Book Reviews

[ArcLight]

Step by Step Premepts by Alan Mould 1997

 

Good intermediate level book on 2 and 3 level bids.

What they look like and hope to accomplish.

- Styles - solid, wild, random.

- How to respond to pards preempt.

 

Nothing earth shattering, but still a good read, I give it a B+.

 

It doesn't cover conventions like Namyats, Multi 2s, etc.

 

At somepoint I'll have to reread Preempts A-Z by Ron Anderson/Sabine Auken (it was Zenkel back then)

[mike777]

Dormer On Deduction. Albert Dormer. 1995. 15$. 143p.

Grade=A-

Level=Intermediate/Advanced

 

Reread this book after a decade. Excellent book on deduction and visualization. I highly recommend it. The problems are a bit harder than I remember. This book will help you ask the right questions of yourself in the play and on defense.

[ArcLight]

Win the Bermuda Bowl With Me by Jeff Meckstroth & Marc Smith

 

Nice selection of bidding and play decision hands taken from Meckstroths Bermuda Bowl hands. Nothing too fancy, no crazy squeeze or Level 5 Bridge master Hands.

Instead the emphasis is on:

 

1 - knowing partnership agreements (it was interesteing reading a little about his bidding ideas, I wish there was more on that - not so much his system, just on bidding philosophy)

 

2 - deductive reasoning - based on the opps bidding, lead, and card play, how do you procede

 

3 - aggressive bidding. Using the Fight the Law method (Mike Lawrences/Anders Wirgren) I was able to also come up with the same bid in many cases. Of course Mechstroth is able to play the cards well and back up his judgment. :D

 

4 - staying cool in case you suffer a disaster. You will easily lose a match (and a place on the team) if you let a terrible board cause you to lose focus

 

Overall a fun read, and recommended for intermediate+ and above.

[ArcLight]

Better Bridge for the Advancing Player by Frank Stewart

 

Excellent Intermediate Plus/Advanced book on drawing inferences and play of the hand. No Squeezes, just visualization of the hands, and thinking what can go wrong. Example: Looking ahead to problems with communications, or a bad split.

 

90 Probelms (Not So Hard, Not So Easy, For the Expert)

 

I'm quite sure that non-expert players here would get less than 70%, and wouldn't be surprised if it was closer to 50% or less. These are nice common problems.

 

Problem #71

 

 

Playing MATCH POINTs you are playing against Bobby Hamman on your Left and Justin Lall on your Right.[hv=d=s&v=n&n=st52haq96dk94cqj4&s=sakq86ht72da63ck5]133|200|Scoring: IMP

Dealer South (YOU)

1NT - 3NT

 

Hamman leads ♣6[/hv]

 

1. You win the first trick with the ♣K

2. ♠K - all follow

3. ♠Q - ♠J falls on the right (East)

4. 7♥ -> Dummies 9 and Justins J (East)

5. back comes a club, Low from Hamman (West), won by Dummies J.

6. Spade to Ace, Justin (East discards a Diamond)

 

What do you do?

Solution hidden:

 

 

Hamman (West) knows the whole hand at this point.

1. He knows you have 5 Spade tricks, 2 Diamonds (you need the Ace to make your bid), 2 Clubs. He knows you have the heart 10 because his pard played teh J and not the 10.

2. If he held the Heart King he would not duck the Club and allow you a chance to make 6, he would cash it. He's giving you a losing option.

 

You go up with the Ace and Justins King falls on your right.

 

[andych]

Would be grateful if someone write a review of Michael Rosenberg's "Bridge, Zia & me".

 

:P :lol:

[newmoon]

"Winning Declarer Play" by Dorothy Hayden (Truscott) (an oldie from 1969)

 

For Beginners I rate it A+.

For Intermediate I’ll give it a B+.

For Beginners, I rate this A+ also, but...

For Intermediates, A+++

 

It is more useful for players who have played a bit and can understand bridge logic.

 

Each student of mine (in the Intermediate class) has to own 1.

 

The new edition of "Bid Better, Play Better" has been modernised and is a must also! A+++ for intermediates also.

 

 

I was saddened to hear she passed on recently. :o

 

 

Newmoon

[mike777]

2005 World Bridge Championships. Brian Senior Editor. 336 pages.

Level=General Interest for players at all levels.

Grade=A

 

Another fine job of discussing the Championships at Estoril. A fun and interesting book for all. A must for the serious bridge book reader. Typos have been reduced but still too many to give this book an A+ rating.

 

The 37th Bermuda Bowl, 15th Venice Cup, 3rd Seniors Bowl and the 5th World Transnational Open Teams Championship are discussed in detail. Butler rankings and many hands from the round robin matches are included. In depth coverage of the semi and finals of the Venice Cup and Bermuda Bowl.

 

This is a book that will give you weeks of reading enjoyment.

[ArcLight]

Becoming a Bridge Expert by Frank Stewart.

 

At 300 pages with many hands and bidding sequences it took a while to get through it. Overall its ok, but not great, maybe a B-. The book is aimed at Intermediate/Advanced players.

 

What I found interesting was all the things one can do with Standard bidding (not 2/1 or using any conventions).

There is a section where a bidding sequence is given and you have to select teh hand that best fits the pattern. This requires some careful thought, and the emphasis is on how well you understand basics.

 

Another good section was "Is it Forcing". These are the common situations where knowing your partnership agreements are far more useful than using 6 way inverted Check Back Stayman or Inverted Majors.

 

Lots of assorted hands covering various topics in decalrere play and defense.

 

I think the section on Competitive bidding may be a bit out of date.

 

Overall, not bad. I wouldn't buy it. But it did make me think about some common bidding problems. I did find the bidding section interesting enough I bought one of the Authors book "The Biddrs Bible". It may be obsolete too for all I know, but if its anything like the first section of this book, it should be worth looking at.

[mikeh]

Would be grateful if someone write a review of Michael Rosenberg's "Bridge, Zia & me".

 

B)  :lol:

Great book... so long as you understand the idea behind the book... it is not an instructional book, but Rosenberg writes well and the book is worth reading just for the section on great hands... it has what I consider to be the most beautiful single dummy hand of all time.... I gave it to several expert friends, one of whom gave it to Mike Passell (so he told me) and it took Passell come 12 hours to solve it.... and Rosenberg's section on ethical considerations is thought-provoking as well.

 

It is in the same category as The Bridge Bum, At the Table, and so on, and is amongst my favourites of that genre... far superior, sadly, to Zia's Around the World in 80 Hands.. I had expected a better read from a player with Zia's flair.

[CarlRitner]

Great reviews here by all.

 

Just a brief reminder, many of these books, including those out of print, can be found at my used bridge book and magazines website, which is sponsored by (and benefits) the ACBL Library (not the product store).

 

My inventory varies widely, depending on what is shipped to me, so please check the lists frequently, if you are looking for good prices and/or hard to find bridge books. I sell ONLY bridge books and magazines. Thanks!

 

Cheers,

 

Carl Ritner

ACBL Library Bridge Books and Magazines

[jikl]

Has anyone reviewed "Fair Play or Foul?" by Cathy Chua yet?

 

Sean

[ArcLight]

How to Play Card Combinations by Mike Lawrence.

 

I first read it over 2 years ago, when I had been playing Bridge for all of 3 months. I thought it was ok back then. I liked it much more the second time.

 

The book focuses on how to play some common card combinations. This isn't a book about safety plays. Rather its about how to make your contract and how to play some combination so as to provide an extra trick.

 

A x x opposite J 9 x

A x opposite Q T

 

The reader is presented with the bidding and the declarers and dummies hands.

As the hand is played, you are asked questions about card placement based on the cards played, how they are played, and the bidding.

 

Excellent book for Intermediates.

I also found it amusing with some dry quips here and there about pards bidding or the opponents.

[ArcLight]

All 52 Cards by Miles Marshall

 

Acording to the book jacket it was a classic in the early 60's. Compared to todays Bridge books on Deductive reasoning I don't think its stood the test of time. It has some good tidbits here and there, but overall I don't think it anything special. It's more advanced than "How to Read Your opponents Cards" so intermediates may not get much out of it. Advanced players maye consider it average, lets say C+ (by todays standards).

Maybe 40 years ago when there were no books on the subject it would be considered very good.

 

 

 

Inferences at Bridgeby Miles Marshall

This is more advanced than most Bridge books on deduction. Not just the subjects, but the hands are complex (various squeezes). The book broadly covers a range of topics, with around 35 quiz hands. Some interesting material where the reader is given a hand and the bidding and should choose an opening lead. Also hands where you must figure out whats going on based on a few tricks and the bidding. There is a long chapter on defense where you need to visualize the unseen hands and make assumptions.

There are also Marshall Miles ideas on bidding and signaling which not everyone will agree with.

 

Overall I thought it worthwhile (I rate it a ;), but not as good as some of the better books on Deductive reasoning (ex. Dormer on Deduction). I recommend this book after you have read several others first.

[hrothgar]

"Building a Bidding System" by Roy Hughes

 

I purchased this book a couple months back and have been struggling ever since to write a useful review. Ultimately, my comments boil down to the following: I think that the book is well written and does a good job with the subject matter that it chooses to address. However, I kept finding myself wishing that the author had written a different book.

 

I'd like to start by focusing on the positives. Hughes has a clear expository style. He knows his subject well. Hughes identifies many of the key tension inherent in designing bidding methods. He illustrates his themes with cogent examples taken from top level competition. From my perspective, the easiest way to show the thought that went into Hughes book is to note how well example hands and themes from the book can be applied to a wide variety of the bidding discussions that occur on many of the online bridge forums. For example, one of the threads on the BBO forums is whether 2NT should be used as a quantitative invite over a 1NT openings. Hughes discusses this exact topic, stating:

 

"Sometimes we put too much emphasis on accuracy, at the expense of concealment. For example, basic bridge texts (Goren for my generation) advise raising 1NT to 2NT when holding not quite enough for game. Opener then goes on to game with extra values. Simple, logical – and wrong. The obvious upside to inviting is that we may bid and make game, while the obvious downside is that we may bid game and go down. But there are other disadvantages:

 

*We force opener to reveal more about his hand to the defenders

*We alert the opening leader that the contract is marginal

*We may go down in 2NT

*We alert the opponents to the possibility of a speculative double, given that

there are no reserves of strength

*We allow fourth hand to bid at the three-level

*We loose the possibility of using 2NT for something really useful

 

It is hardly as though the raise to 2NT gives opener the chance to make an informed choice between an ironclad 2NT with no play for nine tricks and an ironclad 3NT. Raising to 2NT increases your accuracy only a little. Vulnerable at IMPs, if you estimate 3NT at 30%-50%, you are better off just bidding it. Even if it turns out to be 30%, your mathematical expectation against par is a loss of about 1 IMP, a very modest investment." [Hughes, p.90]

 

In a similar fashion, during a recent thread on rec.games.bridge David Stevenson posted the following

 

"When I play a strong club, eg Precision, I play triple raises of a

major as weak, pre-emptive. No, I don't play they may have three card

support and 12 points, because opener will not know what to do with

highly distributional hands which might make a slam, and he will not

know what to do if fourth hand bids.

 

In other words, I don't play this logic that triple raises may be

stronger opposite limited openings. Furthermore, none of the group I

used to play strong clubs with did. We just did not agree with the

logic, which we would consider the logic for novice players."

 

Later in the same thread he noted

 

"What do you respond to 1H with

 

AJxx

KQxx

x

xxxx

 

playing Standard? Playing Precision? I bet if you poll your Precision

players you will get a fair number bidding 4H. Fair enough: I am not

saying they are wrong, I am saying that is not what I do: I bid 4D."

 

Turning once again to Hughes, it was very interesting to note the following

 

"A preempt can force a decision at an uncomfortable level with little or no space for partnership consultation. Here are Meckstroth and Rodwell on their way to winning to the final of the 2004 Spingold.

 

[hv=d=e&v=n&n=sa5h2dakqt982c652&w=st832hkj83djcaq98&e=skqj94haq97d43ct4&s=s76ht654d765ckj73]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

1♠ - (P) - 4♠ - (5♦)

P - (P) - X - All pass

 

Its hard to fault Demuy for the 800 penalty, since he might have lost a double game swing by passing. And yet it would have been even worse had 4♠ been destined to fail. You just have to give credit to Meckstroth and Rodwell. They exploited the limited nature of the 1♠ opening by jumping to game and forcing a unilateral decision, and then taking the practical action of doubling... At the other tableEast-West score a comfortable 450 via this auction

 

1♠ - (P) - 3N - (4♦)

4♠ - all pass"

 

In my mind, these quotes indicate both a strength and weakness of Hughes books. The themes that Hughes develops in “Building a Bidding System” are all going to be very familiar to anyone who has spent much time studying this topic. Hughes provides a nice survey, however, I suspect that most people who are interested enough in this topic to purchase the book probably don't need a survey. Furthermore, while Hughes provides good example hands to illustrate the different tensions between different approaches towards bidding he doesn't advance the discussion. Case in point: If you parse Hughes discussion about quantitative invites over 1NT openings, he doesn't prove anything. He asserts that the benefits the quantitative invite don't compensate for the costs, but he can't provide any real proof. (Please note, in my gut I agree with his argument, however, I still don't find this his assertions definitive)

 

In an ideal world, I would have liked to see Hughes dive a bit deeper into the topic... For example, I would have been very interested in seeing Hughes provide a detailed description of a specific set of methods, illustrate the design philosophy that underlies the system, and then try to quantity how well the implementation matches the design goals.

 

Personally, I'd give the book a solid A-. The high rating is primarily based on the quality of the example hands and Hughes skill in illustrating his points.

[ArcLight]

2 less known Intermediate Plus books by Frank Stewart

 

1,001 Questions from Bridge Today - a collection of bidding sequences, and play of the hand problems. Also has some "fun" problems like matching up famous pairs, or what a famous players other occupation was. Even if you use 2/1 I think this is a good book. I really liked this one.

 

The Bidders Bible - based on standard bidding. Has some nice sections on visualizing what pard has for his bid. I ddin't realzie all the neat things one could do with SA. Other parts were less interesting to me as they not widely used anymore. This one is ok overall.

 

 

Both these books will make you think more about pards hand (visualizing) during the bidding. Both these books made me realize there were parts of fundamental bidding I didn't know, causing me to search out answers in other good books such as:

 

Paul Marstons "The Language of Bidding - 5 card majors/standard edition" - nice clear book on Standard Bidding with examples and Quizzes.

 

Eddie Kantars - Treasury of Bididng Tips

 

 

Advanced players will laugh "You mean you didn't know THAT?" but this is material I was never sure about (or had never seen and never knew).

You are far better off knowing fundamentals than a few extra conventions.

(Now I have a whole bunch of new mistake to make :-)

 

 

 

 

To address Flames concern (next post below)

>Its important when reading this book to know that many of the answer's arent clear cut and other experts will have different answers.

>Also there is a the time its was writen problem, some bidding styles have changed since 1990.

 

Some of these sequnces may indeed be controversial. But most aren't. I saw similar techniques in Marstons book as well.

I don't know that bidding styles using Standard American have changed so much, but if you use 2/1 than certainly some of these sequences will not be applicable.

 

One of the nice features of these books is they have a series of questions where you are presented with 5 hands and a bidding sequnce and must pick the right hand. Then the author explains what the other hands would bid. This is nice because if you first try and imagine what the correct hand looks like, it will GREATLY help your visualization during live bidding.

 

Ex: pard makes a couple of bids, what can you tell?

- are they balanced?

- weak, intermediate, strong?

- anything weird happen, like a weak response all of a sudden elicits a strong response?

- a delayed jump, what hands can they have? Not have?

 

 

This is important. Its not system. Its picturing pards hand.

[Flame]

1,001 Questions from Bridge Today - a collection of bidding sequences, and play of the hand problems. Also has some "fun" problems like matching up famous pairs, or what a famous players other occupation was. Even if you use 2/1 I think this is a good book.

Its important when reading this book to know that many of the answer's arent clear cut and other experts will have different answers.

Also there is a the time its was writen problem, some bidding styles have changed since 1990.

[helene_t]

"Building a Bidding System" by Roy Hughes

[...]I think that the book is well written and does a good job with the subject matter that it chooses to address. However, I kept finding myself wishing that the author had written a different book.

[...] The themes that Hughes develops in “Building a Bidding System” are all going to be very familiar to anyone who has spent much time studying this topic. Hughes provides a nice survey, however, I suspect that most people who are interested enough in this topic to purchase the book probably don't need a survey.

[....] In an ideal world, I would have liked to see Hughes dive a bit deeper into the topic... For example, I would have been very interested in seeing Hughes provide a detailed description of a specific set of methods, illustrate the design philosophy that underlies the system, and then try to quantity how well the implementation matches the design goals.

This is very similar to my impression.

 

I expected a book with that title to go into depth with the issue of how to ensure the playability of a bidding system. I'm still wondering how to make a CABSD (Computer Aided Bidding System Design) tool.

[Flame]

Can anone review Washington Standard by Stever Robinson ?

If possible compare between this book and other 2/1 books.

Thanks

[ArcLight]

The Lebensohl Convention Complete by Ron Anderson

 

 

How to use it against interference over NT, Reverses, Preempts

 

Excellent. Full of great examples. This is a GREAT book!

 

 

Having all the examples and quizes really helps.

Don't rely on someones notes, buy this book if you want to use Lebensohl.

 

The best part of this book is its the ONLY material I've ever seen on handling artificial interference over an NT opener.

 

Classic Lebensohl is great over natural overcalls, but it needs to be adjusted against artificial interference (DONT, CAPPELLETTI, LANDY, BROZEL, etc.)

[bid_em_up]

The Lebensohl Convention Complete by Ron Anderson

 

 

How to use it against interference over NT, Reverses, Preempts

 

Excellent. Full of great examples. This is a GREAT book!

I thought so too.

 

And, for the information it contains, the book is reasonably priced. I think I got it for around $7 new a few years ago.

[vang]

Martens books

 

Krzysztof Martens has recently authored five interesting books (in english):

 

Extra Length transfer bids - 107 pages

The Martens system - 232 pages

Hand evaluation - Bidding decisions - 146 pages

The World of transfers - 241 pages

Dynamic declarer play - Virtual European Championships part 1 - 230 pages

 

You may find a review at http://vangonbridge.blogspot.com/2006/10/martens-books.html

[mike777]

Matchpoint Defense, Jim Priebe, 18.95$, 199pp., 2006

Level=Intermediate/Advanced

Grade=B

 

A solid book on defensive play. I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Discussions on leads, signals and playing the field. Unfortunately the last half of the book is basically a quiz book and not a lesson book. I got very little out of the last half of this book.

[Flame]

Matchpoint Defense, Jim Priebe, 18.95$, 199pp., 2006

Level=Intermediate/Advanced

Grade=B

 

A solid book on defensive play. I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Discussions on leads, signals and playing the field. Unfortunately the last half of the book is basically a quiz book and not a lesson book. I got very little out of the last half of this book.

You can read few pages of the book here

mp defence

Its great that somebody finaly wrote abook about this topic which might be the hardest field on the bridge game.

I remember reading it and thinking the analysis of the hands isnt complete, reading it again now it seems fine so i dont know my my previous problem was.

Hope more authors will write about mp defence.

[the hog]

Matchpoint Defense, Jim Priebe, 18.95$, 199pp., 2006

Level=Intermediate/Advanced

Grade=B

 

A solid book on defensive play. I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Discussions on leads, signals and playing the field.  Unfortunately the last half of the book is basically a quiz book and not a lesson book. I got very little out of the last half of this book.

You can read few pages of the book here

mp defence

Its great that somebody finaly wrote abook about this topic which might be the hardest field on the bridge game.

I remember reading it and thinking the analysis of the hands isnt complete, reading it again now it seems fine so i dont know my my previous problem was.

Hope more authors will write about mp defence.

Eh??!! Try Kelsey's "Killing Defence at Bridge". This covers MPs, Imps et al. Perhaps you know the book by the author:

Oswald Sitting, "Sitting on De Fence"

[Flame]

Matchpoint Defense, Jim Priebe, 18.95$, 199pp., 2006

Level=Intermediate/Advanced

Grade=B

 

A solid book on defensive play. I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Discussions on leads, signals and playing the field.  Unfortunately the last half of the book is basically a quiz book and not a lesson book. I got very little out of the last half of this book.

You can read few pages of the book here

mp defence

Its great that somebody finaly wrote abook about this topic which might be the hardest field on the bridge game.

I remember reading it and thinking the analysis of the hands isnt complete, reading it again now it seems fine so i dont know my my previous problem was.

Hope more authors will write about mp defence.

Eh??!! Try Kelsey's "Killing Defence at Bridge". This covers MPs, Imps et al. Perhaps you know the book by the author:

Oswald Sitting, "Sitting on De Fence"

I think mp defence deserve alot more, i also think it doesnt get it because its too hard to write about.

declarering at mp isnt as hard, you can calculate the chances and play the best chance even if this isnt the safty line to make, however at defence you cant see the cards and need to calculate the precentage based on what partner might have, this is almost impossible.