learn

Thats almost like the session we once had in the Coen Cup when it was Masters Only.
169 plus 17 minus but we played 30 boards. Diane Dario and Iva.

Free stuff circled 

Michael Rowan strikes oil

April 28th results .... The winners tonight are Mr O'Ceallaigh and Dun Laoighaire President Michael Rowan followed by Marion Gavin who was looking for her prize money. Then there was the Donegal folk and in 4th place the Des Mullock and retired bridge player Paul Doyle. Next we had the legendary John Comyn formerly the driving force behind BJ O'Brien accompanied by a Guy.

We had a visit from UBHLAN incognito whoever that might be but his partner Tom from the USA let him down at the off. So at great expense we parachuted in thegarve who was unable to play due to a late issue with zaczaczac. So with UBHLAN advertising EXPERT and frowning on intermediares and privates ....we gave him a taste of thegarve who is neither intermediate or private. Junpings new partner took a swing at thegarve during one of the hands. We also floated in Northern Ireland expert craigbane who foind the going tough on boards 12 and 18 according to himself,

Anyway I typed in those hands this afternoon so I hope ye all enjoyed them. Spotted a few nice plays along the way ..

Links to BBO results

This little beauty came up eearly on as myself and garve watched with trepidation as our NO intermedates chappie went about 6H. Sadly it ended with 11 tricks on a hand the Clyde Love trained Galligan would make in his sleep. I remember playing against Des Scannell in 6NT one time and he put his cards back in the pocket at trick 2 rather than have me put the squeeze on him. His partner who held JT92 of diamonds was still very interested in playing on and thought Des had lost it ...but the cards never came back out ...
Anyway there were about 20 declarers down in a slam on this board ... and another 9 stayed in game mostly making 11 tricks. So if you fancy yourself at the bridge and wemt down in slam on the above hand it might be worth getting a few lessons from Peter Pigot Bridge Club or Thomas MacCormac.

Michael Rowan put the squeeze on Chantal but did he know he was doing it or did it just happen.

Ireland Imps Pairs April 27th results

Tonight we learned that despite knowing Virgin Media was struggling all day ...none of our affected players all very intelligent people seemed to consider tethering to their mobile phone. I have run a whole weekend of vugraph using my mobile phone or Fearghals or Martin Bradys. So once your home internet is struggling then its time to fire up the hotspot on your phone. Its probably free and takes 15 seconds to do same instead of leaving your opponents hanging for 15 minutes.

The same opponents despite knowing that its an internet issue are regularly doing a dance and looking for a sub to be introduced. No patience whatsoever ... This lack of patience also translates itself into misplays and misdefences and misclicks but for many its all about getting finished first. Doing it right does not seem to matter so much.

I have done adjustments for slow play and there is a quirk about doubled contracts in BBO adjust window and the lad who cannot complete 3 boards in 21 minutes is on my case in 4 seconds about the missing double ,,,,,, and these are intelligent people ,,,, NO its not Tommy Garvey ,, it took him 7 seconds ...

BBO results of April 27th Ireland Imps
The Brains of Hull board 1-12

I have not looked at any boards yet .. 

Some good hands in the Ireland Imps Pairs tonight with video

72 pairs tonight ...a nice collection .. MrT2000 had a misclick on board 24 and was getting smacked for 1400 but his opponents felt sorry for him and gave him back a free 300 trick at trick 12.
Tommy Garvey turned up for a run ..Michael O'Kane tossed away a grand slam and then blamed his partner...I could not believe it ..... I think I saw Sonic1974 open with a Gerber bid.

April 26th results
Analysis of first 12 of last nights hands

Kelan claims a victory for cracked phone ...and a NO SLAM.

Ireland Imp Pairs play starts at 2105 April 26th ... registering becomes visible at 706pm 

When we return to face to face bridge CBAI are introducing the new rule of UNDO for the under 40s or juniors. Apparently if they make a mistake they will be allowed take it back under the new lack of experience law ... to be tabulated as Law 94.5 ... up to 3 undos a session will be allowed.

However there are no UNDOS for anyone in the Ireland Imp Pairs. A few weeks ago I had a person and its partner both standing up on their hindlegs demanding an UNDO. So I granted the UNDO temporarily and now with the tempers relaxed one could ask a few questions and even get the offender to indicate that in face to face bridge the bid would stand. What had happened was the player had passed a Blackwood response accidentally but on purpose ....so this is going to be a change of mind. Its like partner does a 2S range ask over 1NT opening and you pass it by accident when you are minimum thinking you are in 2NT. You meant to do it even if you did not really mean to do it.

Anyway Mr Broken Phone seems to manage fine for the rest of the session
http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=7976-1587845184&u=kelan

Here is a 6NT hand that I don't follow at all. Now mind you I am on a different level than most in this field so maybe thats the reason. 

So how do you play to make 12 tricks. A diamond lead and 

our brave soul fired out 5 rounds of clubs possibly deciding 

it was time to count the tricks on the 5th round of clubs as there

was a significant pause for air at this stage. 

Even at this stage having got some nice defensive help 

our anti hero chose to lock itself into its hand by

not unblocking the King of Hearts. 

Now the famous Donegal or Derry bridgeman decides

he will feel sorry for declarer and hands her one last

free roll just for the crack. "She'll never play low in 

Spades" he gushes in best Donegal Danny accent. 

Amazingly he is correct ..She took the 0% line again.

Fridgeman played a small spade from the diagrammed

position. 

Meanwhile the Big Roar watched calmly in dummy.

A few minutes later Kitkatsist fresh from 2nd place in Fearghals Intermediate

 event arrived at the table and uttered the words

"I see the Lion Bar is back " 

"

Mesbur and Fitzgibbon cruise control in Ireland Imps Pairs

 Tonight April 25th ...we will have Ireland Imp Pairs starting play at 2105 hours and it will be posted for entry much earlier than that ...Probably visible at 1905 onwards. 

Thank you for running this tournament. I watched at Adam Mesbur/Nick Fitzgibbon . It was mesmeric. Unreal. Thanks again. Wonderful...I know about myhands now too. Thanks Tom Craig. 

Link to BBO results

Adam Nicks 24 boards

BBO has moved end of PEAK back to 9pm

No Ireland Imps Pairs at 530pm ...

ONE Ireland Imps Pairs can start just after 2100 hours it appears ...so we will try that 
and go for 24 boards Swiss Imps .. 8 times 3 rounds .. 

if the event fails to run at the 905pm  time then we will try again ..and if 2nd time .. we will got at normal 10pm. 
April 23 Imp Pairs results on BBO

So I was looking for some nice hands from last night with a little learning in them when I spotted this little beauty. I could see from the off that the hand was about whoever broke the diamonds and here I was hoping it was thegarve and his 11 bottle of beer.

Don't break the diamonds

So on this hand we needed to airbrush the declarer out of the picture as for some reason it takes pain instead of free learning from the bridge. So looking at the hand we see we have 1 spade loser and 2 diamond losers if we can persuade the opps to lead the diamonds. So we set off on our merry way. Win the spade lead ..3 rounds of trumps ..eliminate the clubs ..AK and ruff ..
cash 2nd spade and we are left with .. Spade Heart and 3 diamonds in East .. and same in the West. Now in real life thegarve has already looked at Eamon and conceded 7 tricks ago as he knows the pain is coming. However not tonight as our man does not know the strip and endplay declaring skill yet. Our chap leads a diamond as the kibitzers grimace as thegarve gets away with another 7 free imps plus the 3.5 out for making 4H. Up in your local club they would have cashed AK of diamonds and nobody would have needed any declarer skill. I put the link to the replay above for the learners to replay the hand as they wish. 
No doubt the phone will still be dingling later when East awakens and thinks I have done him an injustice whereas in reality its a free lesson in declaring. Nobody listens to Eamon but there is always the Peter Pigot Bridge Club where one can learn great skills in playing and defending. 
Intermediate - 'Bidding to Play + Count Carding Explained'    ... Peter Pigot Bridge Club is there ,,,page down a little

He might let me in as I will be running the Fitzwilliam Bridge Club game at this time.
I love an old free lesson. I once got 3 hours from Eric Kokish thinking I was a great lad but the reality was Eric Kokish got 3 hours from myself and my partner as he tested out his online skype lesson.

The Limerick Imp Pairs ..April 22 results

Well Gordon Lessells and LizAnn O'Reilly won the Early one
and Diarmuid Reddan along with regular Limerick visitor Dan McIntosh the Late One.


Early Ireland Imps

 Late Ireland Imps

Then we had an episode of a chap feeling hard done by because his opponent a reasonably decent player found a very normal defense to his 3NT. Well the 2 of them sat there and sulked.
Are opponents not allowed defend well or are you expected to let the opponents make contracts.

The players featured in the hand above are not the players involved in the accusation.
The prosecutor in the South received a normal SPADE lead into his KJ4 fetching the SPADE queen from East ... so he is up and running.
He leads a diamond to the nice suit in dummy and West rushes up with the Ace ..
West with 11 hcp and having seen the Queen ... knows his partner does not how AK of clubs and can see a bucket of tricks coming from 3 spades ..5 diamonds and as his partner is very slim in clubs ..there was also a 1C opening in South...

Therefore the lad facing 3NT making for the 400 plus out tries the HEART SUIT ... Kxxx in partners hand would do and if not there then so be it ...he would not be giving away the contract ...
A very basic defence from an Andrew Robson article for newspaper readers ...so not too advanced.

However South stands up on his hind legs and indicates "I feel cheated" and sits and sulks and is not playing another card

Ruling ... I adjusted to 3NT-1 ...and threw in a DOUBLE for the insult ...

Straight away the accused pointed out they did not double ...and I said thats for Souths actions.
Later I removed the double as EW were in the running for winning.

Possibly there is some history between the folk as they both swim in the same small pond of bridge players.
As for the pictured EW ... West also found a HEART switch but he for some strange reason switched the small HEART thus blocking the suit and letting out the 3NT.

So I went looking for the mighty GARVE and he was taking no chances ..
His partner fired out a HEART QUEEN lead ...
On first thoughts you would think ..now theres someone in the know over in West
However a little more look shows the garve is in there taking care of business with a 2D bid showing the majors to his partner so the HEART QUEEN or ACE lead is normal here.

The folk involved know who they are ...but a really simple defence hardly required that reaction.

The better players generally win the Ireland Imp pairs and the hands are often technical.
So even more likely the better technicians might win.

April 22nd Imps results & Jumping strikes OIL

Ireland Imps Pairs will be at normal times of 5pm and 930pm to  REGISTER today April 22nd. Also Milltown BC at 1130am and Elmpark GC at 2pm  
Thanks Eamon Galligan

Link to last nights booklet (LATE ONE)
BBO link Early Swiss Imps April 21st

BBO link Late Swiss Imps April 21st

Having noted the appearance of
Couloure+Mon Read in 7th place one had to have a look at this phenomenon.
Exhibit 1... Board 16 and our bridge legend known in real life as Jumping due
to his likeness for making the JUMP BID

Well now 6NT ... made with East on lead with Diamond Ace at trick 10 with the last 4 tricks in the bag but does not cash them. so that was over 22 imps of swing ..should be 6NT-4.
As for the bidding ..these 2 say they know their system .. maybe they do ..
4NT might be keycard in spades ..I guess if 4S is keycard in Hearts ..
but what in the world is 5S response ...
No doubt the man will be on the phone to fill me in .... The only good thing here is the 3C bid prevented any JUMP BIDDING.
.............
I wonder is there another exhibit and there is

Here we have Jumping 2 at the helm in 3NT and having arrived in a going down position.

A normal going down position as making the contract required an extreme view in diamonds in most lines. Anyway SABCPETER ends up on lead at trick 7 with a diamond and 4 tricks ready to cash but swings a heart instead...and Mon Read rolls home. A 13.7 imps swing ..

Playable link

So thats 35 imps swing on those 2 boards .. No wonder poor SABCPETER finished down the end
When you get mauled by the JUMPING ...you know you are in trouble. They were only minus 15 when they met JUMPING but blew out to minus 51 in the next 6 boards.

... I won't do the analysis but there was another 26 imps in the IN column for the Jumping.
.....................
My final exhibit features the Brains of Hull receiving a nice gesture from Sonic1974

Here the Brainess of Hull is at the helm in 4HX. 

Eventually at trick 5 she is on track for double dummy 11 tricks 

but after ruffing a club with a small boy Sonic1974 is able to over ruff 

and could swing a trump at trick 9 for 2 off...

However she swung a spade for a ruff and 1 down but her partner in crime decided he would also toss a trick on the same trick. So both defenders do a Huey on the same trick and its 790 minus.

......................................

Just the 25 imps swing although I think making 4H+1 is beyond anyone bar the Coke Zero fueled legend of Irish bridge. That man was hot on the Spiro weekend.

Back to normal today April 21st

Ireland Imps Pairs will be at normal times of 5pm and 930pm to  REGISTER today April 21st. Also PeterPigot BC at 11am and Malahide at 2pm  
Thanks Eamon Galligan


Folks

Ireland Imps Pairs ...LATE ONE .. registering at 2130 and setting off at 1004pm for 21 boards in 7x3 format of 7 minutes a board. 

Apologies but my Fitzwilliam event ran late this evening due to a crash and I had no time to get the EARLY Ireland imps going. 

Anyway I need a nap as been on the go since 8am with Malahide and Fitzwilliam events. 

There were past 50000 folk logged on to Bridgebase at 3pm today for some reason. 

The Late and Only Imp Pairs April 20th

Here is the hand where the whingers were whinging about me adding on time. I could not see a clear outcome so I added time to let the play end. Its table 1 and the two whingers are down at tables 12 and below. A couple of minutes for the front table to finish a board is okay in my view. 
I regularly make adjustments but its only overtricks in partscores at stake ..no chance of going down but I always wait until any deciding play is completed. Remember its the same board at 20 odd tables so chances are I have seen lots of decent players play it out already. 
the whinger board 18

PS .. maybe katie121 only has 10 national titles but she won the Spiro most recently.

Ireland Imps Pairs takes on 2nd Epson World Wide hands

Folks

Last night April 19th we took another blast from the past but boards 25-28 were missing so I used 4 randoms instead. Meanwhile Carolyn O'Donnell somehow managed to gather in about 112 imps over the 2 sessions. Given Carolyns limited attention span and many distractions this does not auger well for her opponents when facing less distracted opponents. Carolyn regularly gets time penalties for disappearing halfway through any difficult hands. However I think its a ploy as 40% and a 5 minute hiatus away from the competition should leave time for Garve to get his wordsmith duties complete.

Anyway Garve had the audacity to raise the bat during the 2nd session. I think its a reference to what the English hurlers do when beating some former colony team senseless in their version of hurling. 

2nd Epson Pairs Contest

Early event .. 22-24 and 29-36 from booklet as 6-8 and 13-20 ...1-5 and 9-12 random
BBO link Early
Late event .. Boards 1-21 from booklet
BBO link Late

Ireland Imps Pairs April 18th results

Ireland Imps Early Entries 5pm .. start 530pm 
Ireland Imps Late Entries 930pm .start1007pm


Folks
I just read the commentary on the first 4 boards and the knowledge contained in the Kokish commentary is serious. Anyone who has travelled on a line not mentioned in the commentary has some seriously free learning here. On board 4 Kokish talks about 3NT and 8 tricks or even 7 on a bad day. However 12 of our 22 tables are assisting declarer to a vulnerable game and 600 in the out column. Clearly many of our "experts" are a long way behind the real expert.

About 12 or 13 years ago my phone rang and it was Eric Kokish... 
"Eamon blah blah ... I want to try out some online training with Skype and the like...
Can you get a partner and go on Skype with me" ...I got Matthew Haag and 3 hours later we had completed the exercise with Eric. " 

Eric would be deemed by many as the top bridge coach in the world ...well maybe Christy Martens
is getting up there on the European side.

So have a read and while we are at it maybe some of our simultaneous pairs events and commentaries could be upgraded. Of course maybe the recent sims hands don't have the content to get our commentators going.

I got a message from Declan Murray last night saying "Thanks Eamon " but he was not even playing... "It was great watching that " .... Now he has a book to read on his watching..

Martin Garvey pointed out that on the 5S hand posted yesterday where Sonic1974 found a prossecco fueled 5D bid that 5D can be taken for another trick via a trump promotion thus making the 5S bid even worse. The 5S bidder has muttered since that he expected 8 card diamonds in Sonics hand etc ..
However Sonic had passed as dealer so that shows a lack of attention to detail as surely even the intermediate Sonic will figure out to open 3D or 4D on 7-8 carder ...when prossecco fueled she can arrive at a 5D bid on a 5 bagger.. the hand we are talking about is at the bottom of the previous blog article.

Here on board 5 despite Kokish indicating that 4H is a walk in the park kind of hand ..we have a player named by some as the 3rd best player in Britain coming a cropper and going 3 off in a cold one. No it was not zaczaczac on the declaring ..I checked
thegarve trick condenser ..replay

The commentary on tonights hands   by Eric kokish

Hands 1 to 21 were in the 10pm game
Hands 22 to 36 were in the 5pm game as hands 6-20 thus giving us same dealer and vul

Early Game BBO Link

Late Game BBO Link

Ireland Imps Pairs (1986 World Wide Sims)

Folks
Last night we ran 2 competitions

Donal Garvey the younger won the 1st one
The 2 kinders won the late one

Early one used board 1-16 of booklet and 4 random boards
Late one used boards 17-36 of booklet

1986 world Wide Bridge Contest

Early one used board 1-16 of booklet and 4 random boards

Link to BBO results

Late one used boards 17-36 of booklet... below
Link to BBO results

Now BBO have some software for checking out the classy bids and last night I got a hit. 

I asked a well qualified tournament director and it indicated the BBO robot  might have a point.

The BBO robot said it would bid 4NT itself but only at favourable vulnerability and only if it knew it could not get doubled.

However all was well for our brave player as she was playing against one of those Wests with no doubles in the box. This is the clearest DOUBLE I ever saw. The Sonya offers up a 300 penalty and our lad chooses to give 100 instead. 

And then he turns on the waterworks and starts whinging that he got bullied by a young girl. 

and then the aging retired bishop joins the fray and he puts on a big whinge as well. 

However all of this is bluster to hide the weird and wonderful 5S bid. 

GIB Version 6.1.3, 1/4/03

Enter S hand: 84.72.t9762.at64

Enter dealer: s

Enter vul (none, N/S, E/W, both): E/W

dealt 250 hands at time 0.00

book bid [rule 10102] P, considering P 1C-7N

prognosticate at time 0.01

complete at time 35.07; size 35

analyzed 35 deals (35 current) at 41.81 sec

P: 11.18 (prog -427.46 par -515.60)

2D: 10.96 (prog -345.54 par -535.40)

1C: 9.90 (prog -419.63 par -519.60)

1D: 9.42 (prog -479.26 par -519.60)

3D: 9.34 (prog -499.26 par -597.49)

3C: 8.76 (prog -570.03 par -593.20)

4D: 7.47 (prog -620.97 par -740.23)

4C: 6.63 (prog -686.20 par -714.51)

1N: 6.48 (prog -734.29 par -705.86)

2S: 5.49 (prog -851.71 par -564.83)

I bid P (41.82 sec)

That bid shows: No suitable call -- 11- HCP; 12- points

Enter bid for W: 2H p 2N

That bid shows: Weak two bid -- 1-4 C; 1-4 D; 1-3 S; 10- HCP; twice rebiddable H; 9+ points

Enter bid for N: That bid shows: No suitable call --

Enter bid for E: That bid shows: Artificial force -- 15+ HCP

dealt 224 hands at time 1.14

redealt 225 hands at time 1.17

book bid [default] P, considering P X 3C-7N

prognosticate at time 1.17

complete at time 13.10; size 35

analyzed 88 deals (88 current) at 40.07 sec

P: 12.78 (prog -245.23 par -370.99)

3D: 10.83 (prog -364.32 par -386.78)

3N: 9.80 (prog -448.98 par -606.10)

3C: 9.79 (prog -470.68 par -374.51)

4D: 8.10 (prog -650.91 par -435.76)

X: 7.75 (prog -638.07 par -366.44)

3H: 7.27 (prog -697.95 par -414.17)

4C: 7.07 (prog -736.93 par -414.17)

4N: 5.30 (prog -910.23 par -837.13)

5D: 3.81 (prog -1014.77 par -993.18)

I bid P (40.08 sec)

That bid shows: No suitable call -- 11- HCP; 12- points

For some reason they wanted kibitzers silenced ...Are kibitzers not entitled to watch our wonderful game and enjoy the sights of how our relatively good player play and bid. 

.................
The same pair of unfortunates ran into more bad luck a few nights back when running into the fantastic lead. All that happened was the person led the unbid suit and struck the money. I mean the opps said they got the reds and they are not bothered about spades .. So what else ..

What lead shall we have from East ... The sun rises in the East except in Belfast where it used to have to check if Paisley had risen already.
So the opponents bid 3NT with 13 counts and you are to rise in the East.
Diamonds and Hearts are the opening salvos from NS. You mention your raggedy spades getting no favourable vul noise from the brain of Hull. So might we lead a club .. and as the good book says ..lead an honor in case of success...
And now the whinging started ... instead of congratulating the opposition on a fantastic lead.

And then they mentioned social distancing .. as well as no kibitzers allowed ..
So nobody gets to have a gawk at Kinder playing the Omar Sharif hands.
Thomas Hanlon knew Omar Sharif as I understand it ...even played bridge with him.
...................
As Souness said to Pogba ... "Put your medals on the table .. I have a big table "

A few years ago I was defending a slightly overbid 2NT contract like what you get in Malahide regularly as they always rise the partner with 15-16 and the partner often has only 6 hcp.
So halfway through the hand the opponent with the 1NT bid had coughed up 4-5 points ..so would not own the Spade Ace .. so I placed the King of Spades on the table from Kx and hit gold dust.
My partner owned AQJT of spades  .. As he gushed about the switch .. I indicated but you signalled for a spade switch two times. The man is still trying to work out his signaling method for that.
I was just counting the points ..

Results of April 16th Ireland Imps Pairs early and late

Tonight Friday April 17th we will post as Peter Pigot Club finishes. About 5pm and 930pm

 Unclocked Imp Pairs followed by full Swiss.

Later I will be back at 2130 for a 2207 start ....the full Swiss Imps ..

Last night there were no sleep ins by Eamon and all went very well.
The early event got off about 545pm and using the unclocked method our 20 board peleton spotted
Fearghals intermediates 14 boarder and whizzed past that group with leading sprinter Comyn finishing at 1919 having started the 20 boards at 1742. Thats a terrific under 5 minutes a board and he may have waited on opponents from time to time but only small less than a minute waits.

Looking through the results a person in the know notices the presence in 6th place out of 36 entries
Declan Cahill and Francis Daly. So no big deal one says ..who are they.

I partnered Declan Cahill in the Monday morning game in Malahide a year ago and having noted early on that this mans hands might need to be kept away from dummy one proceeded to winning a voucher. Near the end of the game one found out that the man started bridge aged 74 years and was not 75 for another few months. 
Now here he is outrunning the legendary John Comyn and leaving famous Malahide Monday morning Masters Deane and Murray far behind along with Area Master Sean Whelan Laois man with the cap. There are even about 6 players who have represented their country in the field.


IIP Early

Ireland Imp Pairs Swiss

Meanwhile in the late game the Brain of Hull and her partner won the night ahead of a sprinkling of very decent players including the distracted zaczaczac and the tiring nervous dec181 who suffered a nose bleed due to the high altitude. Back in 11th place were the legends in their own minds Northern Ireland intermationals Coffey and the now retired from major competition Bishop Lavery. De la Salles finest McKay and Breslin former National Mens champions. Also present are Wexford legends Doyle and Sexton reunited by the Covid.
Finally we reach 37th place and find Welsh international Peter Goodman partnered by the multi talented BJ O'Brien. At the bottom of this page we have a couple of boards of the BJ and Peter accounts misfiring. It might not even be them at all. It might be imposters or scam artists who robbed their BBO accounts.

 Above we see the person running the BJ account open with a weak 2H bid.
Now normally when one pre empts one is done unless partner invites you into the party again.
Not this brave soul .. this person bids 3C with the same weak 2 as his partner scratches his head or maybe thats not allowed in this Convid time. Anyway the BJ account all on its own drives to 3H thinking Joe Carroll is going to let that go with his partner showing a strong NT.
4 down and minus 11 imps.

Next its the petepunt accounts turn to NOT get into the action. The petepunt opens 1S with a hand many might be passing on but given its the spade suit one might find many takers for opening.
So the man opens 1S and the opponents drive to 3NT.
Maybe a time not to lead spades given that the declaring side are clearly not bothered about them.
Anyway spade lead and the contract is booked for down 2.
Declarer wins spade SEVEN lead and wins a club ducked. Diamond finesse wins and another club up taken by Ace. Now it should be time to take stock ...as they say in the beginners defence manual.
Its teams so how can we beat this contract .. Its getting very close to 9 tricks .. North has nothing in diamonds or clubs ..but may have something in spades ..but whatever that might be is not going to defeat 3NT...as it was spade 7 lead and not a lower card.
Maybe its time to swing a heart ...and down we go ..

Nope our person continued to limp along with spades and whoever Waggy1 is was able to roll how 10 comfortable tricks ...

Now I totally understand that it is somewhat after 12 midnight and our two lads are worried about their beauty sleep and after long hard days in front of the TV with reruns of Welsh rugby or cookery shows in BJs case ....the brains may not be on full focus.

No doubt its a different story if chasing the Drogheda Congress Pairs event with thegarve looming in the distance. Speaking of thegarve ... Tom Gilligan was quickly able to end thegarves interest in 3NT on this hand as his well schooled defensive partner Declan Murray gave him the signals to enable the large HEART cash.

I was only reading last night about a similar hand where the book indicated the need for a switch as 9 tricks in 3NT loomed. However I am always reading stuff .. thats why I am so good at bridge...
Well Read. I even got to play with the legendary BJ O'Brien a few times .... won some money too but don't think we ever got better than 2nd place in any Congress.

Better post the Peter Pigot game for this afternoon ..think its 1400 hours unless I am mistaken.

Ireland Imps Pairs Late sleeps in

Tonight Thursday April 16th  we will post as soon as Fitzwilliam finish their afternoon 3pm session of 18 boards. So about 1710 or so for a 1730 start.... Unclocked ..
Later I will be back at 2130 for a 2207 start ....the full Swiss Imps ..

Last night it seemed the Ireland Imp Pairs late session was gone forever. Several sad souls commented on its disappearance from the bridge radar. However just like back in the day on the odd morning one slept it out and one Saturday morning I walked all the way to work feeling a little strange only to realize my normal mode of transport is cycling to work and there is no work on a Saturday. So on awakening at 1040pm it would be too late to be starting the Ireland Imp Pairs.

However we did manage to run session 1 and the results are below. Michael O'Connor is agusaris and I have no clue who the next 5 names are. 4th place might be vincent mcmahon and tommy banks.

Anyway I got a message from michlest indicating I was doing good things for bridge.
So I looked at the heavy losing hands for michlest. They could have won the event with a few misclicks.

Above on board 1 they got doubled in a cold 4H contract and drifted 2 off.
This is 18 imps swing ..

 At trick 5 they needed to know some more card play technique and timing ..
Agreed we need to ruff a spade but then we lose 3 more tricks ..How about some timing ..
set up the clubs for some discards and later ruff the spade. Win 8 instead of losing 10.

Next item on the agenda

A 3H opening bid and our 18 count probably hims and haws and passes.
Via the diamond finesse we can make slam in diamonds ..or more normally plus 1 in a vulnerable game compared with the few 50s we collected. 11 imps swing at minimum.
Running total 29 imps
Next

We as North need to make another push here. Double a 2nd time means the same as first double but more points. 19 points easily is enough points to compete some more. This gets either 4H making or the opps if they are very good opps might push on to 4S and get doubled down 1 or if they are weak dummy players down 2. About 10 imps ...running total is 39. We are now in top half of field.
NEXT

Here we bid to 4H which makes for plus 420 and we allowed the opponents offer us up a couple of 50s instead. Double them and collect 500 instead ..about 8 imps better off an total is 47
Next

Here we doubled two likable lads in 5C and then helped them make it.
We have 2 spades 1 heart and well not even the well known trickster Huey can disappear a trump trick. So down 2 and plus 300 instead of minus 550 ..
What went wrong ... Well it should be ... Lead KING for COUNT ..partner tells you odd so 3.
Not playing this we blundered on and for some reason make the QJ HEARTS good for the Huey monster. No doubt the smooth talking ELY contributed the mandatory.."well played partner and hard luck opps" ZacZacZac would never let this make.
And that is another 18 imps ... running total now 65 imps

And there is more .. cos I forgot one earlier

This one gets a little tough in the middle I think but keep ploughing away at the spades and it goes down quietly. Its about 14 imps worth. Giving a total of 79 imps approx in the plus column from the ending total of minus 28 ..
Just a few misclicks and it could have been so much better

So if one puts this in the context of a Kirwans League match ..a comfortable win was turned into a disasterous loss and the pair may not even know what was going wrong. They might just say the opponents played awful well on all the boards.
Last time I played in Kirwans League the Meath opponents commented on their way out the door ...
"That was like our boys playing against the Dubs in GAA" They were 63 imps behind at the end.

No offence is meant to the featured pair ...its meant to be a lesson in getting better.
And there is only a little difference between near bottom and a comfortable mid table position.
This pair would have been first if they performed the plays indicated above.
They would have been plus 51 and as one of their losses was against the winners that 12 imps comes off the winners score.
.........................
Last night I diverged from the normal pulsating Swiss Pairs format where leaders play leaders.
A much more comfortable competition for me to run ...
All I had to do was guide Sonic74 past the endless supply of thoughtful players she was encountering. The fast players were able to finish the event in about 90 minutes..
Even for the legendary John Comyn ..thats a fast pace for 20 boards.

If you get this far you might note I spotted the elegant Bryan Wallace a legend of the bridge out in Malahide failed on hand 1 of
Bridgez .. a daily 16 board competition with rashers and sausages

Its a sweet little hand but was beyond the great man.
Can others do better .. Down 1 is even better I think ..