Ireland team start in German Open Teams today

An Irish team comprising of Thomas  Hanlon ,Mark Moran ,Rory Boland and John Carroll will start play in the German Open Teams today. Coverage on BBO and live ticker I believe.

http://www.german-bridge-trophy.de/
.........................
I received a new bridge book in the post today. I looked at every page already.
A fine book for the beginning bridge player and those who took lessons in the last year.
Explains concepts very clearly and has some very good pointers that lesser players often fail to acknowledge.,,,,such as keep length with dummy and the same with declarer,
Also aces are for kings ...not 2s 3s and 4s.
Also the authors name Michael O'Loughlin is there in front of you on every pair of pages.

Finally its printed on very glossy paper and in a very attractive green and white shade.
Michael has been teaching bridge for over 30 years so he knows who it is aimed at.

BASIC CARD PLAY by Michael O'Loughlin...
.........
I would recommend it for people who attend Paddy English and any other beginner classes
around the world.
Here is  a review on Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3DMWGZUF4IXNT/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview

........................
www.wbridge5.com continues to be an interesting challenge..

I don't know Eddie Fitzgeralds new name so cannot post him.

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

I met a woman the other night who's first assignment when she started working in the ESB many years ago was to tot up bridge recap sheets to make sure they all added up to the same total.  The woman has never played bridge but she recalled this assignment. She continues to work in the ESB. 

Wonder who her boss was.

Clue ..A member of the Regent Bridge club. 

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

Carlow Congress results are covered on www.fob.ie under the National tab.

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

Bridge Congress comes to Carlow

Carlows 1st Bridge Congress in my bridge lifetime takes place this weekend

http://www.cbai.ie/documents/Carlow2013.pdf

See the pdf link above ...

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

Follow me up to Carlow ..Lonesome Boatman

Click above for music

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

Peter Pigot continues his well received Intermediate Bridge seminars

Please book early to e-mail address – . peterpigotbridge@gmail.com or Peter @ 086-8146230, Mary @ 086-8115793

Fee: €30 per person.

Duration: 14.00pm – 18.00pm

Comprehensive NOTES provided on the day.

Peter Pigot runs Bridge Games, daytime/night-time classes for Beginners, Next Step, Improvers1, Improvers 2 and Masters in Dublin and throughout the country. Bookings for classes being taken now. 

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

Of course if you don't like to learn from Peter maybe you could read a book or ask Eamon.

However Eamon only does bridge stuff online as he does not have the charisma of Thomas MacCormac or the easy listening style of Malahide Regionals resident teacher Paddy English.

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

However I have heard Peter Pigots sessions are very good but have never attended one of them.

30 euro gets me 8 pints of plain and about 16 games of DON in my local establishment.

DON is a well known Dublin and Cork game based around 9s and 5s. The 9 is called the BIG DON and the 5 is called the SMALL DON. 

Nigel DONelly is the best player in our club and Jimmy O'DONaghue is the most experienced.

However the McKenna brothers are creeping up and Philip Marx is also a contender.

DON is played with 13 cards and two sets of partners. Therefore all bridge movements can suit the game if required. However generally its just random hands and random partnerships and lots of snarling. Cheating in DON is known as BILLYING ... and RENAGING in DON concedes the game. Don't know if anybody has noticed but both the best players surnames begin with DON.

Any DON player can learn bridge in about 1 hour  and be competent in a few weeks.

Eamon started a DON game in his local club in November 2012 despite never playing the game 

and since then at least 30 players have passed thru the school. This is quite alot for a small club that often only has 6 or 7 punters in the bar. 

On Saturday May 11th we are having a BRIDGE game in that club as the DON players are intrigued by the bridge and want to see it in action as a demonstration. So we are bringing the mountain to mohommed as they say ..the BRIDGE to DON.

Demonstrating will be THE GREAT MULALL , BIG BILLY RONAN ,Eamon Galligan and another who will probably be PAT CASSIDY but I don't know yet.

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

I had two of Irelands Senior Camrose Team for a bidding session this afternoon. They bid 43 competitive hands in 1.5 hours. Its like a gym for bridge players.

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

Now I am going to Malahide for a game of bridge at the OPEN night there.Open Bridge at 1930.

Thanks 

Eamon Galligan

Team Pharon (Hanlon McGann) survive

Good evening all

I was up late last night having a look at the Yeh Bros qualifying bridge event. It carried on through the night.
Fiona Brown Thomas Hanlon and Hugh McGann were involved. The English Ladies plus 1 failed to get through the Swiss qualifiers in a very tough event. Team Pharon (Pharon is a Financial services company with a bridge connection) scraped thru in the final qualifying place but now have only one knockout match ahead of them. Lose and they are out. The top 7 teams plus YEH1 have double knockout.

Tonight PHARON play against CHEEK whom they defeated comfortably last night. However any team containing Justin Lall and Joe Grue among others is not going to be easy meat in a knockout match.

The vugraph show starts at 1:30am Irish time and I don't think the Irish will be on vugraph as they probably show the higher level matches.

..............................................
https://picasaweb.google.com/112513765865598513420/IBUSENIORSCONGRESSDERRY2013?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Pictures from Derry Seniors Congress coutesy of Mary Kelly Rogers
Results can be found at www.fob.ie

.........................
Enda Murphy pointed out my poker odds are wrong ...I still reckon its 221-1 to get pocket Aces or any two specific cards but he hasd been playing cards longer then I

Like the blog Eamon,

Need to educate you re odds [to save you money ]......

Odds of first card an ace are 4 in 52 ie 1 in 13 ie 12 to 1 against.

And second then is 3 in 51 or 1 in 17 ie 16 to 1....

Jacko will tell you these small diffs add up over time

Bear in mind you are dealing with a guy who only yesterday invested a tenner that Chelski would lead halftime and draw fulltime.....in other words Luis Suarez is a fine upstanding citizen, bless his little cotton socks.

Enda

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

Finally Law 73C reared its ugly head last night in Malahide

North deals and opens 1H holding

KQ5

AKJT

K93

752

East passes

South holding

64

9874

AT8

QT96

places a pass on the table in reaction to Easts pass (which he presumed was the opening bid)

Then South noticing the 1H bid makes some noises and attempts to replace the pass with some thing else at the same time indicating he might have a bid by verbal noises.

I am called and I deem the PASS as made given it was his clear intention to PASS and not an accident

WEST balances with 1S ............

NORTH now makes the aggressive bid of 1NT (claims he is upgrading as KQx of spades is well positioned)

EAST bids 2S

SOUTH wide awake now makes the bid of 3H

WEST pushes on to 3S ..

and all PASS ...

After the hand is finished ...I am called back and lots of noise is made about NORTHS 1NT bid being strange and unusual

I deem result stands as 3S down 3 is about 3 tricks less then I would make .... I say EW can appeal if they choose

Basically South was dozing and failed to notice his partner opening and passed but then decided to hand over some information for some reason that he would have bid something if he had noticed.

North for some bizarre reason felt his minimum opening bid had suddenly improved to what is about 18-19 balanced shown by the 1NT willing to battle alone bid. Obviously it is very safe to bid 1NT when partner has indicated verbally his ownership of about a 6 count. 

However I could not as a director penalise North for his method of evaluation of his hand.

I don't understand the method of evaluation but one does not get penalised for stupidity.

I would like some comments on this as I really did not know what to do .. People are supposed to make every effort to play honestly and Law 73C is there for folk who chance their arms.

Basically does North have a 1NT bid given his partner has used the verbals to tell him stuff.

I don't understand why anybody would act in Souths way ... A player of over 25 years experience.

Thanks 

Eamon Galligan 

News from Yeh Brothers and Kelbourne

Good morning all

www.joemurray.ie

Kelbourne is there .....Rory Derek Cian Ciaran took the spoils

..............
http://www.jcbl.or.jp/home/English/yehbros/players/tabid/1028/Default.aspx

For news on Team Pharon ... includes Hugh McGann and Thomas Hanlon and 3 Hacketts and 1 Bakhshi.
You can find all information here

The well known female poker star Fiona Brown is playing on an English ladies team too.

There is BBO coverage but Hugh and Thomas are sitting out this round and its on vugraph.
..................

www.fob.ie has the results of the Derry Seniors Congress ...

I am informed it is not the first Seniors Congress ... apparently Mary Kelly Rogers and her crew organised one in Hilton Hotel a few years ago.

Paul Porteus and Fred Barry rule the Seniors Bridge with a 1st in the Pairs and a 2nd in the Teams ..
...............
http://www.pokerstarsgalway.com/bridge/

Speaking of poker stars .. There is a large bridge event being sponsored by pokerstars.com

I won't attempt to understand how poker works but it appears you got to pretend to have a big hand all the time. Thats a hard lie to tell as I know from bridge that its 13-1 to get an ace ..first card and then you got to fish out another one from the remaining 51 cards ... so thats 17-1 ... These horses don't win too often.

Maybe there are other hands that are good .. but all these hands are 13 times 17 chance so its hard to get a good hand or a bad hand come to think of it ...

Apparently you collect lots of chips at the start and then use them to bully the other folk into throwing away their better hands ..

Wonder would it work in bridge ...

Does not need to now ...as pokerstars are sponsoring the bridge event and theres a big party after the bridge but as the 3rd session might be on the next day ..it won't be too big of a party ..

I wonder what to poker players do after they reach 50 as apparently you are done playing poker at 50.
The young guys beat you as your bits and bobs don't work as good as they did at 25...
Your neck throbs a little more when you are bluffing and your nose drips when you are excited
and a 50 year old in a hoodie and dark glasses with a scarf around his neck is most likely robbing the gaff then playing poker.

So maybe Thomas Hanlon will start the Irish Seniors poker event in 6 or 7 years time whenever he hits the big 50.or stick to bridge ...

HaHa
..............................................
The Dublin North Region Novices championships takes place in Malahide on Saturday April 27th ..
Thats bridge not poker
................
Malahide Regional Bridge club will be open for the summer
All welcome June July and August ... 1930 every night ....

malahideregionalbridgeclub.com
.....................
Team Pharon got a 27-13 win versus India and should remain in the challenging positions to qualify ..
I note they are using the new WBF scale where every imp counts for something ..

So you get scores like 17.84 to 12.16 and the like

Fergal O'Boyle has some work to do now ...2 decimal places of scoring
That will sort out his Pivot tables



Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Some recent/current bridge events

Good morning all

Some recent Ireland related events have been

1. Lady Milne
2. Derry Seniors Congress
3. NEC Teams 2013
4. Regent Individual
5. BBO Inter Cities League
6. Wbridge5 monthly totals

1. The CBAI team represented by Dolores Gililand Maria Whelan Teresa Rigney Maureen Pattinson Joan Kenny and Brid Kirby placed 4th of 6 oin the recent Lady Milne Trophy 2013.
The team could have won the whole event with an 18-12 win over England in the final match but unfortunately they had not covered the two final sets of 16 boards in their training preparations and they ultimately failed in their quest. However all 3 pairs gained valuable experience in their quest for bridge exellance. They were guided in their quest by the DSPP ... I forget what DS stands for but it is something to do with some recent newpaper article referring to bridge and its attactiveness to middle aged men.

2. Derry Seniors Congress is currently in full swing. The attractive Paul Porteus aided by that well known bridge expert Fred Barry cruised to victory in the Senior Pairs with two nice sessions of 68% and 60%.

The Welcome Pairs was won by John Murchan and Ciara Burns.

Full results can be found on www.fob.ie

Well done to Mary Kelly Rogers and her helpers/organisors in getting this event started.
Its the first Seniors event in Ireland apart from the Senior Camrose trials.

3. NEC Teams is currently in progress with Team Pharon up near the top.
Don't know who came up with the name but somebody wants to be the King of Eygpt.
Team Pharon is 3 Hacketts and 1 Thomas Hanlon.
There is coverage of this event on BBO but one has to stay up late in the night,
http://www.jcbl.or.jp/Portals/0/html/2013NEC/NECScore.html

4. The Regent individual was won by the Incredible BJ O'Brien.

28 folk turned up for the Regent individual ..not bad for historically folk are not happy to play individual events however Declan Byrne had done his homework and understands how to run these events very well.

21 different partners in one night or will folk take this up wrongly as well.

5. The BBO InterCity League is nearing the knockout stages. There are several Irish teams involved.

Hugh McGann sometimes appears for Team Connacht who also include Eddie Fitzgerald David Walsh and Ciaran Coyne.

Jeannie Fitzgerald plays for a mainly Welsh team

Willem Mevius plays a team called Clonboo who sometimes include Karel and Anna

http://www.bbo.splitbridge.hr/

6. The Wbridge5 daily tournament continues to flourish. 

http://bridgez.net:3002/ConnectingPlayer.html

This is a great way for players to get in a little daily practice and at the same time be involved in a monthly event with feedback. The site sends you an email with loads of statistics about your play and bidding.

I think there is a new Eddie Fitzgerald account but I don't know the name of it 

7. Finally I think improving at bridge requires one to read books. Thomas Hanlon used to like the menagerie series. Characters in these books included Hideous Hog Papa the Greek Oscar the Owl Walter the Walrus and the incredible Rueful Rabbit. Every Bridge Club in the world has similar characters. Hideous Hog would be a bully type person. Rueful Rabbit with by a player who always lands on his feet but not through bridge skill. I think they were known as the Victor Mollo series.

8. Finally its time to be thinking of the Galway Pokerstars Bridge tournament. This tournament has the largest ever prize money for a bridge tournament held  in Ireland. 5000 euro first prize to the winning pair. It takes place at the end or start of Galway raceweek. I don't know much about racing although I attempt to pick losers from time to time and I cannot even do that right. However the offspring of the recently retired mare Black Caviar will be pretty good runners. This horse won all 25 of her races. Doubt it ever raced Quivaga which is another great mare. Quivaga is usually free money at Cheltenham. Black Caviar was probably print money in Australia. I suspect a top pair like Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon could visit Galway in August and scoop the big money. However there will probably be several out of state visitors looking for the cash. 

Thomas Hanlon recently sent me an early list of B&Bs. 

Some centrally located B & Bs, only 3/4 minutes from bridge venue. If you could include this list when you are sending out the group email :)

Thanks,

Tom

http://collegecrest.com/

http://www.lynfieldguesthouse.com/

Abbey Lodge Guesthouse, Galway
1 The Stable, College Road,
Galway, Ireland.
Tel: +353 91 565658.

St. Judes Lodge Guesthouse, Galway
24 College Road,
Galway, Ireland.
Tel: +353 91 569100

Both are available online here http://www.galwayguesthouses.ie/

http://aaron-house.com/

http://www.eyresquaretownhouse.com/

http://www.copperbeechgalway.com/

http://www.adareguesthouse.ie/

http://www.ardawnhouse.com/

http://www.inishmoreguesthouse.com/

All of these are within 3/4 minutes walk of the fesival marquee  

Pokerstars Bridge 2013 ...the link to the event

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Good morning... Lets see whats happening in Eamons world of bridge

The first Congress for Seniors (and anybody else ) takes place in Derry next week. I think it starts on Tuesday 16th of April and ends on Thursday 18th of April. However I have (God willing) a bunch of years to go before I get to Derry Seniors Congress.

http://www.cbai.ie/documents/DerrySeniorsCBAIwebsite090413.pdf

All the information is in the link above. Mary Kelly Rogers seems to be one of the main drivers behind this congress. I will have to check the results to see if she was playing in the event. I suspect she will be confined to the Open Pairs though. I did not read all the information in the pdf file but there is plenty there. Seems to be good deals on hotel rooms in Derry too ...if you have a few Sterling pounds on your window sill...
I have a few Sterling notes as I got a few sterling for petrol expenses when I was invited up to the Camrose Trophy in Belfast this year. That was good ..they invited me for the weekend and gave me money for petrol as well. Thats a good deal.
...................
Meanwhile some of us continue to play along in Wbridge5......a daily tournament of 16 boards for anybody who wants to play. They keep a monthly record of your total for the month. A recent recruit Edward Fitzgerald has taken over from BJ O'Brien as the monthly leader but BJ has fired in some 70% scores this month already and will be expecting his Wbridge5 and jam collecting experience to outrun the new guy over the full month. Lets have a look at current standings

Eddie is still out the front for now but he is not playing much this month or maybe he had to start a new account as he mentioned on BBO that something happened his setup. We will see. 

other players with scores above or near 60% are Jim Sexton Jeannie Fitgerald Billy Ronan and the secretive Northern Ireland Camrose player Paul Tranmer. David Synnott Brian Wallace and Dermot O'Brien are also on 56% scores for the month so far. There are probably other Irish players using Wbridge5 whom I don't know about. 

http://bridgez.net:3002/ConnectingPlayer.html

I note a new account opened yesterday called garozzo (NY US) ...hardly the man himself but maybe ...he normally goes as papi or sillifu when online..

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

John Comyn has alot to answer for ...and here is another thing. John wrote recently in the Sunday Independant about a wonderful individual event held in Templogue recently. Next thing the tournaments officer in Malahide calls me and says ..."I read in the paper about fantastic individual event....etc etc ..."

So last Tuesday  morning I hear we are doing an individual event in the tourney I was directing that night.

Now individuals are historically a disaster area as you have in my case 18 tables ...thats about 60 plus people to get mixed up and do things wrong and get mixed up and eventually get annoyed. So here I was with the novice inter B group in Malahide about to run an individual event. So I print out the movements and get them started. We get thru the first 3 boards fairly ok as everybody has their unique number 1-36 in each 9 table section. On Round 2 or (boards 4-6 ) the fun starts.. I tell them N/S up/down 1 and EW up/down 2.

So most people find their new tables and start playing. Boards are staying on the tables thru the night. However after playing boards say 1-3 ... the final board is left on top. Thus the new folk arrive and play board 3 when it clearly says on the sheet play in order 1 2 3 ... So some chaos ensues... Next thing we have folk moving from table 8 in one section into some table in the other section.. Finally in rounds 4-5 we had to tell EW to change to up down 3 for 2 rounds. However we got to the end eventually and it was time to go. I stood outside and over 90% of the players said "That was interesting and great and I played with 21 different partners....a little awkward to begin with as we never done it before but we liked it.

This was played in Malahide Regional Bridge Club last Tuesday night.

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

Last Saturday night I was logged into BBO and myself and Jeannie Fitzgerald were playing a pair of robots. Then James Heneghan arrived and partnered a robot. Finally John Murchan bullied his way in to partner James so we had a human game going. BBO is very good if you can source some good players to play against. Over the years I have ran into some tough games on BBO. Back around 2005/6 I used to get into Team matches including the likes of Justin Lall and Agustin Madala and even one time 3 Meckstroths.

More recently BJ OBrien had me play 21 boards against Roy Welland and Sabine Auken.

One message came thru back in 2006 ..."Do you know your team mate is the best junior player in the World" Of course I knew ..

However playing against Heneghan and Murchan is a fine game as well..

TONIGHT FRIDAY APRIL 12th

REGENT BRIDGE CLUB

OPEN INDIVIDUAL FOR ALL.

YOU can play a hand or two with the legendary REGENT TREASURER 

BJ O'BRIEN

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

Galway Congress Pairs (in running)

Richard Boyd and Thoms McCormac are making a valiant attempt to podium in Galway Congress Pairs tonight. However they will need to continue to play well and have some things from above pass them on the way down. We will see what happens on the remaining 8 boards.
The odds are that Keavney and Jones will gather in enough score to hold onto the half time lead.
They are two very strong players albeit in a decent field. Plenty of capable players are out of the top 8 currently. Tomorrow there is Gala Open Pairs and Teams on Monday.

www.fob.ie  has all the results both Congress and Open Pairs

...........
I note the Wbridge5 player Elvis stormed to a 67% score today... while the Heneghan drifted lower.
Maybe Elvis is an expert.

Board 15 today was a good one for those who wait ...I got it 5 off doubled ,,, others got it 6 off doubled ...when the robot lost the run of itself ..

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Wbridge5 March 30th

Good morning folks

Wbridge5 is starting to motor in Ireland these days. Early in March an interesting player appeared called Give_Up_Eamon presumably aimed at me but this account has stopped playing for the last week or so.
However the well known Irish Camrose player James Heneghan has emerged as the man to beat in the recent past. Eddie Fitzgerald of the FourSeasons B&B in Galway is getting to grips with the French bidding system and the infernal robotic partners and is pushing up the leaderboard. BJ O Brien is at his imp collecting best even if it is a matchpoint competiton. You don't get much dummy play if you partnering BJ so this game suits him down to the ground as the robot never looks to declare any hand. Jean Fitzgerald from Ennis is putting in a reasonable 58% shift with the Wexford men Ronan and Sexton also up there with 58% months.
Elvis is a reclusive player from Malahide who thinks he is an expert bridge player but the reality is he has not played against many real experts in his bridge life. However a 57% monthly contribution is nothing to be sneezed at but the facts are he is 7% per board behind Heneghan who is probably ok to be termed an expert. After all he has a yellow star on BBO and several international caps on his kitchen wall.

Mr Heneghan also has a large collection of Martens books on one of his kitchen tables. He lives in a rather long house so its hard to tell which is the kitchen and which is the other kitchen. However I was impressed to see the large colourful collection of Martens books on the table a few years ago. 

www.martensbridgeuniversity.com I think is the site for getting a sampler of these very good books.

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

Galway Congress will shortly be in progress with the Congress Pairs ...and other associated events I think for intermediate players.

Gala Open Pairs event tomorrow ... www.galwaybridgecongress.com

Teams on Monday 

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

Greystones Open Cup takes place next Sunday April 7th ...so go there 

Eamon, we'd be most grateful if you could mention the Greystones Open Cup in your blog.

Here are the details. best wishes, John

Greystones Open Cup1.30pm on Sunday 7th April
at the Greystones Bridge Centre
2 session Match Point Pairs
1st (400 euro), 2nd, & 3rd Prizes
1st & 2nd Session
Best Intermediate & Best Local
TD Brian Lawlor
Entries (Master / Intermediate)
John Hautz 01-2861485 or 086 0555493
<jhautz@eircom.net>
John Royds 01-2819283
<roydsjf@gmail.com>

Kindly sponsored by Glen Fuels, Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow 01-2861444

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

Over the last few days I noted the ability to play hands from the vugraph archive on BBO with a partner against two GIB robots. Being a great fan of the GIB robots since receiving an email when in Saudi Arabia from Matt Ginsberg who was developing same to be a tester , I dived.

Sadly I found these web based robots to be very crippled. I understand this as BBO could hardly run robots for loads of members at a decent strength. In future will have to source some known human opponents when playing these vugraph hands. Robots are great for practice and training as you can discuss your system as you go and the robots don't care. However random humans get irritated if you don't play at their pace and you talk during the bidding.

Of course we would never take advantage of the robots by telling pard a card or anything.

However BBO is a fantastic service and I can figure something out if I need to play robots.

www.bridgebase.com

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

Played a hand back a while in Live Bridge with the aforementioned Elvis and he was dealt approximately 

Axx ..J...T976543..KJ and game all and 2nd in hand after West passes

The self acclaimed expert quicky opens the bidding with 1D and with silent opps

I am holding KQJTx ..Qxx ..J2 ..Qxx

So I bid 1S and my esteemed Elvis rises it to 2S ..

tempted to pass this with my aceless wonder I noted I have near7 losers and decided I best give one lift as we are playing weak NT so pard does not have a balanced 12-14.

so I go 3S...

My man pulls the 4S card out of the bidding box at the speed of sound ..

(When I was a kid I had no concept of the speed of sound ..I used to shout into a sewer pipe and race down the field to see if I could hear myself at the other end of the pipe..)

I have no concept of the evaluation algoritm that Elvis applies to bridge..

Its a 9 count with no primary spade support and it feels it wants to roar into 4S vulnerable in a pairs game. After some helpful defence I emerge with 9 tricks for minus 100...and retreat to some safe place. On my return I am greeted by the gleeful Elvis ..90% that was pard ...

it was only the 2nd time played  and being a TD I understand the score could only be 100% 50% or 0% ...so I just said what about if they were actually playing against me and doubled me and I went off a pile .. They ate their partners DK and then cashed the DQ..setting up the diamonds. So I escaped for 1 off undoubled.

The end of the night score was 50% but 3S making was 90% ..they might defend better against 3S and give me the same score. Trump leads are probably best or force the dummy before diamonds are up ..

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

That will do for today ..

Thanks 

Eamon Galligan

BJ and Eamon note with reverence the slamming of the door as Heneghan storms into Wbridge5 with a vengence. Well it answers the question as to who is NOT Give_up_Eamon as I thought it was James.
I even spotted the incredible mobrule making an appearance for one day. Mobrule is better than BJ by a little but BJ lets him play on his team as he does not like playing against him.

Anyway Heneghan has eased into the lead with 80 boards played this month so will be a man to aim at in the future. The King is pushed off the throne. BJ is now a dowager king. 

It continues to snow in Swords. Its nearly April and cars were covered with snow today. Its a tough life for biards who have no food. 

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

Charity event in Malahide Regional tomorrow night for the Lions Club. All are welcome. 

Malahide Regional Bridge Club Broomfield Malahide.I think its 10 euros to play

http://www.malahideregionalbridgeclub.com/

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

GALWAY BRIDGE CONGRESS THIS WEEKEND

http://www.galwaybridgecongress.com/

Thats all for today. 

Fitness for Bridge

Folks

I came across this video on youtube a few days ago ..7 minutes of exercise ....well you don't do as much as they do but you do whatever you can..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNflCriyE74#aid=P9-apahz0WY

Important : .. if you have not exercised in a while you better get a medicial checkup first..

otherwise just stand there and watch this thing ...well maybe shake yourself out or walk around the room

.................
www.bridgewinners.com is a fine website with plenty of coverage of current bridge events.

It also has a nice feature where problems are presented and you can answer the same either publicly or unpublished. You can see who agrees with you and who does not.
The higher your percentage on each problem the most likely you are with the mainstream.

The mainstream on this website are strong bridge players as far as I can see.
..................
Galway Congress is on this coming weekend ..
http://cbai.ie/competitions/documents/congress_brochure2013_print.pdf

Pairs on Saturday
Teams on Monday

In between on Sunday there is some Open Pairs and an evening Swiss Pairs.

http://www.galwaybridgecongress.com/

Entries can be made here
.......................

A 3 club opening

Good afternoon folks

I am directing the intermediate B national final and I just strolled by one of the tables spotting a dealer opening with STOP 3 clubs ..

I had a quick look as I thought he held .. 7654.. 65.. 6 ..QT6543

His partner pondered his 15 count briefly and passed .. .3C was the contract and 3C made

I am now looking at the hand record ...he actually held

T752 ..4 .. 84 .. QT6532

and his partner gave him

KQ9
KQ72
AT962
J

...............
I have been frisky in the  past myself but this 3C opening shocked me ..enough to write it up.

Just got called to a table where defenders complained that declarer was taking several minutes to make a play. Declarer involved has not been slow all weekend so I checked if he was awake and left him at it.
The man made 5C and scored up 100% ..

http://bridge.silvertexter.eu/results/3O3.TXT

It will be Auken versus vanProojen in the Vanderbilt Final later today.

Can be watched on www.bridgebase.com

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Vanderbilt Last 16

Good evening folks

I am back watching the Vanderbilt last 8 now. Above is whats left in.
Number 1 seed Nickel had a rollercoaster ride  falling over 50 imps behind in quarter 1 and recovering slowly but surely to take the lead early in quarter 4. However Team Norby were not finished yet and a grand slam by Madala Bocchi followed by a Levin Weinstein accident to bid 6S left Nickel behind again and the boards were running out.
On Board 60 of 64 Nickell made 3H up 1 against 4H-1 to pull level at 130-130
An imp was lost by a diamond queen played too quickly or tiredly (4 man team) setting up a finessing position for an imp.
Board 61 saw Nickel gain 2 imps with 180 versus 120 to lead 132-130
Board 62 flat
Board 63 saw Norby gain an imp for 132-131
Board 64 was flat to bring to an end a fantastic match up...
Eamon fell asleep about board 59 as thats where my vugraph record ended.

.........
On Logging on today to watch quarter-finals of Vanderbilt I noted Auken on vugraph.
Strange that as I saw Monaco just keeping out a messive comeback in 4th quarter.
However an appeal while I slept saw Auken win the day ...
So the juggarnaut Monaco Team is gone for this year. I am a Monaco supporter as we had Geir and Tor in Ireland for Buffet and Euro Teams. Nice lads. Also vugraphed Fulvio and Claudio in CityWest several times.
They will win more stuff no doubt but not this Vanderbilt.
..............
I think Ireland juniors won something in White House. However my Dutch is not great.
Houten Lepel divisie .... Irelande

I read this on a dutch bridge site ... I don't know who is Houten Lepel but maybe he is a famous bridge player from the Lombard Club.

That will do for now ...

Charity Bridge Event in Malahide on Thursday March 28th Open to all. in aid of Lions Club.

Malahide Regional Bridge CLub

www.malahideregionalbridgeclub.com

Thanks Eamon Galligan

Wbridge5 follower and Vanderbilt

This morning early while doing the Wbridge5 hands I spotted an unusual name in the list that I had not noticed before. Give_Up_Eamon. One has to presume with some pride that somebody from Ireland has started playing Wbridge5 and is going to get some better scores than I. Nobody can beat BJ at collecting jam and persuading robots to misdefend. This morning he managed to persuade the West robot to play the only cards to let out 6S on board 1. I was there planning how I would roll home 6S but suddenly it dawned on me that I needed some robot help and it was not coming.

Not so with the incredible BJOBrien. The robot quickly plays the first 2 tricks into BJs large maulers and BJ quickly wraps up 6S. Now I am not giving anything away here as all declarers play 6S as this is the way Wbridge5 sets it up. 

Even Give_Up_Eamon went a quick 3 off like myself but we all got 33%. 

A quick glance at the overall monthly scores indicates that Give_Up_Eamon scored 65% on his/her only play so far so possibly a recent recruit. 65% is a good score unless you are the jam factory that is BJOBoru as he regularly rolls home 70+% scores. I will be paying attention to Give_Ups scores for a while to see how  it does. Regardless of comments made about BJ or Give_Up Wbridge5 in my humble opinion is a good tool for any bridge player to play some hands and get 400 comparisons as to how they rank up. The site only has 16 boards a day and a player can play 0-16 boards per day and the site will give you a monthly report to your email address. All sorts of strange measurements like how good is your defence or your bidding or declarer play compared to the field and double dummy.

Meanwhile out at the cutting edge of bridge which is the US Nationals ...these days it should be called the US Internationals as the top games are packed with legends of the game (well only the living legends) ..the folk who have passed on cannot obviously be there ...but I suspect if there exists a spirit world then the ghosts of former great players meet up in the ceilings of the bridge halls at the US nationals 3 times a year.

When I attended the US Nationals in San Francisco in 2007 they held a memorial night for Paul Soloway.

Paul played in the first Buffet Cup in Dublin in 2006 despite struggling with illness at that stage. He still turned  up and played on the USA team. I recall one time while vugraphing that he fell asleep while playing against Thomas Hanlon and Hugh McGann. The Irish lads did not know what to do but somebody gave the table a little nudge and Paul rejoined the world and promptly followed suit. I think I have it on video but its an old video camera and one would have to trawl through several tapes to find it. 

Meanwhile back in the present there have been some small shocks in the Vanderbilt on paper. However the field is so classy that nothing is a real shock. Seed 51 is the highest seed still alive but this seems to be a Canadian team and includes several bridge proffessionals. So its not such a shock if they defeat a team of their peers. Round of 64 they knocked off a team with some powerful Icelanders and Norwegians on it.

Round of 32 a strong American team fell to Korbell. Next up is a round of 16 against another on paper seed buster.. the 35 seeded Chinese team who are probably legends in Chinese bridge circles but won't have a pile of ACBL points/results to get a higher seeding. 

Another team busting the seeds is the Grainger Team seeded 47th ... at least 3 of these are well known names for those of us who frequent Bridgebase Online at the US after work times .. 

Donn Granger and more recently Roger Lee are regular BBO players in high level games and several contribute to the BBO forums ...which are a great place to read about bridge ...

forums.bridgebase.com

bridgewinners.com

Meanwhile the top 9 of the 10 original seeds remain alive but 7 8 9 and 10 will face off today as we reduce to the quarter finalists. The juggernaut Nickell Cayne and Monaco teams are all surviving comfortably but the 3rd seed Diamond is gone,beaten by the afore mentioned Chinese team.

The Moss Team bowed out to the defending champions Amoils as seeded losing by about 50 imps ..

This is not a severe beating in this league where some teams withdraw after 3 sessions not wanting to receive another pounding on the last 16 boards. 

That will do for this morning I think ...well maybe a quick picture of the White House Standings for Juniors 

http://www.jeugdbridge.nl/index.php?id=white-house-juniors

The Irish team of Boyd Synnott Connolly and Somerville are playing ...

I notice they have interchanged partnerships in some matches ... hardly the thing to do during international competition but its probably with their hope of qualification gone and they trying out new partnerships for the future. Maybe some player is getting too old and they need to try out a new partnership for future full Ireland junior teams. 

Thanks

Eamon Galligan

White House Juniors

Today at 1530 which is about now the Ireland junior team are on Bridgebase Online playing against France.
Unfortunately in the last round Ireland seem to have run into an in-form English team who got good results on several boards and thus beat Ireland by 57 imps.
However that was a once off ...or maybe a twice off.. I expect a better result in this match though.
We will watch and see.
However be aware that the French juniors are extremely good players historically.

I have to go buy the dinner so off I go but I will leave BBO on so I can review when I get back.

http://www.nbbclubsites.nl/club/1003/uitslagen

Has the current positions. Ireland need a big win but France is tough.

Connolly at the helm in 4S but its a big ask but she is a capable player 

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Mesbur +3 qualify to last 32 in Vanderbilt

Yesterday in Saint Louis Missouri if thats how it is spelt Team Moss whixh includes Adam Mesbur Nick Fitzgibbon and Thomas Hanlon won their round of 64 match over Team Barrett. However Team Barrett included some world  class Polish players Romanski and Kowalski.
Pat McDevitt who is defending his Mixed Pairs title qualified comfortably for the next session in about 40th place. This is a 4 session event .. I think 2 sessions are done already.
The Hamann Team got ambushed by the Granger squad but the Granger foursome are a very decent quartet that I have seen playing in various matches on BBO.

Folks
I draw your attention to the following link which describes how one of the best partnerships in the world
Levin Weinstein resolved and discussed bidding a slam off the trump ace

http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/behind-the-scenes-levin-weinstein-postmortem/

They both knew they did not do it on purpose ..

So today at the Nationals we have Team Moss backboned by stalwart Irish pair Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon taking on the Amoils team.. They will probably find this one another "Bridge Too Far"
Opposition of Joe Grue Thomas Bessis Brad Moss and Fred Gitleman is tough enough but there is a Swedish guy there too. Don't know much about Leslie Amoils but this team is defending Vanderbilt champs so thats a start. Canada is a little far away for me but the Amoils name has been around since I was in San Francisco Nationals in 2007. Joe Grue was a young  teenager in Minnasota when I worked there in 1998 for a while.

And don't forget the Seniors Congress in Derry

http://cbai.ie/competitions/documents/IBUSeniorsCongress.pdf

Also more sad news ..

Malahide Bridge Club lost the recently returned to bridge Paul Coree on March 15th ... Paul was a bridge player in Bankers Bridge Club / Portmarnock and later Malahide. When I was a budding player I remember targetting Paul Coree and Seamus Boyle as folk I needed to pass out. I never really got to pass out Paul Coree as he stopped playing bridge before I got the chance. From Malahide website it seems that Paul had played most Thursday nights this year with Dan Brilley.

Bob Hughes-Hallet who I played against some Friday nights over the last few years in Malahide passed away on March 17th. Bob was still competitive despite being well past 90 years of age. One was never sure what was in his hand as I think he played Colonial Acol from Argentina. I know there was some Argentinian connection somewhere. Bob was a nice man who knew he was up against it playing against me but it did not stop him scoring well from time to time.
Bob felt sick during a tournament I was directing on February 6th. Wed Simultaneous Pairs and the only thing that bothered him was that he might mess up my movement. I assured him that we just continue with a sitout for the rest of the session. I have not played in Malahide since that week so I never saw Bob again.


May they rest in peace. Funeral detaisl on www.rip.ie

All the best
Eamon Galligan

While playing Wbridge5 this morning just a few minutes ago my robot emerged with a BJesque 7C bid when the opponent robots had reached 6D. Of course its favourable vulnerability but it takes plenty of programming to make a robot understand sacrificing. I am not sure how this hand will go as I have not played it yet. 

It was a successful sacrifice and we scored 43% ... Well done my robot.

However I personally would have been in earlier to persuade the opps to stop in 5Ds or something else.

Wbridge5 .... a great way to get in a little practice for real life bridge as you are comparing with 400 other real life players playing the same cards as you. Its also possible to edit the convention card a little.

As can be seen above Pat Cassidy is out in the lead for the month of March. However Galligan and BJ will pass him out when he plays a few more boards as 63% is a heavy average to keep up for a month unless he sits there and does not play. BJ regularly piles in with 70% scores.
Eddie Fitzgerald is battling against the robot system and will be a bigger feature once he gets the hand of it or changes to a more suitable system. Jim Sexton is firing away at near 57%.  Billy Ronan is having a good month on 58.4%. Maurice Quinn has been fairly quiet this month.
My dog is eying a magpie through the patio door but knows its not worth the effort as magpie is too smart.
Its also snowing anyway and he will mess the floor if he goes out the flap.

Fancy your chances in 4H from the North after East strikes out with the Club Jack lead.

I don't really know where my man found the 2H overcall. However hopefully the lad can declare a little and make this contract. So club jack and you are up ,,,

Dog has finally succumbed to the magpie taunts. Crashed though the dog flap and magpie fluttered upwards still taunting the dog.

Thanks 

Eamon Galligan 

Vanderbilt has started

Good morning
Greetings from snowy Swords. We are in shock in Swords as the snow falls in mid-March.
Vanderbilt started at US Nationals in St Louis yesterday with some matches to trim the field of 69 down to 64 starters.
Team Moss includes Adam Mesbur Nick Fitzgibbon and Thomas Hanlon along with Mike Moss.
They are 28th seed which gives an indication of the power in this tournament. Some Scottish folk from the recent Camrose Trophy are seeded in the mid 50s and had to qualify in the preliminary round. Thats Team Gipson who include Samantha Punch and Stephen Peterkin who represented Scotland in the Northern Ireland piece of the Camrose Trophy.
www.bridgewinners.com is running a fantasy bracket where a person can enter their winners of each round of the Vanderbilt. I picked Moss to win their first round and then succumb to Amoils in the round of 32.
bridgebase.com will start showing matches from the round of 32 onwards.
There are lots of powerful teams in the top 16 seeds of this event and many legends of the game below that.
Go and have a look on bridgewinners.com ...
Also bridgewinners.com has a fine quiz type thing where you can answer loads of bidding questions and be shown your mark among the other answers and who answered the same as you. As bridgewinners.com is populated by many very strong players a high percentage answer is likely to be correct.
I got some single % answers as I often go against the field.
http://bridgewinners.com/tournament/2013-spring-nabc-vanderbilt/fantasy/view/eamon-galligan/ is where I posted my guess of who will win the Vanderbilt Trophy. I am going for the new Nickell team.

acbl.org is the ACBL website and has links to the bulletins and results of St Louis US Nationals.
Pat McDevitt is also playing there

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Wbridge5 tourney /Free Program

http://bridgez.net:3002/ConnectingPlayer.html

www.wbridge5.com

Folks
Here is one of the best bridge items I have come across recently.
A free bridge program that plays pretty decently. Wbridge5.
There is also a free daily tournament which folk like BJ OBrien and Eamon Galligan and the well known Army Bridge player Commandant Wallace take part in daily. Bjoboru eamongall and billpat patbill (Billy Ronan and Pat Cassidy) I don't know the account of Mr Wallace maybe it is bmw maybe it is Elvis as in the king is alive. Thats what you say when you score a singleton King. I once attempted to score a singleton King in 3NT by leading my singleton small from dummy for my 9th trick... did not work. 3NT minus 1 was a fine score but after losing 6 club tricks 3NT-3 was not.

I highlight mpb above as an example. mpb is a club player in Malahide who wished to improve his bridge a little so I went around to his house and set up Wbridge5 and told him he can play 0 to 16 hands a day in this tournament and do his own improvement. For the first week or so he struggled in the low 40s but a year later he seems to be averaging around the 52% mark. This is a large improvement in one year.

16 boards is more than enough for most people but if one wants more one can play the free program with random or selected boards as much as they want. My point to mpb was here are 480 boards a month and thats like 20 bridge sessions extra for you.

Recent recruits to Wbridge5 are Senior Ireland player Eddie Fitzgerald and Camrose Northern Ireland player Paul Tranmer. If its good enough for BJ Eddie and Paul then its good enough for everybody who wishes to play a little computer bridge. Probably works on Ipad and mobile phone also if you travelling on the train or bus or even car.

Ashbourne Bridge Club

Over the last two weeks I have been directing in the Presidents Prize in Ashbourne Bridge Club. The venue is the Donaghmore Ashbourne GAA premises. I had a look around outside and noted the presence of a a stand beside the pitch with approximately 400 seats .. 77 seats by 5 rows and then some standing room at the back. Also the pitch can clearly be seen and watched from the bar/function room area.. A nice place for a relatively small GAA centre. I personally recall being driven 75 miles to the back end of Donegal to stand in the lashing rain to watch Cavan Gaels get destroyed by St Kierans one Sunday. I have a vague memory of the score being 5-8 to 0-3 at half time and some dude called Kevin Keeney at corner forward doing the business.
Anyway back to the bridge. The players land and pull out their gear from a back room .. Tables and chairs and clothes and a box of cards/paperwork. They set the whole lot up and are ready to go. First night started at 1930 with a draw for partners. Then play starts at 1940. 24 boards later we called a halt at 2230.
2nd night we started at 1930 and at 1023 decided on going a final round so 26 boards completed by 2245 and most of the tables packed away.
26 boards played in 3 hours 15 minutes and everything packed away. Thats the way bridge should be played. I recall a night when it was 1130pm in the Regent and we not finished the 26 boards.
The President is Mr Pat Moyles

I had a similar experience in Whitehall Bridge Club where Mother Moyles and son John Moyles play.
Started at 1930 and 24 boards later in 8 matches of 3 boards and first players out the door about 2210.
Everything packed away and last person out the door at 1030pm.

So in short we spend too long playing too few boards in the purpose built bridge clubs. Imagine if we had to pack away 40 tables in Malahide after a Wednesday night. We need to pick up the speed. Even international bridge is played at 16 boards in 2 hours 5 minutes.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Irish Schools Bridge Teams

Last weekend in Galway the Irish Schools Bridge Teams championships took place. We thank Galway Bridge Centre for making their facilities available to us. 24 teams took part in the event. 

This year was the inaugural playing of the Gay Keavney Trophy. 

This Trophy was commissioned by the IBU or CBAI or Irish Junior Committee in honor of Gays 29 year involvement with Schools bridge. 

The following Schools were represented 

Laurel Hill Limerick

Belfast Royal Academy

Carrick .......maybe it is Carrickfergus 

St Vincents Dundalk

Gonzaga College Dublin

Bangor Grammar

4 sessions of bridge were played starting with a seeded round robin which graduated into a Swiss for 1 round. After 2 sessions and 8 matches the top 8 teams split off into the Gold Final and the rest continued play in the Silver Final. Gold Final was 7 match all play all with 6 board matches. Silver Final was 7 round Swiss also with 6 board matches. 

Gold Final 

BRA2 ...........150

BRA1 ...........143

Carrick1.... ...132

St Vincents1..126

BRA4........... 120

BRA3........... 103

Bangor1......... 89

Gonzaga......... 87

Silver Final 

Bangor2 .........136

Laurel Hill5......123

Laurel Hill4......119

Laurel Hill1......117

Bangor3...........115

Laurel Hill3.......115

Laurel Hill6.......114

BRA5...............112

BRA6...............109

Carrick2............101

BRA7................94

Laurel Hill2.........94

Laurel Hill8.........90

St Vincents3.......82

Laurel Hill7.........79

St Vincents2........70

100 under 19s in total .....well I think there was one 18 year old and some who looked about 

12 years old. All playing bridge and using bridgemates and circling the scoring computers after

each round. 

There were no rows or anger displayed. All played away happily and looked forward to McDonalds or the equivalent on Saturday. This year the teachers did not throw my dinner in the bin before I ate it.

Most  of the Gonzaga Team started playing bridge 6 weeks ago and managed to make the Gold Final against players who are playing somewhat longer. The Gonzaga folk were quite surprised to find the chef in their Bed and Breakfast was giving them bridge advice each morning as well as breakfast. The chef was former CBAI President Edward Fitzgerald. 

If any of the schools players read this I highly recommend 

http://bridgez.net:3002/ConnectingPlayer.html

You can play a 16 board tourney here each day or anything between 0 and 16 boards.

It will compare all players and give a score.

Eamon Galligan and the chef both play this most days.

Thanks 

Eamon Galligan

Dublin North Region Hand of the month

Dlr: N Vul: E/W T QJT63 9 KT6542 A72 A84 AQT85 87 J843 5 K643 AQJ3 KQ965 K972 J72 9

Last night while playing a bridge game on BBO with my friends the following hand turned up. Eamon was seated in the West seat with Dealer North and EW(us) vulnerable

North East South West
2H P 4H ?

2H alerted as 5+5+ hearts and minor and 6-10 hcp
4H is the normal bid with the East hand exerting maximum pressure.

So its your go and you are vulnerable and are you a woman or a mouse.

Much to the dismay of the opponents I emerged with a 5D bid and everybody passed quickly and to further dismay found that I was making 5Ds.

After some examination of the hands my opponents indicated a large WOW factor for my bid followed by well done dude.

This hand was played on the internet and there was no pauses before East passed or any indication that the beautiful dummy was held. There are many folk out there who might produce a double with the EAST cards ...its pretty close and has the shape. However my pard deemed it a pass which is ok.

My main reason for bidding is I can visualize a Heart singleton in partners hand and thus there will be support for my suits in some shape or form.

Half the other folk who played the hand also reached 5Ds but none of them had to deal with 2H P 4H bidding beforehand.

What do people think... Of course it is much easier to bid 5Ds if partner pauses and passed ..thus the old HESITATION pass ...well known throughout the country or WEASEL as its known in the borough of Waterford... two squirms and shift in the chair is 10 points.

My gracious opponents Peter Pigot and James Heneghan were not so giving in the rest of the hands and myself and partner Maria Whelan fell behind by several imps.

The Malahide Strong-weak player event

Last night in Malahide Regional Bridge club the first Charlie Higgins Invitational was run. The event has been run before but this was the first time it was christened the Charlie Higgins invitational.
Charles Higgins is a long time member of Malahide Regional Bridge Club and possibly of other bridge clubs before the Regional premises was built. Every Friday night there is Open Bridge in Malahide Regional at 8pm organised by Charlie Higgins. Charles has performed many jobs for Malahide Regional Bridge club over the last 22 years that I have been around that club.
On any Friday when Charlie is away he always has somebody organised to take up the slack ..
Usually this will be his right hand man Brendan Redmond or his left hand man Dermot McCourt.
Danny Doona has also stepped in once or twice.

Jobs I remember are he was Captain on various nights on various years. Being Captain means doing the scoring and being present most of the nights of the year on your specific Captains night.
You got to turn up 30 minutes early and prepare the club room for play.

Charlie also looked after club maintenance for at least one term.

Charlie also finds time to play competitive CBAI tournament bridge and can be found at most national bridge bashes at the top level. He can usually be found at the annual Holmes Wilson event which is the CBAI flagship and will be around for all Dublin North Region events.

Last night during a break in play I was perusing the result sheets of the previous few weeks in Malahide and I was rather surprised to note ...65.5% Dan and Mary Cowhie ...
Moving along the board I then spotted 70.3% Dan and Mary Cowhie ...
Now I know Dan and Mary a long time as I have been drinking tea in their house in Malahide several times back in the early 90s when they had a dog called Sheeba who you could push.
However scores of above 50% would be normally their lot so I am happy to see the Cowhies post some big 65% plus scores. I doubt that any more then 10% of bridge players ever manage a 70% game. Dan has been on the audit committee of Malahide Regional Bridge club for years. I presume he is still there.

Anyway lets have a few hands from last night ...a bigger er post will follow later.

On Hand 1 I held a large 2 count so felt I won't be doing much here

Q86543
T754
2
93

So I sat back and listened as North Mr Brilly chose to pass and that went
Pass Pass PAss to my partner who emerged with 2NT back to me ..
So being a lad who likes to play the hands as people seem to hand me tricks more often then the rest I made a plan of campaign..
Lets try stayman as if partner is playing this we need a good trump fit as she is not so good on the Notrumps ...you cannot ruff in NT. Happily partner responds 3D to the Stayman and it looks like the Gallo has chances of grabbing another hand to play. While pondering a soft 3S or a pushy 4S there is some shuffling from the Brilly. Now the Brilley seldom bids unless he has a monster but he pushed out the double card. I looked at my singleton Diamond and my nice 2 count and decided if Brilly got Diamonds then my singleton is nice so I pushed out 4S ..
The diamond lead and the appearance of the Spade ace pretty much ended Brillys passed hand bidding so it was easy enough to bring in the good 4S contract.
Partner a beginning player perused the result sheet and my curtain card muttering you only had 2 points and you bid game....I said I don't need points ..I just need Brilley to tell me my diamond singlton is good. Strangely enough up to then the 7 players had all missed game.

Board 2 .. I held

AK984
8
2
AKJT52

and I opened 1C and reversed into 2S and pard placed me in the normal 4S contract.
Sadly I ran into the heavy weather of a 5-1 club break and drifted 2 off.
The analysis says 5S makes but I only managed 8 tricks
The analyis would know about 3-2 breaks and 5-1 breaks before playing the hand though.
However some wizards managed to reach the heights of 6C and 6S and obviously drifted 3 and 4 tricks off so Gallo got average . Some other wizards played in the Master Novice contracts of 3NT. Surely with a 5-3 spade fit and 3 singletons the bidding can hardly not reach 4S.

Board 3 was our first board and our hero Brian Wallace opened 2N partnered by his sister.
3NT was the contract and Wallace has some problems. Disdaining the spade finesse and later taking a diamond finesse after Eamon pitched the Diamond Queen at trick 11.... given he was squeezed by the dummy he had no choice but a diamond finesse later and Wallace had only 10 tricks when I dunno what he was doing as with 2 cards left ..and JACK and KING of diamonds missing it can only have been a practice finesse.

Board 4
Eamon played in the quiet Master Novice 3NT ...and failing to drop the club queen only managed 11 tricks.

Board 5

Saw Eamon at the helm in 2H and that yielded 9 tricks after losing 2 diamonds and a ruff fishing out heart queen and then lost Club aCe ...a good score

Board 6

Here we defended 1NT and pard managed to block the spades severely and then pinged away her club King entry for some reason ..Scary stuff
A spade contract would have yielded 8 tricks and at least she could see all our cards

That will do for now ... Next blog will have BBO style hand diagrams ..

Oh Murphyslaw the famous BBO ACol Club player has retired from bridge ....the poor fellow