A normal hand from Malahide Presidents that slipped by ..Hand 3 Night 2

Ireland Open Imps Pairs around 815pm every night on BBO. This is a good training session.

https://www.bridgewebs.com/irelandimps/

 Last night I got a message from Mr Noel Murphy who was confessing some recent bridge sins. As is usual when someone mentions a hand we look at the big picture. 

South was dealer and after an opening 1S from North most folk went to the ambitious 4H contract or the Heart partscore. Either way there was interesting stuff coming

1. Many folk led Spade 3 ....their partners suit 

2. For some reason there were several leads of Spade Queen

3. On the lead of the spade 3 NOBODY ducked the lead in East when the KING rose

4. Did anyone even bother placing the cards after opening lead

5. the play of King to trick 1 places Spade Queen in South so danger is coming.

6. Transportation is there via spades to have diamond switch 

7.Seriously bad news for those in 4H who draw 3 rounds of trumps and then think. 

8. Lots of folk going down in 3H and 4H despite 4H being very cold contract.

(on the spade lead )

9. There are even 2 Spade Queen leads from Qxx holding

Leading the Spade Queen eliminates the entry for the diamond switch later ..

I think its an interesting hand but maybe I have a twisted mind. 

Now in fairness when I glanced at the hand after the Murphy tribunal I noted the spade duck being touted by the double dummy solver and knew there was something to examine here. 

A sweet hand indeed .. 

Another hand from Malahide ..here the West asked about 4C in middle of auction causing a delay

 

Here the auction proceeded to 4C which turned out to be Gerber or Big Dog GRRRR BRRRR

as we call it sometimes .. West decided to attempt to find out what 4C meant and on not getting any answer decided to await the answer before moving on with the bidding. 

4 minutes went by as the players  sat and waited the response. Eventually the explanation was given and play moved forward. However I was called to find out "Why are you averaging board 9" 

Em says I ... "because ye never played it so has to be average most of the time"

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

Now I have no idea why West needs to know about 4C in the middle of the auction. Maybe it is a reflex action or maybe they always ask about 4C in middle of auction in real life. 

Asking can only help the opposition who might not know the meaning or might not have an agreement or might be about to have a disaster .. I personally never ask in middle of auction in case I might help out my opponents. 

I wonder should I have penalized West for the 4 minutes and the subsequent lack of play  of board 9 ? 

 

A hand from Malahide last night .. Director call and play and other items

 

This hand popped up in Malahide Presidents Prize last night. 

When dummy hit North screamed DIRECTOR ... NO ALERT 

I got there and found 3 humans and South robot sitting silently looking at the walls. 

No play happened and there was no sign of anything happening 

......

So I asked and found out that the double of 2C was not alerted. In my view no big deal as North is seeing the dummy hand and now has all the information. As South is a robot there is no way to tell the robot the meaning of the double. 

....

Further interrogation found out that double of 2C was "stolen bid " ...meaning Stayman.

The only thing to do was point out that West should have alerted the "stolen bid" meaning 

West did apologize and made no excuse or pain about it. 

I think North just called the director automatically thinking NO ALERT I might get something here. 

A little thought might have brought forward the point that there is no damage and North is lucky West failed to double his robots 2H bid. That would have gone lots off. 

..........

A non-alert has to cause damage before director can fix the damage. 

10 boards gone in the Bankers Mini Teams and I am doing ok but my opponents are tough.

  Ireland Open Imps Pairs at 815pm every night on BBO. This is a good training session as well as competition. You won't leave this event without some story. 

https://www.bridgewebs.com/irelandimps/

I am playing the Bankers Teams 30 boards and I am not winning. Other folk have more generous opponents. However I am beating Mamie MacCormac. 

I remember the days when if you got away from Mamie's and Michael's table with a few matchpoints it counted as a success. So I am 6 imps ahead of Mamie after 10 boards. 

Have to go to the shops now for grub and wine.

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

I spotted Granda Tom on fire last night in Devenish Club. He crushed all including Graham and Pascal despite getting a zero on the final board. Its not often the Granda gets a zero. Guess Grandma done him in. 

Bankers Mini Congress Teams and board 3 is a grand slam for some folk

 I made up a file for the Bankers Mini Congress Teams from Sunday May 2nd 2021..thats yesterday. 

I am proud to announce that my Jack robot sailed into 7H on a nice auction on board 3 of round 1

1. 2 plus clubs 

2. Roman Key Card 

3. 3 key cards 

4. Have you got queen of trumps 

5. Yes but I don't have any kings 

Grand so I will bid 7 says my robot 

We had a few only getting to game and a good few more who managed to bid the small slam 

Names are withheld on this site but can probably be found on the Bankers bridgewebs 

The 3 folks in games might need to have a little look at their bidding maybe ...I did not look to see who they were. 

From Norths point of view once it gets some heart support and 3 keys from the blackwood it is pretty much in Grand slam. Even with ordinary Blackwood and a little support from partner in Hearts its enough. Looking for Trump Queen is probably overkill but will cover a 3-0 break offside.