This is Junior Bridge Irish style ( Ranald Milne bridge teacher)

Early this morning I was interacting with some junior players 

I saw this hand and the first thought that came to my mind is print this out and stick it on the walls of all juniors as it is how not to play bridge.

Anybody fancy the 1NT opening by the North chappie 

The 2C for both majors is probably ok 

The 2NT lebensohl is probably ok 

the 3H is probably ok 

The double by the South laddie I don't know about that one 

These lads NS have 11 clubs and they want to penalty double a young lad in Hearts 

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They will probably tell me they just wanted one of their own to outdo the GALLO ..

Here Galligan and young Nathan Doyle (one of the well known MacCormac dynasty led by Leo MacCormac) breeze into a routine 4H. Suddenly a double materializes ..

All still looks reasonable but one sits up straight and pays attention despite the couple of pints of guinness trying to slow one down. A heart to the King lands the suspected bad break news. We duck a heart hoping for some help. a heart comes back no real help, We know we are ok if !S finesse works but what if it does'nt. we win the heart and duck a diamond and happily they come a spade and we take finesse and happily it works. 

Anyway 4H making despite the 5-0 break .. 

Just showing the hand to go along with the disaster fest of the first hand not because I made it.

So I think the lads were attempting to get a bigger score for nathand ...in 3HX+3

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Last night Ranaldo Milneski paid a visit to Malahide Regional Bridge Club. Ranaldo is a well known teacher from the North Dublin suburb of Drumcondra. So I got free lessons from the best teacher on the Northside.

The rest of this article is written tongue in cheek and no malice is intended.

1. Don't lead singletons ... 

2. Don't bid with no values 

3. Don't let anybody play any hands except me 

4. if you don't ruff in with the Heart queen when you can you don't have it 

5. 3H is stronger than 4H ... Wow .. 

I am 5% better player now than I was at 1925 last night ...and I only did one lesson. 

However I have a few lessons for the teacher ... 

1. Watch the spot cards and you will always know when you win a trick instead of sitting there looking thoughtful as you wonder why declarer won't hurry up and play ... 

Declarer is wondering the same as you won the trick ...

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2. If you don't watch the spot cards you might lose your winning KING of hearts .. 

However it was nice partnering Ranaldo Milneski .. He is a fine thoughtful player and he produced some fine plays. We suffered a little of the Danny Doona directing challenge in the early rounds as we seemed to be slower than all other tables .. However Danny was not hard on us and allowed us play all the boards despite our slowness or to tell the truth Ranaldos thoughtfulness .. 

Ranaldo posted a fine card starting by declaring 7 of the first 8 boards ..

We started on board 25 ... However by the time he reached boards 21-24 he was beginning to tire

and Mick Callen and Dorothy Rochford arrived and delivered a few punches.

Just as Monaghan did to Tyrone last Sunday .. 

Mick Callan is a Monaghan GAA man who lives in Malahide and Croke Park.

Rochford and Callan took away 291 of the 400 matchpoints from the teacher Ranald Milne.

The final part is on a serious note 

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http://www.iibi.ie/DublinBridge%20-%20RM.html

The link to find Ranald Milne if you want to attend a good bridge class or training session 

Phone number is there and some testimonials 

Google Ranald Milne Bridge and you should find something.

The Fun Teams 2014 + Egan Trophy

Out in Westmanstown Sports Centre yesterday we had the Fun Teams , the annual Bridge event which features 4 grades of player on the same team.
The Gonzaga Team started without their Master player Jim Mulally due to a mix-up in the communication of starting times. So no sign of the Great Mulall at kick off time. A small panic went on and I said "I am not his keeper" No problem as Gonzaga unleashed their spare novice player as a Master. They won the first match comfortably against a Timoney team from Cavan but got creamed by Paddy McDermott in round 2. Finally the Great Mulall arrived and started putting his mark on proceedings.
The Gonzaga team had climbed to 25th of the 67 teams by half time.
In the 2nd half boosted by a massive 1.83 imps per board performance by the  the rampaging Great Mulall and Malcolm  Swan they climbed into a tight 2nd place going into the last round. Great Mulall was hoovering up his Inter A and Inter B opponents while his young team mates held off the oppositions Master Novice pairing. Meanwhile Joe Coyne ran into some good form in Session 2 and hoovered up 3.3 imps per board in the 2nd session to boost his team somewhat.
In the Final round the Great Mulall team could only manage a draw and got overtaken by several fast finishing teams to end up in 7th place out of 67 teams.
Suddenly out of the crowd of players surrounding the results table a disappointed and tired Mulall emerged and grunted "Did we win the 2nd session prize"
A quick check indicated Team Mulall was placed 2nd in the session and the winners were in the Overall prizes. So Team Mulall took home the 2nd session prize.

Full results can be found at 

http://bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwod/bw.cgi?pid=display_rank&msec=1&sessid=259151344992364&event=20140607_2&wd=1&club=fob

However Mary O'Sullivan and her Kerry team ruled the event with an iron fist. 

In an interview later Great Mulall alluded to the James Newman team as his toughest opponents.

The indication were that his intemediate opponents put it up to him 

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67 teams and apparently European Bridge League election candidate Paul Porteus wants more 

teams next year. I think he hopes for 100 teams. The Westmanstown Centre who hosted the event had no problem serving out about 270 dinners in a less than 1 hour. A Great venue for bridge.

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Meanwhile up at the Egan in Northern Ireland the Irish Open team are finishing up the details of winning the event. 31 VPS up with one match to go I am reliably informed. 

Ireland Open lost the last match by 12 imps I understand and the final results are posted above.

This was an extended Egan Trophy with 10 teams involved including Open Ladies and Elder Irish bridge teams bound for Croatia.

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I hear the English Ladies team selection has sorted itself out and the team for Croatia will be as originally selected. 

Regent Annual Bridge Festival

http://www.bridgewebs.com/regent/

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As can be seen above the Regent Bridge Club is surpassing last years Summer Bridge Bonanza.

I show the first piece of the pdf file. However the whole pdf is displayed on the above link for the Regent Bridge Club.

The main prize is based on 3 out of 4 nights but check the conditions of contest which might surprise a top matchpoint player. Last year I posted a 65% score in my first session and found they don't allow scores above 60% in the Regent. Another pair posted a score of 74% and that too was capped to 60%.

I think they should score it by imps if they want to cut down the matchpoint specialists.

Now if I could get John Carroll and Thomas Hanlon and Karel deRaeymaker and Michael O'Briain to partner me on the 4 sessions I might be able to win some money. 

Back  2001 we had a Regent Bonanza but we had no fancy pdf files back then or blogs and probably not even a website. First prize was about 500 euros or maybe punts and Des Scannell scooped the prize.

It was not called a bonanza then but ran over about 6 Friday nights.

I think Declan Byrne organised that one when his hair was red and he moved faster.

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The European Bridge championships start in about 2 weeks. I am hearing there is some issue with the English Ladies Team but I don't know the background but some mentions have appeared in my email. 

I have done a little research and found the below on the Neopolitan Bridge site. This is the top European bridge news site.

https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/english-bridge-union-reinstate-sally-brock-nicola-smith-to-the-english-women-s-bridge-team

Apparently Sally Brock and Nicola Smith were removed from the English Bridge team and possibly the other 2 pairs withdrew in support. I don't actually know full details but the link above might point folk 

to the information.

Hugh McGann drew my attention to the issue but he would be closer to the issue as Fiona Brown is/was on the English ladies team. 

I personally have no feeling on this issue but I mention that it exists.

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In a previous issue I mentioned some cakes and a spread at Elm Park Golf Club annual match against Blackrock Bridge Club. I have been advised that all the nice cakes and goodies were made or procured by the ladies of Elm Park Golf Club bridge section. Anyway the Blackrock folk still won the event and ate all the cakes too. 

I was out directing in ElmPark Golf Club last night and they had me play as well as one lady had no partner and there was a half table. The opponents kept bidding higher then they could declare so we got some good scores. That was Mary Lu Carroll I think .

22 tables there last night.

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I called down to Train Crash Mulalls house last weekend and found he had been out battling the might of Liverpool bridge in some annual DSR match against Liverpool. Rory Egan and Train Crash Mullal battling together. I looked on DSR website but no information there yet. I understand Liverpool won the event.
However Train Crash is heavy training for next years event.
I noted he posted 64% on WBridge5 competition yesterday ...

http://bridgez.net:3002/playonthecloud
or download Wbridge5 program and use Bridgez tab but you still got to register to play.
Its FREE and a great way to sharpen ones declarer play.
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Bridge: Basic Card Play By Michael O'Loughlin

Michael's new book on card play technique has been favourably received by (among others) Séamus Dowling and Tomás MacCormac.

". . .an excellent book . . .easy to understand and laid out in a logical fashion . . . " Séamus Dowling

" . . it should become a standard text book in bridge classes and remain so for many years . . ." Tomás MacCormac

Copies available from the CBAI One-Stop Shop or from Thomas MacCormac, cost €10.

I found my copy of this book upstairs again recently .. I understand it is the recommended textbook for beginning players in Malahide Regional Bridge Club.

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Senior Camrose with Jack and Train Crash

Still ploughing away in the Senior Camrose tourney with my trusty Jack partner. Bearpark and Curran have by now made their debut and are feeling their way into this new level of event for them.

Lets be very clear here ...there are plenty of well known opponents in this field most of whom are full Camrose internationals and even more. Tony Priday is a legendary English player of the past.

Victor Silverston and Willy Coyle are legendary Scots of the 60s/70s..last century like.

So Steve and Brendan are in there with the big stuff.

Their current score of minus 8 cross imps a board equals about minus 1.5 normal imps but watch this space and we should see them go plus. A couple of missed spelling errors results in two McGowan and Hallberg pairings. 

Anybody who owns Jack or any other program is welcome to have my files .

Meanwhile with directing duties on the back foot for the summer I was able to venture out and have a game of bridge. I partnered Train Crash and as can be seen from the sheet we had a few pieces of red and some other small losses. However victory was secured in the end despite a rapidly tiring Train Crash.

We played in Malahide Regional Bridge Club which is probably the 2nd best venue for bridge in the country. I think Templogue has to count as number one. Templeogue is so good it has paint marks on the carpet in case the bridge tables move out of their designated position. You don't see the paint if the tables are positioned correctly. Interesting idea. 

We don't have paint in Malahide but we have 3 TVs on the walls to display anything from Results to Rugby matches to Bridge Lessons. Some nights we even display Karaoke words for sing a longs.

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Coming up very soon we have the European Championships of Bridge. We will have Open Women and Senior Teams in action. This takes place in Croatia.

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Anybody who fancies checking out their bridge prowess could do less than check out Brighton Summer Congress. It was my favourite destination for several summers as I learned more about the game.

I recall one time having KQ8764 of trumps and feeling duty bound to double the little old ladies 4H.

10 tricks to the little old lady later I learned my lesson. That was Irene Robinson I think.

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The M50 Teams competition will take place in Westmanstown on about June 21st ..

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I suffered a little of how my partners often feel last week. I was playing a game of DON and despite winning every game comfortably my partner had no time for my bridge like counting and signalling. He said thats why women play bridge and men play DON. I don't need to signal or count or even look at cards indicated the legendary DON player PHIL MARKS of Rivervalley. 

Some nighr I will introduce him to a chap I know who plays DON for 100 euro a corner down in the Liberties. As in bridge one cannot play without counting or signallng.

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My Don playing friend Declan McKenna a man of many talents continues to be INTRIGUED by bridge.

Declan is an expert fly fisherman , a top class DON player, a man who seems to win at the bookies and on Friday evening he even fetched up in Croke Park at the One Direction concert in full waterproof fishing gear. The teenagers were no longer laughing at the old lad in waterproofs when the rain poured down.

Declan is the first person I have ever met who uses the word intriguing to describe bridge.

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Last week I saw the same Declan slipping 50 euro to another lad who was down on his luck.

He noticed I saw him doing it. Declan says "Look and learn Eamon ..I am nobodies fool. I did not give him the money until he was going home. That means he will still have it for the weekend.

Declans parting comment to the chap was "And if I see you in Ladbrokes over the weekend I will knock the head off you.. I am well able to lose money in there without giving it to you to lose for me"

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One meets the nicest chaps in the strangest places. The same Declan came to Malahide Bridge Club one night and kibitzed Maurice Quinn from a distance. He is still talking about the old lad in Malahide with no flies on him. I noted this week on the internet that Maurice Quinn played in a European Teams event before I even started playing bridge.

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Galligan plays Telscher Trophy virtually

I made a tournament on Jack to play the Telscher Trophy. Currently I have 3 matches played and hopefully with the imminent entrance of Steve Bearpark and Brendan Curran into the event I can do better. The table below is cross-imps against the real players with me partnering my trusty computer Jack 5.0 playing Acol type system.

Meanwhile up in Sligo Irelands decorated Tournament Director Fergal O'Boyle runs Sligo Congress.

I am tipping the McGloughlin Lillis McConville collection to go well in the teams.

I am told the horse is playing well these days.

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If any Jack users want the files for Telscher let me know.

Sligo Arklow and Junior Fiundraiser

Up in rainy Sligo they (thats Mairead Fergal and a whole gang of Sligo bridge players) hold the Sligo Bridge Congress this weekend. So if its a nice soft day ye can go to Sligo and stay indoors and play bridge and look out at the rain and all the non-bridge players getting soaked.

http://cbai.ie/competitions/documents/YeatsCountryBridgeCongress2013.pdf

And I think they have an old spree as well after the bridge. Just in case its still raining. Also I think Fergal is the next CBAI President so he will be directing at loads of Congresses next year so watch out.
He won't know what hit him. Every weekend he will be away directing some Congress.
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Down in rainy Arklow next Sunday they (Arklow Bridge organizers) will hold the Arklow Cup.
Thats Sunday May 25th. I was supposed to attend this event with Michael McGloughlin but then he decided
he would go to rainy Sligo instead.
I might get there yet but no plans at the moment. Its a lovely place and a bridge player recently told me that his uncle owns the Woodenbridge hotel.

http://cbai.ie/competitions/documents/ArklowCup2014_000.pdf
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Jack is the best bridge program I know for anybody who likes to study bridge with a computer.
http://www.bridgeworld.co
m/indexphp.php?page=/pages/bookstore/itemdetailpages/itemdetailpage_1906.html

There are loads of other software and bridge books available from
http://www.bridgeworld.com
at good prices. Even a subscription to the Bridge World is only about 6 euro a month. Not much more then
the price of a pint or the cost of a game of club bridge. See what the big boys study and play.
Eventhough its a magazine I never get through the whole mag in a month.
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Closer to home one could subscribe to the IRISH BRIDGE JOURNAL
This is a fine publication with lots of information about Irish bridge and some international
contributions.
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Meanwhile down at the Regent Bridge Club Declan continues to get busy ...

John Carroll and Thomas Hanlon will attend and take part in a Junior Bridge fundraiser on Friday
May 30th.
http://www.cbai.ie/documents/AneveningwiththeMasters.pdf

In my late 20s after I found the Regent Bridge Club it was the place of choice on a Friday night to tackle the great masters of bridge and have a few pints. We intermediates used to attempt to take down Great Masters like Ruth Giddings and Sean Stack and Charlie Cullen and Joe McHale and BJOBrien and Des Scannell. A chap called Frank used to run the bridge some nights. So Friday May 30th should be a good night.
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Finally last Sunday night out in Elmpark Golf Club the folk from Blackrock took down the locals in the annual team match. However there was a fine spread of cakes and chocolate things and lemon drizzles and other nice things. That was before they produced the sandwiches. I think the plan is that Blackrock are allowed win every year as they bring the best cakes.
The score was about Blackrock 865 to Elmpark 755.

Maybe next year Elmpark will win.
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CBAI win Senior Camrose and Nickell stage a mighty comeback AGAIN

The CBAI Elders took down the Senior Camrose Trophy at the weekend. Backboned by new caps Steven Bearpark and Brendan Curran with the support of old warriors Jackson + Gibson and invigorated by the youthful O'Briain brothers the CBAI team started steadily with a small loss to Wales and piled on 4 decent victories over the next 5 matches. Match 7 saw Bearpark and Curran pound on the NIBU pair and run out 16.5 to 3.5 victors. This set CBAI up to win the event as they now led by about 18 VPs with only 3 matches left. A draw against Wales and a small win against Scotland left the CBAI in the driving seat going into the last round.
However despite suffering a heavy loss as the toll of being Iron men told on the O'Briain brothers CBAI held out to win by 2 VPs.

http://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwoc/bw.cgi?club=nibuimm&pid=display_page12

http://www.bridgewebs.com/fob/

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On Saturday I was in a bridge club with strange yellow markings on the carpet. After making some enquiries I was told that these markings indicated where table legs should be placed. Now that is serious planning.
I am going to tell the Malahide Regional maintenance person about that.

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Finally at nearly 5am this morning the action came to a climax. Yet again Levin and Weinstein famed a few months ago for bidding and making a grand slam off an ace in a US National Teams final , were involved in
another famous Team Nickell comeback. This comeback was only a 32 imp comeback ,not so much when compared with Nickell comebacks of old which sometimes involved 80 imps in 16 boards. One wonders how a multi world champion team like Nickell gets in holes like these. Also the standard of the opponents are much stronger than the opponents of 10 years ago. 10-20 years ago it was just a matter of time until Meckwell put on their Messi boots and landed a few hatricks.
Nowadays the top 10 teams in the world are capable of taking down Meckwell and Levin Weinstein etc
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http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph_archives/vugraph_archives.php

Last nights comeback saw Nickell only take the lead on board 57 when they got a chance to double 2D and take it down 3 in one room to go along with 4H-1 in other room. There were only 60 boards in the event.

Eric Kokish their coach told me that at one stage they led by 55 imps early on.

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Thomas Roche and David Coyne won the IBU Pairs event held in Templogue on the weekend despite severe opposition put up by the Comyn and Moran men. 

Ireland Open v Senior Training

Round 2 Ireland Open v Senior

Match 1 Open 12.55 Senior 7.45
Match 2 Open 16.09 Senior 3.91

Totals after 4 matches .. Open 65.72  Senior 14.28

Open v Senior Team training session

Good afternoon all

I am here in Regent Bridge Club looking after the Open and Senior training session. They will play 96 boards over 6 matches of 16 boards .

Match 1 OPEN 18.21 SENIOR 1.79
Match 2 OPEN 18.87 SENIOR 1.13

RUNNING TOTAL after round 1 . OPEN 37.08 SENIOR 2.92

OPEN .. Thomas Hanlon Hugh McGann John Carroll Tommy Garvey Mark Moran Rory Boland
SENIOR .. BJ O'Brien Mike McDonagh Rex Anderson Pat Barry Adam Mesbur Nick Fitzgibbon

However the Senior Team appear to be having the better of Round 2 going by my datums and the table scores in a pairs format.
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Last night we played the Cowhie Trophy in Malahide.
Dan and Mary Cowhie are two long time members of Malahide Regional Bridge Club although they only
started the game in their late 50s or so .
I was quite surprised one night when the nearly 90 years of age Dan Cowhie asked me to print out
some sheets for Dan and Mary to do some bidding practice.

We had 16 tables on a Friday night when normally 6-10 tables show up.
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Regent Quiz Night and Bridge ..Lady Milne too

The magical Rory Egan advises that the below event will take place in the Regent Bridge Club.

I understand the idea came to a Regent Bridge Club committee member just before it drifted off to sleep recently. It was pondering the recent coughing situation in bridge and then it recalled a similar coughing situation in a Quiz show. So the Regent Quiz & Bridge night was germinated.

Just in case the question comes up BJ O'Brien keeps his bridge winnings in a coffee jar upstairs in the bedroom. 

I wonder did the Regent Bridge Club ever make Ruth Giddings an honorary member.

Just in case the question comes up as to who is the longest serving member of the Regent Bridge club apart from Declan Byrne who has been serving us for year. 

No doubt Big Brain Mulall will be attending the Quiz as his great knowledge of the general world should enable him to get loads of score in the quiz. 

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Oh and by the way the Lady Milne bridge internationals is down in CityNorth this weekend starting on Friday. We hope to have 6 tables of Bridgebase vugraph. I say hope as I just recalled that Windows XP is now in sunset and no longer supported and all the NIBU machines have WinXP installed.

http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php

Schedule is as above .. Find Lady Milne 

There are 2 CBAI Teams and one from NIBU 

http://www.bridgegreatbritain.org/

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Boland Hanlon win Moylan Trophy

Thomas Hanlon and Rory Boland gradually turned up the volume thru Session 1 to Session 3. Placed 6th of the 40 pairs in the first session and despite going thru a dodgy patch on Saturday night the top seed emerged on Sunday morning with about 61% session to overtake the puffing Onisulk and deRaeymaker.

Results can be found at http://www.bridgewebs.com/joemurray/

Well most of them .. I could only see 10 boards of session 1 but such is my life.

Hanlon and Boland done them like Seabiscuit as my mate in the pub says when he wins a game of DON.

I think Seabiscuit is a horse from the 50s.

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A message on coughing I received last week

Eamonn,

What baffles me the most is the following ......

These are 2 very intelligent men - medical doctors of some repute, and world class bridge experts.

So - If they were going to devise a cheating system - such as the alleged "coughing code" - SURELY THE F*** they could have come up with something more complex than 1 cough for clubs, 2 for diamonds etc.

This is so bloody simple an approach that a serious potential cheater should be embarrassed for trying something so easy to decipher. (An Italian would CERTAINLY blush).

There was a company I worked for a few years ago - the operators used passwords such as "johnny", "mick", "tommy" etc -  The CIA would have had a hard job hacking into their computers !

What I'm saying - is that if I (or anyone  of sound mind) was going to invent a cheating system based on coded coughs - I would certainly make the effort to make the code a little bit difficult to crack.

e.g.:-  Would use different cough numbers according to Board Numbers, vulnerability, time of session etc.

So maybe 3 coughs would show club shortage when we were non-vul on an even-numbered board, and it would show spade shortage at game all  between 1 and 2 hours into the session etc etc.

Now - try and decipher that Donna and Eddie !

Now - if a simple lad like Tommy Cardplayer. can come up with a code like above - how come our 2 German geniuses come up with something that a jack russell pup could solve in half an hour ?

What do you think yourself.

(Should I write up a new weasel cough system and market it ?).

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http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/diagnosis-foul-play/

Above is Eddie Wolds article on the detection from bridgewinners.com

and there is lots more discussion and comments on 

http://bridgewinners.com/

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http://neapolitanclub.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Brief-DBV-13.3.-1.pdf

http://neapolitanclub.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/brief-DBV-20.3.-2.pdf

Above is some of the other side of the story 

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Personally I don't care one way or the other if these chaps cheated. It was always unlikely that I would ever play against them. Probably 90% of bridge players "cheat" without even knowing it. 20% of bridge players would be termed sharp or cute.

A friend of mine told a story once about playing against two elderly folk who stopped in 3NT and then one of them indicated she meant to bid 4H but forgot. Our man indicated they could change back as he had a Heart stack or whatever. 

The opponents after going down in 4H were heard talking about the nice man who let them change their bid from 3NT (cold) to 4H (going down) 

Would this be termed cheating or just sharp or perfectly normal.

Folk know the count by the speed of their partners play but mostly its not on purpose.

Folk hesitate and pass regularly as they don't realise this is tranmitting information. 

Most folk don't even notice their partners hesitations anyway. 

Then you have the chap whose hand does not fit his conventions exactly . Some of the time he quickly shapes his hand and bids anyway

Other times he hims and haws a little and eventually passes .. 

..........

Myself and James tried the coughing system on BBO the other night against two friends of ours. They knew straight away where our shortages were. 

The interesting question is if you play Cough Cough what do you use the normal splinter bids to show. You abviously don't need them for shortages. 

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Vanderbilt Final explodes into life as large person sings

Very early this morning I was pondering going to bed while watching the Vanderbilt Final drifting along to a dreary end. Just to be clear arguably 8 of the Worlds Top 10 players were involved in a single team match and I don't think there are any money prizes. Some might argue about the top 10 but defintely 8 or the Top 20 players in the world.
So there are 16 boards left and its gone 8 flat boards so far and this board flashed on the screen.

Rodwell managed to get home in 4H so that was 12 imps and we had a 7 point game.

Then a flat 3NT-2
Then Meckwell got caught in a speed trap

And lost 9 imps back .. The Final board of this event is 64 so we are getting near the end but its 430am and one is seriously thinking about going to bed and reviewing the action in the morning.

Then we had watched this board in the other room and came to various conclusions but we had not dreamed what was about to happen. 

Now I am sure the Great Mulall will have something to say about this when he sees it. He would have been long tucked up in bed dreaming about all the tricks he might make in the Regent or the time he had the Dream team in his cab back at the Buffet Cup in 2006...."I just dropped home my new team ...Hamann Soloway and Zia" along with the Great Mulall squeezed into the same car.

However we all presumed 7D would be doubled and go off a few tricks and that would be that .. +710 against maybe +800 or even less ... but no major panic.. After some long thought South Bobby Levin placed the 7S card on the table .. and all passed ..

Back in 2006 I walked into a discussion at the Buffett Cup in Ireland and the current world number 1 player of the time was discussing who might be the best player in the world. There was mention of Z&B who I figured out was Zmudsinski and Balicki. ..probably best pair. Then there was some talk about a guy from Norway and I was there presuming Helgemo..as were a few others.... "Never makes a mistake" blah blah ..

Somebody mentioned Geir ,,,and the speaker said in broken Italian English ...No No No ...Tor ... Tor Helness is the toughest opponent ...

So Tor is on lead and tracks a heart and we all drift back to the Open Room for more Meckwell versus Fantoni .. Evertually the result comes thru and its 7S made ..and 17 imps ..

http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph_archives/vugraph_archives.php

You can find the match here ..its probably at the top of the page. There are a few more good boards to come but in the end Nickell won by 2 imps at the end of 64 boards. 

http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/outside-the-vanderbilt-finals/

At the above link you can see some video of after the Nickell team won and them scoring up when Meckwell came out of the other room and the lovely Golden Retriever dog which belongs to one of the players ..maybe Bobby Levin or Steve Weinstein as it appears to like them very much. 

Of course Golden Retrievers are the friendliest dogs ever anyway. 

BJ O'Brien was watching this for quite a while but he had to retire after stanza 3 ... Galligan stayed the whole pace. 

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I am noting that the Regent Bridge Club is rising again as a venue of good bridge. They held the Senior Trials on St Patricks Weekend recently ... I think the aforementioned BJ O'Brien won that as well. Apologies to BJs Team mates .. Rex Pat and Michael but its BJ O'Brien... 

Then this past weekend the Regent put on the Corn Cairdeas which seems to be an annual love in between BJ and 11 others representing CBAI and some 12 folk from the EBU ..

BJ won that event as well ..

http://www.bridgewebs.com/regent/

Information can be found here on those results and on the Regent Bridge Club.

The Regent Bridge Club probably remains Irelands premier bridge club as it still has the deepest level of bridge playing strength in the country. Limerick Cork Galway and Belfast may disagree but the Regents 20th best player will probably be a full international player of some repute and their 50th best is probably some way ahead of the Great Mulall. 

The Regent is the place to go if you feel bridge is your game ... If like many "good " bridge players you prefer to be a winner ..you can find a pond to swim in to suit your level and win lots of competitions but you won't really count until you conquer the Regent. Obviously this does not apply to non-Dublin area residents ..as we don't expect ye to travell all that way for club bridge as well as Nationals/Trials ..

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

A note on technology ...and bridge clubs ...

Back in 1994 or so when Grace Finnegan was President ..the first computer entered the Regent ..it was the old one from Graces house or office or business or someplace. All the folk who had scored by hand for years looked at this box and carried on their normal business .. Nobody would have dreamed that 20 years later the computer and its peripherals would dominate the Regent Bridge Club..

The current computer ...Deals Hands .. Works out the best way to play .. Scores competitions ..

Generates movements .. and probably counts up the money ..

Ooops I am wrong there .. Computer still needs an operator so maybe its the Regent Club Manager Declan Byrne who helps the computer do all these things ..Oh and Declan has Bridgemates as well ...little white boxes that gather the information for the computer to score events .. 

Oh and there is the website mentioned above ... 

I landed in at the Regent yesterday morning to run the end of the Corn Cairdeas .. I had a movement and some bridgemates and planned boards 1-30 played in groups of 10.

Declan looked at me and said where are you going with that stuff ... You won't be needing thar ..

The players know where they are going and who they are playing and they play boards 11-20 on every round and they don't do bridgemates .. You get the scores from the Teams of each side and make sure they are the same and give them to me and I will instruct the computer to send them out to the masses ..

"What about the scoring"  says I ....Dont' worry about that ..The computer does it ..

Well do I have to printout stuff ...NO NO NO ..just get the scores and put out the correct set of 11-20 for the round you are playing ..Then sit down and wait for the next round ... 

When you go to the Regent to direct ...its all ready to go ...and if its not Declan already knows its not working and waits until you figure it out and then says ..I have that sorted ... just was waiting for you to figure it out ... 

However Declan is getting kind of large ... He has to keep buying larger shirts ...

He is up to a size 18 neck now ..Too much sitting at the computer instead of climbing the Regent stairs.

The stairs are very squeaky though .. 

Wonder will Declan be angry and tear up my Bridge Laws book which I left in Regent yesterday.

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

Gonzaga Open Charity Bridge Event

Saturday 29^th March 2014

Arran Bolger,

Gonzaga College,

Sandford Road,

Ranelagh,

Dublin 6

This is a one session bridge competition starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday 29 March

All levels of players are welcome and there will various sections ranging from novice to master with prizes for each section

The event will take place in Gonzaga College, Ranelagh which is conveniently served by the Cowper stop of the Luas Green Line

There will be a raffle and prize giving after the competition

The entry fee is €10 and can be paid on the day

Please assist us with the planning of this event by letting us know in advance that you plan on attending

GonzagaBridgeGala@gmail.com   or 086 3251018 for information or entries.

We look forward to welcoming you to the college at the end of the month

Habitat for Humanity

“Habitat for Humanity International is a non-profit, Christian organization that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action worldwide.”

However, the international housing crisis is only getting worse with around 2.8 million people without permanent accommodation in Zambia alone and Habitat desperately needs your support and compassion

Every year, the college sends a group of 5^th Year students and staff to Zambia with Habitat to build houses for the locals.

This year I am part of a group of 20 students and 5 teachers going to a small village outside Ndola for the two weeks over the Easter break.

I simply ask of you two things:

·        I ask that you remember that there are places on Earth where quality housing is considered a luxury and not a fundamental Human right

·        And I ask that you realise the impact your support can make on someone’s life, however small.

   Thank you for your continued support

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

Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon lost their first round match in the Vanderbilt by 3 imps.

Thomas Hanlon and John Carroll and their team moved comfortably into Round 2

The Vanderbilt is argueably tougher than a World Championship with as many as 10 of the lower seeds defeating top 32 seeds. The 64th seed remains in contention having come thru the prelims and then defeating the 14th seed. Being a World champion does not guarantee you a top 32 seeding. To put it in perspective probably most of the top 60 seeded teams would win the Holmes Wilson Irish championship.

Some teams got beat by over 100 imps ,the 4th seed Fleicher put 275 imps past their opponents in 64 boards. Thats lots given their goalkeeper left in 99 imps.

The Bridgebase coverage of this event starts today about 6pm Irish time. They pick an interesting match to start and after that they pick the closest match in imps for the 2nd half.

Http://bridgebase.com to watch 

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

The Greystones Cup to be won by BJ O'Brien ...well he wins everything else

Galligan continues his quest to play some Peter Goodman boards. Remember Peter generally has decent partners but also has world class opponents so the odds are on Galligan to win this.
However I have conceded 200 imps in 124 boards so far so I am failing on many boards.
Its a good way for a tourney director to keep his hand in.
..........................
Next Sunday we have the Greystones Cup and the early betting should be on the incredible BJ O'Brien.
I reckon he wins half the events he enters so he is like Ruby Walsh in Cheltenham multiply by 4.
However the mare Quevega has BJ marked... She has ran about 8 races and won them all ..

Greystones Open CupSunday 30th March 2014
1.30 pm (two sessions)

Greystones Bridge Centre
Victoria Road, Greystones, Co. Wicklow

Match Point Duplicate Pairs Competition
1st (400 euro), 2nd, & 3rd Prizes
1st & 2nd Session Prizes
Best Intermediate Prize, Best Local Prize

Pre-Entries (Master / Intermediate)
John Royds <roydsjf@gmail.com>,
01-2819283
Bernadette Coggins <berno2000@gmail.com>,
01-2875328 or 087 4146587

Late Entries/Cancellations on day:
tel. Greystones Bridge Centre 01-2873633
Tournament Director: Brian Lawlor
Sponsored by Glen Fuels Services, Kilmacanogue 

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

There is also the smaller question of some event on in Gonzaga ... on Saturday 29th March ..

I know because I am directing ...and I know my prize .

However I don't know if any players know so I could be lonely ..

No longer being a player I don't really frequent the noticeboards these events are advertised on 

but I believe it takes place in Gonzaga College ... a 1 session event ...

Maybe somebody will tell some players 

........

Meanwhile down the country in Athlone at the weekend ... The Radisson seems to be the venue of choice 

for central Ireland events these days ...given it has bagged the Holmes Wilson ..and Davidson ..

The aforementioned incredible BJ O'Brien followed up his qualifying win in the Quinn Cup ...

possibly a stronger event than that for which it qualifies for ... with a win in the Davidson Cup ...

He finished ahead of the fast finishing Pat Quinn and Enda Glynn who seemed to get mugged or stuck in the 

tar during the first session. However class is permanent and once they got out of the tar ...they put down a chase after BJ but the incredible held on for victory ...

CBAI President did his best to close the gaps but the weather was against him ...

Malahides powerful pairing of William Ronan and Thomas Gilligan ran out of steam in the 3rd session ..

They need to work on the stamina for next year ... 

..........

Meanwhile the incredible BJ O'Brien is a little bothered as somebody indicated he might struggle in the 

European Senior Teams in Croatia ...... Well I never heard of a bridge player who suddenly became world class 

just because he turned 60 ... May BJ be the first one ... Golfers can do this as maybe they have a better physique then their opponents ...but in Seniors Bridge the main part that matter is the brain ... allied to ones bridge knowledge and skill... Chaps who were winning Euro medals in their 20s will still be winning in their 60s.

Chaps who did'nt will still be losing ..

However in recent Senior Irish trials the seemingly favourite team lost ... Mind you it seemed quite a short 

event ...48 boards in the final ... I don't know what they played in the qualifiers .. 

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

Meanwhile Magic Murphy (murphyslaw on BBO) a Malahide player found the going too tough in the Laird Trophy

the Inter A national finals. Now he is considering his future in bridge as he considers the opposition too strong.

When I was intermediate and started in Malahide I was told about all these legends of bridge and that I would never beat them ... I gradually overtook them one by one and found maybe the word legend was overused.

Ray McConville has become active again in Malahide ...He would be good enough to be a legend ...and I don't 

think I passed him out ..

...........

Thanks 

Eamon Galligan 

Galligan versus Petepunt

Galligan is currently partnering the 2002 program GIB against the 2014 version of Petepunt and random decent partners. Petepunt is currently gone to US Spring Nationals so I downloaded the month of February of Petepunts playing on BBO. Pete plays in mostly high level games on Bridgebase Online so he generally has good partners and good opposition. Galligan partners the GIB which is the original version of the current program used all over Bridgebase Online. Back in the day circa 1996 Galligan was involved as a beta tester when GIB was under development. Matt Ginsberg was the programmer who jumped bridge playing programs into the future. GIB was a fantastic program for 1996 and most bridge playing programs today use its ideas. Effectively GIB has no programming development since 2001.
Recently Bridgebase Online have been working on the bidding system and making improvements in the robot they rent to customers.
As can be seen on the screenshot I am beating Petepunt by 64 imps or so. I must be a good player or maybe my opponents are weaker.
.............
WBridge5 Monthly Standings

Here is a visual of how the regular players are performing on the daily WBridge5 tournament.

I would include the Great Mulall except he prefers to remain incognito and not have his skills advertised.

I expected to see the Great Mulall togging out in the Seniors Trials this year but no sign of the Great man. 

BJ makes the Seniors at age 59

The dashing bridge player BJ OBrien who enters 3 times as many events as anybody else and thus gathers 40 B points a year has found a new source of B points I think. I don't know if B points are awarded for Senior Bridge but if so the Dashing BJ will soon be as good as Thomas Hanlon.
Last weekend BJ and his 3 compatriots won the Irish Senior Trials with a comeback victory over what might have been deemed the favourites.
Results and boards and other good stuff can be found at

http://www.bridgewebs.com/regent/

According to John Comyn well known bridge correspondant of the Sunday Independant it was the best bridge ever played or something to that effect ..Here are the exact words.

->jcomyn: BJ and the Dutch doubleton crushes all the medalists
jcomyn: it was some match I can tell you
->jcomyn: so it should have been on vugraph
jcomyn: yes. Level with 2 boards to play after 46 boards of really exciting bridge

BJ plays Dutch Doubleton but he probably does not know this.

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

Meanwhile WBridge5 continues to be a daily thorn in my foot. I reckoned I could takeout Jeannie Fitzgerald by 4% per day but unfortunately I am trailing with only 10 day left in the month. Lucky its a long month. I don't think I will make the 4% but with several good days I might get into the lead. Apparently it makes her blood boil when I refer to her as a female player .... although much in jest. My only intention would be for her to play better. It works as she normally manages about 58% but this month is posting a concentrated 61.36%.... This is better than the aforementioned legendary bridge player BJ O Brien who also tackles this thorn daily. 

http://bridgez.net:3002/playonthecloud

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

Last night I was doing a little bidding practice with 2 lads and I found my laptop going somewhat slow and the internet out in the venue I was directing at somewhat flakey but I managed to nurse the session home. 

When I got home I ran some malware removal software and today my computer is much better...

SuperAntiSpyware seemed to do the trick ... one can get a trial version of this from 

http://www.superantispyware.com/

I have no connection with this software but it seemed to do the job ..

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

I believe there is some kind of bridge event out in Gonzaga College next weekend ie Saturday 29th of March. I don't play much bridge these days but no doubt it is advertised in all the places I used to play.

I am directing it so thats how I know about it. 

This is bridge with a difference as the organisors are all teenagers ... as far as I know..

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

This coming weekend is the National Pairs Finals down in Athlone and the well known online bridge player Murphyslaw will take to the floor with his dancing partner. Murphy and his partner dazzled in the Dublin North Region Inter A pairs event but might find the going a little tougher at National level. 

Despite this murphyslaw has been very visible on Bridgebase Online this week and expects a weeks hard training will put him back in form. However Murphy does not realize there are card players who lurk in the countryside who have been playing cards since they were 4 years old and now have 60 years experience.

It might not be bridge but all kind of card playing adds to ones experience. 

There will even be Weasel cardplayers waiting in the long grass for murphyslaw ..

http://www.bridgeace.com/Weasel.pdf

There are some players in my club who regularly come up for review in the Tournament and Play committee so this week I showed them the Weasel... They examined it with aplomb and went off with a copy each. 

They did point out that it might be somewhat illegal or maybe a kind of cheating but they seemed happy to examine it and possibly graft it onto their system. 

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

Meanwhile if any bridge players apart from the Great Mulall buy the Sunday Business Post you will find that 

the famous bridge teacher Peter Pigot has started writing some articles in that newspaper.. 

Seems the Great Mulall is ahead of his time. He has been buying Senday Business Post for years. 

Now he will know even more about bridge guided by the DSPP ... I forget what DS stands for but it is a reference to an article Rory Egan wrote about Peter Pigot in some other magazine,

He told me he would send me a copy but I never got to read it ...

Thanks 

Eamon Galligan 

Schools Bridge

Folks

Last weekend was a busy weekend. Camrose Trophy took place in England..
Results posted at www.ebu.co.uk ... albeit somewhat late but even web admin have to put on
the glad rags for the party and often there is little time and maybe an appeal or two to be held.
However lots of people wondering who won as they thought they saw a large Ireland victory in final round. However Wales struggled against most teams over the weekend and 17.87 was still a small win in context so Ireland 4th place.
Lots of folk commenting on a "poor " Irish performance ..however when these players turn up for duty in Irish trials or Irish nationals they generally leave the rest of the fields struggling for air so maybe less hot air is required. Kibitzers can see 52 cards .. players only see 26 cards in play and maybe 13 cards each in bidding.
..............
Bankers Congress took place at weekend
http://www.bankersbridgeclub.com/Congress14/index.php?pg=results

Most results are available here .. looks like Mike Gowie made this website ..
A Bankers player

...........
Finally down in Galway we had the Schools teams with 29 teams taking part..

http://www.bridgewebs.com/thomasmaccormac/

New players from Gonzaga College seem to have broken the Northern mould but no doubt the
BRAs and Carricks and Bangors will be back next year ..We will see..

We had some quite young players in action ... maybe some of 12 years old ..
I saw a couple of guys who were much younger in the past but they growing up.

I don't know most of the names but I met the slowest player in Ireland over the weekend ..
He only played about 4 boards out of 6 most matches but he could talk for Ireland..
He called me over a few times and said .. "Eamon I played these hands before .."
I said "Nope .. you cannot have .. all you do is talk your opponents to sleep "
He says " Well maybe it was a hand like it I played before .. I definitely had 4 small diamonds on
one of the hands I played before when I was not talking .."

However I must say these under 18 bridge players have incredible manners or maybe it was because the teachers were there .. I suppose if one teacher is 6 feet 10 inches it helps ..

Up in Dublin I am used to a gang of beer swilling hoody clad guys who fire half empty cans across the field at anything that moves ..Even rabbits have been shocked by a beer can ..

So I tried another tack ... Playstation or Xbox ... Nah we don't do those anti social things ..
We go rowing and playing hockey and rugby and fishing ..
We used to have Xbox and Playstation but those now for the bedroom crusaders looking out their
windows at the world passing by.
A few guys even said .. We gave up Xbox and PS4 when we found bridge

............
I wonder how is George Ryan .. I missed him at Holmes Wilson so rang him up and found he had been in hospital .. must ring him later on

Thanks
Eamon Galligan ..