One suspects the North lad missed his partners PASS as dealer

 Good afternoon folks 

Here is a hand I just witnessed in the Masters Pairs from CBAI. 

South passes as dealer and West launches a 2H weak opening ...a solid weak 2 bid which is passed back to South who had already dealt and passed. Feeling no danger ahead he contributed a reasonable 2S bid. 

Some will say a Double for takeout would be good but that might be hanging on the telephone. It is not recommended to make a takeout double with a void in declarers suit as one likes to lead trumps when partner passes. So 2S it was ... 

Sadly somehow North figured his great unproven cardplay skills could guide home 3NT despite his partners starting with a PASS. I think he missed the PASS or forgot it happened or was distracted. 

Anyway he proceeded to go down 2 vulerable and lose nearly 7 imps to negate the hard earned 6 imps he had already gained 

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

I notice the fearless Robert Knight who learned the bridge in the Stables in NIHE back in the day launched a 3H bid over Karels 2S opening thing. Conor Boland was pleased to drop the hammer on that and 800 later accept the plus 12 imps. Sadly the Knights were winning the match up until board 7 and that board blew them backwards. 

Kokot and McConville found the takeout double and got plus 500 for their troubles

A hand that shows how hard a game bridge is or is it Hanging on the Telephone

 Good morning folks 

I spotted a hand while doing my rounds this morning. It shows one of the greatest ever pairs to play at a bridge table not just in Ireland but recognized as serious opponents in any decent bridge playing country in the world. In one book I picked up one time the an early chapter talked of two opponents searching a players international shirt to find the names of his opponents. Finding nothing he emerged with the words " Mr Nobody you play awful well"

Anyway on the hand above we see Mr Redmond open a Precision 1D opening and Mr Fitzgibbon bangs out a fairly normal 4S bid. It can be aimed at making or as a sacrifice. Depends what partner has. Mr Gaynor puts what looks to be a penalty double on this but it must be unclear or not fully discussed as Mr Redmond bids 5D. Surely Mr Redmond should bid 5C as this is one of the suits shown by a negative double. This is passed back to Mr Mesbur who produced a 5S bid which was not a success given North South had 5D down on trumps alone. 

Now Redmond and Gaynor are regular above average performers in Irish national competitions so you would expect the 5D bid not to happen. Even more certain is the expectation of the 5S bid not to happen when holding enough trumps to take 5D down. 

So if  a capable Irish pair and a world renowned Irish pair have issues on bidding competitive hands then the ordinary Joe and Mary Soap will have many issues. So when Covid Doog and Covid 3000  appear banging out 70% games every night one has to wonder what kind of Bridgebase they got. 

Or maybe as Blondie used to sing 

Hanging on the Telephone

The little Transfer bid that got supported and rose higher

 Yesterday morning out in North Dublin near the sea I spotted some folk playing a bridge hand 

West opened weak NT 12-14 

East did a transfer bid to SPADES

Nasty South bid 3H just to be awkward 

For some reason West decided to go further in SPADES despite only having TWO ..

Passed around to SOUTH who figured double might work 

Passed back to East who figured maybe if I bid 4S they won't double me next time

...........

That was 1400 later ... Lucky it was only 1 matchpoint board as opposed to 50 cent a 100 

Strangely enough the minus 1400 pair won the event with a 68% score 

You would think a pair who run from 3S doubled into 4S doubled might not be so good 

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

Its not good to raise a transfer bid unless you got 3 or 4 card support ... 

And if the transfer bid is doubled ..you don't complete it unless you got 3 or more trumps 

So with a Doubleton you PASS 

DNR Regional Teams ... the winners are the Inter As leaving the Masters behind.

 This morning while examining the Robots dash through the Dublin North Region Masters competition I spotted the robot toying with the masters. 

Robot offered to win the last 3 tricks with the lowest cards the TWOS

Robot did not rub it in though and played diamond 2 to diamond 7 ...as East 

has diamonds higher than the 2. Still it makes a pretty picture. 

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

Unfortunately Robot team failed to qualify for the Regional Teams as it got beaten by the powerful Intermediate A team powered by the Sutton Kellys and Sheena Duffy and Evelyn Doyle. Its interesting that an intermediate team can win a Master competition. Well done to them. 

Congratulation to the Deane team who won the best Masters prize despite getting destroyed by the robot squad 19-1 in the last match. Happily they still qualify as best Master Team despite being 11 VPs behind the winners. 

Big problem is will they as winners be sent forward as the Master Team and miss out on their chance to win the All Ireland. Surely a team that defeats Masters should be a warm favourite to win the As. 

Were the National Finals of 2020 ever held. Did the teams who won in November 2019 ever get to play in their Nationals ... I cannot remember what happened then. 

DNR Teams results

Great experience for the Inter Bs to play against the DNR masters. 

The Ducking Play takes down the Setting Trick

 Good afternoon ...

Nope I am not taking over from John McAllister but last night I saw the Ducking Play replacing the Setting Trick. 

https://soundcloud.com/john-mcallister-221670174

So the West decided he did not like the Setting Trick 

Last night we had the Ducker defending 3NT and with 4 tricks scored up the famous Ducker 

decided it was time for another Duck. He got a near duck alright. Either the guy misclicked or else he was executing some far out ducking strategy. 

So he ducked his partners spade return thinking he was going to endplay the dummy maybe. 

or was reluctant to allow dummy win all those nice spades in dummy. 

Unfortunately for the ducker when declarer won with spade Jack he was locked in his hand and only 

had winners remaining and grimly played every winner to the end 

No claiming here despite having all winners. Its not often that the maestro gets the better 

of Donald the Ducker. Donald duly got almost a duck for ducking. 

I got some action on the Sligo Fast Fridays

 Tonight a well known Master player allowed me back on Granda Tom against his pair in the Sligo Fast Fridays. Master player has the advantage as his partner is a Northern Ireland international player and Granda Tom only has Finola from Derrygonnelly. 

Also I cannot watch the race as Fearghal like most other clubs has the kibitzers blocked. 

My horse is in 2nd place after 6 boards .. However the leader is my betting opponent. 

My horse dropped back after round 3 but the Granda is still running strong. 

He is like Frank O'Mara in the running he has a powerful kick once 

he don't leave too much to do. 

After round 4 I think my horse has climbed into the lead. 

Hopefully the Granda will continue to fire and make me some money 

....

I cannot see anything except the tables ... Fearghal does not allow gamblers in his 

games. My opponent AKsooted is playing against the Maura O'Keefe bridge player and Mister O'Keefe so hopefully their teaching skills will hold back Chipshop boy 

Its Chipshop man versus Granda Tom in the battle of Butler Yeats 

I see Butcher man is also coming up on the inside too .. 

Connell from high up in Donegal ..maybe Glenties

Can you believe it ..the best player in Ireland does not know how to duck a trick at 

trick 1 to make 3NT ... Cost me 5 euro the weak declarer

Then on the next board he is doubled in 3S and takes the lazy route to down 2

instead of the good player route to one off via a possible squeeze. 

Why would you lock yourself in dummy giving you no chance 

Bloody hell ..don't bet on Granda Tom as he not good at the playing cards

The 1st bridge cheater in Ireland was my brother ..Wait until you see what came after him

 Back in the early 1990s I had a bridge program called Meadowlark Bridge and PCs were becoming affordable. I was down in Cavan my home town for a few days and brought my PC with me. I was happily playing the Meadowlark every day upstairs. 

Then one day in I went and played a hand and noticed I was way down the leaderboard as some Socrates has taken over. Board after Board I played but the relentless Socrates was always top on every board. 

Finally I realized what had happened. My much younger brother ...21 years younger had slipped in and bid 7NT on every board and claimed 13 tricks on every board. Later on he learned double and redouble. 

My Meadowlark was ruined and every time I reinstalled it ..the results remained as they must have been stored somewhere else. 

So that was the first bridge cheater I encountered 

Meanwhile in Ireland nearly 30 years on we have the new version of my brother 

I think this one was a misclick ..South meant to bid 2NT 

Our man West tried it on Real Bridge and got hosed in Camrose by England

Here East West pushed them into the going down slam but then misdefended by grabbing Spade Queen too early ...South misplayed by floating the spade 10 ...and East grabbed the bait. 

Here it seems Mr Peeper goes for the top spot knowing about his nice diamond stopper

In this case Mr Peeper is also the club director 

Surely when God gives you AKQJxx and 4 card support she means those as trumps.

Here Mr Peeper or something roars into 3NT buying a 15 count in dummies passed hand 

Here we have an East seemingly knowing it is safe to introduce spades 

A different Mr Peeper 

Above  Granda tells me about someone taking him for a fool and getting hosed 

Here we have one of the Mr Peepers on lead ... No Spade Queen for him 

He leads 5th highest to his partners King doubleton with no bidding 

Mr Peeper is the KING 

And here is the King of the Peepers ....this chap can divine a doubleton club in his 

partners hand and knows his partner got trump Ace ..

This man has God on his side or maybe the other chap.

Led a club and when pard won Trump Ace early ..another club and bingo ruff

And here Mrs Inter A2 Peeper is able to NOT lead Diamond Queen like 32 other hopeless opening leaders. NO NO NO ...Madame Peeper finds a nice Club 10 lead ...to partners A8763

No way she leads Diamond Queen ..thats for dodos 

3NT down 1 

Oh and by the way Madame Peeper looked good and did not lead 4th highest to block the suit 

And finally he King of the Peepers ... We got KQJ53 and even God herself will lead Spade King  but our Peeper is made of stronger stuff ... Spade 3 .... and Partner got ACE TEN small ....

And he don't even overtake the TEN second time ...cos its not allowed open 1NT with 5 card major in Sligo cos Feargal said so .. 

The in-form Paul Tranmer cruises to victory in the NIBU Camrose Trials

 This weekend the most in-form player of the Covid era cruised to victory in the Northern Ireland Camrose trials. Aided by regular partner Wayne Sommerville a top player in his own right Tranmer Sommerville led the 4th place pair by 18 VPs at the end of 16 board match ups. 

Tranmer has been the form man of the Northern section of the NIBU throughout COVID. One night himself and the missus posted a plus 135 imps total over 24 boards. Thus it was no surprise that they made the team. Of course the COVID opposition is much weaker than the Camrose Trials opposition with many multiple capped internationals in the field.

A major surprise was the failure of the NIBU most experienced pair Greenwood and Andersons failure to make the team. Possibly they were exempted due to their pedigree and only playing for the practice. 

I heard about a great hand played by the famous Derry bridge star Tommy McDaid. 

The incredible John Ferguson a former international player but now well past his prime rolled back the years or the curtains and found the incredible lead of small diamond from South. So 5 3 6 and Jack wins.

Now its McDaid on the hot seat and he greedily goes where no woman would go and finesses a heart ,,,losing to the queen .. 

Back comes a diamond and down goes McDaid ...

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

But no Ferguson wins with Diamond Ace and swings a heart through. 

Tommy McDaid says Thanks very much lad and good night. 

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

Meanwhile Coffey and the Bishop Lavery rolled back the years and rolled in 2nd place. 

and in 3rd place was Zrinka Kokot hauling McDaid behind her. 

Camrose and Interpro Results

The results as posted on NIBU website are above. 

I was caught speeding by the Grandparents

 Last night while subbing for a robot in Sligo I thought I would try out my trademark weak no points opening being favourable vulnerability. Its a bad habit I have that I cannot get rid of 

So I wheeled out my weak 2 bid with no points but the hand was such that I was doomed and robots don't like jokes. After my robot bid a forcing enquiry 2NT the ever vigilant Grandma Finola pounced with a double and the always holding good cards Granda Tom left it roll. 

Even if I managed to escape unscathed there was no hope for me as down 3 even undoubled in a partscore board was always down bottom. 

However I will always follow the lure of the favourable vulnerability as I have loads of successes. 

Unfortunately I handed the Grandparents another victory in Sligo but they might have won anyway given they are so good. 

I will get them the next time there is robots in Sligo 

Watch this space !!

I went minus 500 for 0% score ... Bah 

I think they would have still won ..playing in 2S+1 but I would have done better ..maybe in 2nd place.

but nobody remembers 2nd place

Mairead runs a good show most nights on BBO

The Sligo Congress  face to face is coming next June 2022.

Saga of Learning Bridge from scratch ..a different approach including my own experience

 Good afternoon folks 

Here is my first video on Learning Bridge from Scratch .. or Zero 

Some stories some demonstration some explanations 

Learn to play Bridge (needs a redo)

A link above to my first recording about how to start bridge. Unfortunately I  cut off parts of the screen

so will need to redo this video showing all the information 

Hmmm disaster ... and I uploaded to Youtube and did not even notice 

However the content is good 

Battle of the Egos on Youtube Nprecision versus Murphyslaw

 Good afternoon folks 

I made a few videos from a new saga where 2 bridgeplayers go into battle but are learning at the same time. 

Nprecision versus Murphyslaw 

Nprecision Murphy playlist

Last night while running some bridge games this hand came up

After a pass by East the South player opened 1H. All the bridge teachers in Ireland tout open your longest suit but loads of people doubt those teachers. This chap said "But Eamon I was playing 5 card majors" 

Big deal open 1 club and then rebid the hearts about twice thus showing 5+ hearts and a longer club suit. 

Furthermore in another club from this one 

Here it is noticeable that 4 tables of the 9 only reached the 2 level in bidding but I was suggesting that the South hand bid at least 3 times almost on its own. I personally will be bidding this hand to 3H on my own before partner contributes so 2 level contracts are below my radar with this South hand. 

At 3 tables out of 9 in an established bridge club the bidding went PASS PASS 

There is a saying in bridge about 55 come alive ...well 65 is even more so 

Hand Evaluation ,,,,

Method 1 ... High card points 10 plus 3 for the 5th and 6th cards in length = 13 thus an opening bid

Method 2 ... CBAI rule of 19 or 20 add high card points and 2 longest suits if 20 then open bidding so 10 high card points and 11 for the long suits means 21 CBAI points 

Method 3 Zarpoints .. 26 Zars for an opening bid 

Add a) high card points b) controls A=2 K=1 c) 2 longest suits d) longest minus shortest 

10+3+11+6 = 30 ...well above the 26 required to open 

So how did 3 pairs produce a pass as opener and how did 4 tables only reach a 2 level contract. 

Hanlon or Carroll ..who is the best ... I am backing Thomas Hanlon as he is older

Some website is running partner versus partner events ... New Bridge Tricks I think it is called

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGYn436Ppj0&ab_channel=NewTricksBridgeClub

At this stage I have not watched the whole video or gone to the end to see who is the champ of Round 1

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

Meanwhile I has a quick look at the all conquering Granda Tom or Covid Tom as he is known in Sligo. 

I only looked at the first board of the most recent helping

it was a 7 card trick ... 7 cards from Tom ..7 cards from Finola .... then the play was over

https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?bbo=y&myhand=M-1514010935-1629744386

Granda fires off 4th highest lead of diamonds

Grandma fires back a spade and East understandably plays low although the 1S opener might have tipped him or her off and spade King was option. 

Spade queen wins and granda backs a spade and takes a ruff ... 4 tricks for the Grandparents 

Next the Granda picks out the Heart King and fires that out and partner plays the H3 encouraging and takes Heart Ace and gives another ruff ...

Then its time to concede the rest and move on as the grand pair have picked this carcass clean 

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

Meanwhile in the European championships last week we had the Fulvio Fantoni scenario

This chap and his partner Claudio Nunes  apparently got caught cheating some years ago ... 

They got a few suspensions from Italian bridge and European Bridge and the ACBL don't allow them play bridge in their events apparently 

So maybe 3 years ban  from FIGB and 5 years ban from European Bridge. 

However Fantoni Nunes appealed to CAS (Court of Administration for Sport) and their appeal was upheld and the bans were overturned ... So these lads are allowed play it seems 

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

The only problem as we found out last week .... no opponents wanted to play against Mr Fantoni 

I am not fully sure what was achieved by this episode but it happened 

Nobody showed up to play ...and Italy placed 3rd with 30 12-0 walkover victories and 1 bye. 

The rules indicate that their 372 will be adjusted upwards but so far that has not happened on the website. 

However I don't know what was achieved as nothing has happened as far as I can see except all the international teams skipped a game against a club team that has nothing to do with Bermuda Bowl. 

Most of the teams might have beaten this Italy ... 

CAS overturned the verdicts so there is no suspension ... Even the 5 year suspension issued by EBU is already served ... 

Should have let him play ...Catch him again and go back to court .. or else he is reformed and we all get on with playing 

From reading the CAS report it seems the EBL brought the wrong case and wrong evidence and left too many holes in their case. 

https://neapolitanclub.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CAS-TAS-Decision-Fantoni-Nunes.pdf

There is the pdf ... seems pretty clear ... 

Why the Granda Tom wins at bridge

 Granda Tom a legend of the Feargal Sligo competitions was in action again last night. 

Here is board 11 where the Donegal opponent hands him 6H contract after the Granda presumably misclicks on the low spade during the play. 

Grandma bids 2D to show less than 8 and later bids 3S to still show less than 8 but with a spade suit 

I presume this shows some values and maybe she just bids 4H or 3NT with a minimum 0-3 hand. 

Anyway the Granda launches into a reasonable 6H. He bought very well in the dummy for a hand with less then 8 high card points .. Thats like the biggest and most strongest dummy for the bidding. 

So the Granda wins Diamond King lead by force and draws 4 rounds of trumps just to make sure they are all gone. 

So Granda launches the S9 and runs it hoping the Spade Jack takes it and then he can 

do the Fermanagh overtake on the inside .. overtaking spade Queen with King and so on. 

However Granda missed the small point that if the spade 9 held the trick .. his overtaking plan was 

doomed 

The Granda needed to put on the spade 10 but the Donegal East player scooped in the spade Jack with glee and then started to think about what next .. Too late ...the Granda had him like Seabiscuit. 

Meanwhile some long suffering victim of the Granda skill composed a poem in his honour

Ode to Granda Tom

Please give up bridge and leave the rest of us alone

 And we are off again ..

Look at this beauty I found on the internet 

You are South and your East opponent opens 1NT showing 12-14 at Nil All and matchpoints 

And everyone passes ...so 1NT P P P 

What might you lead .. maybe a spade ..or maybe a Heart honour  or maybe the Diamond 10

Now if you were the legendary Pat Walshe a man who loved to lead the King from Kx so he might get into the bridge bulletin ...after 17 attempts he eventually got there in Euros 1991 in Killarney while representing Ireland 

Anyway the opening leader was not Pat Walshe but the opening leader found the KING of CLUBS lead.

And the partner held 

And the rules of Irish bridge state that if you refuse to play against this player when real bridge 

returns you get 0% and they get average plus 

This pair should retire from bridge forever more 

Just stop playing and GO AWAY 

Someone indicated they were watching some Pigot so I checked it out

 Good evening folks 

Last week someone indicated they were watching a bit of Pigot. I wondered what this might be but guessed they were watching the legendary Peter Pigot junior in action. Some research indicated an Ireland team travelled to the semi-finals of the July OBCL bridge event. After 9 16 board matches of Swiss  they emerged into the quarter finals winning 7 drawing 1 and losing 1 match. Winning their quarter final they were in the semi final. However their talisman Pigot junior was missing for some reason. Maybe he deselected himself to allow his bench more experience in the big leagues. Sadly the Connacht foresome were defeated. 

However Galligan decided to play the boards using all match comparisons for the crack. 

And this is where we are after 21 boards ..plus 5 imps ...slightly behind the Irish players at this stage. 

Reaching the semi final of OCBL is a good effort although its not real bridge but the opponents are decent and have promised not to cheat. Boye Broyland was playing and some other well known internationals. The famous Ciaran Coyne has just entered the fray for the Ireland team. 

I am hoping to start a training club/group. Something like the original Ireland Imp Pairs which was packed to rafters at start of COVID but has now been flattened by the bricks and mortar clubs asserting their presence on BBO. I think I counted over 100 CBAI accounts but I could be wrong. 

So if you have any interest in bridge training in bidding play and defense provided through the medium of say 12-15 board tournaments send an email to eamongalligan62@gmail.com indicating same. 

I will generate a list of members and email addresses and see how we go. I am aiming at the Area Master and upwards group but nobody gets turned away. I have lots of hands from various bridge tomes that I gathered up over the COVID. 

The Revenge Convention in the Club last night ..a 7S and a 3NT doubled and made.

 Good morning 

I am hoping to start a training club/group. Something like the original Ireland Imp Pairs which was packed to rafters at start of COVID but has now been flattened by the bricks and mortar clubs asserting their presence on BBO. I think I counted over 100 CBAI accounts but I could be wrong. 

So if you have any interest in bridge training in bidding play and defense provided through the medium of say 12-15 board tournaments send an email to eamongalligan62@gmail.com indicating same. 

I will generate a list of members and email addresses and see how we go. I am aiming at the Area Master and upwards group but nobody gets turned away. I have lots of hands from various bridge tomes that I gathered up over the COVID. 

So last night

So last night the two players were dealt the above and one over estimated her partners playing skills. It done the simulations and concluded that 13 tricks were a good average so it bid it. 

And it looks plausible except for the large gap in the club suit .. 

For me looking at this hand I see 5 trumps and 2 diamond ruffs means 7 trumps and Diamond Ace and 3 hearts and Club Ace .....thats a total of 12 

So one might need a singleton Club King ..or maybe a generous opponent who might discard a heart from length. Note as in many hands only 1 opponent can guard the hearts by length. 

So if that opponent was dealt the 4+ hearts and the Club King plus a small club or 2 ...then bad things might befall him or her or even better it might be a robot defender and we can take revenge. 

So North grimly fires off the diamond King and sees most of this 

The bidding tells North about the 2 aces and the trump king and the heart king so things are looking grim

And even worse North can see no club King and also only has 3 hearts. 

The full hand is below 

Happily for North(who played cards as a pre teen in since 1955)  the player in the West only started playing cards on taking up the bridge so would not know about what is called a squeeze or about the pressure that comes on a defender when guarding too many suits.

On this hand one ruffs opening lead ..draws trumps ..ruffs another diamond ..runs the rest of the trumps and the diamond ace to arrive at 

Now on the play of the last trump ..the spade 9 ..North as throughout the hand is a total spectator but South faces finding a discard from his last 6 cards ... and it cannot be a Heart. 

He must throw a club and hope partner up North holds Marie Lou.

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

Happily for North the West chap lost his way and 7S went down and the robot chewed his tie and grinded his teeth as Paddy the  Dogfish gleefully recorded down 1 on the scoresheet. 

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

Much later the robot unleashed the Revenge Convention on his partner 

The well trained Murphyslaw after overcalling 2D doubled the final contract of 3NT as he reached for the victory. He would have known being on about 53% that he needed a good board to reach the podium. Most folk will double 3NT holding AKQxxx in a suit ...the only danger being the opponent might run into a safer spot. However holding J9xx this declarer felt safe. 

However to my amazement Murphyslaw led the diamond 4 ...why not the 4th highest ...not that it should matter ..even a robot should bang back a diamond on winning a trick. Murphyslaw knows that declarer has a diamond stopper so tries to lose it early on so he can get 5 diamonds later.

Many years ago I missed an electronics lecture and got the notes from a classmate and there was Ohms Law and Kirchoffs Laws and one called Murphys Law. After researching many electronics books I could not find Murphys Law ... so I decided it was not worth knowing or was a misprint or miswrite by my classmate. 

Some years later I heard about Murphys law.... something about buttered bread and jam has more chance of landing jam side down depending on how expensive the carpet is .. 

Anyway robot won Ace of hearts and decided to return a club instead of the diamond all humans will return. 

When asked why  later ...the robot replied ... Thats for not making 7S earlier ... its called the revenge convention 

Murphyslaw is a poor choice of name for a bridge player ...its akin to the unlucky expert ...

"Everything that can go wrong will go wrong ..and butter lands butterside down the more expensive the carpet " 

On the above 7S hand a knowledgable declarer can execute the Vienna Coup .. Those interested can google Vienna Coup for much bridge learning I expect. 

In the Vienna Coup version the declarer cashes the Ace of Clubs early and watches as South squirms on the run of the trumps .. 

Then claims saying "If you started with 4 hearts and the King of Clubs you are busted " 

Just in case anyone wonders ..this hand was dealt last night 20 minutes before the bridge started using Bridge Composer dealer as was the 3NT doubled also and all the other 22 hands too.  

Another hand from the same club as before ...this a squeeze hand

 Good evening all 

I am hoping to start a training club/group. Something like the original Ireland Imp Pairs which was packed to rafters at start of COVID but has now been flattened by the bricks and mortar clubs asserting their presence on BBO. I think I counted over 100 CBAI accounts but I could be wrong. 

So if you have any interest in bridge training in bidding play and defense provided through the medium of say 12-15 board tournaments send an email to eamongalligan62@gmail.com indicating same. 

I will generate a list of members and email addresses and see how we go. I am aiming at the Area Master and upwards group but nobody gets turned away. I have lots of hands from various bridge tomes that I gathered up over the COVID. 

So last night

Our man found himself working at 3C contract on the Spade King lead 

He has a couple of club losers and a couple of spade losers and probably loses a 3rd club somehow for starters. 

At trick 5 our brave soul reaches this position and East leads spade 9 and our man bravely ruffs with trump queen in dummy more in hope than anything else. Happily Mr Over-ruffer is ready and bangs the trump KING  on that thus ending any hope of a 3rd trump for him. 

And after 8 tricks our man having disdained the heart finesse and not bothered unblocking the Jack but having managed to draw trumps .....was in the above interesting position. 

He cashed Ace of Hearts and now is ready to execute the squeeze play. 

Run the last 2 clubs and smile at West as you offer him the choice of poisons 

Pick your poison was the old saying 

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

Real end of story was he cashed Heart King and took Diamond finesse ......but the lad in West 

decided to hold up his King so our brave soul cashed the Diamond Ace and claimed. 

What an amazing game this is ...

Of course maybe it was a misclick by West but he did not mention this when interviewed this 

morning on Eamon Galligan TV. North South did not notice the squeeze or their excellent luck but they were well aware of their 89% score as they informed me after 4 boards that they were running on 92% average .. 

A hand from a bridge club I was in last night

 Here is a hand I watched by accident last night ...well part of a hand ..I will put the full hand later on further down the page. 

We started off with the 4th highest lead of the 2 of spades. Now I fully understand that the 4th highest lead is the most suggested lead in bridge but there should be some additional brain usage along with it. 

In my time I recall holding J54 in 3NT opposite 76 in a suit and things were looking grim. Happily the opponent found 4th highest from AKQ2. True story although it was not in the Regent or Bankers. It was from my earlier days. 

However the above hand was on lead against 3NT and spades broke 333 around the table 

So not a good start for the defence. The 5s in these diagrams indicate the possibility of getting 3NT down one.

We move onto trick 6 where we note spades have not been played since but looks like declarer and the defence played clubs. North on lead again leads off the club 5 blowing the contract again .. in a different suit. A higher semi master club like 10 or 9 was fine ..

Now we move on to declarer who is feeling good at this stage. Two good returns so far to help him 

on his way so he decides one good turn deserves another and promptly endplays himself by playing the club 7 for some reason. He might have tried a spade to the King setting up his 9th trick. 

So its on to the North defender who looking at a wonderful dummy might be about 

to deliver the final nail in the master declarers coffin ..but it is not to be 

North after perusing the dummy or not cashes the spade ACE and gives the remaining 4 tricks to 

a grateful declarer. 

Full hand and bidding is above. 

Beating the contract 1 off would have gathered 70% for defender instead of the 

earned 0%. Eventhough it looks like 3 tricks were tossed away it was probably only 

the same trick several times. Declarer made 3NT for 100%. 

I only post this hand for education or demonstration of how easy it is

 for things to go wrong at bridge. No doubt this declarer was busy watching France beating Germany in the soccer last night and not paying too much attention to the cards. 

Another possibility might be he was faced by unbeatable superstars of his area and just presumed he was beaten from the off. 

Anyway France did beat Germany in the end.