Book Reviews

[hanp]

moved to watercooler by me.

[mike777]

It's Your Call. Marshall Miles. 2009. 19.95$ p.220.

Level=Advanced

Grade=B

 

 

 

A compilation of his bidding panel problems. The last quarter of the book Marshall discusses some of his bidding theories. Another entertaining book from him that many will enjoy. Some panelists are BBO forum members.

[eyhung]

Calf. By Krzysztof Martens

Level = Expert - World Class

 

The theme of this book is about not defending too quickly, but carefully considering the clues about the unseen hands to find the right play. All of these hands were misdefended by the author at the table "like a calf" -- can you do better?

 

I do not recommend this book for intermediate (ACBL Flt C) or advanced (ACBL Flt B ) players, because much of the material in here verges on the spectacular. Like a mystery novel, the right answer is never the "obvious" answer. You will frequently make moves contrary to human nature, such as tossing winners away under declarer's winners, discarding unnaturally to give declarer a false impression of the hand, or shifting to unusual suits/cards in anticipation of future squeezes/endplays. I think an advanced player would be better off with a more traditional defense book so that they could identify more common patterns of defense -- but if your aim is to become a world-class player, you must read this book. Many of these problems seem easy to miss at the table, unless you are playing at the top of your game. Reading the book will broaden your thinking and emphasize the important lesson not to defend "on autopilot".

 

The presentation and layout are poor: all the hands have East as dummy and West as declarer, which is a bit jarring, and it's often too easy to skim the failed defense and jump straight to the answer. But the quality of material is high -- I was exposed to some concepts I had not seen before -- and that makes the book worth reading. I consider it the modern successor to Kelsey's KILLING DEFENSE.

 

This book is part of a series of books written by K. Martens. After this one, I plan to get the others in the series. The books are quite expensive ($20-28 each) but apparently you can order them as e-books online for cheaper.

[inquiry]

Calf.  By Krzysztof Martens

Level = Expert - World Class

 

Expert Bridge Simplified by Jeff Rubens

Bridge World Books, 2009

Level : Adv+ to Expert

Topic: Cardplay and Odds

 

Eugene, someone owes you a commission, as I ordered both of these books yesterday. :)

[barmar]

I started Rubens a week or so ago, and I had to put it aside when i got about a third of the way through it, to let things sink in. It's good stuff, but quite taxing. It reminds me of Bird's book on squeezes, there's too much material to absorb in a short time.

[eyhung]

I started Rubens a week or so ago, and I had to put it aside when i got about a third of the way through it, to let things sink in. It's good stuff, but quite taxing. It reminds me of Bird's book on squeezes, there's too much material to absorb in a short time.

Heh, despite writing that review several months ago, I still haven't finished Rubens yet. I've been playing more than reading lately, and I felt the first half gave me enough to chew upon for now. I'll revisit the second half later, as the Martens e-books I ordered seem to be far more practical in treating themes that I expect to see at the table.

[babalu1997]

The Complete Book on Overcalls at Contract Bridge: A Mike Lawrence Bridge Classic

 

 

this book is easy to read

 

the sequences are presented in constructive manner and actially easy to remember and absorb

 

easier that the comple on balancing

 

 

just as good as the complete hand evaluation book

 

 

how to read your opp card i dislike, have never managed to finish the first chapter

 

this overcall book is very good tho

[ArcLight]

>.how to read your opp card i dislike, have never managed to finish the first chapter

 

Please give it another chance, or skip that chapter and go onto the next one. Its a really good book. He has a sequel "How to play card combinations" thats highly worth reading also.

[mr1303]

I saw a book on cue-bidding today in Chess & Bridge on Baker Street, written by none other than Ken Rexford.

 

Is it any good? Has anyone already reviewed it? I've had a brief look through this thread but couldn't find anything easily.

[ArcLight]

>> saw a book on cue-bidding today in Chess & Bridge on Baker Street, written by none other than Ken Rexford.

 

>>Is it any good? Has anyone already reviewed it? I've had a brief look through this thread but couldn't find anything easily.

 

It has some theoretical discussions, and for a player of Justins calibler may provide food for thought.

 

In general it will not be helpful to those below his level.

 

 

I would instead suggest the book by Klinger (Cue Bidding to Slams

) or the one by Alan Mould (Step By Step Slam Bidding)

 

 

I will sell/tarde mine :)

[helene_t]

I saw a book on cue-bidding today in Chess & Bridge on Baker Street, written by none other than Ken Rexford.

 

Is it any good? Has anyone already reviewed it? I've had a brief look through this thread but couldn't find anything easily.

If you start this thread at february 23, 2007, you will find a number of posts about that book.

 

Justin's post is http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=8640&st=306

[Rossoneri]

Was pretty tempted to buy the Jeff Rubens book, but the times when I was out, the book stall was not being manned and when I finally found it being manned, 2 people had beaten me to it!

 

One question I was wondering though: how useful would the book be to someone who has formal training in probability as compared to someone who doesn't?

[Mbodell]

Was pretty tempted to buy the Jeff Rubens book, but the times when I was out, the book stall was not being manned and when I finally found it being manned, 2 people had beaten me to it!

 

One question I was wondering though: how useful would the book be to someone who has formal training in probability as compared to someone who doesn't?

I think it would be useful to both types of people. I can only offer my experience (someone with reasonably formal training in math, probability, and statistics) that it was still quite useful to me. I quite liked it. The problems seemed quite good, and I've still got to go back and do some more of them.

 

I also should recommend the other two books that I picked up at the Reno nationals from book sellers and have quite enjoyed:

 

Bridge, Probability & Information by

Robert F. Mackinnon (published by Master Point Press).

 

This book was quite interesting and talks at great length about considering the whole hand and how the splits of one suit effects the splits of the others and how to evaluate the relative probabilities of different likely hand patterns for opponents. I thought this book was quite excellent in its readability as well as covering some very interesting topics.

 

Bridge Squeezes Complete: Winning Endplay Strategy by Clyde Love updated by Linda Lee with help from Julian Pottage (again, Master Point Press).

 

I have read the classic (borrowed from a partner) and was happy to get my own copy. I find the text in the new update easier to follow, and don't need to decipher odd ancient bidding in the problems. However, I don't like that I have to cover the opponents hands to solve the problems (the problems are presented double dummy). But still I'm happy to have this book.

[Phil]

Calf. By Krzysztof Martens

Level = Expert - World Class

 

The books are quite expensive ($20-28 each) but apparently you can order them as e-books online for cheaper.

At a recent regional these books were about 35 dollars each.

 

I'll wait for them to come down.

[cherdanno]

I bought one of the Martens' books (European Championship) as ebook. I did like the book, and was also happy to have bought it as e-book. The problems for each chapter were on a double page that I printed out. Then when I had thought about all of them I went through the solutions on the screen. So you have to print very little and still don't have to spend a lot of time on your screen when reading them.

[whereagles]

I recently acquired Emile Borel's "The Mathematical Theory of Bridge".

 

It's basically a thorough probabilistic study of several situations in bridge, starting from shape and bidding, up to opening leads and cardplay decisions.

 

The book is from 1939, but probabilities are not time-varying :)

 

I'll be posting some more comments as I read it.

[PrecisionL]

Yes, I have Borel's book also. Never finished it.

 

However, MacKinnon's new book: BRIDGE, PROBABILITY & INFORMATION is a gem for serious players!

[Hanoi5]

I have a book by Borel too on bridge probabilities but is post-war. It taught me to shuffle. (I only read the first chapter, I'm not a mathemathician...)

[Rossoneri]

I never knew Emile Borel was a bridge player!

[babalu1997]

mike lawrences the contested auction

 

it is on competitive bidding, not defensive bidding

 

encyclopedic, as always, i have identified many sequences where i was just there wondering what to do

 

i wanna be like mike

[jamegumb]

First, excellent thread. Second, I haven't seen a review for any of these:

 

St. Titus Monks Bridge Series

Miracles of Card Play (1982) - David Bird / Terrence Reese

Unholy Tricks: More Miraculous Card Play (1984) - David Bird / Terrence Reese

Doubled and Venerable: Further Miracles of Card Play (1987) - David Bird / Terrence Reese

Cardinal Sins (1991) - David Bird / Terrence Reese

Divine Intervention (1995) - David Bird / Terrence Reese

The Abbot and the Sensational Squeeze (1999) - David Bird

Saints and Sinners: The St. Titus Bridge Challenge (2000) - David Bird

The Abbot's Great Sacrifice (2003) - David Bird

Heavenly Contracts (2007) - David Bird

Celestial Cardplay (2009) - David Bird

 

All dates refer to the original publication (so far as I could determine it). The earlier ones have been reprinted. Apologies if I missed any books here, please let me know.

 

After Mollo's menagerie, the wonderful St. Titus Monks bridge series is the best collection of bridge humor in print. The blend here is fairly similar to Mollo's - entertaining stories with hands thrown in every other page or so. The hands range from intermediate to expert, but can be enjoyed by all levels.

 

The books in collaboration with Reese all deserve solid A's. IMO, the offerings have slipped a bit since then, but are still entertaining and worthy B's. It appears that Bird's attitude toward the Abbot (the main character) has changed over the years - in the original days, the Abbot seemed to win a fair bit and was someone the reader rooted for, even if he was a bit over the top at times. Since then, the Abbot has grown more curmudgeonly, loses more often (despite being an obviously good player) and only seems to serve as the butt of jokes.

 

Also, while extremely witty, the whole series is not entirely sanitized and politically correct (esp. the Reese/Bird offerings). Caustic, if dry, humor, which is undoubtedly more of a draw to readers than a deterrent.

[babalu1997]

Yes, I have Borel's book also. Never finished it.

 

However, MacKinnon's new book: BRIDGE, PROBABILITY & INFORMATION is a gem for serious players!

i just got this book too

 

not everyone can present probability in a conversational tone

 

the book also tries to demonstrate why sometimes superior technique can lead to poor results when playing against potzers, and does so by quoting zen masters, i like that

[Siegmund]

not everyone can present probability in a conversational tone

 

Noooo kidding. And IMO Bridge Probability and Information was the epic fail of all time on that front. An amazing job of taking simple ideas and explaining them partially at great length, so that they sound Byzantine.

 

The message about thinking how suits interact instead of just looking at one suit at a time is something that has been missing from all the other bridge probability books. For a certain type of mathematically inclined expert who has never thought about that question before, that idea might be worth the price of the book. But if you thought from the chapter titles that you were going to learn anything new about LoTT or LTC, or learn anything new OR old about how distributional information and high-card information interact, not there... and if you're new to probability and just hoping to learn the basics of Bayes's Theorem... abandon all hope ye who enter here.

 

One of the people I sold a copy to liked it better than I did. Shrug. At least the quotes introducing each section were cute.

[bd71]

not everyone can present probability in a conversational tone

 

Noooo kidding. And IMO Bridge Probability and Information was the epic fail of all time on that front. An amazing job of taking simple ideas and explaining them partially at great length, so that they sound Byzantine.

 

The message about thinking how suits interact instead of just looking at one suit at a time is something that has been missing from all the other bridge probability books. For a certain type of mathematically inclined expert who has never thought about that question before, that idea might be worth the price of the book. But if you thought from the chapter titles that you were going to learn anything new about LoTT or LTC, or learn anything new OR old about how distributional information and high-card information interact, not there... and if you're new to probability and just hoping to learn the basics of Bayes's Theorem... abandon all hope ye who enter here.

 

One of the people I sold a copy to liked it better than I did. Shrug. At least the quotes introducing each section were cute.

Well, glad to hear I wasn't the only one.

 

Bought this book with great anticipation, and read through about half of it. But after I found myself having to re-read (or re-re-read) certain sections, and still not feeling that I was really absorbing the points, I set it aside with a promise to myself to return to it later.

 

I'll still give it another chance, but at least now I know I'm not the only one who struggled to divine what he is saying.

[babalu1997]

not everyone can present probability in a conversational tone

 

Noooo kidding. And IMO Bridge Probability and Information was the epic fail of all time on that front. An amazing job of taking simple ideas and explaining them partially at great length, so that they sound Byzantine.

 

The message about thinking how suits interact instead of just looking at one suit at a time is something that has been missing from all the other bridge probability books. For a certain type of mathematically inclined expert who has never thought about that question before, that idea might be worth the price of the book. But if you thought from the chapter titles that you were going to learn anything new about LoTT or LTC, or learn anything new OR old about how distributional information and high-card information interact, not there... and if you're new to probability and just hoping to learn the basics of Bayes's Theorem... abandon all hope ye who enter here.

 

One of the people I sold a copy to liked it better than I did. Shrug. At least the quotes introducing each section were cute.

Well, glad to hear I wasn't the only one.

 

Bought this book with great anticipation, and read through about half of it. But after I found myself having to re-read (or re-re-read) certain sections, and still not feeling that I was really absorbing the points, I set it aside with a promise to myself to return to it later.

 

I'll still give it another chance, but at least now I know I'm not the only one who struggled to divine what he is saying.

well i like his presentation of the probability in the pascal triangle, that makes it easier to remember than raw probabilities if you know the fort ten rows of the pascal triangle.