March 21st Ireland Imp Pairs results

Good morning folks

Ireland Imp Pairs Every night at 8pm ..Free Tourney
Open to all Ireland flags..message eamongall if you cannot get in. However change to an Ireland South flag and its usually ok. 

I think BBO selects the current group of Ireland flags and my followed list at creation of the event so I need to refresh if a person changes from say Northern Ireland to Ireland flag. 

If you want to play for first time .. best not arrive at 758pm .. look in earlier and try registering. Tourney is visible from about 615pm.


Last night we reached 19 tables of the nightly Ireland Imps Pairs. I think this was the 10th night in a row. We had many relatively fine players last night. Possibly the greatest player present was a man who shocked a group of Northern Ireland internationals during a conversation. They asked his strength and when I said .."Better than anyone in this room"  they balked and told me I was talking rubbish. I pointed out Tommy Garvey and said ...Ask him if ye want to know..

5 minutes later I heard NIBU NPC phrasing the question to Tommy Garvey.

3rd best player in full country of GREAT BRITIAN was the shocking answer. 

NO IT IS NOT BJ O'Brien. 

However he was unable to make a dent in the Ireland Imp Pairs 

While having a brief look around the hands I spotted that hands 13 and 16 were very interesting. 

Here is hand 13 

The players shown are used for display only not to highlight their actions. 

Annao was allowed home in 3NT here as the defenders played cautiously. 

https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?bbo=y&lin=pn|annao,zaczaczac,conorb,thegarve|st%7C%7Cmd%7C3S7543HT942DAKQCAK%2CSK6HA75DJT96C8732%2CSQ98HKQD832CQJT95%2C%7Crh%7C%7Cah%7CBoard%2013%7Csv%7Cb%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7C1N%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7C3N%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cpc%7CDJ%7Cpc%7CD2%7Cpc%7CD7%7Cpc%7CDK%7Cpc%7CCA%7Cpc%7CC2%7Cpc%7CC5%7Cpc%7CC4%7Cpc%7CCK%7Cpc%7CC3%7Cpc%7CC9%7Cpc%7CC6%7Cpc%7CH2%7Cpc%7CHA%7Cpc%7CHQ%7Cpc%7CH3%7Cpc%7CDT%7Cpc%7CD3%7Cpc%7CD4%7Cpc%7CDQ%7Cpc%7CH4%7Cpc%7CH5%7Cpc%7CHK%7Cpc%7CH6%7Cpc%7CCQ%7Cpc%7CH8%7Cpc%7CS3%7Cpc%7CC7%7Cpc%7CCJ%7Cpc%7CS2%7Cpc%7CS4%7Cpc%7CC8%7Cpc%7CCT%7Cpc%7CST%7Cpc%7CS5%7Cpc%7CH7%7Cpc%7CD8%7Cpc%7CD5%7Cpc%7CDA%7Cpc%7CD6%7Cpc%7CS7%7Cpc%7CSK%7Cpc%7CS8%7Cpc%7CSJ%7Cpc%7CD9%7Cpc%7CS9%7Cpc%7CHJ%7Cpc%7CH9%7Cpc%7CS6%7Cpc%7CSQ%7Cpc%7CSA%7Cpc%7CHT%7C

I dunno if this will work as an interactive link or not ..lets see.

Then there is hand 16 

https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?bbo=y&lin=pn|annao,culbaire,conorb,kilcock123|st%7C%7Cmd%7C2SKHAJDT98643C7632%2CSAJ964H854DAJCAK4%2CST83HKQT73D752C95%2C%7Crh%7C%7Cah%7CBoard%2016%7Csv%7Ce%7Cmb%7C1S%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7C2C%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7C3N%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7C4S%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cpc%7CHK%7Cpc%7CH2%7Cpc%7CHA%7Cpc%7CH4%7Cpc%7CHJ%7Cpc%7CH5%7Cpc%7CHQ%7Cpc%7CH6%7Cpc%7CHT%7Cpc%7CH9%7Cpc%7CC6%7Cpc%7CH8%7Cpc%7CD2%7Cpc%7CDQ%7Cpc%7CD6%7Cpc%7CDJ%7Cpc%7CS2%7Cpc%7CSK%7Cpc%7CSA%7Cpc%7CS3%7Cpc%7CSJ%7Cpc%7CS8%7Cpc%7CS5%7Cpc%7CC2%7Cpc%7CS4%7Cpc%7CST%7Cmc%7C10%7C

Again the players are for display purposes only .. they are not for sale.

Finally we have the hand record file... you should be able to increase the size with some kind of zoom tool or copy the image and manipulate it somehow or just increase web browser zoom in top right corner of most browsers ...the 3 dots ..click on them

I am advised I should apologize for reporting Joan Kennys failure to make 3DX a few nights ago.
I presume I will also have to apologize to the rest of ye who failed on Boards 13 and 16 too.
No wonder the carpets are 1 foot above concrete in Ireland with all the stuff that gets brushed under them. I have not examined boards 1-12 or 14 15 yet to see if there is any more stuff for under the carpet.

Ireland Imp Pairs tonight March 22nd at 8pm 

Ireland Imp Pairs March 20th ......Running again tonight 8pm

To find this tournament you got to logon to www.bridgebase.com and find Competitive then Free Tourneys and search for Ireland Imp Pairs from 7pm onwards. Then register with your partner or go to Partnership Desk. Tournaments start showing about 100 minutes before start time.

There is also available from a link on Bridgebase the free digital bridge care pack
including a free book from Julian Pottage and several other items.
It seems to be getting added to since I first saw it.

https://www.bridgeshop.com.au/digital-bridge-care-pack

Last night we had in my humble opinion a very successful Ireland Imp Pairs. We added to 2 boards to play 18 boards in the session. 18 boards completed in just under 2 hours. For the final board I added several minutes to make sure all finished board 18 without intervention.
Last night we had Grandmaster Anna taking on the novice player Kitkatgirl and coming off the worst of it. Paula Tolan and Mr Blackwood came in first place despite paula stopping to whinge about her partners name changing all the time. I suspect she was confused due to color blindness.
Just after the event she expressed an interest in how does Imp Pairs work ... I said "Teams" She said " but we were playing as Pairs" ... I decided its time to eject from this conversation.

Denis and Jim found the boards too tough last night and Cian Holland waxed on about misdefending 2 hands. I am sure there were many other stories. Zrinka came all the way from Derry with the man who carries a fridge in his van full of meats and cheeses. Imagine bringing a fridge to the Holmes Wilson.

And lets try a bonus for our players

I think the image can be copied and expanded on phones or other devices.
Otherwise I am going to make a pdf and post it....hmmm does not seem to like pdf files.
Anyone wants it send me an email at eamongalligan62@gmail.com
It is also possible for the techy types to get the hands from www.bridgebase.com

Meanwhile Kelan has been crying about me never posting about his victories and his endplays and stuff... well its not often I beat Kelan so I may as well mention it.

Here is the legend in his own mind in action on http://bridgez.net:3002/playonthecloud
only yesterday.

Here for some reason we have the poor robot making a good spade lead and somehow the legendary expressive Kerryman manages to allow 12 tricks ... and possibly the Kerryman might say if the robot led 4th highest diamond he would not make the mistake. It should be a quick minus 1 but maybe the Kerryman is distracted by the first loss to Galligan in months and that the press showed up just on that day. I think its because he has not been getting to Dublin enough. Into his 30s now and no sign of an All Ireland GAA title. Donegalmen climbing trees to look at Kerrymen training in the GAA.

How can you leave out 12 tricks beggars belief though.

However Kelan is doing quite okay in the overall scheme of things so there is some good news.
I don't want him whinging all over messenger about all his wins at bridge

Kelan is maintaining a good average on the boards he completes. 60.73% in 3rd place ahead of some well known Ireland players. Not the top Ireland players but some decent folk are present.
Vince Bisset a retired chess player once of Malahide. Rashers and Sausages are a sometimes partnership in real life. Elvis is a legend in his own brain out in Malahide. The ericf I am tracking as he only plays the first hand each day and possibly ditches the hand if it is going badly. The brains of Hull is in 2nd place.....same place as he finished against Fearghal in the Camrose match.

Kelan gets Steamed in Bridge challenge

Just in case anyone thought Galligan was gone away. Well Kelan offered the BBO challenge and Kelan left with nothing. Not even 1 imp was allowed be brought back to the Kerry pigfarm.
After two early flat boards Galligan gained 1 imp due to superior declarer skills.
Board 4 was flat in 6NT
on board 5 Galligan went for the swing by opening a 15 count very balanced as weak NT.
Kelan roared in on his phone with a full blooded 1NT opening

With 7 tricks off the top this clearly is a hopeless contract but the great Kerryman roars into 3NT hoping for Tralee Bridge Club defence. Not to be ...and the cautious Galligan stays in 2C which unfortunately failed on 4-1 trumps. 

Then Board 7 

Again Kelan roared into 4S and found that was beyond his declaring skills.

The robot in West found the Tommy MacCormac special lead of the NINE from A9xxx and 

down went the Kerryman. Kerryman needs to visit Dublin more often to be up to current opening lead technique. 

Finally board 8 and Galligan nailed the coffin SHUT

Kelan again takes the high road against Galligans low road 1C opening ..

4H has no hope even with Kelan at the helm. 

Down he went as the cautious more experienced Galligan chose to play in 3H and rolled it home.

Kelans line does not even make 3H. 

I fully understand Kelans actions are the actions of most Irish players but maybe most Irish players need some upskilling. Come play the Ireland Imp Pairs and we can work on that tonight 

IRELAND IMPS PAIRS EVERY NIGHT 8pm. 

Last nights winners by a distance Ciaran Coyne and David Walsh. No sign of Kelan the Steamed Ham.

Ireland Imp Pairs results March 19th .... Tonight at 8pm again

Folks
We will run the Ireland Imps Pairs event again tonight at 8pm. All welcome but login about 15 minutes before start and register. Partnership Desk is available.
Last night we had about 10 tables. Even the well known David Walsh from Galway showed up and the Enfield great Brian Cleary with his broken computer.
We also had our first visit from a PeterPigot Bridge Club member. She won 7 imps from BJ and Ronan. Peter will be pleased.

The famous murphyslaw took part but struggled. Minus 34 imps ..one guesses the hands and the partner did not suit him. Declan Murray rings me up at 759pm to see if there is a tournament.
8~PM every night but there you go.
Meanwhile hand 15 caught the eye of the bridge master from out West ..

He says there is some usefulness in pitching the DQ on the 3rd round of Hearts.
It prevents declarer throwing in the defence on that card ..
It must be a good hand if he copped it.
However Ciaran was declarer so he noted the danger.

Maybe someone else spotted some things on boards 1-14 and 16.

Ireland Imps Pairs March 18th results ..Tonight March 19th at 8pm

Last night in the Ireland Imps Pairs we had the unheralded Malahide pairing of Joe Caulfield and Peter Wilson playing well above their handicaps. A final placing at table 6 or 7 would have been okay but these guys ended up 3rd overall with regular trials players Connor and Doyle ahead of them. Denis Sheehan is well known down Munster way but Sean Maguire is beyond my time.

 Meanwhile down at the Virtual Regent Club Peter Goodman ran a 14 table matchpoint event and Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon dominated a curtailed Mitchel movement. 10 rounds meant if you were East West and seated yourself 10 seats from Mesbur Fitzgibbon you were on a 1 board start over the 10 unfortunates who got picked apart by the aforementioned pair.

Hand 18 saw the rampaging Mesbur Fitzgibbon slowed down although it was nothing to do with them. After all their is only one man in Ireland who might find the Ace of Club lead and I am not playing these days. Fitzgibbon was unfortunate to find the human rightsided the contract (whoever Thabo might be) goes by the name of Mike G ... maybe G is for Galligan.
Then having right sided the contract the man gathered in all 13 tricks and there was me thinking it was the robot.

One notes a couple of bridge legends in their own minds chose a 1NT opening or rebid thus wrong siding the contract and facing a possible downing club lead. Mr Comyn recently relatively successful in the well attended Malahide Congress Teams might  say .."When you got 6 card suit of something you open it or rebid it. " However 4 many time international and national Irish champions for some reason failed to get this. Well Mr Comyn learned some of them out in Malahide.

Out in Malahide Congress there was no Mesbur or Fitzgibbon but Comyn and his band of Bearpark Boyle and Guy cuffed the powerful MacMaugh team in the final round. Sadly for them the Rebecca team of ladies passed them at the post. Seamus Boyle is a former Malahide player ..although still a life member who departed Malahide for the Templogue area.

Results of Malahide wonderful Congress can be found on http://cbai.ie and http://fob.ie

Ireland Imps Pairs 8pm tonight March 18th plus last nights results

Folks

Last night Bridgebase Online was back to its best and seemed to have overcome the capacity issues of March 16th. I saw Feargal running his Sligo competition and Pat Egan running another one and Railway Union running one and 40watts was there too.
The Ireland Imps Pairs ran at 815pm after Eamon made an error and crashed the 8pm one.
It won't happen again.

Last night saw the appearance of well known Munster player Michael Lavelle in the winners enclosure. I will have to find out who carmel40 is ..
I saw Joan Kenny declaring 3DX and I somehow could feel the priests teeth grinding in the dummy.

Joan got a spade lead and East took Ace and returned a spade
4 tricks of cross ruffing saw our girl moving forward happily but
sadly on the 7th trick she thought it a good idea to draw some trumps or take a finesse or something.
All she had to do was claim and 9 tricks are in the bag.
14 imps gone in the dustbin ... Wooden Spoons Kenny.. could'nt make porridge.

No doubt Mairead and Fearghal will rush to her defence as they tout Joan as the best bridge player in Ireland since Pat Walshe but they live in Sligo where the fish are small.

Free Daylongs on Bridgebase

Folks

Ye might note the FREE DAYLONG tourneys on BBO. Open to all and will give you your ranking and any friends rankings who play same tourney. Remember there are 4000+ players so 2000th place is like average.

Sorry I made a mistake ... 12000 players and 59% got me 2200th place.

Thus there are better players out there than us.

Ireland Imp Pairs St Patricks Day 8pm

Folks
Last night Bridgebase Online ran into capacity problems like almost the opposite of everything else hit by this unprecedented situation in our lifetimes. Yes Spanish flu after World War 1 was definitely pretty bad but it did not affect BBO or bridge playing.

Last night it was indicated that BBO was getting a server upgrade thru the night but as BBO is a rolling feast we don't know which night that might be.

We will run Ireland Imp Pairs at 8pm for 16 boards ...

Another idea that comes to me is to run hourly 8 board tourneys starting from 8pm on the hour.
If folk in Ireland would prefer this then let me know by text to 087 9032505.
I will ask during tonights tourney what is best

I understand 16 boards along with the waiting for others to finish boards might be too long.
How come these fast players never appear in bridge clubs ..

Who ever heard 5 minutes a board is too slow ..

There is one chap who cannot play as its bedtime for children about 830pm... I guess he could let the children stay up until 930pm

Last nights curtailed Imps Pairs was won by Aoife and Peter who got 3S down 5 on board 7

Kelan has sent me an 8 board challenge. He must be a good player as he keeps beating me. 

Must be tough being the 3rd best player in Kerry. The well known Pat Walshe emerged from Kerry many years ago. That man once declared 7D missing the Ace of Trumps. That man made the contract by inducing a revoke despite playing against top level Irish players.

BBO just booted Ireland Imp Pairs ...

Bridgebase Online just booted Ireland Imp Pairs.

At 6pm they said ... don't create new FREE tourneys for 2-3 hours
So I went for 901 pm

Then they just kicked it out

Thanks
Bridgebase

Malahide Bridge Congress 2020 results

Rachel McHale and her team of 3 assistant congress organizers ran a great show in Malahide on the weekend of March 6th to 8th.
Congress entries were set at 100 tables. For various reasons we peaked at about 118 tables.
We also got a large unexpected number of Open Pairs for Sunday afternoon and after a brief reshuffle we got underway with 17 tables.

Malahide Congress Results

All results are linked on CBAI website above

I am hearing there will be a 2021 Malahide Congress ..

All Open Pairs results are on http://fob.ie  along with all the Main Congress events

http://bridgewebs.com/dririshresults   also has most of Malahide Congress results

The only issue I came across was bridge players wanting their name on bridgemates instantly.
The reason we were slow was many players entered for wrong event or did not enter at all.
This caused reshuffling of tables and hence names in bridge scoring programs got shuffled up or down. For some reason some folk took some pain from being called Murphy instead of Smyth even if it was only for an hour or so .... Brian Lawlor is not a fast typer ..

Congress Committee did supply us with names entered in advance but we still struggled to keep up with the instant speed folk in local bridge clubs are used to when they enter their club number.

CBAI have a new number system for players now but very few knew their new CBAI number ...all were good at remembering their 35 year old 07G157 number but not the new one.

Getting the correct names into the bridgemates involves collecting the sheets from each table and typing in the names from the slips ... With 100 plus tables sometimes this took a while but was only a small issue.

Luckily we got done before the current Covid 19 restrictions came into play ...

So well done to RACHEL MARY MAUREEN and PAUL.

Tonight Monday it could be the Sligo Imp Pairs as Fergal has setup a 12 boarder for 1930.

Good morning folks

Given that rule 1 is ... The boss is always right
and rule 2 is refer to rule 1

Fergal O'Boyle has setup an event for his Sligo folk ... #9726
he says 1930 ...against our normal 2000 ..

We might even pull in 40watts from Longford ..

Tonights tourneys

1930 Fearghals ACOL Phoenix Sligo event..... 12 boards.... #9726
Message ansuid and he might let you play. 


2100 Ireland Imp Pairs ...tourney .... 12 boards...... #3926
Note BBO is struggling as there are 1000 new eamongalls out there.

You need a bridgebase account.

Anyway here are the results of tonights Ireland Imp pairs

We have to go to 5th place to find an irish pair but the hands were hard. 

Murphyslaw unfortunately got highlighted during my capture of the results but I do not mean to highlight the man. 

So tonight Monday we will aim for FREE Tournament #9726 and more information tomorrow.

BBO is also struggling under the extra demand for its services caused by the closed bridge clubs and last night limited tourney to 20 tables 

APWARD from out the WEST runs the HORNETS tourney for years and I understand her tourney was chopped off in running. 

Last night I could not enter my local at 1040pm  as for some reason at 906pm some committee took a decision that closing time was 1000pm .... 

Strangely the lights remained on at 1215am after I had walked to next pub and imbibed 4 pints and was on my way home. I guess its a Rivervalley 1000pm.

Ireland Imp Pairs 4 ..tonight Sunday 8pm

Tonight Sunday we will run with Ireland Imp Pairs 4. We restarted Ireland Imp Pairs due to the closure of bridge clubs because of the Corona virus.
Supported bt Regent Bridge Club and CBAI we will continue to run this event for anyone in Ireland who wishes to participate. Every night at 8pm.
Eventually we can run a daytime event if the players wish. Say Noon time.

Last nights results

Some people will say but its not matchpoints ... 

We can do matchpoints if the people want that .. .

or we can do a matchpoints tourney at 12 noon or 2pm or whenever.

..........

Meanwhile we await the response of Steamy from Kerry on the Bridgez.

Steamy started this event and then wimped off when scoring small scores on the first few boards.

The famous Murphyslaw went the same route ... No stamina either of them. 

640 players finished the event and Galligan the director 27th.

Ireland Imp Pairs 3 tonight Saturday March 14th 8pm

Folks 
Tonight for the 3rd night in a row we will continue with Ireland Imp Pairs at 8pm Irish time. 
I saw a small Longford tourney running last night with 3.5 or 4 tables. 
They should have joined the Ireland Imp Pairs which is aimed at all of Ireland rather than running a small event at same time. However I am sure they enjoyed themselves too. 
I opened it up with 4 minutes to go as we only had about 7 tables. One problem is that the more experienced tourney players from afar think they might get away with avoiding a bad score by running down the clock..... but I normally catch these and adjust the score. Therefore tell me (eamongall) if you are averaged on a good board. 
Here are the results for last night 

Last night we had Murphyslaw and Jeroen defending the realm in 4th place ..JamesT42 and marlynch in 6th .. the legendary Mountnugent GAA player in 7th and Alan O'Sullivan Carolann Cummins in 10th place. About 21 ireland players showed up last night supported by many visitors to make up 19 tables. Most of them stayed the full distance so not many ran off.

We will go again tonight on Bridgebase online at 8pm.
Tourney #4723 in Competitive and Free Tourneys.
All Ireland flags welcome. 
Hands are random from Bridgebase online.

Finally I got destroyed by the Kerry pigfarmer this morning in an imps challenge. This guy has robots helping him all over the place. 
3NT is down 2 all the way and our man makes it plus 1. 
okay I miscounted my diamonds on another board and opened 1S with 5-6 SD and then I passed out a 4333 hand with no 10s and he bids a making 3NT. 

1st Ireland Imp Pairs revival results

Last night we ran the first renewal of the Ireland Imp Pairs.
This initiative has come from several sources starting with CBAI headquarters.
Regent Bridge Club anchored by Peter Goodman is coming on board.
We have advertised on Malahide Regional Bridge Club.
Anyone who sees this feel free to place a mention on their club website.
All levels are welcome.
Peter Goodman (petepunt) of Regent is co-director with eamongall for now.

Last Night Thursday we gathered in about 15 Irish players and about 3 minutes before the start we opened it up to the world and a few more players joined us. 

We hope to eventually run with only Irish players but for now we will open it up to get comparisons.

A partnership desk operates on this tourney so people can show up and choose a partner. 

Some players like Magic Murphy like to partner a robot. This costs all of 25 cents and that money goes to Bridgebase Online. 

The tournament is FREE unless you decide to go the ROBOT route. 

Results of last night are posted above. 

Myself and Peter and whoever else joins us will hopefully run this tourney until our crisis is over and the major bridge clubs reopen. 

Tonight we will make it Swiss ... thus leaders play leaders and I think the draw is made in a timely manner rather than waiting out the clock or waiting on slowboats.

Ireland Imps Pairs lives again

The Ireland Imps Pairs tourney is being revived to help with bridge folk missing their bridge fix due to Covid19.

Tonight on Bridgebase Online at 8pm irish time.

A free tourney open to all with Ireland flag in their profile. Will open to all with a few minutes to go if we are only a few people.

Please if you could mention on your websites .

This event is aimed at players in clubs which are closed and other folk who are staying home.

I will run on any night I am not directing somewhere which will soon be most nights.

You need a Bridgebase Online account … this is FREE and the TOURNEY is free

Find in Competitive … Tournaments .. Free tournaments

There is partnership desk here also ..you can get a partner

For those new to Bridgebase Online there is no point in logging in at 759pm and expecting to figure your way to tourney. Need to login earlier and have a look around.

Thanks

Eamon Galligan

eamongall on Bridgebase

Camrose Weekend 2 NIBU

Good morning all

Just in from the pub and having a quick look at some Camrose boards.
Focusing on Northern Ireland v NIBU as I have an interest here.

We know about Team CBAI getting to quarter final of some event in Monaco ...
Well done them but one pair was a little soft in the 3rd stanza.

Here we saw the NIBU pair reach the great heights of 4C .. The other 5 tables witnessed a normal 3NT. Some work to be done here. Vulnerable you better be looking for the 3NT making.

Then we saw board 7 and another 4C story. This time EW robbed our boyos in 4C ..
25 high card points ..and 9 card fit in spades ...even the novices in Malahide Congress would bid spades at least 4 times .....Okay NS will say we kept them out of 5C ...but both pairs have failed to get revved up here.

Here we see the Northern Ireland steal away with GAME in both rooms .. again way below PAR

How in the world does one arrive in 4H. Its a 12 count opposite a 9 couint with no fit ..
minus 500 is just desserts .... Not even Murphyslaw does this

This one is just probably just hard to play but Rex Anderson got home in it so cannot be that hard.
Sometimes trumps break 5-0 but at least you find out early.
4 declarers went down so it must be okay to go down but the sheet says its cold and these are international players.

Anyway Harold Currans squad lost and the other lads Northern Ireland won so revenge was handed out. No Cheshire Cat this weekend ...

Team Moran gets hot at European Winter games

This week before heading off to Camrose Weekend 2 presumably Team Moran went to Monaco for a warm up or is it Switzerland. I have not checked.

Day 1 Saturday March 1 saw the Moran team struggling below mid table ... 33 place out of 64 contenders. Now it is Swiss Teams qualifier of 15 rounds so no major panic until day 3.

Day 2 saw Moran score a 14 3 11 3 and 13 ... for a total of 44 ...
This was not going to trouble the scoreboard man either and Moran were resting overnight in 45th position on 91 VPS with 100 being average. We are 23 VPS out of qualifying at this stage. However it is the vast number of teams you have to pass out is the problem ... 29 of the buggers or so ..

Top 16 qualify for the knockouts ...

Day 3 dawned and the Irish wolfed down the banned black pudding and rashers while the other teams feasted on blackberries and raspberries and pieces of apple.

Match 11 Moran got swamped by a very decent POLOWAN team including reknowned English player  Tom Townsend. 15-5 loss and down to 50th place. Time to book the flights home.
26 VPS and some change out of qualification. 80 VPS to play for.

Match 12 featured a match against Kiki Ward Platt ...including 2 Helnesses and Buratti of Race car fame. Ward Platt lived in Ireland for a year or so some time ago but don't think she ventured out in CBAI land bridge. A 17-3 victory eased some of the pain for Team Moran now in 43rd place and 22 VPS out of qualification... Definitely time to ring the airport

Match 13 and old foes Buras and Narkiewicz from Poland aided by World famous Versace appear as next opponents... It shows the depth of competition when you find 3 world champions down in 44th place as your opponents.

20-0 was the result .... but MORAN was the winner..
Now into 30th place and 11VPS or so out of the qualification

Match 14 ... and Bridge24PL ...a proffessional Polish squad loom as opponents ...
A 19-1 victory to Moran and things are warming up ..

Moran is now 20th with one match to go and 4 VPS out of the knockouts
More Poles including the multi world champion and world famous bridge coach Krystoff Martens.
Known as Christy in Dublin 4 the man has sat on a high stool and slugged a few guinness a few times. However worries about being wider than he is tall slowed him down.
Martens has been in Dublin coaching the Moran squad from time to time. I even ventured into the session myself and nobody ran me.

I listened to Martens explaining to McGann Hanlon that "You guys are amateurs and need to spend 2 weeks warming up for big events .... me I am ready to go every day "

Martens 4 Moran 16 and Moran enters the knockout phase .....

16 teams and not many bad players left in the event ....

Camrose 2020 starts tonight Friday 10th January

Tonight we have the start of the Camrose Trophy. It will be shown live on Bridgebase Online.

Northern Ireland have two teams. This means all the bridge players of Northern Ireland apart from John Ferguson will be in action. This is because the country hosting the 2nd weekend has been granted 2 teams.

So we have some very little known bridge players hitting the vugraph this weekend.

1. Dean Bradley ...I never came across him
2. William Dukalow a player who I met a few times in the past but now known in Northern Ireland bridge circles as "The Duke"
3. The legendary Michael O'Kane from Downpatrick maybe ...I saw him in Dublin airport recently buying coffee.
4. His partner The lesser spotted Michael McFaul ...saw him once in a North South match ...not spotted him much since ...thus lesser spotted ..

5. The Unlucky Expert from Cork ..Fergie O'Shea

6. The many times used Teabag from Kerry .. Michael Coffey.

Lets go see how they are getting on ...
..............
The other teams are NIBU2 Ireland England Wales and Scotland but all those are in the subplot.

The Donplayer offers me advice

Good morning folks

Its nearly time for bed but Declan the Donplayer gave me a lecture in the pub. Told me Xmas week was his. Told me he would own me. Also told me "don't care about those BJs and Cashens " just want to own you.
So while having my post guinnessial cup of tea I done the Bridge Now robots like seabiscuit.

There was also Kieran in the pub who brings his chessboard to the pub ...we gave him seabiscuit as well. He even had Tomas coaching him a little but Galligan still done him 3 times in 25 minutes.

http://bridge-now.com

A real fine website to play the bridge on ..you get a score for every board out of 100.

However for the real students of the game ... go to
http:/rpbridge.net

Oh I nearly forgot .. Happy Christmas .. to all

Even Mesbur Fitzgibbon need a push sometimes

Good morning folks
Here is hand 31 from the fantastic Jim Cahill Invitational Pairs. Well the organisation was fantastic and the venue and venue supremo Declan Byrne and the prizes were fantastic.
However some of the bridge players needed a push from time to time.

Here are possibly Irelands most lauded pair Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon getting the hard push into a cold slam. Despite near 100 years of shared bridge experience they still required a whisper from one of the best individual players in Ireland Michael O'Briain. The actuary had not done his sums correctly on this occasion as Fitzgibbon having for various reasons been unable to advertise his HEART void along with the ATx of trumps so far was very happy to punt 6S now.

Note Fitzgibbon and Mesbur had already stopped in 4S so the auction was dead until Michael O'Briain revived it. Older bridge players have recalled the O'Briain brothers needing cushions to see the table in a bridge club many years ago.

Normally one would offer a solution when criticizing a bidding sequence but who am I to suggest some bidding to Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon. One would think an expert pairing like themselves would be able to advertise a useful VOID and ATx of trumps in their hand.
Maybe the 4H bid floods the auction.

Meanwhile I am not proud and I am happy to advertise my own miserable performance so far. 

Board 25 Jim Cahill Invitational Pairs and a Passed hand from another club

Folks
Here is a board I came across this morning while struggling with the Jim Cahill Pairs event.

All our fantastic pairs seem to be reaching for the hopeless skies. I personally passed 3D and then when 3H came along I now bid 3S and the opponents bid 4H which I left go for 3 down.
How come the "best " pairs in Ireland are ALL gone past the hopeless 4H. Something is wrong with the thinking on this board but about 5  of these pairs are sure fire invitees for the free money event sponsored by Jim Cahill.
Enormous prizes are available here for the participants but this board begs belief.
How come all NS pairs are roaring past 4H on the NS side and even reaching 4H on the EW side.
4H is surely minus 200 or 500 or more. I have not looked at the double dummy.

Meanwhile over in Fitzwilliam Tennis club I have a guy coming to explain that all the hands on hand 1 have 11 points or less.

Game is available for both sides in Spades and Hearts respectively but my man arrives up with I thought all hands should have an opening bid. I knew about the hand as I had watched the dealing machine dealing the boards and chose to leave it in the set. Same hand was also in the set on the same night in Malahide Regional. Generally when dealing sets I will watch out for a possible passed out balanced hand and delete it but this one is not for deleting.

I am happy to report that after a few decent boards ..2C doubled and made on 26 and 3NT downed on 27 that I am gaining some traction in this event. I finally got off the deck by overtaking MacCormac McMaugh. Long way to go though.

The Magical BJ O'Brien wins Senior Trials 2019 & Peter Pigot Bridge

This afternoon the fancied O'Brien squad held off a lacklustre challenge from the Keaveney squad in the deciding match of the Telscher Trials. The boards just did not have the imps in them for Keaveney to mount a decent challenge and the O'Brien squad was never under pressure.
They should have got Galligan to shuffle up the boards. The Galligan dealing program is a little more robust than the boring Brightman dealer.

We note the presence of Paul Delaney near the base of the scoring table. Paul has continued his career as a well known bridge coach.
His website has some classes ..I think he gears himself towards the Area Masters and beyond.
Paul being a former Irish chess champion has a good idea about training .

His website is
https://www.bridgewebs.com/coachteach/

Meanwhile for the intermediate and below players we have the mercurial Peter Pigot. Peter is active out past the Strand Road. Sometimes Glenageary sometimes Wanders Rugby place.
His website is
https://www.bridgewebs.com/peterpigotbridge/

Senior Camrose Trials December 14th 2019 Templogue

Meanwhile down in Templogue 6 hardy aging teams take on the Senior Camrose Trials.

5 ultra fit teams go with 4 person teams whereas the older wilier BJ O'Brien has selected 5 team mates to share the playing burden. At first glance one would expect the BJ O'Brien team to battle it out with the Connacht team of Keaveney and company. However Team Delaney could strike on a good day with Delaney Roche McAuliffe and O'Lubaigh all being capable players. Also present is the Porteus team of Porteus Barry Jackson and the mercurial Michael McGloughlin who is a fine player but by the time the thoughtful Jackson ends the bidding the man could have fallen asleep.
The 5th team is led by Wooden Spoons Kenny but she will be okay this weekend probably contesting 3rd 4th place. Currently bottom of the pile at the moment is the all ladies team of Eileen O'Donovan and I cannot see them taking down a 20 board match against any of the forementioned teams.
Their best chance will be to take down Porteus.

However they started by getting a hiding from Team BJ 'Brien

Hands 11-17 from the Jum Cahill invitational pairs and Paul Delaney Bridge Coach

Greetings from a cold but slightly sunny Swords. This morning  I tried a few more hands from the Jim Cahill Invitational pairs event. This event was held in the Regent Bridge Club on the weekend of the 22nd to 24th of November. 12 invited pairs but there might have been 20 pairs asked before the final 12 took the floor. For next year the top 10 pairs are automatically extended invitations.

So I played a few boards and got badly mauled. There is a long way to go but its been a long time since I had figures in the 30% range.

There I am ... 29% after board 18 of 176.

I am going to change my system to something that Jack knows well and see if it helps.

Here is the sad video of boards 11 to 18 or maybe it is 12 to 18.
https://youtu.be/L-BMek_1ijs

However I will be back and expect to climb the leaderboard next time.
.................................
Meanwhile if you want to attend some classes of the Area Master type level and higher you could try Paul Delaney who operates just South of the Liffey.

Paul Delaney .. The Bridge Coach

https://www.bridgewebs.com/coachteach/Declarer%20Play%20Worksheet.pdf

https://www.bridgewebs.com/coachteach/Defence%20Worksheet.pdf

Some links from Paul Delaneys Bridge Coach page .. I learned lots of my bidding from Paul Delaney when we used to play together. Then he realised he taught me too well.

Playing the Jim Cahill invitational with Jack and 5NT from Malahide

About 1 week ago I got down to creating a pbn file of the Jim Cahill invitational. 176 boards played by 12 top Celtic Pairs. 2 Welsh and one English type slipped into the event. Using some scripts provided by Dave the Snake from Wicklow off we went. PBN is short for portable bridge notation and is one of the best known file types these days for storing bridge games with bidding and play and names and many other tags.
So having made up our 176 board file with 6 plays in almost every board we fired up our Jack program and started to play. Now one expects to finish somewhere near the bottom of this event as there are some good players involved.
Putting it bluntly Eddie Fitzgerald and Michael McDonagh would be termed very dangerous opponents anywhere in Ireland and on some boards anywhere in the world. This multi titled pair were the lowest placed in this years renewal of the James Cahill Invitational. So the comparisons will be tough.
So it took 8 boards before I found any traction. Before that I had a 7/12 as my best score along with 4 below average and 2 averages.

Finally on board 8 I secured a top .. Better than all the rest. Just like playing on
http://bridge-now.com
Speaking of which I failed to finish my 70 boards this week due to the local barman locking his doors a little too early. I was standing in the cold ringing him. I was nearly firing up my tablet in the car to get the boards played.
Now it was not his fault really. I got the bridge finished about 1105pm. The lady at table 8 finally played her final card at 1105pm. However it was not over .. the folk had to have their postmortems and I was locking up. Result I land at my local at about 1140pm so its kind of late. Anyway all was well apart from missing the 70 hands target by 3.

Meanwhile a nice hand popped up in Malahide and someone mentioned it.

Now our player landed in 5NT after exploring a slam. Problem was now he needed to make 11 tricks in NO TRUMP and was at the 5 level. 

So under severe pressure. Adding to the issue East poked out the toughest and best lead. 

CLUB NINE lead and our player won the CLUB ACE and started to think. The thinking did not work and our player got a minus score. He later mentioned that he got to 5NT and failed to make it despite the sheet saying 5NT is cold. Later that night having finally achieved entry to my local and played as many hands as possible on Bridge Now before end of week at 12 bells Wed I decided to have a look at our players hand. I could see a good shot at making the hand given I could see all the cards and sent a text indicating only a very strong declarer might roll that one home. 

12 hours later our player is still examining the hand and the sheet and bridgewebs but no success even seeing all the cards. So I gave him a good clue about throw in and taking all his winners first. 

A while later he agreed it could be made and expressed thanks. 

I said ... next problem is for you to make 6D 6H and 6S with the same cards and lead. 

4 lessons in one ...

Not bad for one hand ...

Ireland Premier Pairs Nov 22-24 Regent Bridge Club and BBO

This weekend we have the annual Interprovincial championships.

Ferghal O'Boyles website has plenty of details.

http://fob.ie

Interpro Player names

Open Interpros

Leinster should win with Connacht 2nd and Munster 3rd.
The Ulster Team will struggle.

Mind you one of the Munster teams is fielding the mercurial Kelan O'Connor but it is a 6 person team so Kelan may not get much table time. However maybe Kelan will tog out for one of the other Munster teams if someone slept in on a Sunday morning.

The Leinster Area Master team is powered by the experiencd Brid Galligan partnered by the reluctant bridge player Sean Galligan.

Meanwhile the BBO challenges continue .. Galligan took on some NIBU Camrose players and despite a horrendous 7D going down 4 to lose 13 imps ...Galligan emerged with plus 9 imps.
Two players are yet to complete this challenge. A short video of the final 5 boards is placed below

Eamon v NIBU firsts

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

Next weekend in the Regent Bridge Club and live on Bridgebase Online we have the Ireland Premier Pairs event. 12 pairs will take part with directing carried out by Martin Brady.
Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite run this invitational event.

Adam Mesbur & Nick Fitzgibbon

Tom Hanlon & Hugh McGann

Peter Goodman & Mike Pownell

Cian Holland & Anna Onishuk

Rex Anderson & David Greenwood

Terry Walsh & Derek O'Gorman

B.J. O'Brien & Dan MacIntosh

Michael O'Briain & Padraig O'Briain

Gay Keaveney & Enda Glynn

Ciaran Coyne & David Walsh

John Carroll and Mark Moran

Eddie Fitzgerald & Michael McDonagh

The 12 pairs taking part are shown above. 

PREMIER PAIRS 2019  22 – 24^th November

1.     PROGRAMME AND BOARDS TO BE PLAYED

Friday, 22^nd

Sandwiches available from 13.00

14.00  -  18.00                                             30 Boards

18.00  -  19.15                                             Break

19.15  -  23.00                                             25 Boards

Saturday, 23^rd

10.00  -  13.30                                             24 Boards

13.30  -  14.00                                             Break

14.00  -  17.30                                             24 Boards

18.00  -  20.30                                             18 Boards

Organisers will arrange “take-away” food from local restaurants and players can order up to €15 (to be included in entry fee)

Sunday, 24^th

10.00  -  14.00                                             30  Boards

14.00  -  14.30                                             Break

14.30  -  17.30                                             25 Boards

The Purest form of Bridgebase online and final World Seniors placing

Today I finished my first go at the purist form of bridge and arguably the toughest.

Matchpoints
Just Declare

and 2 grandmasters and one Kerryman and one Conor Boland as opponenrs.

After butchering at least 4 boards I expected to struggle to break 40% in this field.
When the results popped up I had about 44.5% so that was ok.

Exhibit 1

 After Club King lead and club 2 and club Jack at trick 1 how does one play this hand.
I won 2nd Club with Ace
and floated the Diamond 10 after much thought.
Sadly Jack to 3 on the West and down I went ..

Despite the robots not taking all their hearts I was one down ... for 0% ..
Pretty harsh I thought

All other 4 declarers made the contract .. Presume they made 5 diamonds 2 spades and 2 clubs
Maybe I should have ducked another club to tighten the play and maybe see a small diamond discard. or maybe when GIB does not cover diamond 10 ..he does not have diamond JACK.

....................................................
Meanwhile out in the World championships the Ireland Seniors struggled in the Senior event.
Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon brought in a respectable 0.36 imps per board but the other 4 only managed to bring in below average scores which would never be enough to be competitive.
Having said that ...the opposition in World championships is damn tough.

 Mesbur and Fitzgibbon were 17th placed pair in the Butler of the many boards pairs

 O'Brians somewhat lower and Ranald BJ another few places down
However just to be aware this is a serious level of bridge
one place above BJ and Ranald we note the presence of George Mittelman a World champion at Open level back in the day ....and Ken Burcasen who goes deep in the Spingold in recent past ...
Maybe he even one a US National ..

The Ireland squad got a little run going near the end but by then there was too much to do.
Training and dedication pays off more then beating up the Regent newbies and the Bray Wheelers.

Duais predictions 2019

Lets see if we can pick out the contenders in the Duais Niall Burke


1. Holland Onishuk
2. Delaney Boland
3. McDevitt McDonagh
4. Fitzgerald Kenny
5. Mr Happiness (John Phelan) and Lucy
6. Mr Angry (O'Connors)
7. Cummins Noonan
8 Gaynor Redmond
9. Roches
10. Pattinsons
11 Ronan Cassidy
12 Tuckey Costello


Those are my top 12 picks in roughly that order

Lets see how I go ...

Brady O'Lubaigh ...well unless they win it in Session 1 and 2 ... O'Lubaigh will be a tired hoss in the morning.
Lodewijks has too much heavy to carry in Wojciech
Elvin and Maria don't have the partnership rapport to carry it thru although Whelan used to have great form in the old Bankers Congress Mixed Pairs ..
Rigney and Part are not a regular pairing
Sean Carroll has a little too much to carry in the aging Jim Doyle

...............................
Meanwhile out in Wuhan China ...

The USA2 team looks to be bailing out at the qualifying stage. I am not sure what is wrong with them as they are quite decent players.
The Scottish ladies team is also heading for home or trans nationals
The Irish Senior Team missed out on the Jacko mantras about Preparing and Imp Gathering
Meanwhile a decent English Mixed squad is firing well so far.

Ireland v Bulgaria and Mesbur Fitzgibbon still in the canteen ..

Good morning folks

I am about to go to bed. However I checked in on Wuhan for a time check. Found it was 10:15am and that play was started. Had done some research and figured large wins were necessary for Ireland Seniors.

Sadly I note Mesbur and Fitzgibbon are still in the breakfast room ..

Its like City without Aguero and Liverpool without Salah

Whats going on ... If you want to make quarter finals you got to play Mesbur and Fitz for all the rest of the games ... Its not like they are not fit for battle

Taking on Bulgaria with 3 players weaker than Galligan is suicide ..

Is Derek O'Gorman really the NPC ... he would be better off playing himself ..

Lets see if Galligan is wrong .......

At least the rugby starts soon but I got to go to bed ..

Maybe USA2 in the Bermuda Bowl will get a move on today with a good start against Morocco.
No offence to Morocco but they are never making quarter finals and maybe Lall might be worth watching . He might pull some stroke ..

Its 2-0 for Ireland after 2 but +720 looks iffy ... its a dodgy 6D so could be flat board or 13 out ..
We will see when I awaken

Strangely they bid 4H on a 3-2 fit so one is suspicious ....Will see when I awaken
Suspect it is 4H on board 4 winning some imps for Bulgaria and maybe something bad happened
for Bulgaria on board 3 ...and they did not enter it ...like 7D minus 1 ...

Galligan to bed ..We will see in the morning