Last night in Sligo Take 2

 Last night in Sligo I saw another hand 

So the West player found a 1H bid when it seems almost normal to be bidding 1S planning to come back 

with 2H later in the bidding. However our hero responded 1H and eventually lost the spade suit altogether. 

His partner bid STOP 3D showing a fine hand with diamonds and probably not 3 card hearts. 

We kind of expect 1H to show 5 cards as it is bidding over a hand that showed the majors probably. 

Anyway over 3D our partner with the 54 non-stopper in the unbid suit launched into 3NT. 

That contract did not last too long as the North South opponents quickly showed West the error of her ways ..... Down with No Trump 

And another poor score for less than optimal bidding 

Much better to respond 1S and then bid Hearts later and see how you go 

4 spades happens to make despite the 4-1 trump break ... 

3 spades would also be better than 3NT down as would 3D which is down the same 2 tricks as 3NT but needs perfect lead and defence to collect 2 clubs 2 ruffs a spade ................AND 

THE TRUMP promotion to boot ..... Nice lessons there 

 

Last night at the Sligo FOB I saw a hand

 Last night at the Sligo FOB I noticed the 2nd placed pair out of 38 runners played and bid board 1 fairly sadly. There are several good lessons in this hand. Lets see 

 So you are dealt the above and you open 1H using 5 card majors and weak No trump 

Your partner responds 1S so that is good for you as you have 3 cards for him and a ruffing value so all is looking good.

West now pipes in with a 2C bid ... If you are playing support doubles its grand as you can double to show 3 card spades in case partner has 5 and it would be good for him. 

Other good things going for you are if 2C makes then 2S will surely not go down too much as you have diamond ruffing value and can imagine some club shortage in partners hand. 

Your own hand can be deemed about a trick more than a basic opening so you should be thinking 2S is safe enough to be bid. 

Anyway you are timid and you pass and its passed to partner and happily partner is able to bid 2H thinking they are showing 3 card hearts although maybe they denied 3 card hearts already by not bidding 2H instead of 1S the first time. 

West opponent bids 3C and with your AKxx of clubs you are thinking 3C might go down. However the opponent bid 3C despite missing AK of trumps so must have solid trumps. 

A look at the full hand shows 3H and 3S both make as well as 3C the other way. 

So even if 3H or 3S go down its better than 3C making. 

Thus folk need to be aware on competitive hands that there are many ways to win at bridge. 

Here even the 4H minus 2 folk got a better score than the 3C person. 

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

This AM I went into Bridgez and I got a good hand ..46% .. Kelbourne musings

 

Now I have heard of a hand like a foot before but never a hand like 2 feet. 

32 high card points ...what can one do 

However I will not spoil anyone's fun as this hand is from today April 22nd. 

If you can figure out how to get on Bridgez then its well worth your while. 

Its FREE but the owner is getting on a little and hopes some folk will make a donation but thats no big deal ..you either do or you don't 

How to access it ... 

PlayOnTheCloud (bridgez.net)

Else 

WBridge5

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

This weekend in Malahide at the new centre for bridge excellence we have the Kelbourne Trophy. I presume MR and MRs Kelbourne were bridge players who donated a trophy for the masses to compete for. Eamon won it once back in the day with Team mates and Pivot partners Dave Terry Pat Kelly and Paul Delaney. 

This year sees 2 Malahide Teams competing but they will find Western SMunster and the Grinding Dublin South too hot to handle. The Brendan O'Brien powered Holders Team will also 

be in the mix as they have Conor  Boland on board too as well as the well known Brid and Terry. However negotiating the early hours of Sunday could be an issue. 

Fearghal touts the Western Team to win but stamina could be a problem there. 

I think South Munster have so many natural bridge players that they should win. 

There is also the BORE DRAW Team led by Captain Paul Delaney. They have a good chance as 

they will bore the other teams in a deathgrip with their grinding lots of thinking style. Also in their captain they have a man who has developed partnerships with all 3 of his team mates. So no problem for 

them in the pivot. One of this team was once told by the man who used to run the Regent Bridge ....His name was Frank.

"Mr X you will play one board per round for the rest of the session "

I don't see any other teams making the top 4. 

Declans harem could find this is one step too far. The folk in this event don't play Hackett. 

The Gilligan Team will play hard but lack of  recent Galligan training AND the absent flare of Billy Ronan will find them out. 

Places 5-8 should be competed for by DN2 E ML and NE in some order

9-12 will be Presidents NE2 SMi and DN.

Lets see how many positions I get correct 

Any offence taken from the above is purely down to thin skin. 

The director Fearghal O'Boyle will do a good job unless Mairead is missing. 

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

Meanwhile Team Grainne won something 

https://wbtresults.org/event/wbt-champions-cup-iii/

Some good players were playing including Thomas Hanlon

Galligan in the middle after 6 boards of round 1

I continued watching the Coen Trophy and I see more stuff and Phil Rice.

 

A nice little hand with some nice bidding 

Presume its the 14-16 1NT opening and then the Puppet Stayman 3C

and then the 3D saying no 5 major and got a 4 card one 

and then the lad shows 4 card hearts and then the lady bids 4H. 

A sense of forboding comes over the Galligan as Galligan is not declaring this. 

However maybe the defense will offer up some tempos or clues 

We look at 4333 in the East and wonder might he be better to downgrade and then emerge with highly invitational later ...but 4H it is 

The defense led off with spade 3 ...probably shows an honor but not underleading Ace ...

Might keep that in mind for later 

So we arrived here with 5 tricks to play and 4H the contract and 7 tricks in the bag 

Declarer proceeded to emerge with Club Queen ...but with the outstanding clubs being 

Ace Jack and Ten ... 

I am lost how that is going to succeed but possibly there are some distributions with 

singleton Ace of Clubs and you get a ruff and discard ...but thats still only 9 tricks 

Maybe there is a way or maybe there is not

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

However harking back to the opening lead if we can remember that ... 

We might figure on Spade Jack being up North and Spade Ace being down South

and be able to do something with that.

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

I understand I see bridge in a different way then most but that does not mean my way is 

the wrong way ...it might be just that I had better teachers than ye 

...........

Like Phil Rice from the El Camino Bridge Club who was on his 5th time 

reading Watsons Play of the Hand from cover to cover  when I got a lift to the bridge club in his 

car in 1987.  

First hand I spotted on Coen Trophy 2022 ...Am I missing something here

 This afternoon I looked in on the Coen Trophy and saw this ... Board 9 I think 

Now am I missing something here ... Does East not play Double here as negative or takeout 

Surely one has to compete a little ...Maybe teams is different but in pairs I am definitely not passing 

Both sides were vulnerable 

Let me go see what happened 

2 Diamonds made for minus 90 ...

Lets see what comes from the ponderous Delaney table 

Over at the other table also no double but the West and North both found further bids

3H will probably go down 1 but lets see

So after 4 scores posted we had the score 

However neither side found the Galligan double 

Coen Trophy 2022 Eamons picks and the 2Spade opening

 The Coen Trophy takes place today. Back in the day when the Coen Trophy was limited to above Area Master  Eamons team managed a 3rd session score of 148 out of 150 to ascend from the depths in the 3rd session. That was 2001 when Dario and Iva were here in Ireland. I think we just had all the luck. 

Today its a different story with the masterpoint chasers out in full flow. Every match you don't lose you get masterpoints. The hunt is on. However masterpoints don't make the player they just mark your attendance. 

Above is my top 14 out of the 45 teams entered on Fearghals website

I failed to pick the winners yesterday as I was unaware of their skill .

What does one open with this hand ... 

Do I hear 2S weak 2 opening ...or do I hear the Galligan opening 1S bid. 

The winner of the Spiro Cup chose 2S so hence I did not consider him as a runner.

Maybe it is a 2Spade opening and I need some re education on bridge. 

Spiro Cup Saturday Feb 26th Eamons picks ..top 17

 Today we have the Spiro Cup and I have picked out some good runners. 

Some are good players and some are good on the computer and some need to mesh well to get a good placing. 

Those are my top 17 picks in roughly that order. Numbers 1 and 2 are probably the best performing mixed pairs over the years. Joan Kenny and Enda Glynn might be the most practiced partnership. 

Zrinka and Cod McDaid might be the most practiced pair in the current days. Pat Quinn usually digs out a bit of class on some boards but being a pairs event this won't be of much help. The master bunny trapper BJ always has a chance in a Mixed Field. Master Declarer Corfield can bring in some goodies. Trish Stack has some good form in the recent past. Synnott and O'Dea ran a close 3rd in the recent Senior Trials. The Sheridans are always about in the Mixed things being a regular partnership also outside of Mixed. However any of the above could be in the run in as we come up the stretch. 

This is only for fun and folk should not take offence if they are not in the list. There were 76 entries at my time of choosing. Anyone entering after 10pm Friday was not on my list of runners. 

Lets see how my picks run. 

The final board of the Holmes Wilson featuring 4 declarers of note

 Link to Holmes Wilson 2022 vidoe

First out of the blocks was Bob Pattinson declaring against Moran Hanlon

4S is the contract and Bob had little to go on as he only got a double of a 2D bid mid auction

which did not really indicate the length in diamonds. So Bob won Diamond lead ,.,drew trumps 

and tried club finesse down 1

Next up was Adam Mesbur who played much the same although he has a look at the 

hearts for a trick before going for Club finesse. Adam had got a 3D bid during the auction 

which might have tipped him a little towards short clubs in West. 

Next into the hot seat we has Karel deRaeymaker who also received a 3D bid from West 

Karel reached this position after having a look at hearts. East played Heart Ace which

does not help declarer or give the contract. 

Karel cashed Heart King and now has to play Club Jack picking up Club Queen and Club

10 as he goes. So 4S making and the Holmes Wilson Trophy for Karel and his team. 

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

Top ex-Wales many time international and sometimes Ireland Senior international Peter Goodman at 

the other table also has a go but he ended up finessing the club and going down 

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

Many other great declarers also made 4S but I am not going to look at them all as most 

of the others did not have the Holmes Wilson Trophy on the line. 

I has a look and noticed Alan Roughneen making it. He got 

Heart Heart and a Heart back and daintily tossed a diamond loser. 

Then took the diamond return and drew trumps. 

Now before he got the chance to execute his magical play West followed with

Club TEN and Alan divined that it was not QT doubleton and made the contract. 

Maybe West was trying to look like QT doubleton or maybe he was showing hi-lo count 

I will never know. 

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

Now I better go and see how new CBAI CEO Dermots partner got on with the hand.

I have not looked yet so here I go 

Flat board 4S-1 at both tables .. 

And another 5 declarers also went down ... TOUGH HAND but Karel nailed it. 

So take credit anyone who matched Karel. 

I presume its a good idea to try the Hearts first but maybe with only 4-2 it cannot gain you. 

About 10 imps swing on this hand for those who went down and made at other table. 

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

Another hand I liked very much was hand 17 of Sunday 

Here we see the EW putting it over the CBAI CEO ... 

Despite Dermot O'Briens opening bid of 1S the EW kept going 

A 2D multi opening bid sunk Hanlon Moran who languished in 5C 

Well done to all these EWs who outran the legendary Thomas Hanlon at bidding 

Lots of 2S openings ..Several Dermot O'Brien specials ... Several passes 

Hanlon got a Multi fired at him by a Gavin  

However Hanlon as is his wont still won some imps as his 5C+1 defeated the 4D+2 at the other

table for 6 imps gain. 

Later on there should be a video on Eamon Galligan  youtube on the above

Holmes Wilson 2022

Link to Holmes Wilson video

I heard about a player make no tricks in 1NT the other night .. names redacted

 Meanwhile if there is not much new stuff here ...checkout the Galligan Youtube bridge channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/GalliganBridge

6 videos of the recent Broomfield Trophy are there .. all 48 hands are covered and played. 

The unsuspecting East player pulled out a 1NT opening 12-14 from its bidding box and was unaware of the horror that was about to unfold. It went PASS PASS to the North who despite having a reasonable 2S bid using whatever methods one plays eyed up the vulnerability and figured if I can make 2S then maybe I can collect some vulnerable undertricks against the 1NT contract. 

And so it began ... Ace King and another diamond from Python Penelope and Diamonds Dora swung a 4th highest spade from her long suit blissfully unaware of the consequences for declarer. 

the lazy 6 was played from declarers hand ... it cannot really be a play that has much hope ...surely

rise with King and hope it wins. 

So Python Penelope wins the Spade Jack ... cashes the 13th diamond and unwaringly returns a spade. 

5 spade tricks later and declarer is here 

10 tricks lost and a small heart comes back .... Declarer rises with the Heart King 

and Penelope wins and returns a heart to Diamond Doras QT. 

As the old English player Garve used to do ..."Raises the Bat " 

13 as they say in the Bingo .. Unlucky for some. 

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

Mind you the East West dusted themselves down and powered to victory 

albeit on a score of 54.5% 

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

Meanwhile the Legend of Blanchardstown was not on the same page as the First Lady 

This shows the importance and major advantage of even having a 2 pager bidding system

agreed between the partnership .. Two pages of system beats loads of expert card playing skills. 

Once you know your partner is on the same page its a big start to your bridge game. 

The Magician makes a 2C opening bid but at least he was not peeking

 This morning I spotted a lad holding a solid diamond suit AKQJxxxx and nothing outside. At the odd table in the odd club I direct in the West might consider passing as he only has 10 points. 

However our Magician deems it a 2C opening ...the real deal 

So the partner opens a full blooded 2C bid and the other partner bids the hearts and then rolls out the cannon 4NT ... We call it the Cannon as it kind of looks like a cannon and is called Blackwood. 

Then after getting the AKQ of trumps it bid 6NT. 

Happily the opps did not find the club lead but sadly there were only 11 tricks

Still the folks got 12.5% for their efforts 

There is no bridge book that exists where this is deemed a 2C opening so our Magician needs a new wand .. At least he was not peeking like some folk do 

As my old friend Sally used to say plus in part score beats down in slam ... 

And as we can see ...Sally would get 56%

One suspects the North lad missed his partners PASS as dealer

 Good afternoon folks 

Here is a hand I just witnessed in the Masters Pairs from CBAI. 

South passes as dealer and West launches a 2H weak opening ...a solid weak 2 bid which is passed back to South who had already dealt and passed. Feeling no danger ahead he contributed a reasonable 2S bid. 

Some will say a Double for takeout would be good but that might be hanging on the telephone. It is not recommended to make a takeout double with a void in declarers suit as one likes to lead trumps when partner passes. So 2S it was ... 

Sadly somehow North figured his great unproven cardplay skills could guide home 3NT despite his partners starting with a PASS. I think he missed the PASS or forgot it happened or was distracted. 

Anyway he proceeded to go down 2 vulerable and lose nearly 7 imps to negate the hard earned 6 imps he had already gained 

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

I notice the fearless Robert Knight who learned the bridge in the Stables in NIHE back in the day launched a 3H bid over Karels 2S opening thing. Conor Boland was pleased to drop the hammer on that and 800 later accept the plus 12 imps. Sadly the Knights were winning the match up until board 7 and that board blew them backwards. 

Kokot and McConville found the takeout double and got plus 500 for their troubles

A hand that shows how hard a game bridge is or is it Hanging on the Telephone

 Good morning folks 

I spotted a hand while doing my rounds this morning. It shows one of the greatest ever pairs to play at a bridge table not just in Ireland but recognized as serious opponents in any decent bridge playing country in the world. In one book I picked up one time the an early chapter talked of two opponents searching a players international shirt to find the names of his opponents. Finding nothing he emerged with the words " Mr Nobody you play awful well"

Anyway on the hand above we see Mr Redmond open a Precision 1D opening and Mr Fitzgibbon bangs out a fairly normal 4S bid. It can be aimed at making or as a sacrifice. Depends what partner has. Mr Gaynor puts what looks to be a penalty double on this but it must be unclear or not fully discussed as Mr Redmond bids 5D. Surely Mr Redmond should bid 5C as this is one of the suits shown by a negative double. This is passed back to Mr Mesbur who produced a 5S bid which was not a success given North South had 5D down on trumps alone. 

Now Redmond and Gaynor are regular above average performers in Irish national competitions so you would expect the 5D bid not to happen. Even more certain is the expectation of the 5S bid not to happen when holding enough trumps to take 5D down. 

So if  a capable Irish pair and a world renowned Irish pair have issues on bidding competitive hands then the ordinary Joe and Mary Soap will have many issues. So when Covid Doog and Covid 3000  appear banging out 70% games every night one has to wonder what kind of Bridgebase they got. 

Or maybe as Blondie used to sing 

Hanging on the Telephone

The little Transfer bid that got supported and rose higher

 Yesterday morning out in North Dublin near the sea I spotted some folk playing a bridge hand 

West opened weak NT 12-14 

East did a transfer bid to SPADES

Nasty South bid 3H just to be awkward 

For some reason West decided to go further in SPADES despite only having TWO ..

Passed around to SOUTH who figured double might work 

Passed back to East who figured maybe if I bid 4S they won't double me next time

...........

That was 1400 later ... Lucky it was only 1 matchpoint board as opposed to 50 cent a 100 

Strangely enough the minus 1400 pair won the event with a 68% score 

You would think a pair who run from 3S doubled into 4S doubled might not be so good 

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

Its not good to raise a transfer bid unless you got 3 or 4 card support ... 

And if the transfer bid is doubled ..you don't complete it unless you got 3 or more trumps 

So with a Doubleton you PASS 

DNR Regional Teams ... the winners are the Inter As leaving the Masters behind.

 This morning while examining the Robots dash through the Dublin North Region Masters competition I spotted the robot toying with the masters. 

Robot offered to win the last 3 tricks with the lowest cards the TWOS

Robot did not rub it in though and played diamond 2 to diamond 7 ...as East 

has diamonds higher than the 2. Still it makes a pretty picture. 

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

Unfortunately Robot team failed to qualify for the Regional Teams as it got beaten by the powerful Intermediate A team powered by the Sutton Kellys and Sheena Duffy and Evelyn Doyle. Its interesting that an intermediate team can win a Master competition. Well done to them. 

Congratulation to the Deane team who won the best Masters prize despite getting destroyed by the robot squad 19-1 in the last match. Happily they still qualify as best Master Team despite being 11 VPs behind the winners. 

Big problem is will they as winners be sent forward as the Master Team and miss out on their chance to win the All Ireland. Surely a team that defeats Masters should be a warm favourite to win the As. 

Were the National Finals of 2020 ever held. Did the teams who won in November 2019 ever get to play in their Nationals ... I cannot remember what happened then. 

DNR Teams results

Great experience for the Inter Bs to play against the DNR masters. 

The Ducking Play takes down the Setting Trick

 Good afternoon ...

Nope I am not taking over from John McAllister but last night I saw the Ducking Play replacing the Setting Trick. 

https://soundcloud.com/john-mcallister-221670174

So the West decided he did not like the Setting Trick 

Last night we had the Ducker defending 3NT and with 4 tricks scored up the famous Ducker 

decided it was time for another Duck. He got a near duck alright. Either the guy misclicked or else he was executing some far out ducking strategy. 

So he ducked his partners spade return thinking he was going to endplay the dummy maybe. 

or was reluctant to allow dummy win all those nice spades in dummy. 

Unfortunately for the ducker when declarer won with spade Jack he was locked in his hand and only 

had winners remaining and grimly played every winner to the end 

No claiming here despite having all winners. Its not often that the maestro gets the better 

of Donald the Ducker. Donald duly got almost a duck for ducking. 

I got some action on the Sligo Fast Fridays

 Tonight a well known Master player allowed me back on Granda Tom against his pair in the Sligo Fast Fridays. Master player has the advantage as his partner is a Northern Ireland international player and Granda Tom only has Finola from Derrygonnelly. 

Also I cannot watch the race as Fearghal like most other clubs has the kibitzers blocked. 

My horse is in 2nd place after 6 boards .. However the leader is my betting opponent. 

My horse dropped back after round 3 but the Granda is still running strong. 

He is like Frank O'Mara in the running he has a powerful kick once 

he don't leave too much to do. 

After round 4 I think my horse has climbed into the lead. 

Hopefully the Granda will continue to fire and make me some money 

....

I cannot see anything except the tables ... Fearghal does not allow gamblers in his 

games. My opponent AKsooted is playing against the Maura O'Keefe bridge player and Mister O'Keefe so hopefully their teaching skills will hold back Chipshop boy 

Its Chipshop man versus Granda Tom in the battle of Butler Yeats 

I see Butcher man is also coming up on the inside too .. 

Connell from high up in Donegal ..maybe Glenties

Can you believe it ..the best player in Ireland does not know how to duck a trick at 

trick 1 to make 3NT ... Cost me 5 euro the weak declarer

Then on the next board he is doubled in 3S and takes the lazy route to down 2

instead of the good player route to one off via a possible squeeze. 

Why would you lock yourself in dummy giving you no chance 

Bloody hell ..don't bet on Granda Tom as he not good at the playing cards

The 1st bridge cheater in Ireland was my brother ..Wait until you see what came after him

 Back in the early 1990s I had a bridge program called Meadowlark Bridge and PCs were becoming affordable. I was down in Cavan my home town for a few days and brought my PC with me. I was happily playing the Meadowlark every day upstairs. 

Then one day in I went and played a hand and noticed I was way down the leaderboard as some Socrates has taken over. Board after Board I played but the relentless Socrates was always top on every board. 

Finally I realized what had happened. My much younger brother ...21 years younger had slipped in and bid 7NT on every board and claimed 13 tricks on every board. Later on he learned double and redouble. 

My Meadowlark was ruined and every time I reinstalled it ..the results remained as they must have been stored somewhere else. 

So that was the first bridge cheater I encountered 

Meanwhile in Ireland nearly 30 years on we have the new version of my brother 

I think this one was a misclick ..South meant to bid 2NT 

Our man West tried it on Real Bridge and got hosed in Camrose by England

Here East West pushed them into the going down slam but then misdefended by grabbing Spade Queen too early ...South misplayed by floating the spade 10 ...and East grabbed the bait. 

Here it seems Mr Peeper goes for the top spot knowing about his nice diamond stopper

In this case Mr Peeper is also the club director 

Surely when God gives you AKQJxx and 4 card support she means those as trumps.

Here Mr Peeper or something roars into 3NT buying a 15 count in dummies passed hand 

Here we have an East seemingly knowing it is safe to introduce spades 

A different Mr Peeper 

Above  Granda tells me about someone taking him for a fool and getting hosed 

Here we have one of the Mr Peepers on lead ... No Spade Queen for him 

He leads 5th highest to his partners King doubleton with no bidding 

Mr Peeper is the KING 

And here is the King of the Peepers ....this chap can divine a doubleton club in his 

partners hand and knows his partner got trump Ace ..

This man has God on his side or maybe the other chap.

Led a club and when pard won Trump Ace early ..another club and bingo ruff

And here Mrs Inter A2 Peeper is able to NOT lead Diamond Queen like 32 other hopeless opening leaders. NO NO NO ...Madame Peeper finds a nice Club 10 lead ...to partners A8763

No way she leads Diamond Queen ..thats for dodos 

3NT down 1 

Oh and by the way Madame Peeper looked good and did not lead 4th highest to block the suit 

And finally he King of the Peepers ... We got KQJ53 and even God herself will lead Spade King  but our Peeper is made of stronger stuff ... Spade 3 .... and Partner got ACE TEN small ....

And he don't even overtake the TEN second time ...cos its not allowed open 1NT with 5 card major in Sligo cos Feargal said so ..