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. 

Galligan plays the Invitational Teams hands from June 2021

 Currently I am playing the hands from the June invitational and I will no doubt drift towards the bottom as the players are quite good. Like Thomas Hanlon and Thomas Garvey are playing as well as Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon. There are also some chaps nearly as good as Thomas Garvey. 

Of course I have my Jack opponent on 75% for now so that I won't be too far out the back.

I think I might start some 12 board teaching/learning tournaments in the morning time or maybe I could start an inter county teams event or maybe I could do both for the summer. 

Any thoughts eamongalligan62@gmail.com