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.