Thursday, August 22, 2013

Bray Bridge Congress 2013 this coming weekend


Last night I had the pleasure of substituting for Paul O'Reilly as director in the RDS Members Bridge Club.
Bridge is played in the library on Wednesdays at 1930. Now I had been in the RDS Library before about 9 years ago when the RDS hosted "Clash of the Masters" a Hilary Dowling Long production.
Anyway shortly after I arrived I found out they had a standby player and folk who had no partners gave me their name and were paired up in order of arrival with the next person. The standby would then either play or go home depending on if he/she was required. A quick count of tables indicated 13.5 tables and 1 standby with no partner. I paired up 6-8 players. So my instructions from Paul O'Reilly was run 13 table mitchel or two smaller events if more than 13. So to save having a sitout I got permission from the Presifent to partner the standby as it made sense to have no sitout and not to do a 6.5 table movement.
So it was getting close to 745pm by the time I sat down to play my first board.
21 boards later and it was 1015pm and most players had departed the venue. I collected all my sheets and tidied away all the equipment required for 14 tables and I was in my car heading for Sandymount Hotel at 1028pm. My instructions were to deliver the sheets and names and some leftover players prixes to Paul O'Reilly at the hotel.. On arrival I noticed a sign saying O'Reilly party.
So I headed that direction and found a pile of bridge players and pile of O'Reilly tribal members and members of Liz Anns family celebrating a major birthday of Liz Anns. Think she was 40 or 42 or something.
Down in the corner was a group of Wicklow Bridge players who indicated they had a big Congress on this weekend and why was it not on my blog etc ..
So here it is .. but CBAI must be on vacation as they still have Galway Pokerstars whizzing across the top of the page when it should be Bray Bridge Congress or 70 year anniversairy Congress.
As a small child my domicile was Greystones and a cottage called Sunbeam Cottage. I only vaguely recalled the railway and being told it was very dangerous. You could walk behind our house and cross the railway on a metal bridge and go to the shop as far as I recall. Its about 47 years ago though.
Once in the 1990s when on the train to Wexford Bridge Congress I looked out the window and could see Sunbeam Cottage and was very surprised.
I won't be at Bray Bridge Congress as I am going down for a float on the Shannon but it would be great to have a bridge congress back on our doorstep so people should support it.
The venue is the Esplanade Hotel and its on the seafront. Its the hotel where Bray-Greystones chess club used to play back in the day. Seamus Duffy is a capable chess player from Bray. I used to know him when I was a teenage chess player. A few years ago a young chap who lives on my road approached me in our local community centre and indicated that his uncle knew me ..
That chap is now Steve from  Kodaline .. http://www.kodaline.com/home
I guess his mum is from Wicklow then but I might be wrong. However they sing nice songs.
Don't think they play bridge though.
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Meanwhile if Bray is too far for you to travel there is always the Tom Hardiman and Nicky Fitzgibbon show down in Kerry. ... http://bridgeireland.com/
Details can be found at the link above.

Note to Bridge Congress organisers ... Contact Bridge Ireland and get your event on their website.
Too late for Bray this year but maybe next year if enough of ye go there this weekend.
Should be ok as normally 26-32 teams attend Bray Swiss Teams ..but this year its Pairs and Teams on
the Saturday and Sunday.. Kilkenny bridge players can go there as they don't know themselves .. No All Ireland Final this year for some reason.... First time in Jamie Martins long memory that Kilkenny were not in the All Ireland Final.
......
I saw Brendan Martin and John Comyn and Ann Comyn and Bert McKay and Rita McNamara and Patsy Gibney and Maura Hand and some other bridge players in the Sandymount Hotel last night. Fionnula from CBAI office was there too. Also some players from Templogue Centre whose names I am not sure of.
However I had to depart Sandymount Hotel as I had my car with me and its not smart these days to mix guinness and cars. I recall sharing a house with a country lad who always wore a good suit to work. A customer facing employee of some computer firm. He literally ate guinness .. Two mouthfuls and it was gone.
One night he landed home about 11pm and looked quite normal. He said He had a few pints but did not look at all inebriated. 17 pints he said proudly and the car knows its way home.
Maybe the old advert was true ... Guinness is good for you.
I think they had to get rid of that advert years ago ,,,,as alcohol could not be good for you..
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Above are the results of the Ireland Imps Pairs held every Tuesday about 9pm on www.bridgebase online. 
Some of the RDS bridge players even knew about this event. Several well known players too part there.
aoife was a late sub for the final round so 13th place is not her doing.
Up there in 3rd place are Fred and Kevin Barry... recent visitors to Brighton Congress I think 

This Brighton event is a great event for any Irish players who want to sample a decent level of English Bridge. Also a great results presentation via some site called Pianola. Worth a physical visit some year or a virtual visit to see the website

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Finally I am still playing Wbridge5 daily tourney .. I cannot recommend this FREE daily tourney high enough.
http://bridgez.net:3002/connexion.html

Several top and bottom Irish players are playing this event from day to day. You can play anything from 0 boards to the full 16 boards .. Recently I spotted an account called Mobrule playing .. Its most likely Michael O'Brian the well known bridge player from the Regent Bridge Club. James Heneghan indicated .."while the robots are maniacs sometimes it is very good to sharpen a players pairs technique.
James said something along those lines ..but not exactly that.

Eamon just played the first hand of today. Can you make 7D grand slam like Eamon did. 81% score if you do. The board is pre bid and set for everybody to play 7D so I am not giving anything away ..

The mobrule has played 62 boards this month which is quite a lot for a guy who does not play bridge on a computer as a rule but does watch lots of international vugraph. 
I recently noticed two accounts called rashers and sausages playing. I think they are online partners. 
However the rashers guy was naming his after a Strumpet City character... not the irish breakfast.
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Former Bankers Bridge Club stalwart Kevin O'Dea recently made a return to face to face bridge in the Teachers Club. 
A good place for city bridge players to play 

The two main Dublin Bridge Clubs are above so don't say I did not tell you 

runs Open Pairs on a Friday night so if you want a game its easy to find and Dermot McCourt will be in charge. Hand record printout and bridgemate scoring are in use. 1930 and all welcome even Southsiders .
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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Full Tilt Irish Bridge Masters Videos

Fiona Brown and several other bridge players get a look in here at the Full Tilt Irish Bridge Masters.
Full Tilt sent in their roaming camera man who took plenty of footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN9vtNYZ6dA

Gus mentions bridge early in this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4oXPDQuflk

Heads Up Ireland v England

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmIMHYmS_vk

Fintan and Marty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmIMHYmS_vk

A tour of the facilities ...a fantastic setup for card games and the rest ...
They built a purpose built facility for bridge players on an empty site
Then they played poker in it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GacOn-HYyY0

That will do for now ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SF1wM9ME9E

Well maybe one more of Gus Hansen after he called an all in with pocket Aces ..and
out he goes








Sunday, August 04, 2013

Full Tilt Irish Bridge Masters Session 3 Gus Hansen on Vugraph

Today Sunday August 4th saw the final session of the Full Tilt Irish Bridge Masters in Galway.
Held at a purpose built arena for poker the bridge fitted in nicely between two banks of poker playing areas.
Starting the day Sally Brock and Barry Myers led from Jason Hackett and Alex Hydes and we had 26 hands of bridge to play at about 6 minutes per hand.
I was setup to broadcast one table of vugraph and with one of the well known poker stars playing in the bridge event it made sense to broadcast his table.
Therefore the director rotated the tables a little so Gus Hansen and Fleming Deneilsen were seated close to my area.
So we were setup to go but we had no Gus Hansen.
Suddenly Donal MacAonghusa materialized and sat down opposite Fleming Deneilson as a substitute. Very few in the poker world knew that Donal had been
an international bridge player at Open and Junior levels in the past so Fleming was pleasantly surprised to find he had found a good replacement
Boards 13 14


McAonghusa started off by overcalling 4H and the opponents felt he was too high and doubled him. Donal wrapped up 11 tricks and that was a fine start.
Then the intrepid pair defended 1NT and a diamond lead left home 1 overtrick.
Boards 15 16

Fleming made 11 tricks in 4 Spades after a defensive slipup

Then we had Donal MacAonghusa at the helm again in 4S.

Donal played well and brought home 11 tricks by dropping the final Heart high honour when East failed
to play his known Heart 10 on the 2nd round of hearts.
Then Gus Hansen finally arrived on the scene. Fleming thanked Donal for his contribution and
Gus Hensan took over.


Gus was faced with a tough hand to start with and with his partner making a supportive noise
Gus overreached to 5S and got doubled and went 2 off.
Hard to blame him as he mentioned to partner .. I thought you might have two more aces
Board 21 saw Gus with a tough problem after partner doubled 3 clubs for takeout ..
Commentators on vugraph wondered would Gus find the winning pass ..

Sure enough after some thought Gus passed and with precision defence the contract was held to 5 tricks
and this was +800 for Hansen Deneilsen ..
Then some trouble appeared on the horizon with World Ladies champion Fiona Brown looming with
Danish partner Nadia Bekouche.

Fiona is interviewed above by Full Tilt ..
So our intrepid Gus Hansen opens up with a solid weak 2 bid in hearts ..
The girls East West compete and use lebensohl to show a weak hand with clubs ..
Fleming decides to have a piece of that and Brown feeling we are in trouble offers up a redouble
to partner to take us out of here to another contract ..meaning diamonds or spades ..
Nadia being not to enamoured with her diamonds or spades decided to leave it in 3C redoubled.
This contract was destined for 2 off and zero matchpoints so Brown tried to sneak home the trump King
risking the possibility of 3 off and the same zero matchpoints ..but Fleming let it slip past and Brown managed
to get out for 1 down ... Redoubled was 400 and probably still a zero percent score.
Board 1 saw good defence by our intepid pair and a declarer slip to beat 3D off 3
Board 3 saw Gus overreach into 6 Hearts  when 5 Spades was going down 1






Board 5 saw Fleming make 10 tricks in 3NT after Ciaran Coyne took advantage of vulnerability to
make it tough for Gus Hansen

The Hansen table was broadcast live on the internet and at one stage we had 660 spectators watching in
their homes .. Now sometimes 2-3 people might watch on same computer so we don’t know exactly how
many people would be watching. Sometimes in the past we have logged into Vugraph broadcasts in our
local clubs and we might have 50 people watching on the Big Screen
Several well known bridge players looked in to see how a superstar of the poker world might fare at bridge.
Gus Hansens picture is posted in many places around the event marquee and on the side of the Harbour Hotel.
I personally did not know much about poker until about 3 months ago when with this event coming up I thought
I best brush up on the lingo at least. So yes even Eamon Galligan has heard of Gus Hansen but I did not know
what he looked like ..
Gus was a gentleman at the table and made small talk and big talk with all opponents who wished to engage.
As this event is sponsored by Full Tilt Poker and Gus is one of the group known as “The Professionals“ it made sense
to make the effort to put Gus Hansen on the Bridge Base broadcast today.
I have heard it said that Gus bigs up bridge anytime he gets a chance and it was great for me to be able to put him up there
for the bridge world to see.
The files of the Full Tilt Irish Bridge Masters can be found at the above link.
Session 3 is not there yet but will appear.
www.fob.ie  has all the results of the 3 sessions on Tournament Director Feargal O’Boyles website
Lots of information on the hands and contracts can be found there

Thanks
Eamon Galligan







Full Tilt Poker Irish Bridge Masters Galway

The 3rd session of the Full Tilt Irish Bridge Masters will start shortly.
We will broadcast 1 table of vugraph featuring well known poker star Gus Hansen and his partner Fleming Danielson.
The broadcast can be viewed on www.bridgebase.com . Create a free account and password and you are good to go.

Leading scores after 2 sessions of 3

Rank Pair Overall % Pair Names Boards Session Session Rank
1 22 65.98 Sally Brock - Barry Myers 52 61.41 4
2 27 62.30 Jason Hackett - Alex Hydes 52 64.08 3
3 42 62.23 B.J. O'Brien - David Jackson 52 66.40 1
4 63 59.38 Paul Delaney - Marcin Rudzinski 50 50.50 27
5 56 59.11 John Carroll - Rory Boland 50 61.17 5
6 60 57.43 Matthias Schueller - Jascha Garre 50 58.23
7 2 57.35 Fiona Brown - Nadia Bekouche 52 57.71 8
8 24 57.00 Gay Keaveney - Peter Goodman 52 53.64 16
9 54 56.50 James Heneghan - Willem Mevius 52 60.71 6
10 13 55.62 David Walsh - Ciaran Coyne 50 64.86 2
11 4 55.43 Tom Hanlon - Hugh McGann 50 57.51 9
12 64 55.23 Dave Synott - Hugh Gormally (MA) 50 51.06
13 7 54.89 Mary Finn - Cian Holland 50 56.24 11
14 8 54.71 Anne Dillon - Peter Pigot 50 57.20 10
15 33 53.90 Pat Quinn - Martin Garvey 52 49.09 31
16 47 53.70 Paul Hackett - David Levy 52 52.30 19
17 51 53.40 Heidi Lillis - Michael McGloughlin 52 54.19
18 25 53.19 Brid Kemple - Terry Walsh 52 48.34 36
19 50 53.17 Eddie Fitzgerald - Michael MacDonagh 52 50.54
20 28 53.13 Maria Whelan - Dolores Gilliland 52 52.71
21 26 53.09 John Beard - Liam Sheradon 52 50.00 29
22 3 52.65 Cass O'Donnell - Ann Davey 50 47.62 39
23 10 52.57 Maureen Pattinson - Bob Pattinson 50 46.35
24 45 51.60 Connell McLoone - Pat McDaid 52 47.56 40
25 44 51.49 Anna Onishuk - Karel deRaeymaeker 52 55.35
26 55 51.44 Rory Egan - David Berber (MA) 50 55.79 12

First prize to the winning pair is 5000 euros ... the largest prize for bridge ever in Ireland.
We have many top Irish players and several visiting pairs from England and Europe.

I looked out this morning and it was a fine sunny day and strolling up the road were well known Irish bridge players David Jackson and BJ O Brien. .