imp Pairs 8pm ..20 tables only allowed by BBO

Starting time tonight is 830pm

Blue Rinse wins the day

Ireland Imps Pairs 830pm Sunday July 5th

Starting 830pm Sunday July 5th ..24 boards ..Can you defeat the Fermanaghs

Here we see the Fermanagh pressure bidding system in full flow.

They push the willing Waterfords a level too high. 

However the bidding is far beyond my logic. Fermanagh EAST finds a takeout double VULNERABLE with an 11 count ....okay we can let that go ...

Then when Fermanagh West who is forced to bid makes a 2H bid ...the East Fermanagh who has already kind of shown 4 card hearts with the first bid RAISES the forced 2H with only a 3 card suit despite having started with the small 11 count ....in my world East is showing mucho extras ..well at least trick up on the worst opening hand ..so at very minimum a good 14 count.

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

Meanwhile over in the West of Fermanagh ...all is well ... he has an even better hand then his massively overbidding partner but he remains stum. All this weird bidding should be alerted as nobody will be able to understand that one overbids and the other one lies low in the grass. 

Now maybe its just that they don't know any better or maybe they know.

Then we find Glynn and Scannell bidding a normal 4H ...15 opposite 9 ..8 card fit and singleton doubleton values. Not today Galways ..the Fermanagh hurlers are on point. 

Now Club King is a possible lead but its declarers opening bid so not so attractive. 

However it is the killing lead once partner has TRUMP ACE and a ruffing value in Clubs. 

Possible but maybe a misclick ...a brilliant defence none the less. 

Ireland Imp pairs july03

Starting time 2030 tonight Saturday July 4th .. 

So Grasan and Noirin won ...Noirin Pender maybe and no idea who grasan is
2nd were the powerful force developing out in North Dublin ..the aging Dave Terry and the aspiring Thomas Gilligan. Meanwhile the new superstars on the block Grandpa Tom and Grandma Eileen continue their powerful surge of form. Clearly the NIBU intermediates are under rated or the masterpoints are harder to collect. Grandpa and Grandma carted off super grandmaster BJ O'Brien and placed him in the mental place. Normal BJ swallows intermediates for breakfast but not these ones.


July 3rd Winners

Ireland Imp Pairs July 2nd

Ireland Imps Pairs ... Friday night 815pm ...limited to 20 tables by BBO for now.. July 3rd 2020

Tonight we continued with the Ireland Imp Pairs. The 830pm start seems somewhat better than finishing at near midnight. We will move back towards 8pm probably.

Tonight near game time Martin Garvey mentioned Caz and hairdresser.

Caz's new hair replacement therapy was taking longer than normal so I took the bait and invited him to play. I was going to replace me with a robot and then with Caz later when the blue rinse was dried.
So we started and I should have stuck in the robot at 19 but stayed 1 board too long.

We got few of those fantastic gifts that some players get and had to work hard for the pieces we got.
Early on we met a soft kind of pass on board 3 but the guy said he passed accidently ...
No problem said I ..we will sort it out .. Conversation continued from him as he did not understand he was being left off for lack of attention or slip of the hand/brain.

of course others would whing about what they might get for 3C making but we quickly made it into
60-40 our way as I do with most very clear misclicks. One never knows for sure what exactly happened at his computer but we don't want free stuff that we did not earn. We are lucky enough to be able to play bridge in this unprecedented time.
Then I was careless on Board 19 in 6S .. various excuses come to mind but lack of concentration etc.

In short I started trumps from wrong side. All the questions came from South but I played lazily and got done for it. Basically I ignored all information that pointed me in the right direction. I even ignored thegarve mentally driving me on.... spade to king ..spade to king .. getting the bat ready ..
And down I went

The link to Sean Connor and James Doyle

July 2nd 830pm start Ireland Imps

Good evening folks

We will go with
830pm start for Ireland Imps pairs tonight July 2nd
We only have 20 tables allowed for now as far as I know. Still FREE. 

Last night a very quiet Garve made a little noise early on as he got excited about raising the bat as he passed 50 imps in quickly. However there was some leakage as the blonde did some fun.
However enough folk were still tossing out the pressies as they do regularly to the Tranmers. Its almost like the lesser feel it is a badge of honor to lose 15 imps.
zaczaczac BBO results

Still only 24 imps in the OUT column and 12.5 of those was a well bid grand slam by Paul Scannell and Enda Glynn.

We had a decent performance from the late arriving Billy Hunter or maybe early arriving as Eamon moved the Ireland Imps forward to 2030. 

The new BBO rules ..20 tables max for FREE

Ireland Imps Pairs .. 20 table limit .. Wednesday night is a quiet night so we will go with that.

830pm July 1st starting time 

However we are allowed start  at any time but we might have a gang that are happy to start slightly later than the 1930pm normal. I will only know if ye tell me.

Coming soon we will go to small entry fee of 2 BBO dollars as this allows us a larger size event.

Tuesday night winners
Tuesday Jun30th winners

A hand came up last night but the folk who might bid it were missing playing somewhere else.

Well I don't know how one would bid it as I would be starting with Stayman..

Strong No Trumpers start with 1C ...a good start ...

Weak NTers will open 1NT but its a long way to 6C ...

No problem for the regular top 10 pair in the Ireland Imp pairs. 

They motor into 6C no bother. 

but almost all our last night pairs got nowhere near it ... but the Tranmers are playing Scanian No Trump responses. They don't do Stayman when they have longer minor ..major type hand.
This is a new way for me but I will study up on it. You show your minor suit first and then go looking for minor suit fits.
You guys and me got some stuff to learn ... look at bressie ..they decided on the 3-0 fit ...

Last time I saw something like that I pulled up Heneghan for dropping a trick in 4H ..
Forgetting he was partnering Sean O'Lubaigh ...there is always White Magic when Sean is around.
James declared a 3-1 spade fit missing Spade Ace ...got a trump lead and managed to make all 3 trumps and 7 outside tricks for 4S made vulnerable ..and then a week later Galligan blunders in wondering about the loss of the 11th trick in 4H.

Ben and Maria win Monday imps

Folks
Just in case the hand below is not meant to highlight the declarer TS90 going down ...you would have to be on fire to make this hand .. TS90 was the only chap playing it rightsided. All others faced the spade lead. Also I did not know it at the time but the postman was coming with a piece of paper with TS90s name on it.

Last night I was studying some previous games to see how did the unknown Grandpa Tom win my Ireland Imp Pairs two nights in a row. That used to be the realm of MrT2000 and remnart before thegarve threw the toys out of the pram at them and then followed the next time with the pram as well. However I quickly forgot about Grandpa as I noticed a weird thing about the below hand.

Looks like down 1 but GIB says makes .... Have a look ..
Most people were banjaxed by 2C 2D and its wrongsided .... but if played by East its grandpa proof.
(in real life someone bid 6D and grandpa was lucky to be on lead and knifed out a spade lead.
However in the above diagram ...its East as declarer and worth a look for 12 tricks ...

A sweet hand and even sweeeter if one could make it .. the interactive is below,
Make 6D

Ben maria

Sunday night Wackojacker wins

Wackorobot

BJ indicates his fear of the unknown

Last night in the Ireland Imp pairs we had a standoff. Super grandmaster BJ O'Brien refused to play against MrT2000 and remnart. He did not indicate the reason but I suspect he wanted to protect his young partner Conor Boland from getting a trimming from the international Camrose player Paul Tranmer. BJ asked me whats the deal ..and I told him ..."I can replace you with a robot or grant you 3 average minus scores ... In real life it would be 3 0% and 3 60% for Tranmers

Eventually BJ agreed to play but indicated it would be slowly. So no point in stoking the fire without showing the ashes.

The first board hits the table and the Tranmers quickly bid to game in 4H after stopping briefly to agree a reserve suit just in case. A doomed contract and BJ unleashes his 2100 B points of experience and finds the double dummy lead of a club. Tranmer tries the finesse and loses to King. Boland fires back Diamond Queen and the defence have 3 tricks and a spade to come. Down 1 ..a fairly normal contract but 4 imps to BJ due to other tables. 

However at least 9 of the 15 pairs who allowed it make would consider themselves capable bridge players so something needs improving on their defence. The intermediates and below are supposed to allow it make because thats why they are intermediates. The good news is that nobody managed a misclick or whatever to remain out of game. 

Onto the 2nd board. North fires off a normal 1D opening and South responds a normal 1H and a solid 2D response and a cautious 2NT invite and a normal 3NT game bid. 

BJs 2100 B points calculates a nice club lead but the contract is unbeatable and the stronger  Tranmer rolls home 10 tricks. 4 imps to Tranmer as despite the 9 card diamond source several pairs languish in a diamond part score and some are putting the cold 3NT on the floor somehow. A lack of card play skills in keeping communication in the diamond suit. 

So even stevens after 2 boards and the 3rd board looms. Conor Boland opens 1D and strong Tranmer overcalls a fairly normal 1NT. BJ finds an intermediate 2D bid ..a very poor bid and its paased around to Strong Tranmer who tries a double with AK98 of trumps. Buying an Ace and king up North is nice but BJ in the West had no business bidding. Down South the bunnies run and hide when big dog BJ enters the park but Strong Tranmer is not afraid of losing 180 to BJ for an upside of much more. 

Gathering in 500 shows it was worth it. 

Why is BJs bid so bad ....well it missed the 9 card spade fit and guided his partnership into a going minus 4-3 fit which went badly wrong for Conor Boland and 9 imps to the Tranmers. 

Most EW played the hand in 2S but Strong Tranmer's 1NT put paid to that. 

BJ could have passed out 1NT ..put his 2100 B points in the bin and led a simple 4th highest spade and its down 1. No need to offer chances to the Tranmers. 

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

Loads of moderate CBAI area masters are offering loads of free imps and matchpoints to the Tranmers thus creating a possible illusion of some dark arts being practiced. A grandmaster bridge player like Tranmer just laps up free stuff. He might be practicing black magic or red magic or no magic at all. 

He claims they just bids simply and defends simply. Maybe the CBAI Area and Regional Masters are overvalued and 1 Red point from NIBU is worth 20 CBAI B points. 

I know some Area Masters who attend the Holmes Wilson religiously every year as they are guaranteed 1.5 B points even on a bad weekend. Two of the boards above and below  indicate the horror stories a 2100 B point Irish bridge legend can produce so the 20 B point Area Masters will no doubt produce much greater and many more horror stories. 

Possibly as the Ireland Imp Pairs is just a fun event folk are not playing their top game. 

However any intermediate pair (I have spotted a few)   featuring near the top of Ireland Imps Pairs regularly might need to be given a broomstick. Tranmer is meant to be placing in the top 10 as he is an international player. However any player who averages 56% in face to face and suddenly ups it by 10% plus might be taking the study drug before playing ..Adderall, Dexedrine, or Vyvanse.

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

Adderall ....seems like a nicely named one or Leaderall or Tellerall. 

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

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

Meanwhile I just spotted the next board of the BJ juggernaut versus the Ashbourne Pole. 

Minus 11.5 imps is always worth a look. 

Probably bothered by his eclipse by Strong Tranmer BJ sails into a hopeless 6S and the Meath masters gather in 11.5 imps for doing nothing. 

Scannell and Glynn power

Madra Lahinch victory Jun26th

Last the well known pair of Enda Glynn and his dog were first place .. no sign of Grandpa Tom

Lahinch wins

The Italian job and BJ got mugged

Yesterday evening Team Moran scraped into the Final 8 of the ALT invitational after getting a good trimming from the powerful Nickell squad. Bobby Levin Steve Weinstein Eric Rodwell and Jeff Meckstroth .....4 legends of the game .. However it was only 17 imps and Moran had a chance as is their wont recently on the final board to close it down when Mesbur Fitzgibbon went as far as 5S but stopped short of a decent slam. The Moran 4 some for the match of Hanlon McGann Mesbur and Fitzgibbon is no ordinary foursome but would be outgunned in this scenario.

Next up a quarter final against the overall 2nd place ... BIANCHI.
A phone call from the legendary Irish player indicated he had never heard of any of these opponents bar Alfredo Versace. Clearly he is not on the same planet as me as Giovanni Donati was in Budapest in 2016 as the youngest player in the event .. and on the Italian Open Team. All of the BIANCHI team would probably have BJ for breakfast and still feel hungry in bridge terms.

So Ireland climbed into a 52-33 lead after 19 boards and Bianchi put the head down and pushed for home gathering an unanswered 58 imps before Ireland got the customary last minute try on board 28.

Meanwhile back on the home front the super grandmaster BJ O'Brien was finding the fodder was fighting back and did not care about his 2100 B points or even have any knowledge of them.

So the all conquering BJ rushes into 3NT. Many people would consider allowing the experienced Alan O'Sullivan to have a crack at 4S but not the intrepid BJ. 

So what might we lead as South..Well no normal person would lead a diamond or a spade as that is the opponents suit. 

So why not the unbid major ... So H9 .. 

and down 1 for the super grandmaster .. 

4S might lose 2 trump tricks and a HEART but BJ is not happy ...

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

Board 17 and after a weak NT opening from North the intrepid BJ rolls out a 2S overcall

showing SPADES and a minor. When this produces a 3H bid from South which might show 5-6 hearts and forcing no big deal. AlanO Sullivan contributes a pass and the North hand with 5 card support ventures 4H which is passed around to Alan O'Sullivan who delivers a "100% penalty " double. The incredible BJ O'Brien deems this is a takeout double. This definition makes no sense to me at all. Takeout to what ???? 

Surely Alan O'Sullivan could bid 4S himself or make a 4C bid for conversion or double 3H for takeout earlier if he was getting involved. Thus my wondering about the double being takeout. I think 4S is a very poor bid by BJ. 

Finally to complete the demolition South opens and rebids Hearts with his partner up North having a fine hand. O'Sullivan ventures in 3Cs and North bids 3NT without any Club stopper. BJ is unhappy with this development. Well what does BJ suggest North bids .. The North player punts 3NT and hopes partner has a stopper. It works and BJ is more unhappy.

JDiamondsx has the name Mark Adams and Remlagh has the name Rose. I don't know them but I suspect them are from John Phelan country.

So BJs conquerors finish in 2nd place. They must be fairly good players then. 

We will have to watch out for them. There are many decent players well behind them. 

Maybe B points is not really a good measurement of a players ability or maybe after 3 months of Galligans Imps Pairs the players are improving.

Ireland v Goldberg probably 7pm in the Big invitational Quarter Final

Ireland suffered a good trimming by Nickell but managed to survive in 8th place to make the last 8.

Should be selected by leaders Goldberg as cannon fodder but Hanlon McGann Mesbur Fitzgibbon no fodder for any cows.

Look for kinder1 on BBO or else check out the vugraph room

7pm until late ....28 boards later.

TODAY JUNE 25

However we still doing IRELAND IMP PAIRS 2105 tonight and every night 

Ireland v Nickell Jun 25th 3pm irish time on BBO

The match is on now .. Ireland v Nickell

Bobby Levin & Steve Weinstein against Thomas Hanlon & Hugh McGann
look for kinder1 in BBO to find the table

Team Ireland are fighting hard in the ALT invitational ...a real serious bridge event.
Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon are doing the heavy lifting right now but tomorrow John Carroll is going to start motoring.

The ALt Bridge Teams

The Event

Ireland Imps Jun 24th results

Granddad again ..Wow jun23

Grandad Two

Granfather Thomas wins Jun22

The mouse ran up the clock

Lorran jun21

Lorran wins

Arthur McGrail night ..June 20th

Arthurs hands

Brendan Sheridan The Champ

BJ argues long and hard

Brenfan got off to a roaring start as board 2 found BJ O:Brien and Dave Terry in a generous mood.
One was wary of the brooding intelligent Petet Pigot in the dummy but he was helpless to help the cause if he even noticed,

So all 4 thugs moved onto board 2 and they all wanted to do some bidding
Board 1 had seen the normally classy Peter Pigot get misled somehow and hang BJ out for the showup squeeze. There fore it was time to strike back

After some bidding by both sides BJ and Peter arrived in 4S and Big Brendan put the hammer on it .

The accurate Dave Terry fishes out one of the 12 leads that will defeat the contract.
He chose a small trump which will cut down diamond ruffs,
BJ wins and all is well so far but there is a storm brewing,
BJ advances a tempting Club King and Terrt is on it like a cat on a mouse ... then slowly realizes it mighr be a poisined mouse,
Terry tries a diamond and Brendan wins Ace and returns a trump big ..
BJ jumps on that as the storm brews
Trick 5 BJ advances the Heart 10 ...but Terry is wise to that and rises with KING ..
Trivk 6 Terry returns a HEART ... and the storm begins except the great man does not know it yet
BJ wins in his hand with a confident 9 and Eamon heads off to pastures anew
2 minutes later director calls are coming ... BJ wants an UNDO as he has tossed his Heart Ace accidently.
Eamon says does not matter as you are already down ..so no issue ..
BJ starts to dance and is still dancing at 1210am ... 3 hours later as he still cannot see that he has carved the contract ...
Another 10 minutes and finally BJ agrees grudgingly that Eamon was right all along.

And its all Dave Terrys fault ...all he had to do was DUCK Club King and I never have to suffer the BJ grief, His crazy capture of the Club King or maybe it was a misclick ..

2000 B points and 100 national titles and the man still cannot out play Galligan

Bressie runs 3rd .. Two punters bid 6H

Bressie places 3rd

Hand 12 we saw a pair of punters bid 6H
Luckily they did not have 2 diamond loses ... lucky that
The German doctors ride again

No sign of any question about the possible 2 D losers
must have great faith
Opps even bid diamonds but they punted away

Board 1 ,,fantastico ,,avoca maria win

The Comyn bids 7 clubs board 1

The action started as early as board 1 and John Comyn found himself in 7 diamonds
Unfortunately he did not seem to know he was playing so sat there for 5 minutes doing nothing.
Not everyone knows when they are dummy

I left the table once the play started so I presume the great man rolled it home,
However certainly a great hand