Book Reviews

[Winstonm]

PostFree Bridge Books

 

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/postfree/books/authL.htm

 

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/postfree/books/authF.htm

Thanks.

[ArcLight]

>There are two books - both out of print - I'd like to get my hands on: Championship Bridge by Jose le Dentu and Bridge with the Blue Team by Forquet.

 

>Anybody know where these two books might be found?

 

 

At my local library of course. :P

(They are on my reading list for this year or next. Along with "Focus on Defense" by Danny Roth, some by Victor Mollo , "Spot Light on Card Play" by Darvas, "Logic, Intuition and Instinct at the Bridge Table" by Jayaram, and maybe a few by Randal Baron/Frank Stewart.)

 

 

Step by Step Discarding is an excellent book. I'll have to reread it eventaully.

 

 

Championship Bridge

http://www.campusi.com/bookFind/asp/bookFi...odId=006012542X

 

 

Bridge With the Blue Team (Master Bridge Series)

www.buy.com

[AceOfHeart]

The Most Puzzling Situations in Bridge Play by Terence Reese 1979

 

 

It is an interesting book on how to play cards properly, not of those triple squeezes but simple card play that will maximise your chance to make a contract like tackling side suits properly, combining chances for finesse, how to aviod ruffs etc. I can solve only about 20% of the hand in the first read but i am only intermediate.

 

A sample hand from this book is this:may or may not agree on bidding but it is bidding 27 years ago :)

 

 

 

 

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sj96h7542daq10cq53&s=sq4haqj93dk84ca107]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

Bidding goes 1NT(1) by south, 2NT(2) by north 3NT by south all pass

Lead 5 of spades

(1) Opening 1NT have many merits as compared to 1♥:it is descriptive: you aviod the awkward situation when partner respond 1nt to an opening 1H;concealment of the five card major may work to your advantage making west harder to compete in spades.

 

(2)based on a 15-17 1nt opening

 

The early play 5 of spades and dummy 9 is covered by 10 and won by Q.

 

First look

 

Declarer notes that although there are 9 hearts in the two hands,3nt is at least as good a contract as four hearts. However the spades are probaly 5-3 or 6-2 so South cannot afford to lose the lead.

 

 

Solution: There is no good reason for south to reject the heart finnese. If the king is wrong he will go down at once , but if East have the Kx or Kxx, he will make the contract easily. But another possiblity must be considered, East haveng K10xx.?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hv=n=sj96h7542daq10cq53&w=sa8752hdj96cj8642&e=sk103hk1086d7532ck9&s=sq4haqj93dk84ca107]399|300|[/hv]

 

To pick up hearts without loss when the cards lie as above south need 3 entries to dummy. Since two diamond tricks will be enough for game,assuming 5 tricks can be made in hearts South should begining by overtaking the King diamond with the ace and finese the jack heart. When west discards a club. South can now finnese the jack of diamonds of an additional entry to dummy and end up with 10 tricks.

 

To begin with a low diamond to the Queen is not good,because west may be smart enough to insert the jack on the next round blocking the entry-finesse.

[cherdano]

That's a good hand for the thread on safety plays! Assuming this were IMPs, the safety play would lose an IMP on almost 50% of the deals (K onside but not KTxx). It would gain 10 IMPs (assuming not vulnerable) on very roughly 4% of the deals (♥KTxx and ♦J onside). So it is very close.

 

However, the safety play also loses 10 IMPs when West has the ♥K, spades are 4-4, and East has the ♦J. I am too lazy to work out probabilities, but it seems to me that at IMPs, Reese's line would be wrong.

 

Arend

[Gerben42]

A sample hand from this book is this:may or may not agree on bidding but it is bidding 27 years ago smile.gif

 

Agree with the bidding! It is timeless. :)

 

Probablility of both ♦ and ♥ finesse wrong is 25%, times 32% (♠ 4 - 4) times 25% (must have ♠2 and 3 in East, otherwise not 4th best). About 2.0%.

 

♥KTxx and ♦J onside is about 2.8% of the deals btw (50% of 59% of all 4-0 breaks, which have probability 9.6%)

 

So we're talking about a 0.8% improvement of the line if I got it all right.

[cherdano]

A sample hand from this book is this:may or may not agree on bidding but it is bidding 27 years ago smile.gif

 

Agree with the bidding! It is timeless. :)

 

Probablility of both ♦ and ♥ finesse wrong is 25%, times 32% (♠ 4 - 4) times 25% (must have ♠2 and 3 in East, otherwise not 4th best). About 2.0%.

To be pedantic: assuming a 4-4 split, the probability of East having 3 and 2 is 1/2*3/7 or 21.4%. Also, it seems to me that RHO might play the K from KTxx more often than from KTx etc.

 

So the improvement is more than 0.8%, but still not enough at IMPs, and maybe about break-even vulnerable at total points.

 

Arend

[MickyB]

To be pedantic: assuming a 4-4 split, the probability of East having 3 and 2 is 100% (unless West has led something other than 4th highest :rolleyes:)

 

Probability of both ♦ and ♥ finesses wrong is 24%, the probability of East having both the 2 and 3 of ♠ is 9/18 * 8/17 (we know of 4 cards in each hand, 4 spades in West's, 2 spades and 2 heart honours in East's). This works out at 5.65%, which is an overestimate, because West is more likely to lead from a 5 or 6 card holding than a 4 card holding, and he may also have led lowest from three.

[Flame]

And dont forget to add that even if LHO has the J of diamond, he still has to play it which is far from obvious to the avarage+ player.

[Guest Jlall]

Just always try the best line to make the contract, don't worry about the overtrick.

[ArcLight]

Master Class: Lessons from the Bridge Table by Fred Gitelman 2005

 

The book uses an over the style approach, similar to Terence Reese's Play These Hands With Me/Play Bridge with Reese. The author explains the players (usually declarer, but sometimes the defender) thought process and at key points will ask the reader to make a decision. Sometimes he tricks you because a critical mistake has already been made and the contract is gone. Sneaky!

 

The hands are mostly advanced, and even if you can identify the correct technique, there is usually an additional step needed to succeed. I think the

focus is on visualization of the hands, rather than some extremely difficult play

 

I very much liked the style of the narrative, and how the author threw in a few tidbits about the players.

 

Personally, I would have preferred the hands to be a little easier, say replacing the hardest hands with those near the median in the book. I realize the author selected hands he found interesting or well played, and since he's a world class player he's more likely to select some though hands.

 

Overall its a good book for advanced players. Intermediate can also get something out of it, but they wont solve more than a handful of the hands.

 

 

Here is a hand (p128) declared by Sabine Auken, that she made.

 

 

[hv=d=n&v=e&n=sqj8743ha96dkcjt5&s=s6hk542dajt642ca2]133|200|W N E S

1♠ p 2♣

X 2♦ p 2NT

p 3♠ p 3NT[/hv]

 

West leads the Q from KQ.

 

What line of play looks good? How will you handle the diamonds?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Auken realized that playing for a 3-3 split would not be enough. She would end up squeezing dummy. Therefore she played for the Diamond Q to be doubleton, and drop it by playing A K. It was a long shot, but the only chance she had.

In addition she made a nice play of ducking a heart so if she went down, it would probably be by 1 less.

 

Fred does a nicer job explaining this, but I found it an interesting hand. I would have played for the 3-3 split and realized dummy would be squeezed but hoped I'd still have made it. But at her level the defenders would probably have set her.

 

[ArcLight]

Spotlight on Card Play by Robert Darvas, Paul Lukacs

 

In the genre of over the shoulder books, this one presents the reader with a hand and the bidding and asks whats going on and what to do. Based on your choice (or the right choice as selected by the author) you are again asked what to do, and so on, till the hand is made/set.

 

The hands are interesting, but nothing especially fancy like the authors other excellent book Right Through the Pack. Well, maybe a few unusual hands. :P

 

What I liked was how the author presented the reader with seemingly obvious choices that lead to defeat. The reader needs to look ahead at the consequence of a distribution or card holding. I don't know how instructional all the hands are (certainly not as good as Reese's "The Most Puzzling Situations in Bridge") but the book was fun to go through. Overall a good book for Advanced and Intermediate level players.

 

(I'd have posted some hands, but I returned it to the library)

[mike777]

365 Winning Bridge Tips. Danny Kleinman. 2005. $21.95. 288p.

Grade=C+

Intermediate Level

 

I love Danny Kleinman's short articles and he is a brilliant theoretician. I have found his full length books to be wordy and a jumble of ideas that needed a stronger editor at the helm. This book is written in a similiar vein.

 

This is not really a tips book as much as a series of very short play/bidding problems with a few tips thrown in as footnotes.

[Flame]

Improve your opening leads by Hugh Kelsey and John Matheson

short 7 chapters book each on adifferent subject like leads against slams partscores..., each page you get your hand and the bidding should tell whats the bbest lead, then comes a full page of analysis, the grades for each lead and the full hand.

This book has been a riddle to me for a long time, i began reading it about every 5 years since my early bridge days. I didnt know how to relate to it, every time i read it I could accept few more hands problem. Others I still didnt agree with the book till the next time I read it.

Its a strange leading book unlike other books that teach you leads, like lawrence book this one isnt teaching youthe normal leads.

This is a book on spectacular leads, and I had hard time to accpet it, first of all i thought It use too much analysis for opening leads, and probelby this analysis is effected by the faqct that the authors already seen the full hand, they like picturing the hands that they already saw, second I didnt like the spectacular leads because partner will never understand what Im doing for example when im leading K from Kxxx.

Today I can say its a good book but its a very dangerous one, I think experts can benefit the most of it, non expert must read it carfully, I dont let my partners read it, I dont like my partners wasting 2 minutes on a stupid opening lead and later giving me full analysis of why it should have worked, usually its will not work because either they miss somethign in the analysis, or the bidders werent as smart as them, or I thier partner didnt read the lead, and aside from this i dont like wasting too much time on leads, bridge is a short game and leads shoudnt take long, also it raize some ethical problems.

I'll give you a normal example so you'll see what im talking about

you west holds

[hv=d=e&v=n&s=sq10652h1093d6cq854]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

E S W N

1♠ 2♦ 2♠ 5♦

What do you lead ?

I will not copy the full analysis (unless you ask really nice)

i'll just give you the grades hidden:

 

 

Spade Queen- 10

Heart ten - 5

Low club - 5

Low spade - 2

 

[ArcLight]

>Improve your opening leads by Hugh Kelsey and John Matheson

 

 

I liked this book when I read it. I plan on rereading it again.

What I liked was it made you think about the bidding and what the players had rather than some general rule "(Dont) Lead trump when ..."

 

In the example you gave you know pard has 5 spades so its possible you will get no Spade tricks at all. If declarere has the Spade K doubleton or terbleton it will make, but even if not, spades can be ruffed. I can see leading the Spade Q in case Dummy has the K.

 

I was thinking a low Club because with the opponents bidding to such a high level they may be void and we have to get something going.

 

My first thought was Spade Q, then I selected low club. 5 out of 10, oh well.

 

I plan on rereading Mike Lawrences book "Opening Leads" as well. It too focused heavily on what the auction was telling us about the hands.

[Flame]

Well if the Q of spade is your first thought at the table then i think you got affected and need to check up.

As i know you arent an expert this kind of leads will not benefit you.

I dont say this isnt a good book, not at all, its a good book,but its also a dangerous one to any non expert (i dont mean BBO experts i mean real experts).

non experts if read it must do it carfully, because this isnt the real world its an extreme.

[Al_U_Card]

Interesting, I am far from being an expert but when I support partner's suit he is entitled to see my highest card on lead. This is especially important since they stopped in 5D so there is no void out there.

[Flame]

Guys no need to convince me that a good analysis will lead to leading the Q of Spade, i know it, i think the analysis is great, and maybe this specific example is one that you and your partner can both digest, but in general most non experts partnership wont. This could mean partner will not understand the lead and will do the wrong thing, could be that partner will be distracted because of this strange lead, which will make him non focus and mistake on different partner of that board, or more likely it wont happend on this deal , it could happend on many ways, for example next time you will lead a Q partner wont feel confident you have the J, but most likely it will happend when you will overthink leads and will make "smart" leads but forget to take something into account.

You can think what you like, i can only give you my advice based on many many years of playing this game.

[ArcLight]

In general Hugh Kelsey books are Not for beginners or even low intermediates.

 

I don't think leading the Spade Q is so strange, even though I ultimately chose another lead (for a lower score)

 

Pard opened 1 Spade, implying he has as least 5 Spades, and at least 12HCP.

You have 5 Spades and 4 HCP. Therefore the opponents have at most 24 HCP, which is a bit short of the 29 usually required for 11 tricks. Thus one of the opponents must have extra distribution.

 

If declarer has Kx and dummy x in Spades, leading to pards ace gives them a discard. If dummy has the Kx and declarer x, leading to pards A may result in a discard on the K. Leading the Q can't cost, and may help, in case dummy has Kx.

 

The reason I rejected the Spade lead is I assumed it would be ruffed.

 

 

In general, the Mike Lawrence books force the reader to picture the unseen hands.

It may take a while to make the opening lead as the player processes the data.

[ArcLight]

Judgment at Bridge by Mike Lawrence 1976

 

Its 30 years old, but still a very good Intermediate level (and below) book on some common bidding mistakes and other types of mistakes. Most of the book focuses on Bidding. Underbidding, Overbidding, Preference bids, dynamic hand evaluation, and Takeout Doubles, with lots of examples. There are also sections on Signaling (and its misuse), and maybe a few other subjects.

 

There is nothing earthshattering in the book. With all the examples it does a good job helping the reader clear up some mistakes and misconceptions they may have had.

 

There are a number of highlighted guidelines such as

"When the Bidding has reasonably described your hand, and partner then makes a decision, trust him. You must have a strong reason to override him"

 

You hold:

S: K 10 9 8 7

H: Q 9 7 4 2

D: 4 2

C: 3

 

Pard opens 1D, you bid 1S

Pard bids 2C, Your bid?

 

 

You have a misfit, bid 2D.

 

 

 

( I dont have the exact hand or bidding sequence in front of me)

There is another hand where you hold something like:

S: Q 9 5

H: x x

D: T 9 8 x

C: J T 8 7

 

Pard opens:

1S - p - p - 2D

X - p - p - 2H

2NT - p - ?

 

What do you do?

The idea is that pard bid on despite your showing no support at all, he must have a huge hand. Your few scattered points are in his suits. Bid 3NT and expect it to make.

[ArcLight]

Card Play Made Easy (volumes 1-4) by Ron Klinger, Andrew Kambites

 

1: Safety Plays & End Plays

2: Suit Combinations

3: Trump Management

4: Timing and Communications

 

 

I very much like this set. Each book presents a concept in a short chapter with perhaps 4-6 example hands. Then there is a quiz of 8 very good, well chosen problems. Not only do you have to figure out the problem, you need to use correct technique. Its like a book version of Bridge Master. At the end of each book is a review test of between 24 and 60 problems. While these books are only 96 pages each, they should take you 6-9 hours to complete.

[Explanations & ~50 example hands & ~64 chapter questions & ~40-60 Final test questions]

 

I would not use them as my first source to learn a subject (instead I'd use a book like Victor Mollos Card Play Technique, and Terence Reeses books). But once you have a general knowledge of a technique (Card Combinations for example) these books are a very nice test and further teaching tool. You will learn and be tested on the concept as well as proper technique.

 

 

They are Intermediate level, though I'm sure many who consider themselves advanced would not get more than half the problems right. I especially like the Suit Combination and Trump Management books.

 

Well worth getting, I will make a point of rereading these every couple of year to improve and maintain my technique.

 

 

Note: Vol #1 is out of print and it sells for $70 - $250 (Im not kidding!!!) You need to keep your eyes open and wait for one to come up at a reasonable price (I got it for $11.50 including shipping)

[CarlRitner]

Card Play Made Easy is still available directly through Ron Klinger's website at AU$21.95 or about US$16.50 and he'll be happy to sign it for you. Please don't be taken in by the internet book scalpers on ABE and other book sites.

 

I have sold two of these used in the last year at $5.75 each.

 

Cheers,

Carl Ritner

 

ACBL Used Bridge Books and Magazines

[mike777]

Clues From the Bidding at Bridge. 2nd edition, Julian Pottage. 2005. 16.95$. 152 pp.

Grade=A-

Intermediate/Advanced

 

A terrific book. One or two page play problems. Most of the book is focused on counting and visualizing the hands. When it sticks to this theme I give the book an A+. In the second half Mr. Pottage starts to discuss advanced/expert levels of declarer play technique on some hands.

 

For the intermediate or advancing player I strongly recommend this book. This is my favorite Pottage book.

[Finch]

I haven't read every post in this thread, so apologies if this is a repeat.

I like reading the world championship books. They are very good value per hand.

 

My particular favourite is the write up by Erik Kokish of the 1995(?) USA-Canada final, because he describes his thought processes on many of the deals as well as giving more info on what went on at the other table. A fascinating insight into real expert thinking.

 

I wish other top players could spend more time explaining why they did particular things at the table, but sadly bridge journalism doesn't really pay.

[ArcLight]

Could someone describe the World Championship books in detail?

Is it a card by card description of the play, and the probably thought process behind the play and bidding? Sort of like Reese's "Play These Hands With Me"?

 

 

>Clues From the Bidding at Bridge. 2nd edition, Julian Pottage

>A terrific book. One or two page play problems. Most of the book is focused on counting and visualizing the hands. When it sticks to this theme I give the book an A+. In the second half Mr. Pottage starts to discuss advanced/expert levels of declarer play technique on some hands.

 

Maybe I should give it another chance. I read about a third of it and didn't like it.

Maybe "Clues From the Bidding" is an Advanced book, not an Intermediate book?

I thought some of the clues were a bit flimsy. I wonder if the emphasis was on "creating clever hands" rather than teaching realistic and practical deductive reasoning.

The declarer play in Pottages book was certainly advanced, not intermediate.

 

I much prefer other similar books on deductive reasoning/visualization by:

Mike Lawrence

Eric Jannersten (Card Reading)

Andrew Kambites (Card Placing for You)

Al Dormer (Dormer on Deduction)

Hugh Kelsey (Logical Bridge Play)

 

Marshall Miles has a couple of books that I havent read (All 52 Cards, and Inferences at Bridge).

[luke warm]

Clues From the Bidding at Bridge. 2nd edition, Julian Pottage. 2005. 16.95$. 152 pp.

Grade=A-

Intermediate/Advanced

 

A terrific book. One or two page play problems. Most of the book is focused on counting and visualizing the hands. When it sticks to this theme I give the book an A+. In the second half Mr. Pottage starts to discuss advanced/expert levels of declarer play technique on some hands.

 

For the intermediate or advancing player I strongly recommend this book. This is my favorite Pottage book.

bought it, agree, thanks B)