Lets see what happened July 19

Ireland Imp pairs 830pm every night ..24 boards but we can do 27 boards by request if the players will be willing to Zoom along. Swiss format.

The Ireland Imps Pairs is the best training session a pair can have for Teams. The boards are fairly exciting as I deal a few extra and throw out about 4 ordinary ones. You won't come away from an Ireland Imps pairs without some story.

Dadscar driven by JackFoz won the day. A steady stream of regular gains.

Link to BBO scores of July 19

Board 11 saw a generous handout from some opponents not keen on a nice slam
Seems like a nice diamond slam East West. After East opened 1D below it seems West was not really at the ball park as 2D bid hardly describes the hand whether it is normal 6-9 2D Acol or an inverted minor. If my partner opened 1D I would be seeing about 6 losers and investigating a slam.
So 3NT+2 did not do much for East West but a nice free bonus for Dadscar.

on hand 12 below we see the struggling pair above put in a couple of spade bids to slow down the North Souths but to no avail as NS reach a small slam in clubs. With 20 opposite 11 you would think most pairs would try their luck in 6C or 6NT. However half the field stayed in game and a couple of pairs had some disasters and went horribly wrong. Thus the small slam gained 6.5 imps.

Board 18 and disaster awaited 7 pairs which is about half the field. Most of those 7 wrongsided the NT contract and got a club lead and down they went. 

A couple of pairs tried the 4-3 fit in Hearts and they hit a 5-1 split in trumps causing them grief. 

Here on board 21 we have 13 tricks with a couple of good Queen guesses but in our competition we had 11 pairs not even reaching game let alone any slam. Some work to be done. our intrepid pair played 3NT the right way up and got a large bonus again for doing little. 

And the final results of July 19th 

Ireland Imps 830pm ..bring your partner ..Hands a little Elvis .. (All shook up )

24 or 27 hands depending on the vote

July18 results here
1. Brendan Doyle and Gzzz
2. Adrina MrsCard
3. Super GM O'Brien and Alan O'Sullivan

https://bridgewebs.com/irelandimps

Friday July 17th results

Tonight 830pm start with 24 more nice hands. 

Last nights winners were Marian Croke and Maria Whelan ahead of John Comyn and curragh8 and in 3rd place we had Mrs O'Donnell and Mr Garvey.

A nice little slam on board 1 .. one pair left the opps play 3S despite slam for themselves
Board 6 was a sweetie for the technical player who on playing Diamond Ace picks off king.
Board 13 saw several folk attempt 4S and 3S and even 2S and it was too tough.
Those in 4S went mostly 3 off and sometimes 2 off ..13 opposite 9 was overbid.



http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=6197-1595014223&u=maria89
the above link goes to bridgebase and the results

Link to Ireland Imps website
The above link goes to dedicated ireland imps pairs results site

Ireland Imps July 16th results Free one

Friday 17th July Ireland Imp pairs is at 2030 hours so enjoy.

Last night  Thursday July 16th  we run the Ireland imps pairs for free as Thursday is often small numbers. We got 17 tables despite being a free event.

Culbaire and murphys win
with a tiny gap to Gilda and Sibh.

A couple of pairs missed the slam on board 6 to lose 12.3 imps
Someone put the double on 4H on board 7 ..not a success
Board 9 saw someone in a 5-2 club fit ...not a success
Board 17 seems to have the largest score of the night ...-13.5 imps

All boards and scores can be examined at
https://bridgewebs.com/irelandimps

2000 minus score

A recent hand from Mr and Mrs Tranmer versus Luca and jonny currently features on Bridgewinners,
Mrs Tranmer busted Luca in 3NT.

Defend this hand ... on Bridgewinners

Tonight the wonderful one stepped in the doggy poo

Just the 2000 out. 

However not a word out of him. Not really a good move.

Maybe his finger slipped.

Wed night Ireland Imps 830pm

Tonight we are on at 830pm for the Wednesday issue of the Ireland imps. Given tough competition from Regent Malahide and whatever Diarmuid and Fearghal run it could be a small crowd. We will see how it goes.

Last night after the Imp Pairs was done I went for a little game on the WBridge5 Daily tournament.
It was a good game I played.

The Big Rasher and Sausage    16 board daily competition

http://bridgez.net:3002/ConnectingPlayer.html

This separates the ordinary from the extraordinary ....I must be extra
You will find the best player in Malahide Regional Bridge Club 23% behind me on July 14th list.
Elvis was kind of dead yesterday ... Galligan got a good start and poured it on ...

1st place out of near 600 .... and there are many serious players here ...
Steamed Hams does not have the stamina for the long haul ... but he does place well the odd time.

Tuesday Night Imps

Tuesday Night and 19 tables showed up. This event is played as Leaders play Leaders. Unfortunately the BBO Swiss does not stop folk meeting twice so I think last night a pair played 12 boards against each other.

The Westmeaths won Ben Dandy

Monday Night Imps

Monday night and it was fairly quiet with just the 11 tables. However we still had a good game.
Winners were Emer Joyce and Bill Hunter.

Bridgewebs page for Ireland imps      All July results can be found at the link with hands.

It must be great to be so wonderful

Last night we had a decent Ireland Imps Pairs. 25 tables although the robot was in action at a few.
The usual 24 boards but James_H turned up with Terry Walsh and pummelled the field mostly despite the great and wonderful efforts of the AFC Wimbledon muse.
Granda Tom came with a late run as he gathered in 39 imps on last 6 boards. However James and Terry had built up a 60 imp bag before going into a ding dong 9 board battle with thegarve and zaczaczac.

https://www.bridgewebs.com/irelandimps/

Here on Board 7 we have the big swinging trunk bouyed by thegarve noted success in 7NT on board 2 powering into 6D only to find he has no play to make slam. 

9 imps in the outbox 

Unfortunately the Heneghan Walsh partnership arrived in a comfortable 5C contract and the Elephant could not swing his trunk at all. Main problem was many less wonderful players than Terry and James meandered in 3NT waters and went down. Others stayed in part scores ...so unfortunately the elephant got no rolo .... another 9 imps in the outbox. 

Unfortunately for the trunk the Walsh and Heneghan bid another minor suit game which was kind of unbreakable again. However all those folk dreaming of being wonderful like thegarve don't do the work required and wonder why he is so wonderful. 

Another 10 imps in the outbox. The postman is going to be busy. 

As James says the imps is random ...did not do much wrong it seems but nearly 30 imps downwards. 

Well I guess if they stay in 5D on board 7 and make that things are somewhat different .

Now its only about 15 imps in the out column ...a big difference.

An interesting Hand 2 many went down

Last night in the Ireland Imp Pairs I noted a hand where many declarers and defenders missed their chance. Happily for many of the defenders the declarers were all lacking and 2-3 undertricks were procured.

So most defenders led off Spade Ace ...and another spade.
Now all declarers can consider making 4H. One succeeded but he got help after butchering.
I think the card play is gone from Irish bridge as folk don't play the old games any longer.

4H minus 3 ...are ye serious ...

one also notes the opening leader with KQT93 did not bother leading that suit 

Ireland Imp Pairs July 10th

Ireland Imps Pairs .. 830pm ... CBAI125559 ...All tournaments or Ireland Imps
It is visible from 1830..

Fox and stewart ran into some nice grasan noirin  and williams coming down the middle of the event to boost their imps line by about a BAT in garve terms ... 50 imps in 6 boards ...

BBO July 10th

Ireland Imps Pairs July 9th 2020

Tonight poor granda and higheg got treated badly in the Ireland imp pairs.
Board 16 Grandpa arrived into thegarves 4S auction at a late stage

Nothing wrong with this on the face of it being favourable vulnerability.

Granda was lucky partner had a few nice pieces or it was going to be 1100 or 1400.

Like take away Diamond Ace or JT of Hearts or both. 

A brave man but he lost 800. 

Someone like me would be getting in early with a 4H bid out of turn or 4H over 2NT ..make thegarve guess not offer him a choice of 800+ or his game. thegarve is not going to lie down and pass 5H like the local club cheering show. Thegarve is unaware that granda is the greatest bridge player that ever lived. 

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

Then Board 18 saw thegarve whinging again 

His partner has made a 4H overbid ...looks to me like 3H would be normal and he is yelling to tournament about granda leading Club Queen. Even a blind man or woman would lead a club and I don't mean any offence to those who cannot see. They would have heard partner bidding 3C and led their partners suit. thegarve says loads of sensible stuff but this one is beyond me. 

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

Still congratulations are in order for granda and higheg who have turned up 5 times at Sligo Fearghal events and posted an average of 69% .... I cannot do that in Malahide Monday AM and I am a far superior player to granda and my opponents are of similar level to Sligos players. Maybe Sligos are stronger. I must find out if there is any bridgewebs in Fermanagh or wherever Granda hangs out. 

Someone indicated it might be the 2nd coming of remnart who is also a ferocious scorer since COVID lockdown. Most likely Granda is too strong a player for the average Sligo punter or maybe higheg is a master of bridge. 

Link to BBO results

Ireland Imps Bridgewebs is here

Ireland Imps Pairs nightly at 2030

Link to Ireland imps

Ireland Imps Pairs now CBAI125559 director

Ireland Imps Pairs .. 830pm ... CBAI125559 ...All tournaments or Ireland Imps
It is visible from 1830....2 BBO dollars.

Made a few errors last night. Not used to this pay tourney crack. Still only fair that BBO gets some fee for giving us the facility to somehow continue to exist. 
Forgot that CBAI125559 has no friends or follows so all NIBU and non-Ireland ips were excluded by accident for starters. 
only for the persistent pbjensen I would not have realized. Thanks for that.

Bridgewebs coming shortly for Ireland Imps Pairs.

Results for July 7th 2020
Results for Tuesday July 7th

Tranmers White Magic

Ireland Imps Pairs .. 830pm ... CBAI125559 ...All tournaments or Ireland Imps
It is visible from 1830..

Tonight I am using my CBAI account with a 2 BBO$ charge. I am not fully sure how it works on the rebates. I know BBO takes half or maybe even 60-40. I only read the piece about how to setup.
I still have until end of July with my free account and will use that on quiet days. Any night its quiet I will put the event back up with the Free account.

Last night the all conquering Tranmers destroyed most of what came in front of them.
Strangely there were a few slip ups.

On board 1 .. they doubled 3H and Paul dunced it when he must have misclicked in his rush around the table. Stubbed his foot on the poker too. Good enough for him

On board 2 .. Paul attempted to let out 6D but it needed a double dummy play

Unfortunately it was too tough for declarer and 500 went to the Tranmers.

Next we saw the alleged Great Man doubling 5D but it was stone cold solid.

However even my dog would be able to make this and he is barely able to walk.

Then the poor teenager Luca Crone strayed onto the Tranmer table but with confidence as he was accompanied by his teacher jonny. I told bobz to the table you are going to get your skin peeled off.
The confidence Bobz123 said "Bring it on "

For a moment I thought the auction was ended at 4S and later at 5S but 

the weaker Tranmer was only treading water and roared forward with some cuebids. 

Eventually jonny got brave and decided to double. Within a second old man Tranmer had the ribber bridge blue card out. Jonny was in the snare. 

6S might have been okay as a sacrifice but who knows what reevaluation happens then. 

Then a normal club lead and a miraculous Heart switch from the weaker Tranmer.

Killed 3NT stone dead just as Luca was getting a claim ready. 

Finally Mrs Tranmer laid another trap and luca stepped in again ..

Minus 31 imps and skinned alive. Luca will need to go to Harry Potter wizard training after that.

Damn I spilled my tippex on the screen before I done print screen.
Anyway the Tranmer score was too good and would cause embarrassment to the other players
If you need to see it
Tranmer 111 its on the left

imp Pairs 8pm ..20 tables only allowed by BBO

Starting time tonight is 830pm

Blue Rinse wins the day

Ireland Imps Pairs 830pm Sunday July 5th

Starting 830pm Sunday July 5th ..24 boards ..Can you defeat the Fermanaghs

Here we see the Fermanagh pressure bidding system in full flow.

They push the willing Waterfords a level too high. 

However the bidding is far beyond my logic. Fermanagh EAST finds a takeout double VULNERABLE with an 11 count ....okay we can let that go ...

Then when Fermanagh West who is forced to bid makes a 2H bid ...the East Fermanagh who has already kind of shown 4 card hearts with the first bid RAISES the forced 2H with only a 3 card suit despite having started with the small 11 count ....in my world East is showing mucho extras ..well at least trick up on the worst opening hand ..so at very minimum a good 14 count.

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

Meanwhile over in the West of Fermanagh ...all is well ... he has an even better hand then his massively overbidding partner but he remains stum. All this weird bidding should be alerted as nobody will be able to understand that one overbids and the other one lies low in the grass. 

Now maybe its just that they don't know any better or maybe they know.

Then we find Glynn and Scannell bidding a normal 4H ...15 opposite 9 ..8 card fit and singleton doubleton values. Not today Galways ..the Fermanagh hurlers are on point. 

Now Club King is a possible lead but its declarers opening bid so not so attractive. 

However it is the killing lead once partner has TRUMP ACE and a ruffing value in Clubs. 

Possible but maybe a misclick ...a brilliant defence none the less. 

Ireland Imp pairs july03

Starting time 2030 tonight Saturday July 4th .. 

So Grasan and Noirin won ...Noirin Pender maybe and no idea who grasan is
2nd were the powerful force developing out in North Dublin ..the aging Dave Terry and the aspiring Thomas Gilligan. Meanwhile the new superstars on the block Grandpa Tom and Grandma Eileen continue their powerful surge of form. Clearly the NIBU intermediates are under rated or the masterpoints are harder to collect. Grandpa and Grandma carted off super grandmaster BJ O'Brien and placed him in the mental place. Normal BJ swallows intermediates for breakfast but not these ones.


July 3rd Winners

Ireland Imp Pairs July 2nd

Ireland Imps Pairs ... Friday night 815pm ...limited to 20 tables by BBO for now.. July 3rd 2020

Tonight we continued with the Ireland Imp Pairs. The 830pm start seems somewhat better than finishing at near midnight. We will move back towards 8pm probably.

Tonight near game time Martin Garvey mentioned Caz and hairdresser.

Caz's new hair replacement therapy was taking longer than normal so I took the bait and invited him to play. I was going to replace me with a robot and then with Caz later when the blue rinse was dried.
So we started and I should have stuck in the robot at 19 but stayed 1 board too long.

We got few of those fantastic gifts that some players get and had to work hard for the pieces we got.
Early on we met a soft kind of pass on board 3 but the guy said he passed accidently ...
No problem said I ..we will sort it out .. Conversation continued from him as he did not understand he was being left off for lack of attention or slip of the hand/brain.

of course others would whing about what they might get for 3C making but we quickly made it into
60-40 our way as I do with most very clear misclicks. One never knows for sure what exactly happened at his computer but we don't want free stuff that we did not earn. We are lucky enough to be able to play bridge in this unprecedented time.
Then I was careless on Board 19 in 6S .. various excuses come to mind but lack of concentration etc.

In short I started trumps from wrong side. All the questions came from South but I played lazily and got done for it. Basically I ignored all information that pointed me in the right direction. I even ignored thegarve mentally driving me on.... spade to king ..spade to king .. getting the bat ready ..
And down I went

The link to Sean Connor and James Doyle

July 2nd 830pm start Ireland Imps

Good evening folks

We will go with
830pm start for Ireland Imps pairs tonight July 2nd
We only have 20 tables allowed for now as far as I know. Still FREE. 

Last night a very quiet Garve made a little noise early on as he got excited about raising the bat as he passed 50 imps in quickly. However there was some leakage as the blonde did some fun.
However enough folk were still tossing out the pressies as they do regularly to the Tranmers. Its almost like the lesser feel it is a badge of honor to lose 15 imps.
zaczaczac BBO results

Still only 24 imps in the OUT column and 12.5 of those was a well bid grand slam by Paul Scannell and Enda Glynn.

We had a decent performance from the late arriving Billy Hunter or maybe early arriving as Eamon moved the Ireland Imps forward to 2030. 

The new BBO rules ..20 tables max for FREE

Ireland Imps Pairs .. 20 table limit .. Wednesday night is a quiet night so we will go with that.

830pm July 1st starting time 

However we are allowed start  at any time but we might have a gang that are happy to start slightly later than the 1930pm normal. I will only know if ye tell me.

Coming soon we will go to small entry fee of 2 BBO dollars as this allows us a larger size event.

Tuesday night winners
Tuesday Jun30th winners

A hand came up last night but the folk who might bid it were missing playing somewhere else.

Well I don't know how one would bid it as I would be starting with Stayman..

Strong No Trumpers start with 1C ...a good start ...

Weak NTers will open 1NT but its a long way to 6C ...

No problem for the regular top 10 pair in the Ireland Imp pairs. 

They motor into 6C no bother. 

but almost all our last night pairs got nowhere near it ... but the Tranmers are playing Scanian No Trump responses. They don't do Stayman when they have longer minor ..major type hand.
This is a new way for me but I will study up on it. You show your minor suit first and then go looking for minor suit fits.
You guys and me got some stuff to learn ... look at bressie ..they decided on the 3-0 fit ...

Last time I saw something like that I pulled up Heneghan for dropping a trick in 4H ..
Forgetting he was partnering Sean O'Lubaigh ...there is always White Magic when Sean is around.
James declared a 3-1 spade fit missing Spade Ace ...got a trump lead and managed to make all 3 trumps and 7 outside tricks for 4S made vulnerable ..and then a week later Galligan blunders in wondering about the loss of the 11th trick in 4H.

Ben and Maria win Monday imps

Folks
Just in case the hand below is not meant to highlight the declarer TS90 going down ...you would have to be on fire to make this hand .. TS90 was the only chap playing it rightsided. All others faced the spade lead. Also I did not know it at the time but the postman was coming with a piece of paper with TS90s name on it.

Last night I was studying some previous games to see how did the unknown Grandpa Tom win my Ireland Imp Pairs two nights in a row. That used to be the realm of MrT2000 and remnart before thegarve threw the toys out of the pram at them and then followed the next time with the pram as well. However I quickly forgot about Grandpa as I noticed a weird thing about the below hand.

Looks like down 1 but GIB says makes .... Have a look ..
Most people were banjaxed by 2C 2D and its wrongsided .... but if played by East its grandpa proof.
(in real life someone bid 6D and grandpa was lucky to be on lead and knifed out a spade lead.
However in the above diagram ...its East as declarer and worth a look for 12 tricks ...

A sweet hand and even sweeeter if one could make it .. the interactive is below,
Make 6D

Ben maria

Sunday night Wackojacker wins

Wackorobot