[mike777]

I Love This Game. Sabine Auken. 2006. 207pp. 19.95$
Grade=B
General Interest, all Levels.

The book details the thrilling comback by Germany over France in the 2001 Venice Cup Final. I found the hands almost incidental as I enjoyed the general interest stories and sidebars into such issues as are women better players than men and the state of dress or undress at the top levels of bridge.

Sabine Auken is a forceful advocate for her MiniNT and aggressive preemptive bidding style. A book that players at all levels can enjoy. Ms. Auken displays a keen sense of humor with a dash of style that truly shows how she loves this game. I hope to see more of these general interest bridge books that tell us what is going on behind the scenes at bridge as well as at the table.

[ArcLight]

Partnership Defense by Kit Woolsey

The book covers the basic signals (Attitude, Count, Suit Preference), discusses lead (Rusinow, Low from Odd) and carding conventions, gives many examples, and presents the reader with problem sets.

What I found interesting was the creative use of Suit Preference signals. There are some nice examples of discard signals to help pard in a [seudo squeeze situation. The author gives some examples that might not occur to everyone. There was also an interesting section on Match Point defense. One partner KNOWS there is no set, and must "trick" pard into cashing out, so they miscard so as to fool pard.

Some of the problems were a tad obscure, but its a highly worthwhile book.
It's a bit advanced so I'd suggest first reading Eddie Kantars MODERN BRIDGE DEFENSE and ADVANCED BRIDGE DEFENSE.


There is also a version on CD which has additional material, including a section on reading hands based on leads. The CD has some interactive hands which are harder to present clearly in a book. The downside is the CD costs $40

http://www.bridgebase.com/cgi-bin/store/co...id=197249.25090

compared with around $4 for a used copy.
http://www.campusi.com/bookFind/asp/bookFi...odId=0910791686

[ArcLight]

Dormer on Deduction by Al Dormer.

This builds on the foundation Mike Lawrence built in How to Read Your Opponents Cards (HTRYOC). It goes beyond the fundamentals like counting HCP and seeing where the unseen honors are. It covers more advanced topics such as:

- empathize with pard - why did pard make such and such a play? Is it becaus ehe didn't have enough information? Can you help him out? There is an example hand against an enemy contract where you get in. You have a stiff, and the Ax of trumps. If you lead the stiff, pard may duck, thinking its a doubleton and taht you have a trump entry. What can you do to clarify the situation?
Cash the Ace of trumps, then lead the stiff. This shows pard that there is no point in not winning the ace and continueing the suit. Of course both partners must be on the same wave length! Thus both should read the book!

- look at the enemy discards. usually you want to keep parity with dummy, especially if dummy has a suit like AQJ7. If a defender discards in that suit, the chances are that its safe for them to do so, meaning they had more than 4 cards.

- just like HTRYOC there are chapters on clues form the bidding and opening lead

- clues from how a suit is played. Why is declarer not playing on Spades with KQJ96 in dummy in a 3NT contract? Because he has the ace, and needs to establish one more outside trick.

- beware of gifts - why did the opponent give you an optio? Such as allowing you to reach dummy to take an otherwise impossible to take finesse? OR not force you to ruff with Dummy when Dummy holds Ax in trumps

The negatives - some of the bidding is obsolete. He has one glaring error on one hand, where his suggested play is wrong. Some of the signals he uses are not used in the USA (which is the center of the universe, hence the book is wrong
Some of the inferences are a bit thin, and I would hesitate to draw conclusions, especially against non-experts who might not card correctly anyway.

I consider this an intermediate+ level book.
All in all , a great book, I rate it an A.

[ArcLight]

Private Sessions by August Boehm

Well presented low Intermediate level book on visualization.

Much of the book is spent on visualizing the unseen hands based on the bidding.
Conventions are mostly ignored, and Hand Evaluation is emphasized.
What are some hands pard might have for his bid? What might the opp be holding? How well do the hands mesh? Given that pard bid and I hold all the honors in 2 suits, what can pard have for his raise?
Pard passed initially, and then jump raised me, why?

There are also sections on:

-the value of a singleton honor.
-play of the hand.
-thinking at the table
-memory

Recommended for low intermediates. Beginners will also benefit as it introduces many fundamental concepts. A fun book to read.

[mike777]

Card by Card Adventures at the Bridge Table. Roy Hughes. 2006. 18.95$ 240p.
Advanced
Grade=C-

58 deals presented in the over the shoulder method. There is a bit of bidding discussion on each hand but for the most part this is a play book. Many of these hands have been published elsewhere and the deals are attributed.

While the book is advertised as advanced I found the hands to be very difficult and at an expert or higher level. I found it difficult to follow the play and often was unsure what cards had been played and which ones were left. As a result I would lose interest in the deal and move on. If you enjoy puzzle books you may enjoy this book more than I did.

As a side note:

Is Master Point Press publishers in the business of vaporware? They often advertise new books as just published but then they are not available for months?

[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.

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.

Scoring: IMP

Dealer South (YOU)
1NT - 3NT

Hamman leads ♣6

---

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:

Spoiler

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".

[newmoon]

ArcLight, on Feb 3 2005, 05:54 AM, said:

"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.


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]

andych, on Aug 2 2006, 11:59 PM, said:

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

 

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.

Scoring: IMP

---

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.