Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I broadly echo eyhung's comments.

 

Anything by Mike Lawrence on judgement is worth a read. Anything in his "Complete Book of ..." series (overcalls, hand evaluation etc).

 

Hugh Kelsey's books on Killing Defence and More Killing Defence. And I loved his little "Test your ...." series published by Gollancz.

 

A couple of books by Erik Jannersten are worth a mention:

"The Best of Bridge" (a selection of hands from the Wohlin collection)

"The Only Chance" (get into that IMP mindset!).

 

I learned up my Law of Total Tricks from Amesbury and Payne "TNT and Competitive Bidding" - came out long before Larry's The Law series so I never bothered to get the latter. Something on this subject is a "must have".

 

For entertainment I liked the anecdotal stuff in Power Precision by Alan Sontag (skip over the system bits).

 

For a complete book on defensive signalling methods, Helge Vinje "New Ideas in Defensive Play" - not new any more, of course.

 

Another Must Have is "Bridge Odds for Practical Players" by Kelsey and Glauert. Well, by Glauert, actually, but Kelsey sells.

 

Just about the best book for a beginner on card play technique is "Victor Mollo's Winning Double" by (of course) Victor Mollo. Packed with card play problems in the classic style (problem on one page, solution on the next) the problems are varying in complexity so that even the lowliest beginner can expect to get some right. The book is split into two halves, and the reader is invited to tackle the halves in the order of his choice, with a guarantee that he will score higher in the second half that he works through than in the first (each half containing problems of similar complexity). And it works. You will.

 

Someone mentioned Bridge Squeezes Complete by Love, and it is certainly the easiest read on the subject that I have found, but for the experienced player I think that a more complete work (if not such an easy read) is Eliminations and Endplays by Coffin.

 

For the system nuts, Ultimate Club by Ginsberg, Grannovetter Rubin and Becker is an interesting book, as is the hugely overpriced (when you can find it) E T Lindeloef's "Cobra".

 

Provided that you can get hold of both of them, for a bit of history it is quite fun to plough through "Story of an Accusation" by Reese and "The Great Bridge Scandal" by Truscott.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would like to add a question or two to Syl's Poll -

 

Could the readers please cast their minds back to the days when they too were Novices   and tell us which of your books you found :-

 

(i) helped you the most to understand  the fundamentals of the game

 

(ii) pathed the way for you to lift your game from Novice to .......(wherever you are today)

 

Thank you

Maureen

I couldn´t use it much, because of language problem, but to start I´ve been told 'pass a pass' (french book) is great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well for my curiousity . U know i'm now lol . even if i'm french and those who answer that

 

1) how many book do u have in your collection?

 

2) tell me your 3 best books (in order if possible ;) )?

 

3) what is the last book you have bougth?

 

4) what is ur best author?

 

5) have u been told by writter outside ur coutry ? if yes have u read some and what is your favourite?

 

6) any special comment about one book ? let me know

 

regards

syl

1) English books about 30, Chinese books about 25.

2) Expert game by Reese, Killing def by Kelsey, Complete book on overcall by Lawrence.

3) Inference at Bridge by Miles, ok, but not great.

4) Lawrence/Kelsey/Reese

5) same as 4)

6) Read all Lawrence's books. He is kind of author who really tell you all his winning secrets.

 

 

Hongjun

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would like to add a question or two to Syl's Poll -

 

Could the readers please cast their minds back to the days when they too were Novices   and tell us which of your books you found :-

 

(i) helped you the most to understand  the fundamentals of the game

 

(ii) pathed the way for you to lift your game from Novice to .......(wherever you are today)

 

Thank you

Maureen

Bidding: complete book on overcall/balancing, 2/1 workbook by mike lawrence. And Better bidding with Bergen.

 

Def: killing and more killing defense by Kelsey

 

Play: Reese's Expert game and most puzzling hand in Bridge, Kelsey's logical play

 

 

Any student finished these books throughly can beat most of expert on BBO easily.

 

Hongjun

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't have many bridgebooks yet, but my favorite is

 

The art of psychic bidding (and its pitfalls) - Julian Pottage & Peter Burrows

 

I've had a lot of fun with it, and it's quite complete (really lots of examples and analyses) on a subject which nobody writes about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

:P Isn't it very funny! ;) This thread sleeped well from March 2003 (last post by inquiry) till in June 2004 Luke reanimated it. (many thx btw). And now between 2 days there are 5 or 6 new replies.

 

Apparently many members are still interested in this spot.

 

I think there must be a lot of goodies in post from 2003, that should be rediscovered.

 

I'm wondering if there is a possibility to create some aid (e.g. index or FAQ) to delelevop these source.

 

Al

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...