2 videos versus Peter

This morning as requested by my many times opponent Peter I recorded the challenge for his knowledge. I did not think the first 8 boards went too well and expected to be about 18 imps down
However turned out Peter got no imps in the first 8 boards so Galligan was ahead.

1st half of live video Pedro

So this morning with end of challenge time looming and a morning session of bridge to play in Malahide ,,,Eamon played the 2nd 9 boards at 7am or so with a cupan tae.


2nd half of live video Pedro

Seems all bridge should be played first thing in the morning and without any Guinness the night before. Galligan was like the Liverpool goalkeeper against Barcelona and Peter returns from his trip abroad demoralized.

............
So after playing that challenge it was back to the leaba for a few hours and up then just after 9 for ablutions and the trip to Malahide to partner Mark Cunningham.

So Board 2 I managed to make a complete mess of ..after ending up in a poor contract.

Eamon as dealer opened a weak 1NT and the normal thing would be partner would transfer into HEARTS and Eamon would play 2H probably making for about average score. 

Unfortunately Eamon got passed out in 1NT and the opponents came out smoking with the first 5 Club tricks. Now I needed the rest and I was doomed as one would expect longer HEARTS with the short CLUBS. North discarded a small HEART and Eamon decided it was surely from 4 to the Queen as the odds indicated North had more SPACE for hearts. So down went Eamon by 3 tricks for a horrible ZERO. 

A good HEART guess got me the 100% score but I GUESSED wrong and I was only after finding out that the opponent was a teacher in my local national school. 

Galligan v Mullingar man and Zar points

This afternoon I finished off a challenge with Mullingarman.

Galligan v Mullingarman video

Later in the video we touched on some Zar points and also a hand where someone made 3NT when it was more likely 3NT makes the opposite direction.

Last night in Malahide Regional Bridge Club there was a popular winner of the Presidents Prize in Maria Ewing and Marisa Curran. The singer accompanied their victory march with Viva la Spanya,

Yesterday I made a short video of the end of a Murphyslaw challenge. I was not sure what to expect but in the end I won by 27 imps.

Galligan v Blanchman ..the revenge

The above videos give running commentary as I play and mention any silly things I might do.
I never go back and edit the videos to make myself look better ..it is what it is.

Galligan tries Wbridge5 Daily tourney with Video

Yesterday morning Eamon attempted the Wbridge5 daily tournament

http://bridgez.net:3002/playonthecloud

The link is above.
New players will need to register.

The link to the video of my efforts is placed below .. I struggled home with about 52% and well down the field. However I might have beaten Willem.

Video of Eamons struggle on Wbridge5

Since then I have played a challenge against Murphyslaw from BBO sometimes referred to as Blanchman as he lives near there sometimes.

When the smoke cleared Eamon was shocked to be 57 imps behind after 16 boards.
Murphy is an ordinary Inter A player in Malahide Regional Bridge Club and suddenly he does this to me.

I will just have to take that as an outlier something akin to Liverpool and Spurs both making the Champions League Final from 3-0 down.

..............
Tonight is Malahide Regional Bridge Clubs Presidents Prize but they can be at rest as Murphy is working the night shift so will not appear at that event.

It was a wonderful sunny day today

...............
I found a great website from Israel but one might need to learn Hebrew.

http://bridge-tips.co.il/

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Bridgebase version 3 video with Peter

Folks

This afternoon  I made a video by request of a challenge against Peter. Unfortunately despite playing steadily and avoiding most of the pitfalls I lost by 20 imps.
On further EXAMINATION I noted that my robot team mates had allowed 2 beatable games to make. This cost me 20 imps of loss. However team mates often do this in bridge so what can one do.

3NT with no play on a club lead and the robot made a club lead and then failed to finish the job.
4H with no play on any lead and the robot managed to let it slip through.

However the good side is that our Peter is representing Malahide against the dreaded enemy Saint Anthonys from behind the church this afternoon in the FA Cup final of Bridge.
Hopefully he will lead his team to victory and show them my video on his phone.
Peter is very techy sav. Next year he will be minding the bridgemates.

Here is the link to my 16 board loss against Peter the Shadow.

Peter crushes Eamon

.............
Tonight I am off to Malahide to run the Kirwins League Final evening.
It starts in Malahide Regional at about 730pm.

May 11th 2019

Good afternoon folks

Today we have Galligan versus Mullingarman video.
We also show a flyer for the Muldoon Cup that came in the post ..

Muldoon Open Cup takes place on
Sunday June 9th 130pm
Two sessions
Dun Laoghaire Bridge Club

Entries .. Michael Rowan 087 7638948
michaelrowan62@yahoo.com

So we have a video below of Galligan v Mullingar

Galligan v Mullingarman

Galligan defeated Mullingarman for the 7th challenge in a row and I don't even play bridge
anymore.

....................
Later on this month we will be going to Belfast to run the Egan Trophy on vugraph.
This has 10 teams .. 7 Teams from CBAI and 3 teams from NIBU.

All will be well .. I understand our champion Moran team is playing.
However they are resting up at the moment.

New Bridgebase Test with Advanced Robots

This morning I am doing another test of NEW BBO with Advanced Robots. The last time it was boot out Eamon regularly. Later I ran a new test with Basic Robots and that seemed to roll along well.
Today it was a struggle with Murphyslaws Advanced Robots.

Then I found the touchscreen was working good or better. So I Tried some of that.

Then Peter Wilson came along and he always wants it now and right now.
Patience is not his virtue. He burst into my video like Batman in a Robin video.

So I had to leave my challenge and put up a teaching table for him. He wanted to play a loser on loser hand that he had attempted about 10 times already. I even told him how to make it but he was not listening so down he went again.

Anyway here is link to latest video test of NEW BRIDGEBASE ONLINE.

New Bridgebase Online test

Click on above link for a workout on the new BBO VERSION.

The bloody dog made a loud bark there. Scared the robots.

He must have heard Peter Wilson arriving into Bridgebase unexpected to learn about LOSER ON LOSER.

New Bridgebase Online ...better today

Today I made another video with the brand new version of Bridgebase Online.

Yesterday in my last post the new version was struggling terribly so I had to switch to the OLD version. For some reason my I AND O keys are struggling on this keyboard. Must get the Google out and find out why. Its only the capital letters.

Anyway i played against Mullingar man. He is the chap who first tried to teach me bridge and still thinks he is a master of bridge. However he does not realise that AREA MASTER is just jumped up intermediate player. The MASTER is just like the MASTER in masterpoints .. .

its like " I love you long time , you give me mastercard "

Play long time ...get lots of masterpoints ... not good at bridge ..

So here we have a video of Eamon v Sean playing a 16 board challenge on BBO.

Eamon v Sean video     click on that link

...............................
Last night in Malahide Regional Bridge Club we had the Cowhie Trophy ..
Dan Cowhie .... I think he told me he was 95 or nearing 95 last night.

Dan Cowhie who started bridge aged 58 approximately ....now a good many years playing.
His wife Mary also playing a decent number of years but a late starter also.

Anyway the bearded masters won the Trophy last night ...
Charles Higgins and Phil Murray ....Charles is approaching 85 ... and Phil is a right age too.

We also had the annual appearance of Ray McConville a true master of bridge from Malahide.

He could have stroked me good last night when I chose to Double him in a hopeless contract.
As it turned out he could have escaped into 3 hearts making ....from a hopeless 3C doubled.

Hearts was my partners 2nd suit bid so from my point of view looked unlikely but further attention by me would have indicated an 8 card heart fit for them .. so probably I PRESSED on the trigger too foolishly. You see McConville is no fool and 40 years ago he probably worked out he is fecked in 3CX and bids his side 5 card suit ....and gets doubled by my partner in 3H MAKING.

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

New BBO versus Flash BBO

Good evening folks

Today I decided to try out the new HTML BBO as opposed to the flash BBO.
I used a CHALLENGE against my good friend Murphyslaw as the material.

From the start I had problems.

1. The advanced robots were slow
2. I kept getting booted out of the CHALLENGE
3. Eventually I started getting messages about cannot connect to GIB robot.
4. Finally I switched back to FLASH BBO and evenything ran like a dream.

You can find my experience here in a video.

Thankfully I managed to defeat Murphyslaw and put him to the sword.

Video of New BBO compared to old BBO

.................................
Last night I saw a bridge player of inter B standard win the last 4 tricks.
However it took about 40 seconds a trick.

I wondered about it so I asked her and she said .. I wanted to make them think they might get a trick.

YIKES ..

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Lady Milne Match 3 Stanza 2 video

This morning I made a video of the 2nd Stanza of the Ireland England Lady Milne match.
IRELAND led ENGLAND by about 15 imps the halfway stage. However Ireland tossed away about 43 imps in slight misjudgments thus putting them in a losing position.

http://fob.ie

The link above goes to Fearghals Wonderful World of Bridge and I use it in my videos to get information.

Here is the link to my latest video

Ireland England Lady Milne Stanza 2

...........
At the end of the month I am going to La Mon Hotel to put the Egan Trophy on vugraph courtesy of the Irish Bridge Union. 10 of Irelands top teams will take the floor and we will show TWO MATCHES PER ROUND.

Alan Hill will be the tournament director for this event. It takes place on May 25th 26th at the La Mon Hotel.

Lady Milne Match 3 Stanza 1 Ireland England

Good morning all few of ye

This morning  I am continuing my Lady Milne series of videos. This is the 5th video of hopefully 10 videos telling the story of the Lady Milne 2019.
The event was held in the City North Hotel and it was a great venue.

Today we have

Ireland v England as my main match. We also glance at the other 2 matches if we notice anything interesting.

http://fob.ie is my source for results and scores and all things Lady Milne

Thats Fearghals wonderful world of bridge above

Here is the link to my video on Youtube

Ireland v England M3 S1

.....................
In the Kelbourne Cup I think 2 of my picks placed in the top 3 but maybe I need to check again.
WESTERN won the event leading the field a merry dance.

In the Inter A event some team led almost all the way and then Murphys Law came into play.
Murphyslaw is a well known bedroom bridge player only emerging from his cocoon to play as a replacement in Ireland National Finals  with his favourite partner Michael O'Mahony.

So the long time leaders were cruising to victory playing the final 4 boards of the weekend against a mid table team who presumably wanted just to head off and reach Malahide.

However Team Murphy somehow exploded into action or got loads of luck on the final 4 boards to oust the long term leaders and present the prize to the Mid Leinster Region which happens to be Murphys home region. Murphyslaw ...the Kingmaker.

National Team Finals ..Kelbourne Cup

This weekend 16 teams contest the Kelbourne Cup. To my passing eye there appears to be a large gap in bridge ability.
The possible winners in my view are in no particular order.

EASTERN
WESTERN
NORTH MUNSTER
DUBLIN SOUTH
HOLDERS
RUNNERS UP

Of those 6 WESTERN DUBLIN SOUTH and HOLDERS are my top 3 picks.

The DUBLIN NORTH team could get lucky and storm the event but its going to be hard for them to beat all 6 of my top 6 picks. DUBLIN NORTH last won the Kelbourne in 2006 or so powered by the powerful Dave Terry Pat Kelly imp machine with Paul Delaney holding the reins. However many years later its Dave Terry and some new kids on the block.

......................
In the Intermediate section the online player Murphyslaw emerges from his computer and sets his sights on the National Inter A championships. However Murphyslaw will not be used to real cardplayers so could find the cuteness of the country boys and girls to be too much.
Murphyslaw is assisted by Interprovincial superstar Michael O'Mahony and new Master player Mary Deane and her good friend Rosaleen Murphy.

I am writing this without view of the running scores.

The HOLDERS are a powerful squad with Derek O'Gorman Cian Holland and the mercurial Ciaran Coyne. Tom McCarthy is also a very capable force of nature.

DUBLIN SOUTH could grind it out DELANEY ROCHE DUNNE BRADY look a little on the boring side but they have plenty of national titles along with the added artistry of Sean O'Lubaigh.
Sean once played in TWO pairs events at the same time. A Mens Pairs and an OPEN PAIRS.

WESTERN with KEAVENEY GLYNN SCANNEL and WALSH on board have a chance as
there is plenty of flare  there, However WALSH GLYNN were medium in the CAMROSE and Paul Scannell might not be at his sharpest as I have not seen him around too often recently.
This is my fault as I don't be out on the sea sailing.

...............
Now I look at the running scores

In the Inter B event I see the Carabine sisters back in 11th place of 22 teams.

In the INTER A event Murphyslaw is being held tight at the back of the field.
However one expects O'Mahony will let him off the leash soon

NOW to look at the big one and check out my picks

2 of my 3 picks are in the top 3 after 4 matches but my HOLDERS are after getting a trimming from North Munster 19-1 so are well back for now.

I am afraid WESTERN are after dispatching HOLDERS so that might be the end of HOLDERS for this year. They are 38 VPS out of the lead having already played the leaders WESTERN.

DUBLIN NORTH have just dispatched MLR by  18-2.

In the INTER As Murphy just ran into the famous Martin O'Briens and came out the wrong end.

Lady Milne Match 2 Stanza 2 Ireland Northern Ireland

Good morning

Here is the 4th video of the series on Lady Milne Trophy 2019.
Match 2 Stanza 2

The event was held at City North Hotel and organised by CBAI Office.

Fearghals Website

I am using Fearghals website to show the boards and results along with Bridgebase onlines vugraph archives.

Here is Match 2 Stanza 2 video link

Ireland Northern Ireland

Two of the big boards of this match happened near the end so ye will have to wait.

Looking at the abovc screenshot one can see a large number of imps transferring on the final 5 boards. 50 imps out of 129 happened on the last 5 boards.
The big one was Northern Ireland venturing into 7S on what seems to be a misunderstanding.
The opposition took the 3 aces that Blackwood missed.

Lady Milne Match 2 Stanza 1 Scotland CBAI

Good morning folks 

This morning we continue with the Lady Milne 2019 series of videos. Video 3 of probably 10 videos. Today  I planned to cover the Northern Ireland v Ireland match but unfortunately the vugraph operator stuck in the wrong names or did not know the players. So instead of Kenny Rigney we had McDonagh Sharkey and it did not look good. 

So I decided to switch to Scotland CBAI. This was not good watching if you are a CBAI fan or player. A good hiding was had by all. 

Fearghals Website  has all the information on the Lady Milne 2019. England won the event but these videos will focus on the Ireland teams.

Team IRELAND were captained by the well known bridge coach and teacher MR PETER PIGOT.

Team CBAI were captained by former rugby international Diarmuid Reddan or maybe it was former bridge international. 

Eamons video on Scotland CBAI

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

Last night there was 32.5 tables playing in Wed Captains prize in Malahide Regional. I forget who was winning. 

Lady Milne Match1 Stanza2 video

Good morning folks
Here is the 2nd of hopefully 10 videos on 2019 Lady Milne Trophy. This event was held the weekend of  April 12-14 2019 in the

City North Hotel

The link is above. A grand spot if you doing anything near the airport.

Information on the boards and results can be found on Fearghal O'Boyles website

http://fob.ie

And search for Lady Milne Trophy 2019. Loads of stuff is there on all the boards and plays.
England won the event in comfort with half their top team. Scotland had the full squad on duty but failed to take full nourishment from the 3rd to 6th teams.

Paul Porteus CEO of  Contract Bridge Association of Ireland indicated afterwards that the event was there for Ireland to win but  I personally think it was always Scotland or England.
...............................

Last night in Malahide I had 10.5 teams turn up for a team event. So rather than send someone home we went with a pairs movement scored by imps. I think it went well.

Looks like Youtube has done its job ..

Lady Milne Match1 S2

Link to video at above link ..

No offence is intended to any player. Its all about improvement for the next time.

Lady Milne Match 1 Stanza 1 City North

Last weekend in CityNorth saw the Home Internationals for the Lady Milne Trophy take place.
6 teams from England Wales NIBU CBAI Scotland and Ireland took part.

I made video report on the first half of match 1 with reference to Ireland and CBAI in the main.

The link to the video is posted below

Lady Milne 2019 M1 S1

CBAI took a trimming from Ireland in first stanza .. 53-5 in imps

However looking through the boards there were plenty of chances for CBAI especially to close the gap to at least manageable levels.

Fearghals website has information

Hopefully another video tomorrow.

John Carroll plays well in USA

Thomas Hanlon reports that John Carroll visited Graceland while in Memphis last week.
After getting trimmed in the first round of the world renowned Vanderbilt Trophy Team Street with Hanlon and Carroll on board managed to place 2nd in some teams event later.

I think it is called North American Swiss Teams but I will look it up as we go.

We will go to ACBL.org and look up Thomas Hanlon. I don't think they do GDPR in America.

ACBL Live

Then you click the above link and you enter the search for Tom Hanlon ...

ACBL calls him Tom but a long time ago I was severely reprimanded by Annie Hanlon who explained to me clearly that her sons name was Thomas.

Then you will see that Tom Hanlon won 93 masterpoints for 2nd place in the Jacoby Swiss Teams
I think it is called after Jim Jacoby or his dad Oswald Jacoby.

https://live.acbl.org/event/NABC191/SWIS/4/summary

If you go on the above link you will find many great players placing behind Hanlon and his gang.

...............
Moylan Cup on the weekend in Malahide sees Hanlon Carroll in action again ...
3 sessions Sat Sun starting at 1330 on Saturday.

Cannot remember who won it last year but maybe it was the Phelans or was that the year before.
Time goes by so fast ..

Down in 7S is not good and National Pairs Final

This morning  played the end of a challenge on Bridgebase Online against Mullingarman. Happily I launched myself into 7S contract. Sadly having a suitable layout I put it on the floor and lost 20 imps.  Moral of the story down in slam does not beat plus in game.
I knew I had a good shot at making the contract on the lead but I took the eye off the robots left hand. Left hand lead mean SINGLETON ...  I suffered the Denis Dillon fate.

In Mens Teams in Galway in 1996 Dennis uttered in his best Cork accent. "I WOULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT EAMON" The capitals are meant as Dennis had a loud voice. Down Eamon went in a cold one. I thought I had learned but today I did it again.

Meanwhile the video Galligan is beaten by Mullingar Man

Meanwhile down in Athlone the champions of all regions are doing battle for the various
National Pairs titles. Some pairs got a shock yesterday when they found out there exist other big lads and lassies in other regions.

I made a few tips but they are not running well yet.

Davidson ... McNeill and Scannell ... Delaney Brady are the form pair here

Laird .. I don't really know any players here except Deegan Deane and the old chess player from skerries Pat Mulholland. He was good at chess not sure about the bridge but he is partnering famous vugraph operator Carol Sheridan from the bridge playing family of Tom Rose Brendan and Helen.

Civil Service Cup ..... I thought Hughs McMackin had a chance but they ran into some heavy weather in Session 2. Maybe they will produce a 74% 3rd session to win the thing.

Good luck to all

I found Hugh McGann on a podcast today.

Today while nosing around the google I found our very own Hugh McGann.

Some NZbridge podcast

In this week's episode Bruce and Jane catch up with Brett Glass, one half of the winning Babich NZ Wide pairs partnership. Hugh McGann, Irish International player and newest Hamilton Bridge Club member also joins the show and Ed Roggeveen from Blenheim talks about plans for tournaments in Top of the South.

THE BRIDGE ZONE takes you to the broadcast.

I fully understand Irish bridge players are lazy and unlikely to even listen to this. 

However a small amount of effort will get you to a 10 minute piece of radio where McGann talks.

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

Meanwhile the inaugural Irish Mixed Bridge Team is winding down their attempt at qualifying for the World Mixed Teams championships. They are not making it and are currently taking a good hiding from the low table Greek bridge team. the score is 0-34 after 9 boards. However Ireland have plus scores on boards 10 and 11 but so have many other NS pairs so no more than a small gain is possible. 

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

Meanwhile I have branched out in the challenges on Bridgebase. I have offered to thrash Kilkenny youngsters under the tutelage of the famous Margaret Murphy school of bridge. 

Currently its Eamon 1 Kilkenny 0 

I hope to make 10 in a row of 8 board challenges  

The legendary Donal MacAongusa rolls back the years and storms Lederer

World champions English champions European champions were scattered all over the RAC club in London as Donal MacAonghusa rolled back the years and tackled the world reknowned Lederer bridge event. Donal and his 3 Irish team mates placed a very credible 2nd place in the high class Lederer trophy held this weekend in the RAC club.

I noted last week that the dress code for the venue was quite nice

 Very posh. A 2004 low slung automobile might not be allowed in the parking garage.

Any yes Team Ireland placed 2nd ...Donal Mark Moran John Carroll and Thomas Hanlon the bridge player. I think 2 of them went to the same secondary school. 

I think only about 8 Irish players have won the Lederer Trophy and its much tougher these days.

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

Meanwhile the Irish Mixed team is tacking its was through some heavy storms out in Portugal. 

Happily some opponents bid a 7NT and we got it down and on same board holding 33 high card points our other half managed to put the brakes on in 4NT. No slam made and the Irish gained 13 imps. I need to learn that system. They even owned every first and 2nd round control in the deck. 

Cavendish 2019 and some videos

Today the Cavendish Pairs 2019 the best known pairs bridge event outside of the World and European championships started. Nearly all pairs are well known professional bridge players.
Our own John Carroll and Thomas Hanlon are taking part. Currently lying in 47th place of 65 pairs.
One wonders why the organizers did not come up with an even number of pairs. Probably no big deal in a large event like this to have a sitout. After all we have sitouts every night in our clubs.

Meanwhile this morning I played my latest challenge against Blanchman.
This man fancies himself as a bridge player but he has a little to learn yet to reach A1 level

Galligan v Blanchman

Having finished off Blanchman one wandered around BBO and spotted a short 5 board challenge from Malswan. Now Malswan is a very decent opponent and plays for the Irish junior team so it
will be hard to win. However the plan was to play these 5 boards and then record a little screen of the
live Cavendish in running scores in case someone might want to find the website and watch.

Galligan loses to Malswan and Cavendish

Meanwhile this week we have the CBAI Simultaneous Pairs.
Same deals played on same night in various clubs across Ireland.

www.simpairs.com

The link above should get you to the results pages.
Even if you did not play you can find the hands and booklet here.

Finally don't forget Mark Knopfler is a fine guitarist and Emmylou Harris can sing

Knopfler and Harris

Regional Teams 2019

This weekend we have the Regional Teams played in all Regions across the country.In Dublin North Region we are struggling to get Master Teams. So far only 4 have entered, Normally we get about 7 or 8 teams but this year the Masters are thin on the ground.
We have only 3 B/novice teams entered so far .. but on Tuesday I ran a competition for Bs and novices in Malahide and we had 19 teams just in our club alone. Regional Teams is at same venue but where are the teams.

This morning  Galligan played Kilkennyman in matchpoints. Unfortunately Kilkennyman did not complete so hopefully he played a decent number of the 12 boards.

Galligan v Kilkennyman

Last night in Malahide Regional Bridge Club we had the annual Maurice Quinn Trophy.
and the winner was Sheila McCabe who knows Philip Quinn son of Maurice.

The hands were good ones but nobody complained. Sometimes they like good hands.
More later.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Cork Bridge Congress Weekend and Blanchman video

Meanwhile down in Cork they also play bridge but the Bossman is in town with his Irish paassport. Hopefully he took time for a haircut before his arrival. Bossman failed to keep it going in the Mixed Pairs so no prize there.

Cork Bridge Congress Mixed Pairs

Today we will watch the running scores on the Diarmuid Reddan organised event.
He is a one man dynamo tournament director. Mairead Basquille runs many events but she has Fearghals help. Diarmuid rolls on his own and sometimes plays in the events to boot.

This morning I did a challenge against Blanchman. He got 20 imps on two boards for free.
Eamon won by 4 imps but robot gifted Blanchman 12 imps on one board and Blanch man got 8 imps for what in my view is a dramatic underbid. See for yourselves .. board 4 and 15

However when you have not completed the cardplay module you better not be bidding too high.

Eamon v Blanchman

Next weekend sees the annual running of the Regional Teams ..a qualifier for National Teams ..
Magic Murphy won't be there due to work commitments.

Maurice Quinn Trophy 2019

Last night in Malahide Regional Bridge Club we had the first session of the Maurice Quinn Trophy.
Generally the hands are racey. However herself did not like them as she spent the night looking for the catches. However there were no catches so she caught no fish.

Earlier this morning  I played a challenge against Mullingar Man. Unfortunately the man from Mullingar lost by 5 imps and has now lost 5 in a row and is descending into the depths of gloom.

Galligan beats Mullingarman

Galligan made a return to combat last Sunday. Playing on a team out for the experience we placed nicely in the middle of the field.
We are thinking of offering oursoelves as subs for the Camrose Trophy as the mainstays of Irelands Camrose team placed behind us ...even the aging but great Thomas Hanlon.

Magic Murphy made his debut in the big leagues at the Mens Teams. I think he done okay.
We won 4 matches and lost 1 narrowly. Some dunces from Galway bid 7NT against our team mates
and our lads could not cash their ace. The English would call it "An Irish grand slam"
Off an Ace.

Premier Pairs after 70 and how not to play bridge

Yesteerday morning I played a Bridgebase online challenge against Donegalman and it did not go well. I performed about 4 methods of not playing bridge. I got doubled in 4S on a partscore board and lost 800. I went down 2 vulnerable in a making 1NT. The other table made 8 tricks.

Of course one could lie low and not upload ones heavy loss but its hardly right to only sing when you are winning. So here is my bad bridge video below

Galligan loses to Donegalman

Lets be clear now Donegalman is Intermediate B and Galligan is somewhat higher grade.

Meanwhile over in Wales Irelands top bridge players headed into the Camrose. The weakened 4 man team strolled through the Camrose Trials and then added a couple of Butler performing pairs for the 2 Camrose weeekends. However you cannot take 2 long term partnerships apart and make up 1 semi regular partnership and hope for some semblance of reality. This was the Hanlon McGann Garvey Carroll world class partnerships divided into Hanlon Carroll. Added to this we had the functioning Moran Boland partnership replaced by new partnership Moran MacAonghusa. This is not to say that the players are not very capable but 55 years of partnership agreements and cooperation is on the sidelines for the moment.
We also had Camrose debutants Ronan McMaugh and Marcin Rudzinski both capable players but being a relatively new pairing they won't have anything near a bunch of years of partnership understandings to go with their capability. Being Camrose debutants is also moving to a new level of bridge and taking on pairs with enormous years of partnership agreements.

We won't publish any results except to note that Team Ireland languishes 20 VPs behind the NIBU squad that finished so far behind last year their NPC indicated they could be visited in the zoo the next day. Blessed are the porridge makers for they shall not go hungry.

Meanwhile Galligan played another 7 boards of the Jim Cahill Premier Pairs event.
I am still climbing even if still below average.

I got a chance to play a 4S contract very well and gathered in a nice score. This was Board 65 of the 149 board event

The Jack robots cashed AK of diamonds and played a 3rd diamond and I had to ruff high. 

From here careful timing allowed me bring in 10 tricks via the 2 time club finesse. Of course I got lucky with the 2-2 trump break. Of course the contract is down from the gate as 2 diamonds and ace of club and a ruff but Galligan lucked out for a decent score. 

The scores after 70 boards are above. This includes the addition of a set of plays by 4 GIB robots as well as the 3 Jacks with Eamon so won't be exactly as the live competition went. However it serves to ease the pain on some boards for some humans. Here we are running 12 pairs as opposed to the original 8 pairs. 

Galligan v Clareman plus Premier Pairs after 63

Good morning all

This morning I finished off a bridge challenge against a new opponent who we will call Clareman.
Unfortunately I lost the challenge by 15 imps. I think my opponent got lucky.

Galligan loses by 15 to Clareman

mWhile the above video was uploading to Youtube I played another 7 boards of the Jim Cahill Premier Pairs. Unfortunately I dropped to 10th place of 12 with the lethargic BJ 'Brien getting some lucky few boards with his partner Terry Walsh and passing me out.

Meanwhile presure has been applied to me to tog out in the forecoming Mens Teams.
Having expressed severe resistance it was no good. Now I have to play.
However the only thing I am missing is Spurs v somebody on the box.

So as can be seem above I am not making a big impression in the Jim Cahill Premier.
Maybe thats why I am assigned vugraph duties instead of being allowed to play.

Galligan v Blanchman and Cahill Pairs after 56

Nothing new on the Jack Premier and Master Pairs yet.
Maybe I could play 7 boards of the Jim Cahill Pairs and see how I go.

However I played a challenge this morning against Blanchman and I watched a Bernard Magee video on Strong Openings.

Here is the video on Galligan versus Blanchman. 16 boards .. winning 5 losing 3 and drawing the other 8 apparently for a 56.25% score

Galligan v Blanchman

Board 50 I got a 16 count and strong No Trump type hand. Opps opened a weak2 in hearts and I competed to 4D over 3H. Made 4D and got 100% score. All others sold out to Hearts part score.
Now Galligan is 48%.
Board 51 appeared and Eamon has 4441 with singleton diamond buys it in 3H and after trick1 note the opposition own 11 card diamond fit. 30% this time losing out to 5D doubled twice and 4S made.
Fair enough as we missed a game.
Board 52 11 hcp opposite 7 and I am in 1NT non vulnerable but opps don't have any fit as such.
Made it for 100% .. and am now 48.6%
Board 53 I was dealt 8 card club suit and after 2H P 3H I bid a silly 5C and collected 20% for going down 2 and minus 200 ....4H was making so somewhat unfair to only get 20%.
Board 54 ...another 20% for going down in 4D when 3S has some play.
Board 55 got some luck as 3NT-2 gave me 60%.
Board 56 the final 1 of this blog post ..

However board 56 where I scored 50% allowed Goodman Pownall to slip past me.
So Eamon lies in 9th place after 56 boards of 147 so plenty of home with 2 human pairs behind me and one awaiting Coyne and Walsh to pass me on the way up.

Jim Cahill Premier Pairs after 49 boards

Good afternoon folks

As per previous posts Galligan is tackling the Jim Cahill Premier Pairs event. After a cautious start Eamon gained some momentum in the last 7 boards and eased past Grandmaster O'Brien and Grandmaster Walsh. Also has gone slightly ahead of the powerful Midlands pair which is Fitzgerald and MacDonagh. So after one third of the event Galligan lies in 7th place of the humans and about 9th overall.

So as one can see from the screenshot Galligan is a tiny amount ahead of Eddie and Michael.
This event was held back in November from 9th to 11th and was a very nice event.
The matchpoints is less vicious for me as I have added in 4 GIB robots and then theree is also my table of 3 Jacks and myself.
I hope to overtake Coyne and Walsh soon as I know they lack stamina and I also know their final placing which I hope to be ahead of.
This event has already been promised for next year and I think they should run a little qualifier for it or suggest a national event to be the qualifier for about 3 pairs. Maybe not next year but the Master Pairs or the Moylan could be a qualifier or at least grant an invitation to some pairs. Not many but about 3 places could be offered to the top 10 in Moylan or Masters Pairs.

Premier Pairs Master Pairs and Mullingarman

Good afternoon all

Yesterday evening I continued my efforts at proving I should be playing in the Master Pairs. So far the proving is not going so well. Irish Bridge player Jim Cahill created and sponsors the Premier Pairs event for the last 3 years. Ann Tuite puts all the wheels rolling on the ground. They have a committee of about 9 who are mainly players in the event. Eamon does the vugraph with some helpers. Martin Brady does the TD job and Declan Byrne tends the Regent premises and deals thee boards and the myriad of other things that Declan performs for the Regent Bridge Club.
Anyway I made a tourney for my Jack bridge program and despite vugraphing most of the boards and even playing half a board I am struggling at the back of the field with my robot. Even worse I have my EW opponent robot running at 75% to give me the odd trick. However I need more it seems.

So after 42 boards theree I am ..last of the pairs. Even behind Eddie Fitzgerald and Michael MacDonagh. Not just behind but 2.5% behind. I also added in a GB replay of thee hands to flatten some of the scoring a little. Its a great tourney but personally for the vugraph purposes I think it needs to be scored as some kind of imps as folk watching vugraph like to watch imps.
I agree that high class matchpoints is a great form of bridge but I don't like being Paddy Last.
However thanks to Jim Cahill and Anne Tuite for this wonderful event even if it is matchpoints.
Still 105 boards to go so plenty of time for Galligan to rise.
.......................
Meanwhile down in Templeogue a few weeks back CBAI ran the Master Pairs ..
We made a Jack tourney for this as well but after 3 matches and 21 boards Galligan is reduced to middle of thee field. However one hopes to make some progress soon.

Finally some good news .. Galligan defeats Mullingar Man by 9 imps.
Galligan 18 Mullingar Man 9

The link above has the last 8 boards including the final board where Mullingar Man loses the 2 ends of a 2 Heart contract losing 140 and 200 for 8 imps.

Galligan tackles Master Pairs

This morning after much effort by someone else Galligan was able to play the Master Pairs comparing against all the players who played in it real time. So far I have played 14 boards which is 2 matches and trail a long way behind the 2 match leaders Ronan McMaugh and Marcin Rudzinski. However there is plenty of time left.

Board 14 was unfortunate for me

Here the robots stopped in 3NT and made 12 when I failed to find the Heart Ace cash looking at KJxx in dummy. Shame on me. 690 and 5 imps to the robots against the datum. 

That dropped me back to joint 28th place after 14 boards. Still there are about 80 pairs behind me.
Anyone who has the Jack bridge program or any other bridge program that plays pbn files is welcome to have the pbn file we made with all the names and scores.
eamongalligan@eircom.net if you want it.

The bad news yesterday is that James Heneghan arrived back in Dublin and no doubt disturbed the leafy suburbs of Griffith Avenue. There is even talk of re opening the Garda station for Xmas.
The good news is there is still another 4 years of James in USA to come.
Still James is a very capable bridge player and the proud owner of all of Martens bridge books.
Well he owns at least one copy of each.
www.martensuniversity.com

If you think you have some idea about playing bridge and you want to find out ... have a look at
the above website and you might get a shock.
Martens has been spotted sitting at a bar in the Rathmines area the odd time. He likes the guinness allegedly. So if you want a head wrecker bridge book Martens has about 20 of them.

A couple of months ago an irish bridge player ordered 2 Martens books and put my address on them as I provided some bidding hands for said bridge player.
One is called Guide Dog and the other is called Imagination .. I have seen some good stuff during my recent visits to the throne.
The most recent one was a player drew one round of trumps too many ...
Holding like AKQJTxx in trumps he thought drawing a round of trumps was a good idea.
His opponent on his left showed out and quickly deposited the HEART ACE as a discard ...
Nope it was not a signal ... he was just creating a later entry for his partner who held Qxx of HEARTS with Kxxx in the dummy.

So if you see James Heneghan discarding an Ace of Hearts you will already have drawn one trump too many.

The various Irish trials and Blanchman movie

Good morning folks

I hear something is afoot with the Irish trials for the various events. Seems there might be some kind of merger between NIBU and CBAI for Home International trials. This will be good if they organize some training weekends for the teams and hire Galligan to run it. No point in picking easy boards and some ordinary lad to talk about Stayman and Landy. Get the big lad in and throw some thought provoking hands at them. Eamon has been knocking lumps off Hanlon team for years and anyone else who showed any interest.

Today I played a bridgebase challenge against Blanchman and after a reasonable set I found poor Blanchman had gone into orbit and the final score was 78-4 over 16 boards.

Galligan versus Blanchman

Meanwhile back to those trials. I think the Moran team won the last Camrose Trials in a canter so even in their weakened state they could see off all challengers. The reason for this is they do far more work than anyone else. How do I know ..well I am still making some hands for them.

I got the message from the new kids on the block that NPC Grainne pointed them at me.
I contacted Tyroneman and put hands in his account.
He has been working through them and told me the hands showed himself and partner a thing or 2.

"Eamon we thought we were good but those hands knocked those thoughts out of us"

So IBU ... some team needs to beat the Hanlon Moran team.
By all means hold as many pairs trials as you want ...but only to select a team to take out Moran.

Some team should select THEGARVE ... he owns an irish passport and can play a little.

The 16 board Bridgez tournament

Today I played the 16 board Bridgez tournament. Its a good facility for practicing each day. The server is quick and one can blast through the 16 boards comfortably in 30 minutes or else take it more thoughtfully and take breaks thru the day.

I recorded todays session but I was also watching and listening to Bernard Magees videos.
I need to keep up with what the Malahide membership development folk are doing.
Then I can counteract their moves.

Below is my video. You might here Bernard Magee talking in the background as I had him rolling on
another PC behind my laptop. He puts the dog to sleep. When he is sleeping he does not pee so thats a good thing.

Galligan on Bridgez

Magee likes killing Kings with Aces

He also points out to all those notebook wielding defenders ... When dummy comes down there is loads to do. One should not be scribbling in some notebook or entering stuff into the bridgemate.
One should be focusing on that dummy and paying attention to partners lead.

After all declarer is already working on his plan and its disrespectful for one to be scribbling in a notebook instead of planning the defence.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Galligan loses to Mullingar Man again

This morning  played a bad set of boards going down 4 vulnerable on one part score board. Also dropped about 5 other things during the 16 board set. Could have been 50 imps on a bad day.

Speaking of Mullingar  recall a few tough "intermediate " opponents from back in my short few months as intermediate. Jim McAulliffe I think was the mans name. He suffered from some illness that confined him to a wheelchair and that was back in the late 1980s probably maybe 1990 at latest. However there was nothing wrong with his bridge or head.

Then there was Claffey ... who on seeing dummy might comment to the unknowing stranger "Could go down on a bad day " and Madam Claffey would sit up straight and defend like a demon and down you went none the wiser. You had jusr been Claffeyed and you did not even know it.
I think he is still around but he would not know me and I would not get "Claffeyed" these days.

Galligan 19 Mullingar Man 31

I was taught bridge originally by a now Mullingar resident .. I had no idea what was going on but they needed a 4th I think. There was no internet in those days. It was a distant thought in Bill Gates mind. Funny enough Bill Gates does play bridge at a high level. I saw had a look at him once .. baseball cap .. striped tee shirt and jeans. However not being one of those sucker up types and not being playing against him  I had no reason to examine him more closely. He had enough folk button holing him.

The Dallas Aces were a great Bridge Team of the 1970 and 80s. They were formed to defeat the Italian Blue Team. I ran into some of them too.

Mike Lawrence was in the Bankers Bridge Club in the early 90s
Bob Hamman was in Templogue and Swords in 2006
I played against and had a conversation with  Billy Eisenberg
I read loads of Eddie Kantar books. Some old lad that looked like him gave me a hiding at bridge once in the US Nationals in 2007.
Paul Soloway was in Templeogue in 2006
Bobby Goldman used to play on okbridge before BBO was invented in the early days of online bridge as did Soloway.

Galligan versus Kilkennyman

Today  played 12 boards against Kilkennyman.
However Kilkenny man failed to finish the 12 boards so we will have to add a small video with the results and analysis later.

Galligan v Kilkennyman

12 boards of matchpoints .. results to follow maybe

..................
Found a nice little app called Bridge CCAnalyser for phones .. Android maybe

Strangely enough  I was on one of my computers .. I think it was the all in one thing and  logged into Google and found the app. Suddenly a window popped up on my screen saying
"App will be installed on your phone shortly"

That afternoon  noticed a new app on my phone ...  guess it is the new world

This is a app of the program Suitplay for PCs ... by Jan Rom???? from Holland  think.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Mullingar Man gets lucky to defeat Galligan 32-21

This morning it was blowing outside.  I got a bowl of porridge and a cup of tea and sat down to play Mullingar Man.

Mullingar Man wins

Above the link to Mullingar mans victory

The country man has 6 spades to AKQ and AK outside and calls it a STRONG 2 clubs opening..
Gets to a slam and makes it just and wins 13 imps.

Then he accepts an invitation with a minimum and buys  a dummy that should bid game.

Finally some downgrading evaluation lost Eamon a non vul game swing when 9 tricks were on top in 3NT.
Even Mullingar Man can cash out 9 high tricks.

Galligan versus PW

Galligan versus PW

Galligan defeats the Man from Mullingar

This morning  took on the Man from Mullingar in a challenge on Bridgebase Online.
This man taught me how to play bridge and still considers himself a superior player despite receiving numerous beatings. A man of supreme confidence.
However there is nothing wrong with confidence. Even off a 15 handicap in golf ...he still does not geet it. 15 handicap means ..you take 15 more shots than par to get around. He calls it value for money. More shots then the scratch who pays same golf club membership fee.

Mullingar man gets good pasting

Anyway its nearly Xmas and the CBAI and all the bridge clubs will be winding down.

Therefore we will have to resort to the online places

www.bridge-now.com
www.bridgebase.com

And also

Bridgez
http://bridgez.net:3002/playonthecloud

One can knock up some practice on some of these sites

Time for the bowl of porridge here ... Flahavans and a microwave and a drop of milk.
Years ago one used to cry when one forgot to put the salt in the large pot of porridge but nowadays I think the salt is included or maybe I don't need it.

Stanza 3 of Jim Cahill Premier Pairs plus a video

I just played the 3rd stanza of 7 boards of the Jim Cahill Premier Pairs.
Jim gathered 8 capable Irish pairs to compete for some good prizes over the weekend of Nov 9th to 11th 2018.
I made a tournament for Jack using the results and adding in 1 play by the GIB robots.
After 21 boards I rank in 10th place of 12 but some well known bridge capabilities are behind me.
One is the incredible BJ O'Brien.
However on 41.9% I am a long way from my normal 55% plus  efforts at bridge. Maybe I am not as good as I think. I will keep playing even if I get dumped into the 30s.

Below is another video made from the Bridgebase challenges. This is a great new method of playing bridge against friends on BBO.

Galligan v PW

Master Pairs 2018 ...Moving Day

Good morning all.
Its Master Pairs Sunday and moving day. The only day.
Marquee Pair Adam Mesbur and Nicolas Fitzgibbon lead the way and are rolling along nicely with a 12 VP lead on the recent fast risers Delaney and Brady. Delaney Brady may have presented too early but as Delaney will say if we are to win we have to defeat and overtake the current leaders.
However it is hard to squeeze a trick out of Mesbur Fitz let alone put together 20 tricks and a convincing win. Any the first hour of Sunday morning will tell. I am with Adam and Nick.

Meanwhile the peleton are gathered behind these 2. There are lots of good Irish players in the top 40 places. Coyne Garvey will be climbing into the top 10but have to overcome the elegant Conor Boland and the snarling presence of Kelan O'Connor. However maybe Kelan has matured with age. John Phelan touts Boland O'Connor as the next FitzMes but I think there is about 40 years of work to be done first. It might have been a beer goggled thought.

. The new partnership of Moran MacAongusa can do damage due to training done and international experience. Gilligan Ronan two bulldozers from Malahide face up to the elegant Cian Holland and the intelligent Anna Onishuk. Would be an interesting match to watch. Goodman Keaveney meet the incredible BJ O'Brien and the solid citizen Ranald Milne. BJ is incredible as he reaches and makes incredible contracts. However some years ago BJ won 6 Nationals and podium-ed in the other 3. So not to be sniffed at. Porteus Barry meet Ronan Marcin. Wonder who will win between Wheels Fitzgibbon and Wooden Spoons Kenny. O'Lubaigh McAulliffe could be there with 3 rounds to go.
MacCormac Barr meet the brothers O'Briain. There is also the looming presence of Brays John Noonan and Carol Ann Cummins.

So lets see how it all pans out as we are reaching the scoring up time

a

Anyway they played the 4 matches of today and Fitzgibbon Mesbur won in a photo finish from O'Gorman Walsh with Delaney Brady a further 10 VPs behind.

Masters Pairs Final result

Galligan new video versus PW

After some pleading by regular opponent for a new video here we go. 16 board BBO challenge using South set at best hand. I played boards 1-5 and then stopped as I felt I was going bad.
Went into the kitchen and started recording. Seemed to be playing better

Galligan v PW 11 boards

Went down 3 on two boards once 150 non vul and not so costly but once vulnerable and minus 300 so that cost more. Also I butchered a 4H and went down 2 from a high double dummy of 11 tricks so I blew 3 tricks on declarer play.

Not as bad as one of my chess playing bridge partners who one day in Kilkenny managed to blow 5 doubled undertricks in 3 leads. A power packed performance. His explanation ... I am driving ..you can get out and walk if you mention it once more.

We will get back to the Ireland Premier Pairs shortly. We need to up our game severely there.
40% is a problem ... but more of a problem is my Jack 6 program has lost its ability to record my
score when it exits. Something to do with Galligan messing with the hidden and read only settings
of the files in the Appdata folder.

Meanwhile out in Malahide Regional Bridge Club I ran a teams competition which attracted only 11 teams. A 2 week event and the players wanted to play each team once and once only and also have direct matches. So 10 matches and an enforced sitout. Now as a reasonably  established tournament director I don't do sitouts if possible and here I had experienced players wanting to enforce a 5-6 board sitout on all teams .... Beats me ...
I grabbed the nettle and played 8 rounds of 3 board matches each week and no 5-6 board sitout.
Several players are still moaning about why I would not want to impose a 5-6 board sitout.
Sorry but I don't understand ...

Premier Pairs Stanza2

Good evening folks
I played another 7 boards of the Ireland Premier Pairs. Its tough going and my score is 40%.
I am going to have to play better.

Still though I am ahead of 4 Irish bridge icons. The one name club BJ Terry Rex and David.
Going to have to be much more cautious and play much better.

I have the full 147 boards made into a tourney for Jack 6 so if anybody wants it let me know
Also full pbn file of all 147 boards and all players and their efforts.

Ireland Premier Pairs first 7 boards

On the weekend November 9th-11th I attended the Ireland Premier Pairs event as vugraph co-ordinator. It took me about 14 boards to get fully going but eventually we got going in stanzas of 7 boards each,
This is an annual invitational event of matchpoint pairs sponsored by Irish bridge player Jim Cahill and co-ordinated by a committee led by Ann Tuite.
I don't know anything about how one gets to play in this event but it seems to be mainly grandmasters of bridge or full internationals approximately and one has to be available on the designated weekend.

The scoring is matchpoints which is not the normal food of the regular BBO kibitzer but thats the conditions of contest.

Myself and a chap called David Doran have made a tournament for Jack bridge program using the results of the Irish Premier Pairs and one run of 4 GIB robots. I played the first 7 boards and I am well placed for a comeback. I am currently in a tie with well known NIBU internationals Rex Anderson and David Greenwood. I must be decent to be in a tie with Rex Anderson.

So there you have it ... room to improve.
I don't feel I have made a mistake but am down there in 11th place by alphabetic ranking.
More to follow.

Premier Pairs after 2 sessions

1	7	Adam Mesbur & Nick Fitzgibbon	319	588	54.25	3	1
2	8	Tom Hanlon & John Carroll	309	588	52.55	3	1
3	1	Cian Holland & Anna Onishuk	305	588	51.87	4
4	4	Rex Anderson & David Greenwood	293	588	49.83	2
5=	3	BJ O'Brien & Terry Walsh	287	588	48.81	2	1
5=	5	Eddie Fitzgerald & Michael MacDonagh	287	588	48.81	3	1
5=	6	Peter Goodman & Mike Pownall	287	588	48.81	3
8	2	Ciaran Coyne & David Walsh	265	588	45.07	1

Well my first 2 horses are placed 1st and 2nd ... I got Coyne Walsh all wrong but a fast start tomorrow could rise them a little. Lets be fair though there is nothing between 4th and 7th. 

Mesbur Fitzgibbon Hanlon Carroll and Onishuk Holland have been the pairs in form so far. 

I have a 1 euro bet with Joe Coyne about Onishuk Holland against Goodman Pownell.

my horse Goodpown is 3% down at the moment and thats after 2 sessions so they better 

play well tomorrow. 

Now the more serious side of the event .. 

3 sessions with prizes for 1st 2nd and 3rd of 1000 500 250 for each session. 

Thats 9 prizes for the sessions 

Then 1st overall is 2500 euros 

.........2nd overall is 1500 euros 

.........3rd overall is 600 euros 

No pair may win more than 3 prizes

and curremtly 5 pairs have won a prize out of the 8 entrants ..

For vugraph we have help from Conor Boland Nathan Doyle Stephen Barr Michael McAulliffe Aoife McHale and I operated a few sessions myself.

Downstairs in the bar Barbara Seligman is talking about all the hands as they come up. 

Some of her favourite words begin with the letter G. Was it a ghostly contract ..

My account is enabled for voice commentary and I was hoping it was not turned on as I logged 

the PC in on my account. Would have been the best vugraph commentary ever. 

A player was late this morning and jokingly I offered to play a board and my offer was accepted. 

Sadly playing 5 card majors my style is short club opener rebids 1NT with balanced and will only show a 4 card major when unbalanced. 

So 

1C 1D 

1NT 3NT ...... when we had a 4-4 spade fit ... 

Board 35 I think and the Heart 9 was led. I was just about to declare for 10 tricks and maybe something in the wash when the late player arrived. I offered to finish the hand but I was sent back to vugraph operator. I would have walked home 10 tricks and had a shot at some guard squeeze in the wash for 11. So when I handed over my cards there was 10 on top but I was not so good at the vugraph operating and could only make 9 tricks 

Fair play to the partner for standing by its late partner and discussing the merits of a 4S contract 

when the truth is given a minute or 2 more I would have got the 10 or 11 tricks for 2nd top on the board. 

Maybe I should be playing in this event ... but then ..........

Ireland Premier Pairs 208

This weekend Nov 9-11 in the Regent Bridge Club we hold the 3rd renewal of the  Ireland Premier Pairs, This event is organised by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite and takes place in the Regent Bridge Club. They also have a committeee of another 7 or 8 people. 

We will broadcast on Bridgebase Online the full event. 

The event is scored using matchpoints so every trick counts if the players choose the same contract. 

Paeticipants are 

Tom Hanlon & John Carroll

Adam Mesbur & Nick FitzGibbon

Peter Goodman & Mike Pownell

Brendan O'Brien & Terry Walsh

Ciaran Coyne & David Walsh

Rex Anderson & David Greenwood

Cian Holland & Anna Onishuk

and late replacements Edward Fitzgerald and Michael McDonagh.... maybe its MacDonagh.

So who will win ... well I don't know but I will make a guess

but I think plus or minus a place should be available to me. 

8th McDonagh Fitzgerald

7th Anderson Greenwood

6th BJ O'Brien Terry Walsh

5th Cian Holland Anna Onishuk 

4th Peter Goodman Mike Pownell

3rd Ciaran Coyne David Walshe

2nd Hanlon Carroll

1st Mesbur Fitzgibbon

Now Greenwood wrote a book on pairs bridge but I don't think

Anderson read it. 

McDonagh Fitgerald are placed 8th in my estimation as they 

have not featured for many years as a partnership. 

O'Brien Walsh are down there as they are not a regular partnership despite being near the podium in many national events over last 20 years but not as partners. 

So play starts at 430pm tomorrow evening in the Regent. 

We will run a vugraph room down in the basement. 

Declan Byrne ... Regent premises 

Martin Brady ... Tournament Directing 

Eamon Galligan vugraph

Jim Cahill Anne Tuite eveything else

All day Saturday 

Sunday until evening

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

Thanks 

Eamon Galligan

 

Coen Trophy 2018 Mixed Teams

63 teams take the floor in the 2018 Coen Trophy.

The monsters chase the Trophy and the lesser players chase the B points.

So who will win.

The powerful Kenny squad should go well. Kenny Rigney Glynn and Keaveney.
The Coyne squad sporting the Spiro Cup winners along with Michael McGloughlin and Heidi Lillis.
The Pattinson squad sporting 2 Grandmonsters and two Reddans might manage it
Another squad worthy of note is the Kemple squad. 12 years ago Kemple explained to me how she was a better declarer than Galligan .... 12 years later she must have double dummy status.
Kemple also sports Grandmasters Goodman and Walsh in her bag.

Stewart Noonan Roche and Boland are other teams worthy of mention.

Stewart features the ever green Peter Pigot Junior along with legendary lady player Hilary McDonagh.
Conor Boland and Kelan O'Connor have teamed up with experienced Emer Joyce and LizAnn O'Reilly.
The Porteus squad has plenty of experience but might lack in the stamina department.
Noonan and Cummins are always near the top of Mixed events.

The NIBU squad of Murchan Connolly Fitzpatrick and Curran don't seem to be confident at the moment. However if Murchan has his bunny gun with him they could feature.
Murchan is one of the greatest bunny hunters in Ireland. However he has thin skin and loves roast beef. However you cannot shoot a cow with a bunny gun.

Ann Dillon sporting Cian Holland Maria Barry and Sean O'Lubaigh could do some damage although Cian has lots of eperience to carry on his back. Cian is one of the most under rated players in Ireland ...a real bridge player and tough opponent. I heard him touted as one of Irelands greatest bridge talents about 15 years ago.

I have looked thru all the teams line by line and I don't see the podium places  coming outside the above listed 11 teams ...

Lets see how I go

Good luck to all

CBAI Mixed Weekend 2018

This weekend sees the Spiro Cup and Coen Trophy  taking place in Dublin for Mixed Pairs and Teams. There are 112 pairs entered in the Spiro Cup and Galligans first task will be to pick the top 10 finishers in no particular order.

Dillon Holland
Cummins Noonan
Fitzgerald Coyne
Seligman Fitzgibbon
Joyce Boland
Gannon McAndrew
Phelans
Gililand VanWoerkom
Connolly Murchan
Whelan O'Connor

...........
Honorable mentions for

McDonagh Taaffe
Lillis McGloughlin
Galligans
McDonagh Stewart
Part O'Brien

So lets see how many make the top 15

.......................................
The Ireland Team headed by Mark Moran continued their preparation for the Camrose
Trials with a training trip to Vilnius Lithuania. However they lost one match heavily and thus
failed to make up the ground to make the top 2 places in their group of 6.
A 4th placing left them short of the semi finals.
............
Next was Teams qualifier and IRELAND were a long way short of making the TOP 8.
.....
Currently our 2 pairs play in the very strong pairs event full of powerful Polish players.
Moran MacAonghusa are in 19th place after 40 boards with Hanlon Carroll back in 48th place out of 132 pairs.
An indication of the strength of this field is the position of
B Gierulski J Skrzypczak in 132nd and last place at the moment.

They are a recognised and capped Polish pair.

Vilnius Cup 2018

The above link shows the resutlts and running scores

Drogheda Congress 2018

Drogheda Congress takes place this weekend with the redoubtable Fearghal O'Boyle at the helm one expects.

All details on everything on Drogheda Congress can be found at the link below

Drogheda Bridge Congress 2018

The Lady Milne trials took place last weekend with 8 pairs qualifying for the squad which will form 2 teams to take part in the Lady Milne Trophy in Gormanston in April 2019.

Congratulations to Gilda Pender and Hilary McDonagh who are the first pair to reach the magic 130 VP quota in just 10 rounds and qualify for the top 8 group.  They have just been followed over the line in round 11 by Teresa Rigney and Joan Kenny and also by Ann O’Connell and Valerie Burke-Moran.  Louise Mitchell and Maureen Pattinson along with Jean Kelly and Betty Cotter, Emer Joyce and Kathleen Vaughan , join the list of qualifiers after round 12.  That leaves just two places to fill in the last round!  Those two places go to Dolores Gilliland and Lucy Phelan and to Cathy Bearpark and LizAnn O’Reilly.  Well done to all.

The above running commentary as the pairs qualified has been taken from 

Fearghals website

All details on Lady Milne trials 2018 can be found there

While visiting Fearghals website I spotted a mention of the 2018 Camrose trials.
7 teams have entered

CBAI Camrose Trials
7 teams have entered for this years Camrose Trials.  The draw for team numbers will be based on the results of tonight’s Lotto draw (Wed 3rd October).  The first 7 numbers drawn on the night will be assigned to the 7 teams in the order listed below.  The teams will then be ordered in ascending order of their lotto number and then renumbered 1 to 7.  Lotto Numbers in brackets.

4.   Micheal O’Briain, Padraig O’Briain, BJ O’Brien, Ranald Milne (32)

1.   Tom Hanlon, John Caroll, Mark Moran, Donal MacAonghusa (3)

7.   Ciaran Coyne, Derek O’Gorman, David Walsh, Enda Glynn, Gay Keaveney, Pat McDevitt (46)

3.   Martin Brady, Paul Delaney, John Phelan, Lucy Phelan, Conor Boland, Karel de Raeymaeker (10)

5.   Thomas MacCormac, Ronan McMaugh, Marcin Rudzinski, John Connolly, Stephen Barr, Michael Donnelly (33)

2.  Diarmuid Reddan, Louise Mitchell, Bob Pattinson, Maureen Pattinson (4)

6.  Richard Elvin, Kathleen Vaughan, Maria Whelan, Eileen O’Donovan (35)

I wonder did Fearghal use those numbers .. I heard there was a winner in Dublin.

...........
I am afraid its still Team 1  Thomas Hanlon team for me. I knew the Hanlon team has something missing. McGann is gone on his holidays. However the new MacAonghusa Moran partnership is bedding in well.

Team 2 ... Diarmuid Reddan ... 4 person team ... stamina will wear them down despite the presence of their two grandmasters of bridge.

Team 3 .., Martin Brady .. 3 full internationals along with the experienced Brady Delaney and the intelligent Conor Boland. They are good swimmers but they are not sharks.

Team 4   O'Briain brothers plus BJ and Ranald.. well 3 of them can almost walk to the venue.
However a 4 man team with their best days behind them is going to tire as each day ends.
Maybe they need to have a couple of substitutes on the side just in case.
I would play 12 boards for 50 euros if they need.

Team 5 Thomas MacCormac ... Now here is a team that won't be phased by any other team.
4 of these lads have been attending US Nationals for the last few years and on one occasion took on the world reknowned NICKEL team in a 64 board match losing narrowly. (on each board)
They are the Irish arm of the Great American Bridge Tour.

Team 6 .. Richard Elvin ... This team will need to find much improvement on recent form to
remain competitive.

Team 7 Ciaran Coyne ...A 6 man team with plenty of experience who put it up to the full
Hanlon team in last years IBU trials and only fell away in the last stanza.

I will say top 3 teams will be MacCormac Coyne and Hanlon .. Its a round robin so one heavy loss
to another favourite could end a teams interest. I don't know the conditions of contest but I presume its first past the post. This means on Monday afternoon there could be room for some sportsman dumping. However Hanlon should be able to win from the front starting off with ELVIN.

I made a video of me losing to the country gentleman YET AGAIN ..

Galligan v Country Gentleman

Losing by 24 imps ..