Ireland Imp Pairs March 25th

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.

Be aware that in these days of BBO capacity issues ... (there were 33500 logged on at one stage last night and this is only those inside the front screen. Another 1000 or 2000 or so could be playing on the front page incognito. )  Before the pandemic somewhat below 20000 was peak.

BBO will issue you a warning after a few minutes of inactivity and then log you off if no action. This could happen if you play 2 fast boards and leave the room with 8 minutes of the round left. Sometimes people forget they are in a tournament and get distracted in the house and then they are subbed. 
Its just BBO minding its resources not an insult or not me kicking you.
................................................................................................................................................

IMPORTANT NOTICE 
On Wednesdays  Fearghal O'Boyle will run an intermediate event starting at 1930. So any intermediates who wish to play intermediate can look out for an event at 1930 directed by ansuid. Intermediates are welcome to play in 8pm Ireland imp pairs but now can choose the intermediate event on Wednesdays.

A link to Regent Bridge Clubs advice and BBO information  (I hope they won't mind)

An event for Fitzwilliam Tennis Club will run at 1500 hours on Mondays and Thursdays. This event is limited to their members.
Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club results
 It will appear at Competitive ..Free Tournaments from about 1315 hours to accept entries. Be online at 1500 hours or you could get deleted by Bridgebase and Eamon has no control on this.

There is also The Ireland Bridge Club which folk can use as a meeting place if necessary ... Anyone can set a table and maybe folk from Ireland or their own club will join them

Last night we had 17 tables in the Ireland Imp Pairs. Numbers were down due to Fearghal O'Boyle running Ireland Intermediate Pairs at 1930 and Regent Bridge Club weekly club event.
Easier night for me. I also tried running unclocked but now it was the fast players complaining "Why are we waiting" ....Its not like we don't have time ....Covid19 has granted us plenty of time.

March 25th Ireland Imp Pairs Results

Last night saw the less than powerful Coffey Lavery partnership take turns at offering the opponents a large bonus.

First of all the opposition West clearly play a different form of weak 2 then most Regent and Bankers trained bridge players. The West player must be used to going down as this is the biggest weak 2 bid I have ever seen. Back in the day the Regent Bridge Club made a club rule where you had to hold 5 hcp in order to make an opening bid. I don't know if this CLUB LAW was ever rescinded but it existed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This weak 2 opening would need a rule from the opposite end of the spectrum. Meanwhile the other partner is clearly used to a partner who opens the 3 point weak 2 bids and 5 card trumps or something and he duly bids 4H. A slam in hearts might be a normal proposition for EAST WEST ..

Now its magical Michael Coffeys turn to enter the fray ... he sees the need to boost the opponents into a slam. He produces a 5D bid vulnerable ... Must be the REVENGE convention ..wonder what the BISHOP did to deserve that.

and the opponents climb to 5H ...

Now the Bishop enters the fray ... 5 SPADES goes the mighty BISHOP .. gets doubled .. and sits it like Galligan in 1SXX in Brighton once ... down 4 was my result and 2200 out.
The BISHOP did not even revert to 6D ...despite his 4 card support of the other chap.

The full hand with interactive is here for those who wish to be a used TEABAG or a retired BISHOP.
The Bishop and the Teabag sacrificing

Then there was the age old 1 level redoubled passed out ..

Somehow East West got mixed up as to who should take it out or not
a score of plus 1920 was the result
http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?bbo=y&myhand=M-3308839657-1585166503

Some places to try out for free bridge are

http://bridgez.net:3002/playonthecloud
http://www.bridge-now.com/

Another thing to do might be .. Bridgebase Online challenges
Challenge up to 4 of your BBO friends to a challenge playing same boards.

Ireland Imps Pairs results March 24th

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.

Be aware that in these days of BBO capacity issues ... (someone indicated there were 28000 logged on at one stage last night and this is only those inside the front screen. Another 1000 or 2000 or so could be playing on the front page incognito. )

BBO will issue you a warning after a few minutes of inactivity and then log you off if no action. This could happen if you play 2 fast boards and leave the room with 8 minutes of the round left. Sometimes people forget they are in a tournament and get distracted in the house and then they are subbed. 
Its just BBO minding its resources not an insult or not me kicking you.
................................................................................................................................................

Here is a link to the results of tonights Ireland Imps Pairs

IMPORTANT NOTICE 
Tonight March 25th Fearghal O'Boyle will run an intermediate event starting at 1930. So any intermediates who wish to play intermediate can look out for an event at 1930 directed by ansuid. Intermediates are welcome to play in 8pm Ireland imp pairs but now can choose the intermediate event.

A link to Regent Bridge Clubs advice and BBO information  (I hope they won't mind)

An event for Fitzwilliam Tennis Club will run at 1500 hours. This event is limited to their members.
Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club results
 It will appear at Competitive ..Free Tournaments from about 1315 hours to accept entries. Be online at 1500 hours or you could get deleted by Bridgebase and Eamon has no control on this. 

Ireland Imps pairs results

The link above the picture has the full list of results for those who wish
The picture above shows only the top half of the field.

And here is the hand record

Here is an incident from last night. The players used for display purposes are not involved

So West opens 1H and North overcalls 2D and EW arrive in 6H making 12 tricks. 

West indicates if he had known the 2D was a multi type bid he would have reached 7H.

Now that is all probably very probable ...

However to me it is clear by examining the North players profile and from common sense that a misclick happened. I have never heard of 2D being a multi convention over a 1H opening. 

It surely should mean diamonds. 

Straight away I presume a misclick and on looking at Norths profile I see ..Joined BBO on March 22nd or so. Further investigation gets North telling me he is 2 days into this great website and is finding his way around. He clearly did not mean to bid 2D but meant to bid 2S or even 3S instead. 

So I gave West the 13th trick but West wanted the full 7H. I can hardly penalize a 2 day old Bridgebase newbie for a misclick. Eventually the West indicated he is retiring defeated. 

I said " You are not defeated but the guy misclicked and even Eamon cannot tell the future if EW knew it was SPADES. Of course West will count his void in Spades must better and his great diamonds and most likely bid 7H making. 

Bidding 7H is another 7 imps but BBO does not have the facility to award a split score. 

I could enter 6HX instead but that affects other players imps on this board too. 

The North player tried to UNDO ...but lack of experience online meant he typed it into the chat rather than pressed the UNDO button ... 

To repeat it was not the players shown. Mind you Ewion and Skibbereen got a nice bonus from Kindereile and Smithy1066 but such is life.

Hmmm Don't tell me there is another Kinder around ... 

Ireland Imps Pairs Results from Monday March 23rd

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.

Be aware that in these days of BBO capacity issues ... (someone indicated there were 28000 logged on at one stage last night and this is only those inside the front screen. Another 1000 or 2000 or so could be playing on the front page incognito. )

BBO will issue you a warning after a few minutes of inactivity and then log you off if no action. This could happen if you play 2 fast boards and leave the room with 8 minutes of the round left. Sometimes people forget they are in a tournament and get distracted in the house and then they are subbed. 
Its just BBO minding its resources not an insult or not me kicking you.
................................................................................................................................................

Last night we had 24 tables of intrepid bridge players. We gathered in some new BridgeBasers but despite a slightly slowing down of proceedings we managed okay. 
Last nights winners by a large margin were dandyman1 and ben 2. I have no idea who they are in real life. 
We had a few people doing a dance when they presumed someone was pulling a stroke on them. Reality was it was probably Tommy who qualified as a chartered accountant in 1961 or Mick who used to run the airport in the 1980s  trying to work this new fangled way of playing bridge. However various legends of the keyboard did not seem to get this. Then you had a very regular BBOer who decided I will try the web version live for the first time tonight and wondering why it could not work it. 

And so on we went and we got these results .. 

I have left out the bottom 14 pairs and all players can find their placing here 
Click here to see all results of IIP23March 2020

You can also click the link above to make your way around the tournament and find out 
any information you wish

Again you can make it larger (the hand record I mean ) by using some phone zoom or computer zoom. If anyone wants the soft copy of the hand file I can email it so hit me at 

eamongalligan62@gnail.com

Last night I spotted the very thoughtful Colm McDonald ending up in 2nd place after losing his original partner Liz who had connection issues. 

We noted on hand 11 a man picked up a hand of 11 tricks in hand and was so shocked he accidently passed. No problem ... Mrs man across the room was playing 3rd hand light opening so they arrived in 6H like normal people....just a slight diversion in bidding. 

However the opponents roared ..Come here and look at this crazy bidding. Yer man passed with a 100 highcard points and his partner opened with 9. 

Without even going to the table I could see ACCIDENTAL PASS or misclick..

Anyway they arrived in 6H and the patient died. 

We had a visit from Harold Curran famous coach of the NIBU reserve team who conquered the FRONT team in weekend 1 of Camrose. His plans for a 2nd victory fell apart when one of his team decided its okay to be still driving to an international bridge match less than an hour to game time. 

Could be less as I was not there.... End result the 3rd pair had to go into battle at 30 minutes notice when planning a nice sitout. 

For those who found it a struggle I counted 32 folk who have represented one of the  Irelands at international level or some stronger country like Wales or England playing last night. 

The lowest placing of an international was 36th place. Both players in that pairing have played international. We also had the 3rd best player in Britian but he was not wearing the shirt last night. 

Last night Michael Dun Laoighre also ran a pairs event for that club. 

The results can be found here 

Dun Laoighaire Bridge Club results

AceAlan played well in this event. 

Ireland Imp Pairs results from Sunday March 22nd

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.

So last night we had 19 tables again. Zippy and Jamesians decided to eject mid tournament so we won't be seeing them again. 

Be aware that in these days of BBO capacity issues ... (someone indicated there were 28000 logged on at one stage last night and this is only those inside the front screen. Another 1000 or 2000 or so could be playing on the front page incognito. )

BBO will issue you a warning after a few minutes of inactivity and then log you off if no action. This could happen if you play 2 fast boards and leave the room with 8 minutes of the round left. Sometimes people forget they are in a tournament and get distracted in the house and then they are subbed. 
Its just BBO minding its resources not an insult or not me kicking you.

So the results and hand record and the wet teabag or maybe he misclicked.

And the wet teabag down in 6NT probably an accident ..

Interactive Teabag

KitKat slam
On the same deal we saw the N1 Kitkat drive her B1 kitkat to slam ... should be okay with 26 high card points opposite 9. 
However we had 4 pairs out of 19 all who would be a long way from Novice failing to get past everybodies favourite contract of 3NT. Despite the 35 combined high card points. 

Board 1 
Board 1 , Why not 2D 1C and 1H but 12 pairs leave out 10 tricks.. Not so bad in part score but the 3 pairs leaving out the game is painful for them. 
Board 2
Board 2 and 12 pairs are letting out 3NT 3S 1H 1D ???

Thats enough for me as I will only get into trouble and the carpet rises ever higher.

Here is the board hand record

As indicated before a smartphone or something can up the size.

Then mid morning there comes a phone call .....Board 9
Denis nearly makes 4S but Anna should have Ace diamond

Everyone knows that Anna bids without caution and puts maximum pressure on the opponent.
So Denis has a guess to make 4S and guesses wrong .. He should have been long down in this contract but got a favourable lead, These things happen.

Then there is board 10 .. and our man is on the whinge again.
Anna responds 1NT with 11 high card points and NO ALERT.

Em she followed up by bidding 2NT ... of course she has 10 or 11. She is not lacking the brain.
I did not hear any whinge about collecting 2 vulnerable undertricks and plus 5.3 imps.

Click on the links ABOVE  if you want to see the action ..


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 but do it before 6pm so when I create the tourney you are picked up. 

Some BBO demonstration videos ... Online Bridge League ??

Folks

Just wondering if we might start an All Ireland Online Bridge League running the matches on Bridgebase Online. One 16 or 20 or 24 board match per week.

How to create a team match on Bridgebase

Someone send this to Ian Hamilton as he wants to finish his face to face Belfast Bridge Teams championship online.

................
We can run until end of isolation

Here is a short video on bidding and alerting on Bridgebase online

Bidding and Alerting on BBO

.....................
Here we have a series of short videos for new and old members of Bridgebase Online

Recommended Bridge Base Online how-to videos

Any thoughts on Online Bridge league please send to
eamongalligan62@gmail.com

I am starting my transition from eircom.net as eir want to charge me 7 euro a month extra for email.

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 ....