IBU Trials Final ... The Final 20 boards

Back on January 31 2016 the IBU trials had been turned upside down. The underdogs known as Team O'Brien had doggedly hung on for 60 boards and on boards 61-80 on Sunday morning they suddenly opened up a 52 imp lead.
So what if anything could Team Moran do ... Well they started with a team talk from Hugh McGann out the front of the Regent Bridge Club

We lead well We defend well We bid well and we just hope the boards contain the IMPS..

And so it began

We setup the vugraph and retired down to the Regent Bar and the big screen and we also had
a few laptops

We started watching the Closed Room where Ranald and BJ as North South battled John Carroll and Tommy Garvey ..

Board 19 was a quiet 2S down 1 by EW looking like a gain for Moran as up to 10 tricks were available for NS in a no trump contract ..

Board 20 came on the screen and showed North South declaring 3H with Garvey Carroll taking a cut at it... so 3HX by BJ OBrien

From the off to us kibitzers it looked like 3 simple clubs a diamond and a HEART for down 1 ...
However Carroll and Garvey had other ideas and a clu and two diamond plays later the gallant BJ had a plausible play for 10 tricks ... However like all good players he guaranteed his contract and made 3H for 730...
This looked like about 15 imps out for Team Moran and a deficit of 67 imps ..

At this stage Declan Byrne the Regent Club Manager approached and glanced at the score and indicated we can make better use of our time. He wanted to know about setting up vugraph and some
Pairs Scorer stuff .. so off we went to his private kitchen where the Regent Club computer and other tools reside. For the next 40 minutes we did some computer bridge techy stuff and there was little sound from the battlefront..

When I emerged from Declans Den ... the BJ Milne room was starting board 5....A light 1S opening by McGann caught Wojech with a strong NT without a spade stop so he was confined to DOUBLE and Ruzinski holding a 2452 8 count bid 2H and there they played.
With no opening in this room Garvey Carroll sailed into the cold (as cards lie) 3NT and it was 6 imps for Moran

Board 6 saw a flat 4S

Onto Board 7 Both played in 3NT

Milne chose an attacking spade lead and that sort of was a comfortable 9th trick for Carroll ..
In the other room Hanlon found a safer Diamond lead and Wojech had to sniff out a 9th trick.
He tried for 3-3 HEARTS eventually and down he went .. 12 imps

The gap was 32 imps but the 15 on board 20 still loomed so call it 47 imps

Board 8 and 6C contract flashed on the screen as the Hanlon result in other room
O;Brien Milne stopped off in 5C
Hanlon McGann with slightly better methods were able to indicate DIAMONDS on the way
and Hanlon bid the 6C ... No problems in the play .. ruff out some diamonds ...

11 imps to Moran ... and now its 191 played 170 and the gap is closing but 3HX is still in the bag for Team O'Brien

Board 9

Hanlon sent over 4H in the North for 420 ..
Garvey Carroll found an unfavourable  5D sacrifice doubled off 1 to gain another 6 imps
These guys wear IRON trousers ... 191 plays 176 ...

Meanwhile Rory Boland sitting beside me is looking ahead and analysing the future boards as the mainly pro O'Brien audience look on ... He thinks a small imp win is possible despite the 3H heavy loss looming on board 20

Onto Board 10 Wojech Marcin drop 200 for off 2 vulnerable in 2S

Meanwhile in the other room Carroll also declares 2S and gets the H10 lead
Anyway Carroll got home in 2S for 6 imps and the score was O'Brien 191 Moran 183

 And so we moved to Board 11

Team Moran  declared 4H in one room and were defeated by 1 trick whereas Team O'Brien  stayed lower and played in 3H and were allowed make that contract for another 6 imps

Some respite for Team O'Brien who opened up a 14 imp lead with Board 20 still to score.

197 plays 183

Onto board 12 and the excitement continued

Hanlon McGann as is their style bid a game and hoped someone might allow it make.

Not today boys so down 1 in 4S. Not a good result when you are on the chase and down 1 normally slows down chasers

However Carroll and Garvey attempted the double fit 5D as East West and the defenders failed to find the club ruffs and 5DX came home for 550 and 10 much needed imps

The score .. 197 O'Brien 193 Moran

 And we go to 13 where both sides get to declare 3NT ... Hanlon is quickest and gets a spade lead as opposed to a killing Heart Lead ... Hanlon makes 10 tricks for 630 and the screw is turning ..
Garvey pings out a HEART and that's down 1 and another 12 imps
7 boards to go and the scoreboard amazingly shows Moran 205 O'Brien 197 but more is required to cover board 20
Boards 14 15 16 17 were quiet flat boards played in mostly the same contracts

So we are at board 18 with the score 205 plays 197

O'Brien Milne tried or got pushed to 4C in the Open Room and despite the defense not collecting all their tricks it was 4C down 2 and plus 100 .. In the Closed Room Wojech attempted 2D as a contract on the 4-3 fit. This also went down 1 and the tunnel was open and one could see light and it was not
an oncoming O'Brien train .. Moran 211 O'Brien 197

Board 19 finally came on the screen ...

 Carroll and Garvey stole away in a 2S contract with less than their share of the high cards.
It looked like a NT partcore for North South making about 9 tricks so should be 2 imps to Moran
However Rory Boland in the spectators vugraph room had been touting 3NT by Hanlon McGann since around board 10 when the imps started flowing back ..
He reckoned .. McGann upgrades to a 14-16 and Hanlon drives to game
How right he was

Moran 219 O'Brien 197 and it was onto board 20 with a 22 imp lead

So Congratulations to the Moran team on a terrific comeback. However maybe they need to examine some of the previous 80 boards to find out why they were in the hole

Ireland Open Team battle to Spring 4s final

The Ireland Open Team backboned  by Mark Moran and Rory Boland sneaked past a powerful Bulgarian squad in Round 7 ....I guess the quarter finals ...

6 once defeated Teams done battle there ..for 3 semi final spots

The undefeated Sinclair Team took a break as per the rules

The Gidman and  Alfrey teams joined Moran and Sinclair in the semi finals this morning

Alfrey being the original number 1 seeds and Moran the 9th seeds out of a starting field of 55 teams

So they had 14 direct matches and 9 triangles ... reducing the field to 32 teams ..

Its double knockout so you got to lose twice to be gone so they ended up with

6 once defeated teams and 1 undefeated. The once defeated 6 all took part in 3 quarter finals

and then there were FOUR ...

Undefeated Sinclair picked the Moran Team and got beaten by 10 imps over 32 boards

Alfrey the number 1 seeded OUTED Gidman and currently we have

Moran versus Alfrey for the CUP

All results and bulletins can be found at

www.ebu.co.uk

Look for Spring Foursomes

The Final is currently LIVE on Bridge Base Online

I just spotted a couple of Irish lads declaring a 3-2 HEART fit doubled and vulnerable.
They paid out 15 imps for that one

Then they followed up with a trick reducing lead against a doomed 3NT .. the old 4th highest works wonders ... and they paid 13 imps for that one

And finally on Board 8 it looks like Robson has them in his grippers again .. but it won't be as much to pay this time ..probably ....might even gain as a soft lead left them drop a loser ..

However score after 7 boards is ..Moran 11 Alfrey 39 ...

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Team Moran in Round 7 of Spring 4s on vugraph now

Team Moran are currently on vugraph. Monday May 02 430pm playing in Round 7 of Spring 4s.

I went to the funeral of Malahide and Regent bridge player Maurice Quinn on Saturday. It was only in late February he made his way over to his computer and played 10 hands of bridge-now while I played same program on my laptop behind him ..A full blog on Maurice later

I still plan to write my blog on the final 20 boards of the IBU trials but I have to play the 20 boards
first ... They were exciting and the chase was on with Moran trialing by 52 and losing about 15 imps on the early board 20

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

The Slow and the Stopped

As a bridge tournament director one of my duties is to keep the game moving. Sometimes one can pick up the 3 boards before the slow players realize they have only played 2 of the 3 boards. In this case one keeps going and nobody is any the wiser except me. Some players will call me and request an average if they are behind. Some  players who are caught slow just accept it and take an average.

However I have 3 examples

1. I approached a player last month who had been half of North South at say table A4 in a 3 sections competiton and indicated to her that it was great that her table had finally completed the boards.

She was very happy to point out to me that all the slow players in the room were in her section and they were all moving as East West and she had to play against them all. No mention of 20 seconds pause before every card played by her side.... Nope it was all the fault of the moving pairs who were dreadfully slow in her view.

2. One night I spotted a slow declarer starting to play a 4S contract and the table was already slow.

I asked them to speed up and went over to the computer which had www.bridge-now.com on the screen. I managed to bid and play 3 full hands while this lady (a different lady than Item 1) played the 13 tricks or made a claim

So 3 hands played in the 4 minutes ..Does not often happen due to internet lags in that club as the computer is connected to the net by an extender thing. However it shows the speed of play.

3. Last month another pair indicated with anger "WERE NOT SLOW .." I pointed out they had travelled through tables 6 7 and 8 all who were in the last 3 tables finishing each round .. so they
were not fast. 28 tables in play and no gain made on time. So must be slow.

4. Everytime I indicate a slow table they look around to check how next door tables are doing ..
"They  are still playing .." they pipe up ... I say .. Yeah that's true they are on 2nd board of the next round .. or they are on last 3 cards of the equivalent board to the one you are playing ..

5. Its never the slow players fault .. some of them are just permanently in 1st gear .. always travelling up hill

6. In another club where I direct there are two slow players .. Fergal and Tommy ... Now these two
lads just think slow and then when the thinking is done the fingers slowly pick out the calculated card and place it slowly on the table ...Then they repeat all the same for the next 12 tricks

7. Then we have the 1.5 minute dummy putter downer... This man or woman will place each card down in dummy individually and give each card a little pat as it goes on the table.. and maybe look for a little encouragement from partner for a large honor card.

8. And we have not got near a POST MORTEM yet ..

Jimmy the Donplayer converts to Bridge

Last weekend I went to Belfast to broadcast the Lady Milne Trophy on Bridgebase Online. All good and most people had a good time. Scotland had a better time and pretty much dominated the event posting an 87% score.... over the full event

In 2001 when the Coen Trophy was limited to above intermediate level my team managed to post
148 VPS out 150 in a single session of 30 boards and 6 matches of 5 boards.

However these Scots posted 87% over 160 boards and 5 long matches of 32 boards.

So I returned from the Lady Milne on Monday and recalled that I had promised to run a DON competition in my local pub that same night. DON is a game often referred to as poor mans bridge as it was often played by tradesmen whereas bridge was played in the big houses.

Anyway only 4 pairs showed up and we ran like a Two table Howell and all played 6 hands against the other pairs. So we got that over by about 1125pm. Eamon did not win.

1st place was Jimmy Donplayer and Liam Carrick.
.............................
So I was thinking ...great I can go home and have a good sleep.

Next thing Jimmy pipes up ... " Eamon give us a quick run through that bridge stuff ....and we will give it a spin for a while"

So Galligan deals out 4 hands and gets the lads to put them face up and quickly explain about winning the first 6 tricks to reach the book and thus bidding starts at 1 level but that means you need 7 tricks. They got that.
Then I explained .. bonus's kick in at 9 tricks for NT 10 tricks for Hearts Spades and 11 tricks for Clubs Diamonds. I have not told them about Small Slam and Big Slam yet.

I did a second hand face up with me explaining the bidding but they picked up the cards and declared the hand. They know the cardplay and what a trick is from DON..

Then Jimmy Donplayer says ... "This is an interesting game .. You could not play this and be drinking at the same time as you would lose count of the suits .. "

Then he says .. Can we play a few hands without showing them on the table ..

So first hand went 1H 2D 2N and Jimmy says "What did you say about a bonus for 9 tricks ..
and I explained and he said ... ok 3NT so ..

Then I made my lead and told Jimmy put his hand on the table ... Jimmy said " but Eamon we are not teaching anymore ..we are keeping our cards held up "

This is where I had to explain the dummy hand ........

Anyway Liam made 10 tricks for plus 1 in 3NT and 430 as Nil all on board 1
Next hand they played 3NT again and Jimmy declared for 9 tricks with a struggle..
I wrote down 600 ...

Then Jimmy piped up ..how does this scoring work .... and I said ... I will look after the scoring for
tonight and Jimmy says .." How will we know you are being honest "

The next 6 hands were part scores and undertricks and then it was time to go home.

Result .. Jimmy 1030 .... Eamon 780 ..

We were playing Chicago ... Nil All on hand 1  Dealer Vul on hand 2 and 3 .. Game all on hand 4

And Jimmy ..goes " What a game !! ... DON is like SNAP  compared to this bridge "
We will give it a spin again soon .. "

Then it took 20 minutes to get down the normal 7 minute walk home as Jimmy questioned me on
various bridge stuff and how it works in the club and scoring and stuff ...

I went in the next night and Jimmy comes over ...Eamon whats this T on that paper you gave me last night. ... I explained T = 10 ..

.........................
Meanwhile during that game Declan the Donplayer from previous articles was finally having his first game of bridge with real cards in his hands. For the last 18 months or so he has played only online on the computer. Lurking with intent  in the background was Shane the barman who I also taught bridge but he also has never played with real cards as he only plays on www.Bridge-Now.com

Seamus Costello delivers beginner lessons in my local community centre and Declan Donplayer called in there once or twice and indicated ...these people are learning what a trick is and what a trump is ... I already know those things.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Team Dee Charity Saturday 2pm April 16

Good afternoon

http://www.bridgewebs.com//malahideregional/Team%20Dee%20Flyer%2016.04.2016.pdf

There is a charity event in Malahide Regional Bridge Club on Saturday at 2pm.
Click the link above for details ..

This event was supposed to be on last weekend but there was some confusion with the Moylan being in Malahide or not being in Malahide so the organiser's cancelled the Charity  by a week.
I was all set to help out with Tournament Directing or as a float but now the event moved by a week.
So unfortunately I will be working the vugraph at the Lady Milne ..

So if you get bored watching Lady Milne then there is always the bridge game in Malahide.

(Regarding the Moylan not being in Malahide this year .. I think someone forgot to book the venue and I have no idea who that person might be)

I know that over the last few years I have run the Schools Bridge Pairs in Malahide with Thomas MacCormac and we always have to write to the Secretary to book the venue.

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

So our man in the West chooses to open a weak 2 with the 7 card suit .. and North declares 3NT.
HEART JACK lead and NORTH pops the Queen thinking 6-2 HEART break and that it does not
matter. However there was no cost to duck the HEART JACK and roll home 3NT via the working
club duck and maybe a DIAMOND 10 play or ACE and a small diamond .. but making
due to the lack of communication in HEARTS.

Now if WEST is a player who often opens WEAK 2 with 7 card suit then he needs to advise his
partner who when explaining will then mention the 7 card possibility.

However I don't think there is any cost to duck the HEART JACK ...

I have come across some international Ireland lady players who open a weak 2 with a 7 carder.
I think Eamon Galligan has tried the effect of the 4 card weak 2 opener...
Eamon also has operated the 5 card weak 3 opener
However these are dangerous moves which should only be used with caution .. and against counting
opponents.
........
A man with grey hair and glasses just motored up the road outside my house at speed and he was not driving a car. FAST WALKING..
The TV is talking about migrating from Excel to Access ..
.................
If one wanted to have some FREE practice at bridge one could use
www.bridge-now.com

Play a hand and you get a percentage score after each hand
Each week it will give you a rating which moves up or down each week.

.......................
If you want to watch FREE bridge lessons go to www.youtube.com and type in what you want
Example .. someone asked me last night and I showed them and typed in WEAK 2 bid into youtube.
About 20 videos popped up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_POgbpMjEBM

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

First Ireland invitational Pairs complete

Last Friday in the Regent we held the Inaugural (think it means first) Ireland Invitational Pairs event. This event requires a severe amount of organisation. We were limited to 7 tables of Pairs so that's 14 pairs in action.

So how are the pairs selected ... Well the first 7 pairs might be easy so lets have a go

1. Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon ...
2. Thomas Hanlon and someone ..in this case John Carroll was easy as he would be making any list himself
3. BJ O'Brien ..well its probably 35 years since any event started without BJ.. and his current partner
David Jackson is also a very active player still
4. The O'Briain brothers ..
5. Karel de Raeymaker and Anna Onishuk
6. Gay Keaveney is a solid citizen and as it happens one of his current partners is regular Welsh international player Peter Goodman
7. Terry Walsh and Michael McGloughlin have been in the top ranking of Irish bridge players from
the early 80s and before ..and having recently made a partnership in Senior Trials cannot be ignore
8. 9. 10.  Current trials form should not be ignored so all 6 players on the recent losing finalist team in the IBU trials are included
Wojciech Marcin Ranald Thomas and Ronan with the  very capable James Heneghan added as BJ O'Brien was already selected.

11. Donal MacAonghusa and Ciaran Coyne are a shoe in ...
12. Cian Holland has been showing well in various partnerships over the last 10 years so is included with partner Dermot Cotter
13. A Northern Ireland pair should be included .. David Greenwood and Rex Anderson would be the
expected choice but Ian Hamilton and Hastings Campbell showed up. Both are multiple capped
Camrose players for Northern Ireland
14. CBAI CEO and Regent President Paul Porteus and Fred Barry made up the 14. To the best of my
knowledge this pair are present as a flexible pair who might be present or not in Weeks 2 and 3 ..

The problem for the organisors is if a pair is asked to play in Week 1 then how can you kick them out for Week 2 and 3 ...so you need some wriggle room.

Well known names who come to mind and are missing are

1. Peter Pigot
2. Tommy Garvey
3. Hugh McGann
4. Rory Timlin
5. Pat Barry
6. Pat McDevitt
7. David Scannell
8, Paul Scannell
9 Enda Glynn
10. John Phelan
11 Diarmuid Reddan
12. Karl Cashen
13. Donal Garvey
14. Pat Quinn
15. Michael McDonagh
16. Eddie Fitzgerald
17. Paul Barrett
18. David Walsh
19. Alan Johnson
20. John Murchan
21. Grier McKenzie
22. Ian Lindsay
23. Bob Pattinson
24. David Greenwood
25. Rex Anderson
26. Aidan Cleary
27. PC Kiely
28 Rory Boland
29 Mark Moran


Names listed at the top as pairs ... in no particular order apart from First 2 pairs
Names 1-22 in no particular order either and maybe I have forgotten some

Next ...The women are going to wonder why no mention of them ...

Hilary Dowling Long
Gilda Pender
Louise Mitchel
Lucy Phelan
Valerie Hand
Aileen O'Keefe
Joan Kenny
Teresa Rigney
Jill Kulchycky
Maureen Pattinson
Brid Kirby
Valerie and Kathleen
The 2 Pats
Patsy Meehan Petra O'Neill
Jeannie Fitzgerald Emer Joyce
Diane Greenwood
Ciara Burns
Mary Finn
Rebecca Brown
Ena Cleary
Maria Whelan
Dolores Gilliland
Barbara Seligman
Grainne Barton
Maria Barry
Miriam McConville


I have not concentrated very hard on the Woman's list but listed out names that
came to mind from recent trials /Lady Milnes so if I left you out don't take offence

For the 29 men listed above probably half them were unavailable for some of the 3 sessions
The other half probably did not make their way into the Final 14 pairs as not enough
dropouts

So no Lady Pairs in the Final 14 ... Well what pair could a lady pair legitimately replace
A measure of Legitimately is you would beat the pair you are replacing 7 out of 10 times
in a direct match. There are lots of capable players in the 29 who the ladies also have to displace
before making consideration for the top 14 pairs.

.................
A thought just struck me ... Maybe a non invited  pair could be allowed play but must pay a hefty entrance fee which would be returned on finished above average otherwise it goes into the prizes
pot.

..........
Anyway .........

www.fob.ie   has all the boards and results of the 1st Invitational Pairs

So if you did not receive your invitation to play .. consider who would you displace
from the Top 14 competing pairs

You also need to be a more capable player than Eamon Galligan (who would not expect to get anywhere close to playing in this event) However I am stronger than lots of names mentioned on this
blog post ... (Its ok Thomas MacCormac you are not behind me)

Last weekend on BBO ...Declan the Donplayer partnered James Heneghan on BBO while I had a few
Guinness in my local pub. Declan the Donplayer is intrigued by bridge but has never ventured into a bridge club as it would interfere with his betting and drinking time.

Tonight in Malahide we have the inaugural Danny Doona Captains prize as far as I know ..

1H 2H X P
P 3C P P
3D P P

coming back to Adam Mesbur with opposition wanting to declare in 3D after his partner had
made a bid at all vulnerable
Adam knew what to do ... and Carroll went minus 1100 ..

Friday April 08 at 2pm Invitational Pairs Regent Bridge club

Next Friday we will have the Irish Invitational Pairs Championship. 14 of Irelands top pairs will do battle in a 52 board all play all barometer event scored by matchpoints.

We will run a vugraph theatre on site at the Regent Bridge Club and folk can also
watch live on Bridgebase Online. We will probably show 2 tables.

The event is organised by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite.

Declan Byrne will manage the hosting club facilities.

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

The event starts at 1400 hours and runs until around 1030pm

More information later

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Top 14 Invitational Pairs at Regent

Folks

I have been informed that a new event will be hosted at the Regent Bridge Club in the near future.
Unfortunately most of ye will not be allowed to play. I don't know the exact qualifying details but two of the constraints are something like being a grandmaster and having an active regular partner who is also a grandmaster or good enough to not drag you down from your own high level.

The event will take place over 3 days in the Regent Bridge Club.

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

Dear

I’m writing to tell you about an exciting new sponsored match pointed pairs competition for Ireland’s Premier Pairs Partnerships. 

Three competitions will take place before the end of June, the first event to take place in Dublin in the Regent Bridge Club on Friday, 8^th April, commencing at 14.00 (on the eve of the Moylan) The dates for the remaining events are 27^th May (eve of the Egan) and 10^th June.   

-         Prize Money for each event will be €1,000 with 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd Prizes being awarded.

-         In addition, the leading pair of the three events (provided they are eligible) will receive a generous subsidy towards the World National Open Pairs Competition which takes place in Wroclaw, Poland from 11th September. This pair must have played together on at least two occasions.

-         The number of entries will be limited to 14 pairs   

-         All pairs will play each other with a minimum of 52 boards at each event.

-         Visiting International Pairs of required standard may be invited to play in any of the competitions.

-         Pairs to be invited have been selected by a committee of some of Ireland’s leading players.

-         I have been appointed organiser of the competition

I hope you agree that this Competition will provide a marvellous opportunity for Ireland’s best pairs to meet in a challenging environment and I look forward to your participation.

Full details of competition rules, etc. will be provided on receipt of your confirmation.

Kind regards,

Ann Tuite

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

There is a plan being formed to show this event on BBO vugraph so those not near to Regent can watch this tough pairs event. Scoring is by matchpoints at the moment but I personally don't know if that is the best system with only 7 tables in operation.

My understanding is the event is being organised by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite.

I suspect Declan Byrne will not be too far away as he has been a mainstay of the Regent Bridge Club for a good few 10s of years.

I don't know exactly who will take part at the moment but more details later as they come to hand.

Thanks

Eamon Galligan

CBAI win Peggy Bayer Trophy for 1st time ever

Link to Peggy Bayer website

Last weekend Feb 19-21 The CBAI under 20 squad won the Peggy Bayer Trophy for Home International Teams. I don't think CBAI have ever won a junior event before. These events are usually dominated by England teams and from time to time Scotland put in a spoke.

However this year CBAI had developed a capable foursome who were quite surprised back in 2013
when the breakfast chef interrupted their 4 month old bridge game to offer some advice.
Nobody had told them about former CBAI President and very capable bridge player Commandant
Eddie Fitzgerald. Eddie has been the B&B host for several schools bridge participants including
some of the winning team above.

Conor Boland Michael Donnelly Stephen Barr and John Connolly along with NPC Thomas MacCormac another former CBAI President.  Nice dicky bows lads .. as well as several dominating
performances after a sluggish start in rounds 1-4.

These lads and several others were each assigned a trials level and beyond mentor. Mentors include
Pat Quinn Gay Keavney John Phelan Thomas MacCormac Karel deRaeymaker Kelan O'Connor and I won't mention anymore just yet as I am not 100% certain. Will add more as soon as I know.


as I am not certain of my facts.

IBU Trials boards 61-80

So after 60 boards of nip and tuck Team BJ O'Brien led by 5 imps much to my surprise. How could a team playing in top level competition for 2 years and in full training be struggling to put away a team playing inside Ireland at a lower level and with less visible training/practice ..

Well the lid was about to come off the pot in a big way.. and new vugraph operator Galligan was there to see the action.

The gladiators in my room were

North : Ranald Milne ... regarded as Dublins 2nd best bridge teacher after Paddy English....
English just keeps churning out brand new players year after year ... Milne is more for the advancing player.. Peter Pigot is also receiving good mentions in the bridge teacher world ..

South .. BJ O'Brien who turns up at every bridge game

East ,, Mark Moran who played junior for Ireland in Budapest some years ago and also has won some
Camroses as player and possibly NPC.

West ..Rory Boland ,,,,,a really great natural bridge player but maybe needs to learn some of this centurys new bridge tricks..

So we started with 19 and a flat part score.

Then Moran declared 4S and needed to divine a KQ of hearts stiff with Milne following with K on first round so not much hope and down he went and 12 imp to O'Brien

Boards 1-4 saw 5 small imps go to Moran and they trailed by 12 overall
Board 5 saw Milne O'Brien attempt a 50% 6D slam but it went off but no problem as Hanlon McGann floundered in a hopeless 4S ... 3 imps to O'Brien ..now by 15
Board 6 saw Moran gain 4 imps for getting contracts down in each room. Both 2H and 3N can make one will say as double dummy says it but look at the plays needed for this and if you making these the police will be keeping an eye on you. You might even make it into a Michael Clark bridge video.
Board 7 ..4S in both rooms but Moran team doubled it and 5 imps to O;Brien up by 16
Board 8 saw Milne roll home a double dummy beatable 3C for 470 and 8 imps
Board 9 saw Moran and McMaugh  make 8 tricks in NT but Moran was in game so 6 more imps to O;Brien.
Board 10 saw Moran down in 4S while MacCormac rolled home 1NT and Team O'Brien had opened up the gap to 39 imps
Board 11...An imp to Moran
Board 12 13 were flat
Board 14 saw Moran make 9 tricks in NT partscore while his teammates sacked in 2H

Board 15 saw Moran defend a hopeless 3NT holding AQJT32 of Hearts and thinking this was the road to victory got distracted from Bolands 5th highest spade lead and 3NT rolled home and
11 imps to Team O'Brien now ahead by 47 imps
Moran got 4 back on 17 after a flat board 16 and we reached the final board in this session board 18

Grand slam was available to double dummy folk but several things lay well to allow 13 tricks
Hanlon McGann took a low road in 3NT for 720 ..,, and after 2 passes Boland tried a Galligan style 2S opening ..Milne doubled with his truckload of 25 hcp and BJ puffed out his chest and passed with his KQxx of trumps. As North South can make 4S or multiple grand slams Boland was doomed and squeezed out 3 tricks for -1100 and 9 imps in the bin.

So O'Brien by 52 imps with 20 boards to go

At this stage Team O'Brien who might not have planned for this amount of bridge seemed to have a small problem. 2 of their team still needed more boards according to the regulations .. All players
needed to play 50% of the boards ...So we paused for a short break ..

Don't go away as the most exciting 11 boards of bridge are ahead of us as Team Moran hopes the boards contain the required imps to make a comeback. 52 imps is a big ask but they almost pulled back 80 in the recent Camrose Trials but ran out of boards.

Link to pdf of boards 61-80

You can find the hands here

Oh I nearly forgot about Mark Morans good lead on board 4 to threaten 4S but unfortunately the next part of the puzzle failed to fit the jigsaw .. A Heart lead set him up to get some tricks but

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

PS .. www.bridge-now.com    is a great site for getting in some matchpoint practice and a rating

IBU Trials boards 41-60

Reporting on the IBU Trials final after 40 boards the BJ O'Brien squad led the Moran squad by 4 imps. So onto boards 41-60 out of the 100 total. This event was shown live on BBO and the files can be found on www.bridgebase.com with a small amount of searching. Along with Fergal O'Boyles fantastic results site all the information is available for anyone who wishes to examine how the legendary BJ O'Brien wins bridge games.
With 40 boards gone we the general public expected Team O'Brien to fold but they were not going anywhere yet.

Board 1 was flat 4S
Board 2 both sides played in 4S and Team Moran led HA and that was made. At the other table played the opposite way up it was HQ lead which led to 2 heart tricks and presumably a club ruff later on for down 1... 12 imps to O'Brien
Board 3-4 were flat games
Board 5 saw MacCormac McMaugh over reach into 6D and lose 13 imps. 31 hcp and 9 card trumps often is enough but not today.
Board 6 flat
Board 7 saw O'Brien grab 5 imps for 2 downed partscores
Board 8 saw the O'Brien team attempt declarership in spades at both tables. It does not often show a profit. So this time they lost 600 in undertricks some of them doubled and 12 imps to Moran
Board 9 was an overtrick imp to Moran
Board 10 saw Moran win 2 partscores for 6 imps ...You got to play pretty good to go down only 1 in
3H but it got home.
Board 11 flat
Board 12 saw 4 imps to O'Brien for a knock and a small partscore .. 90 + 50
Board 13 saw Moran win 3 imps for a bigger knock of a  contract
Hanlon declaring 3NT as far as I recall played a kind of terminal CT and CK on trick 1 and
went down in a kibitzers cold one .....However even Hanlon nods
However Boland Moran had his back with 200 and 3 imps off 4S

Board 14 saw 5 imps for an impetuous double of a comfortable 6H by Hanlon McGann.
5 imps to O'Brien
Board 15 flat
Board 16 also flat but down 3 at both tables ... in 2S and 4S ..
Board 17 saw Hanlon McGann doubling another cold 1 and lose 10 imps. They were doomed on
this board anyway as MacCormac McMaugh had found the good 5D sacrifice
Board 18 flat
Board 19 saw Hanlon McGann float home a defeatable 2S to cover Boland Morans 4H-2
Board 20 an overtrick imp to Moran

So after 60 boards and Saturdays action completed O'Brien led Moran by 5 imps much to my surprise. However I know one English lad who was not surprised. He holds that Carrot Club is doomed and all the dunces just pile in and interfere with it. He also believes the Boland Moran
bidding system is antique and last played by 1980s bridge players.

However next post we will see what Sundays action brought. Obviously this event is over and I am
writing after the fact.

http://www.fob.ie/sites/default/files/files/IBU%20OT%20Final%20R4.pdf

http://www.fob.ie/national

Hand records can be found above

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

WEXFORD Bridge Congress IBU Trials 2

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35491852

Looks like the Thai police raided a bridge club and found more then 2 decks of cards

Maybe its an April Fool

http://cbai.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Wexford-Congress-Brochure-2016-1.pdf

Wexford Congress is on this weekend ... GO GO ..

........
Board 1 saw Marcin Wojech bid a 6S slam versus the 4S up 3 by Hanlon McGann.
Looks like a hand played in club bridge at 4S+3 with lots of things working.
However 3-2 club break and 3-2 club break makes it very cold ... and that's 46% odds.
However there are several other small pieces of odds to add into that.. like if trump queen
drops doubleton .. so adding all up probably over 60%...

10 imps to O'Brien

Board 3 saw Moran winning imps for defending at both tables ... 8 imps for 5 undertricks

Board 7 saw 4D making and 5D down 1 for 6 imps to O'Brien

Board 9 saw one of the Carveys slip home a 4H with 4 top tricks off it and 10 imps
against the 3H up 1 at other table

Board 12 was a 2H part score up and down for 5 imps

Board 13 saw Carvey attempting a strange manoeuvre declaring 3S with 6 trumps.
Sometimes Irish mentor/coach has attempted to explain for years about holding at least
7 trumps to declare ..unless you are Rueful Rabbit or James 3-1 Heneghan.

James rolled home 4H one time with a 3-1 fit ..

Board 14 saw Woj Marcin  roll home 4S with lots of trumps and 6 imps in versus partscore by Hanlon McGann. In my club it goes  P P P 1S 2S 4S at all tables but my players are not internationals.

Board 15 was the opposite ..partscore v game the other way and 6 imps back

Board 16 saw Carroll Garvey roar to the 5 level and take a chinning ... lose 800
Hanlon McGann got 500 from 4SX ,,but that was 7 imps out

Board 18 saw O'Brien win a part score versus knock 3NT for 5 imps

So fter 40 boards the match is pretty well tied up

http://www.fob.ie/sites/default/files/files/IBU%20OT%20Final%20R3(1).pdf

www.fob.ie

.................
Last night a chap in my club declared 3NT ...
xx opposite AQJTxx and he led a diamond towards the AQ ...

I searched out my singleton Diamond King as quick as I could ...but the impatient declarer
had already called for the Queen as he knew from bidding I owned all high card points ..
He attempted some bluster but I fished out the rule book and recalled Mauricio ...
"ITS ALWAYS A PLAYED CARD " ... when declarer does it ..

One more simultaneous pairs and then we are off to Wexford Bridge Congress

http://cbai.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Wexford-Congress-Brochure-2016-1.pdf

IBU Trials for Budapest 2016 first 20 board set

Last weekend two squads of Irelands best players faced off in a 100 board final for the honor of representing Ireland in the European championships in Budapest.

Team .. O'Brien

1. BJ O'Brien
2. Ranald Milne
3. Wojech Gorchytca
4. Marcin Rudzinski
5. Thomas MacCormac
6. Ronan McMaugh

BJ a continuous podium finisher in almost every dogfight that has happened for the last 35 years and maybe longer. The man went off to Templeogue to play more bridge  after playing 40 boards in  the trials final. Even the opponents expressed amazement at this when they heard.
BJ has also played for Ireland Open many times. BJ is the only npc to have benched a player for winning a match by making a slam on a squeeze.

Ranald .. Dublin Norths 2nd best bridge teacher after the legendary Paddy English put down his
teaching stick and went into battle against 6 of the best players ever seen in CBAI land.
I recall Ranald playing on the Irish Open team with Joe McHale some years back.

Wojech ........ I don't know much about this guy except he seems rather thoughtful. I think I saw him winning a National Mixed Teams recently. Anyway I don't think there are any bad Polish bridge players.

Marcin Rudzinski ... Again I don't know so much about this guy but Marcin has been appearing in Irish trials for the last few years and performing pretty good.

Thomas MacCormac ... One cannot say anything bad about Thomas. Mild mannered away from the table but a very tough opponent at the table. Also a well known bridge teacher and schools/junior ambassador. Never think he is ignoring you if he walks away as you speak to him ...He does not hear too well in one ear so you got to make sure you are standing on his good side.

Ronan McMaugh ... Now this guy is the perfect partner ...Its always his fault ... so he says ..
No matter what stupidity you put on him ...Ronan will say .."Well I could have made it easier"

.................
The opponents and heavy favourites starting off were

Thomas Hanlon
Hugh McGann
Mark Moran
Rory Boland
Tommy Garvey
John Carroll

I don't need to introduce these guys ...

Boards  1-10

Just 3 major swings here ...MacCormac making 4HX on board 10 was 14 imps
Board 6 was 4H made and defeated for 13 imps the other way.

O'Brien by 29-10..............

Boards 11-20

Board 15 saw Garvey make a vulnerable game against Milnes part score for 10 imps
Board 17 saw MacCormac make 4S while Boland went down for 13 imps
Board 18 saw MacCormac defend 3HX for a tasty 800 but unfortunately OBrien Milne
took a higher view and were beaten 5 off doubled for a 600 differential.

9 imps to Moran and the overall score was O'Brien by 1 imp after 20 boards of 100.

Camrose 2016 Weekend 1 City North ...Meath or Louth I think

Next weekend January 8th to 10th the CBAI host the first weekend of the Camrose Trophy

6 teams will take part.

England Scotland NIBU CBAI Wales and Wales2(final weekend hosts) and Father Glynns team.

England should be favourites to start this event well as they field capable bridge players like David Bakhshi and  David Gold as well as players like Mike Bell and Alexander Allfrey who are almost as good as me (at spelling) as well as Andrew Robson and Tony Forrester. Lets put it this way don't play them for money if you happen to visit.

Camrose 2016 Teams

Above is a link to the other teams in this event.

Donal MacAonghusa will tog out at great expense for the Glynn team. Donal is a fantastic bridge player who has spent his last 20 years or so as one of  Irelands leading poker tournament directors.
The Diarmuid Reddan of the Ireland poker scene.

Donal used to sing ... "Pop goes the weasel" as he felled another singleton King

I think Donals nickname is Younis for some reason

Now the Sligo gang will be up in arms because Fergal is this and Fergal is that and GOD ranks below Fergal as a TD but Diarmuid Reddan does not have a Mairead.

.....................
Spectators are welcome and entry is free at the venue. A vugraph room with commentary from some top Irish bridge players like BJ O'Brien will be in operation. The event will also be shown on Bridgebase Online vugraph.

Timetable for the Weekend

City North hotel room prices look very decent.
A quick glance saw room rate for 3 nights at 222 euros

Ruth Giddings Irish bridge legend RIP.

Multiple Irish National champion (won 6 Nationals in 1 year) found a way to go down in 6D

I came across this hand this morning where a well known Irish player found a way to make only 11 tricks in 6 Diamonds. Me a lesser player according to the legend gathered in 13 tricks in the 3NT.

www.bridge-now.com

The above site is one of the better sites to play bridge online these days. You get a robot partner and 2 robot opponents. So if you complain your robot is poor ....you also got to accept you have twice as many poor opponents. A fine site for anyone to practice their bridge with no partner required.

................
Sadly a true bridge legend passed away recently. Ruth Giddings played most of her bridge long before my time. However on January 1st 2001 (I think we had a some kind of tornado out around Clonee). It was a Sunday and the annual Wigoder Teams was taking place in the Regent. I was on a Team with Maurice Quinn Joe McHale and Joe Walshe but that is not what this story is about.

We played the 1st session and I had my cheese and turkey sandwiches ready to go.
I went to sit down to eat my sandwiches and realized there was only 1 other person present.

Ruth Giddings ........

So I sat opposite and took out my sandwiches made with bread probably dating back to Xmas Day.
Half way through the first I realized some mould was present and mentioned it.

"Divil a harm it will do you " said Ruth

Later on I mentioned I was going out for a smoke ..

Ruth asked .. " Do you smoke and expressed a negative vibe"

I said "Yes and No" (as 20 cigs could last me 10 days or more ..

Ruth said .. There is no YES and NO in smoking .. you either smoke or you don't
She told me she used to smoke 40 a day (as it was fashionable) but stopped about 50 years before ...like 1951..

Ruth did not win on that occasion but I won as I got maybe 1.5 hours of conversation with a bridge legend and I never did go out for that cigarette and I did eat every piece of the mouldy bread.

...................
Like every bridge player that exists we all remember our successes but seem to compartmentize our failures. Back in 1994 myself and Maurice Quinn arrived at the table of Ruth Giddings and Barbara Seligman... a legendary pairing at the time .. and in their prime ... Ruth was only about 80 years old then. We played 2 boards and left the two shocked opponents behind. Later on I saw on my scoresheet that we had taken every single matchpoint on those 2 boards ... 1.0 and 1.0 ..
I met Ruth downstairs later and she told me ..."Never before did I get 0 matchpoints from a set of boards"

Another night back around 1989 when I was attempting to join the Regent Bridge club and back then you had to play a game or 2 with your proposers ... I had managed to get Des Scannell and Michael McGloughlin to sign my application. So I was in playing one of my mandatory games with Des Scannell and we had some misunderstanding with a Baron 2NT which Des liked ..

1 heart from me and 2NT from Des and I decided 6NT but Des had 4 card heart support so he put me into 7H.

Well the trumps broke 4-1 but the finesse against the King worked.. The diamond QJx lay nicely under the diamond AKT .. The spade King was offside sitting with the aforementioned diamond QJx


Some how I gathered in 13 tricks as the hand got squeezed as I drew the last trump ...QJx and Kx
and could only hold 4 cards so dumped the spade King and my AQ spades became tricks.

7H made ...and downstairs a 75 year old Ruth Giddings materialized at my side and said ...
"You had the coup of the night .... bid and made 7H ...when others played 4H+2 and 6H="
Nobody else needed to find what I think was a treble squeeze...

......................
Of course I have no memory of all the bad scores I presumably got against Ruth Giddings. I remember her playing with Sean Stack when I first went to the Regent Bridge Club in the late 1980s.
There must have been loads of them as I was an Intermediate B player in the late 1980s.

Anyway much later possibly in 2006 the annual Regent Bridge Club Presidents Prize was played.
Back then you played 5 weeks with different partners and on the last 2 weeks the leading contenders all sat North upstairs. Now the Regent on a Wednesday night was the toughest game in Ireland and upstairs on Week 4 and 5 of Presidents Prize with 13 contenders and their chosen partner it was the toughest. That year Ruth Giddings at the age of approximately 96 years won the Regent Bridge Club Presidents Prize and trust me nobody gave her a trick.
I know because against me ..Ruth opened 2S and it did not dawn on me until after I had doubled in the balance seat that it might be an strong Acol 2 ... me being used to weak 2s.
Anyway "The Great Mullall" was able to bid 3H as he knew all doubles were takeout. Ruths partner who shall remain nameless failed to double and 3H drifted 2 non vulnerable tricks off and not much score for Ruth. Of course 3H doubled might have attracted a better defence and gone 3-4 down.
I mean I was only trying to push them up a level ... did not really matter to me whether strong 2 or weak 2.

Anyway that was some of my interactions with Ruth Giddings ... Maybe tomorrow I will have a look at the book upstairs about Great Irish Bridge plays ... I think Seamus Dowling wrote it ...
and find some Ruth Giddings plays ..
................
I recall playing trials in 1990 the year Derek Stokes found he was no longer directing the trials.
He asked me to play and I only had a few B points and would not qualify to play ..
However he said " I have enough B points for both of us " So I played ..
and I recall Ruth Giddings sitting kibitzing a younger Thomas Hanlon and Hugh McGann  and her knitting away behind him. Of course Derek and Eamon finished near last back then.

So that was Ruth ... I think she played on the Irish Open Team as far back as 1951 or 1953...
She sort of quit playing bridge at the age of 98 as she could not get to the club as easy as before.

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




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

Interprovincials weekend

This weekend is Interprovincial weekend. The Interprovincials are a strange event in almost every sport or game. In the GAA nobody wants them as it is just another chance to get injured. Back when I was a kid it was a big deal for a county player to make the Ulster team and the finals were held on Paddys Day and shown live on TV. This was in a time of no ESPN or SKYSPORTS.

Anyway back to the bridge.

Munster is the only team with anything close to their strongest active players.  They are fielding 3 teams of mostly Open Trials level.

Leinster historically always fields 2 Open and 1 lady team. I think a good performance in the Kelbourne Trophy gets you on the team along with something akin to an international team.

Connacht historically field 3 decent 4somes. This year they have 2 open trials level teams and one team that I know less about.

Ulster looks to be booked for last place as their team lacks most of the recent Camrose Trophy players. Lindsay and Hamilton might argue the point but Greenwood Anderson McKenzie Coffey Lavery Robin Burns John Murchan Ciara Burns Diane Greenwood Tranmer Hastings and probably a few I have forgotten as I don't play so much these days. Ah yes Ruth and Wayne might be worth a try. They could even import Tony from Clones. No doubt someone will tackle me on this as I forgot to mention him or her.

So I will pick Munster for the win ... but someone needs to keep BJ down and the O'Briains could have a good run. Maybe Malahide stars Conor O'Hara will roll back the years but not being a regular partnership trouble might rear its head.

So Munster is my pick and Ulster for the spoon ..

Leading team ... McDonagh of Connacht and O'Gorman of Munster followed by Team O'BJ of Leinster

Results and Running Scores are at  www.fob.ie

....................
Shortly I will be replaying the 100 boards of the Cavendish qualifiers and the 42 boards of the Final.
I want to see how I will do against the champion Mesbur and Fitzgibbon. Watch this space.
.........
Of Irish interest here is a bulletin from 2000

http://web2.acbl.org/nabcbulletins/2000fall/db7.pdf
Maybe Ulster could have fielded Pat McDevitt of Donegal on their interpro team..
A World and NABC Senior champion ..

Adam and Nick win Cavendish Pairs apparently

Despite several messages to the contrary my information indicates Adam Mesbur and NickFitzgibbon are Cavandish Pairs champions for this year.
However I am not on site so I cannot guarantee this result. However I know a man who is on the site
and Rory says they placed first. However someone else has a picture of final scoreboard saying 2nd ..
Either way great result and the rama has been perfect all week ..so I trust "The Proffessor"
So we go with that for now

http://www.cavendishmonaco.com/index.php?lang=en

More details including confirmation might be found here later

Here is the rama

Adam and Nick going well so far in Cavandish Pairs

As stated yesterday ....

Today sees the main event ... The Cavandish Pairs ...
I note the presence of Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon here and don't be surprised if they
perform very well. I would think they even have a chance of making the Final A ..
There are many great players in this event but many are in unpracticed partnerships..
Adam and Nick have been practicing for many years and playing at top level for many years.
Now they won't beat Tor and Geir but could beat many others.

Adam and Nick lead Cavendish Pairs qualifying after 56 boards of 90 
At least I indicated yesterday before the event .. 

http://www.cavendishmonaco.com/index.php?lang=en

Above link is for Cavendish event .. Hanlon Carroll doing ok also

Limerick Congress and Cavandish

Last weekend I was invited down to Limerick Bridge Congress to do some directing. Directing is a handy job when Diarmuid Reddan is in charge. Diarmuid and his Congress Committee seem to have everything under control.
I don't know all the names of the Congress Committee so I best not mention any in case I leave the most important one out or include someone who is not on the Committee.
Last weekend I encountered a new movement .. The Web Mitchel ..
There were 23 tables in the Intermediate Pairs and it went .. 9 tables 7 tables 7 tables all in a row of 1 to 23 .. Boards were put out .. 1-27 then 1-21 with 2 relays at table 7 and 3rd set of boards were played in reverse order again with 2 relays .. East West pairs moved up a table each round and could cross sections during the sessions .. So you reached table 9 and carried onto table 1 (10) of next section. I will have to examine this one
Anyway Maura  Lane and Moira Coughlan won the intermediate pairs with a massive 68.1% score.

.............
So on arriving at Limerick I was handed a pile of papers to sort out .. Turned out these were the paperwork required for Gerry Fulham to run his weekend of Open Pairs .. Open Pairs A to F and Table Numbers which he decided not to use ..

Then there was table numbers 1-24 for the intermediate pairs. Meanwhile Diarmuid and Gordon were dealing boards constantly before sessions. There were also many sets of boards already dealt and someone seemed to know exactly what was in each box.

Gordons quiz was also running but it was kind of complex this year and I only got as far as first clue.
Rhymes with Treacle .... I presume it was Feakle ...
Then the next answers were from counties that bordered the first answer or something like that.
Oh what a twisted mind that Gordon chap has ...

As for Diarmuid ..he knows the nuances of every bridge player in the room .. I mentioned some intermediate and gloating and he knew without seeing the person who it was and indicated a lecture was in order.

http://bridge.silvertexter.eu/results/2O3.TXT

http://www.fob.ie/

.............
Meanwhile in Monte Carlo Team Moran placed 3rd in the Patton de Monaco
One might be able to figure out some results from the link below
http://www.cavendishmonaco.com/index.php?lang=en

in the Cavandish Teams Ireland got smashed in the final qualifying match and followed up with two
small wins to finish in mid table in the Swiss.

Today sees the main event ... The Cavandish Pairs ...
I note the presence of Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon here and don't be surprised if they
perform very well. I would think they even have a chance of making the Final A ..
There are many great players in this event but many are in unpracticed partnerships..
Adam and Nick have been practicing for many years and playing at top level for many years.
Now they won't beat Tor and Geir but could beat many others.

John Carroll partners Thomas Hanlon in the same event
Rory Boland and Mark Moran also take part .. Lets see if the Boland can front load this field.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Recent News Items

In my last post Ireland Seniors backboned by Pat Barry and Rex Anderson had cruised into the D'Orsi Bowl Senior quarter finals. Choosing USA2 as the least of evils ..I think Poland was the other option.

However a USA Senior Team of any shape is going to be no pushover as USA Senior Trials often start with up to 20 teams of hardened bridge veterans. All of whom who would play at least 1 if not all 3 of US Nationals every year. 

So the expected result happened and USA2 slowly ground Ireland to a loss. 

The match was fairly close but Irelands final chance disappeared when a 3NT slipped through swinging about 14 imps. 

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

Meanwhile here in Ireland we had the Mixed Pairs/Teams  Weekend. 

The Spiro Cup Mixed Pairs was topped by Rita O'Neill and Brendan Martin from Wicklow

followed by Seamus Costello and Deirdre Tuckey from the far North of Dublin 

with perennial contenders Carol Ann Cummins and John Noonan also from Wicklow in 3rd

Sean O'Lubaigh had a tough day but got through it 

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

In the Duais 2015(Thats the Presidents Prize)  Cian Holland and Mary Finn held off 133 other pairs to emerge victorious after 3 gruelling sessions .. The emerging intermediate pair of Jeannie Fitzgerald and Emer Joyce languished in 50th place 1122 matchpoints behind the winners. The well known tennis player Malcolm Swan finished in 9th place. Not bad for a chap with goofy glasses and partnered Stephen Barr. 

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

Meanwhile Drogheda Congress presumably ran its annual bridge extravaganza superbly as normal 

MacCormac and McMaugh led early on before losing strength and being passed out by Marcin and Wojech.

McMaugh and MacCormac bounced back to take the Congress Teams on the Sunday carried by the incredible BJ O'Brien. and the well known Dublin bridge teacher Ranald Milne 

If you want to improve your game .. Google Ranald Milne and surely something will pop up.

Ireland Senior Bridge Team cruise into QF

Irelands Senior Bridge team after receiving a late invitation to the World Bridge Finals cruised through the round robin and finished in 3rd place out of 22 runners in the d'Orsi Trophy.
The d'Orsi Trophy is an over 60s version of the Bermuda Bowl. Ireland had failed to qualify out of European championships when fading to 7th place late on. However there was a good chance of getting into the main draw as first reserve. However thru early September there was no white smoke.
Finally Sri Lanka withdrew and Ireland were on their way.
The Irish team of Padraig O'Briain Michael O'Brian Pat Barry Rex Anderson Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon certainly had some pedigree but would lack match practice at this level of bridge.
Mesbur and Fitzgibbon had kept up their ferocious training regime since leaving the Irish Open setup and would still retain match fitness even two years later from their Open battles. Mesbur and Fitzgibbon had even outran the cheating German  doctors to win a recent European Senior pairs event.
Barry and Anderson upon hearing of their pending trip to Chennai set about some bidding practice session with Eamon Galligan. We got through 6 or 8 training sessions of 2 hours a piece. One day we even started at 10am as Eamon had to run vugraph for Camrose trials.
Meanwhile the O'Briain brothers powered to victory in the Telscher Trophy in City North in May but there was no mention of Chennai back then. However they continued with their own preparations just in case. As I understand it the O'Briains were not even part of this prospective team back in May.
However they are definitely present and contributing right now.
So in round 20 of 21 this morning Ireland dismantled USA2 and guaranteed Quarter Final status with a full match to spare. Ireland broke Austria in Round 15 with a heavy defeat of the erstwhile 3rd place Austrians. Round 16 saw Norway defeated. Round 17 saw Mesbur Fitzgibbon take a rest as the other 4 dispatched Chile. Round 18 saw Ireland post 24 imps in the last 3 boards. The late boards historically had been Irish bridge teams weak points.
We awoke early on Saturday morning to watch proceeding on the internet .. Ireland held a 15 point lead on 9th place but wanted more. A top 3 placing would give some leverage in determining knockout opponents. Round 19 saw Ireland paste New Zealand 20-0 and climb into 3rd place.
The New Zealand bridge players are not on a par with their rugby players. Round 20 saw a possible banana skin as Ireland faced USA2 possibly one of the pre tournament favourites. However 20 imps in the last 3 boards posted a 22 imp victory and guaranteed Quarter Final status.
Ireland sat out Mesbur Fitzgibbon on round 21 and built a 44-2 lead by board 10.

Tomorrow morning at presumably 0630 Ireland time Ireland will take on the USA2 team in a 96 board quarter final. The USA2 team is made up of Denis Clerkin Jerry Clerkin Jeff Aker Doug Simson Mark Tollivar and Marc Zwerling. Clerkin would be a good Cavan Monaghan name.
Some Clerkins emigrated to USA from Cavan and Monaghan in early 1900s.

So roll on tomorrow but a 96 board match against 6 top players is not as straight forward as a 16 board match. However I have every confidence in the Irish lads. Not many come out the right side of Mesbur Fitzgibbon. The O'Briain brothers have been mainstays of Irish bridge for many years. Michael O'Briain the silent asassion. Says little but knows lots. Finally the elder statemen Pat Barry and Rex Anderson. Rex Anderson celebrated 100 caps for Northern Ireland in 2013 and was introduced for an award by Tony Forrester.

www.bridgebase.com for Ireland v USA2 at 0630 Irish time. Your only chance
to see Ireland playing live all day. Otherwise you can watch the scores coming in on
the live scoring thru the day.

Good luck to Ireland tomorrow.

Currently England are mounting the comeback against Australia in the rugby but I have already cashed out my winnings so can watch in peace.

Conversation with a Cheater

Last night in my local den of Guinness Declan the Donplayer commiserated with me on the recent cheating scandals in top level bridge. He started by reissuing his challenge that Himself and Shane would destroy me at bridge if they had a month to prepare their methods. 4 months ago when he made this statement I had laughed at him indicating his very basic knowledge of bridge would not be enough added to the most sophisticated cheating system to beat Eamon and another reasonable player. Shane and Declan are both very knowledgeable in card games and both picked up enough basics of bridge to manage to play online in under an hour. Shane's first hand on Bridge-Now involved finding a defensive unblock from a suit headed by KQJT to allow his partner win with the 9.
So there was something there.

Last night Declan the Donplayer indicated "Eamon I have played DON since I was 10 and I am from Sheriff Street and in every game over those 40 years I have cheated. It was a way of life in painter decorators lives. You cheated at lunchtime and got the good jobs in the afternoons. "Declan you win the game for me at lunchtime and I will teach you paper hanging this afternoon"

"Eamon the one game I hate is Texas Holdem you only get two cards and you have no partner and someone else deals the cards and they do this burning thing so there is no way for me to cheat"

"Eamon but this bridge stuff ...you giving me 13 cards and a cheating partner... Nobody would have a hope against us once I learn a little bidding. 13 cards to play = 13 chances to cheat." "Ye even play these transfers so my partner can let me play every hand. I open the No trump and he pitches his suit so I can bid it. Trained monkey stuff. I don't even need a partner who knows bridge.

"So Declan all the games of DON we played over last 3 years ..you been cheating me ?
"Afraid so Eamon but remember sometimes you were my partner so you did not get cheated"
"But Declan I won more games against you than I lost. "
"Eamon that's because you count and remember the cards so I  cannot renege or pick up the last 2
tricks into my pile as you will remember all the tricks ..I have lost more euros since you started playing but I don't mind as you have produced more victims for me. You taught all those 20 something lads how to play and now I get their euros.

"Eamon I told you months ago ... "Where there are humans and money there will be cheating and don't think for a minute there are only 4 dunces at the top of the game cheating. There are probably about 10 pairs in the top 100 pairs of bridge. There are also a few shifty characters in all those clubs where you referee. However they won't be cheaters like me as they don't come from a tradesmans background where we played DON every lunchtime and if you lost at lunchtime you fetched and carried paint cans and washed brushes all afternoon"

DON is a bridge like game where you win points by winning tricks contraining 9s an 5s
The 9 is the big DON and the 5 is the little DON.
AKQJ of trumps are worth 4321 points
DONs in trump are worth double so trump dons are 18 and 10
So 80 points in every deal and 2 deals and first past 80 wins.

Cheating in DON is called BILLYING and involves stuff like

1, Drawing partners attention to a suit illegally
2. Leading out of turn
3. Speechplay
4. Reneging (called revoke in bridge)
5. Peeking in an opponents hand
6. Claiming more points than you scored
7. Picking up an opponents trick and putting on your pile
8. Reusing cards from quitted tricks
9. Marking a high scoring card with a nick
10 Putting an Ace on the bottom of deck for yourself when dealing

As DON is played in less serene surroundings than bridge getting caught BILLYING
might involve some physical violence and little evidence.

DON in our drinking place is played for 1 euro a corner and a game lasts about 30 minutes and involves up to 6 hands of 13 tricks. In my last 12 games I am leading Declan the Donplayer by 10-2 in games so I have 8 of his euros in my pocket.

I don't think Declan bothers cheating anymore as its too much work for a euro.

However he told me ..Eamon there are loads of lads out there like me who are "good" at cards.

One night I brought Declan to the bridge club and within 10 minutes he found some ex-DON players and was chatting away. He also spotted Maurice and his can of Guinness and his hand of cards and his toothy smile.

"Eamon you showed me a new life .. That's me over there when I am 70 ..Guinness cards and victims"

Bridgewinners reveals the Queen of Spades

Good afternoon folks

Things are hotting up. Two blogs from Galligan in one day.

Well I just thought I might breeze over to www.bridgewinners.com
 for a little read.

I was not shocked by what I saw there as I already knew about the subject matter since early September. There are allegations or evidence which indicate that the TWO highest ranked bridge players in the world have not been fully disclosing their signalling methods to their opponents.

In full disclosure one is supposed to supply all knowledge to the opponents.

The top ranked players did not advise their opponents of the means of the placement of their
cards on the table ..

Some of us play UDCA .. upside down count and attitude ... well it sounds good..
Some of us play Italian discards
Some of us play just Upside down count

These lads play Horizontal and Vertical leads ... When grafted onto Slavinski leads this becomes
the Harrier jet propelled leading system ...

As far as I remember the Harrier could do Horizontal and Vertical take-offs..

.................................................
At the Camrose Trials Final last weekend there was a chap doing the vugraph operating and he was
intrigued by the fact that the players in the Trials did not always play their lowest card.
He is a former chess player who now plays bridge.

He said "Eamon up to now if I was not winning the trick I always played my lowest card.. Now a whole new world has opened up for me in bridge. I am going to telling my partner now how many cards I have in the suits .. Its going to be great "

Wait until Vincent finds out about Italian discards or UDCA..or God forbid Smith Peters.

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

The Camrose appeal ..Final Session 5

Here is a deal from the Camrose Trials Final Session 5.
Donal MacAonghusa opened 1 offbeat No Trump. Terry Walsh up North doubled to show a CLUB suit according to the vugraph record. So for the moment we will presume its a CLUB single suiter.

So our man in the EAST Ciaran Coyne makes a Helvic type REDOUBLE meaning I got a long suit so bid 2C and I will let you know. Walsh/Coyne are screenmates as are MacAonghusa/O'Gorman.
Coyne tells Walsh its for rescue .. MacAonghusa tells O'Gorman its to play..

So 1NT redoubled is declared by MaqAonghusa and he duly makes his book and a bonus trick.
This adds up to +760 for the lad for a swing of 12 imps to his team.

So enter Brian Lawlor the Tournament Director. He rolled his dice and came up with a 2 so
result stands. The deeper explanation is he went to Law 12 of his faithful RED book and it told him

The objective of score adjustment is to redress damage to a non-offending side and to take away any advantage gained by an offending side through its infraction. Damage exists when, because of an infraction, an innocent side obtains a table result less favourable than would have been the expectation had the infraction not occurred – but see C1(b).

Now in my world no advantage was gained here through the infraction.

O'Gorman was told this is to play so he is happy and expressed his view of same by passing. He probably suspects that the redouble is for rescue but that does not make any difference.
The bids are pushed through to the other side and Walsh Coyne see the passes and Walsh shrugs his shoulders probably and passes. If MacAongusa has balls of steel then I have the equipment we used to use for bull calves at home for sorting that out. So maybe they roll the dice.

If correct info was given both sides of the screen as redouble for rescue without MacAongusa knowing then the bidding might proceed the same way.. so I don't get where the damage happened.

So I agree with Brian Lawlor ..result stands

............................
For some reason 3 well educated gentlemen on the appeals committee managed to find damage and wiped out the 12 imps and took 6 more off him for the 3D contract he might have played going one
off. So 18 imps in total ..... thats alot of money when its 100 euro per imp.

I mean I am trying to become a good tournament director like Diarmuid Reddan but these appeals committees seem to have the upper hand everytime.

Its like the GAA ... Yer man Connolly from Dublin .. He got sent off 2 times in the last few years but he still turned up playing in the next more important match. on each occasion. The most recent time the TV replay confirms that Connolly punched his opponent. The GAA law says Connolly gets at least one game suspension but 15 hours before the match the red card is removed and the guy togs out and does the business against Mayo.
Now this lad is a fantastic footballer so Mayo should feel hard done by that he was allowed to play.

Now all the above is only my view and I might have the information somewhat incorrect but I believe its close enough to the story.

The Coyne Team of David Walsh Enda Glynn Ciaran Coyne and Donal MacAonghusa won the trials to represent Ireland in the Camrose Trophy 2016 in Dublin and Wales.
They might add another pair for each weekend or if not another pair from the Final Weekend will
be imposed on them. I won't be able to be their NPC as I will probably be looking after the vugraph
in City North on the first weekend. However I am available for the 2nd weekend...and the party afterwards.

That David Walsh chap is a fine player ... I saw him make a slam on Saturday I think.

Of course if they want a few spins in Galligans Bidding gym it only costs 4 guinness an hour for the pair. An hour of bidding practice is worth 9 10 board online matches as in the gym you get to bid
all the hands.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

PS Apologies to anyone who feels offended by any of the above. I only give my view. I am not an international bridge player even if I play better than some internationals. Ha Ha.