[luke warm]

oh hell, i never get to see the edited posts

[inquiry]

luke warm, on Jun 17 2005, 07:15 PM, said:

oh hell, i never get to see the edited posts

You did.. all i did was add J Silver's two post to the Book Review thread....

[JSilver]

inquiry, on Jun 17 2005, 11:42 PM, said:

luke warm, on Jun 17 2005, 07:15 PM, said:

oh hell, i never get to see the edited posts

You did.. all i did was add J Silver's two post to the Book Review thread....

I appreciate that. I was at risk of looking like an ass by appearing to presume that my book recommendations were worthy of a new topic.

[luke warm]

JSilver, on Jun 18 2005, 12:05 AM, said:

I appreciate that. I was at risk of looking like an ass by appearing to presume that my book recommendations were worthy of a new topic.

HAHAHAHAHAHA...

Quote

You did.. all i did was add J Silver's two post to the Book Review thread

ohhhhhhhhhh... thought i'd missed another flame war

[Al_U_Card]

I have all of Mr. Lawrence's books, read them all at least twice (starting 20 years ago when I took up duplicate) and recommend them all to anyone who really wants to improve their game. The only fault is the same as for all bridge books, namely, there is no subject index to allow you to easily find the reference when you need support for your position about why you bid (or played) like you did.....;-)

Another useful book is Amalya Kearse's "Bridge Conventions Complete" which helps you get to know what the heck your opps are playing, if only the rudiments.

[flytoox]

The recent discussion of standard bidding in this forum shows the need to recommend Mike Lawrence's book:

"Complete guide to contested auction".

This book, along with his complete book on overcall and many others, is a great book on contested auction.

More than half of bidding in modern bridge involves competitive auction. One case is they open and we interfere, another case is we open they interfere. The complete book on overcall deal with the first case, and the complete guide to contested auction deals with the case where we open and opponents interfere.

Most of intermeidate and advanced players can bid pretty well without interference. However, they often dont know what to do if opponents come in. Questions such as is this forcing arises again and again.

This is a cruel world, you need to fight for your food. Lawrence teaches you how to equip yourself in this book with necessary arms to pretect yourself at the bridge table.

This book includes 13 chapters. Ch1 is a general discussion of contested auction and how it might cause troulbe for you and the need of modifying 2/1 sequence.

ch2 deals with overcall at the one level. It discuss in length some general principle in contested auction. ch3 deals with overcall at the two level. After reading Ch2&3 you will know how to handle with overcall.

ch4 explains what you should do after opp's takeout double. This is a very important chapter. It tells you why sometimes it is wrong to redbl even if you hold 10+hcp when RHO doubles pd's opening bid. It also discussed Jordan Raise after pd's suit opening.

ch5 tells you how to handle when opp overcall with strong NT. ch6 discusses what to do when opp make weak jump overcall. Ch7 is about handling two suiter interference, e.g., unusual NT. ch8 is about spt dbl and rdbl. ch9 is aboout they bid after pd's resonse.

Ch10 is about the case where everybody bids. This is also a veyr important chapter. It is more about judgement, rather than convention. Nowadays everybody likes to bid. It tells you how to judge and evaluate your hand and the development of auction.

What should opener do if opps comes in but pd passes? This is the topic discussed in ch11-12.

chapter 13 discusses some unusual doubles. This helps to clarify some ambiguous auction.

Alfred Sheinwold once said about the complete book on overcalls,"if you read one bridge book per year, this should be it." I am sure he, if still alive, would make similar comments on this book.

If you havenot read it. Grab it and read it now. If you have already read it, read it again:)(I read it a few times. Smart guys on this board need read it once only)

[SandyMacG]

Question.

I used to play duplicate, many years ago, and have just returned to it. Back then we all played the Goren system. Now no one does. Why not?
Most people seem to play SAYC = Standard American Yellow Card.
First what does "Yellow Card" mean.
Second, is there a good book on this system for an intermediate player?

I'm also new to this forum. If I'm adding this question to the wrong place, please let me know.

[luke warm]

welcome, sandy.. here's a link to sayc.. hope it helps

http://www.annam.co.uk/sayc.htm

[Double !]

SandyMacG, on Jun 22 2005, 03:20 PM, said:

Most people seem to play SAYC = Standard American Yellow Card.
First what does "Yellow Card" mean.
Second, is there a good book on this system for an intermediate player?

I'm also new to this forum. If I'm adding this question to the wrong place, please let me know.

There is rarely an incorrect place to post on this forum, so welcome and post away.

SAYC actually originated around 1970-71 when the acbl came out with simplified convention cards for games where relatively few conventions were used. It was physically smaller than a regular convention card then (and now), and IT WAS YELLOW. I think I still have one somewhere around (I keep stupid things like that) - need to locate it.

[ochinko]

SandyMacG, on Jun 22 2005, 11:20 PM, said:

Question.

I used to play duplicate, many years ago, and have just returned to it. Back then we all played the Goren system. Now no one does. Why not?
Most people seem to play SAYC = Standard American Yellow Card.
First what does "Yellow Card" mean.
Second, is there a good book on this system for an intermediate player?

I'm also new to this forum. If I'm adding this question to the wrong place, please let me know.

Hi, Sandy, and welcome.

Most bridge players on the internet are from North America, I guess, almost all servers that allow online play too, so it only makes sense to have a common system that reflects what is nowadays commonly played in the USA and Canada. It is less of a problem if you play only with a regular partner, but it's still worth to know the opponents' system.

I live in Bulgaria, but have adopted SAYC not only because of online playing, but also because there is enormous amount of information about it that can be found, questions that can be asked in a forums as this one, etc.

You should see what blank stares I get at the local club most of the time when I say that I play SAYC. I stared in the same way when a senior pair explained that they play Kaplan as if it would mean anything to me

Petko

[DenisO]

Hi Sandy

In addition to the annam link (which is very good) given by Lukewarm, try a search with Google on either SAYC or Standard American Yellow Card. You'll get more than enough references

[GeeGee]

My first post.

Many of the books mentioned are out of print. I've found a really useful site for getting old books is http://www.abebooks.co.uk/

Although a UK site, it seems to have worldwide links, as I've ordered books from the USA and Canada via this site.

Geoff

[DenisO]

Another good site is Carl Ritner's ACBL booksale - I've had lots of great bargains from him over the last two years . But you need to order about 40 to 50 dollars worth if you live outside the US because of the fixed shipping cost ($11). Economics are probably different if you live in USA; site is

http://www.carlritner.com/

It's well worth a visit if you're into bridge books

[SoTired]

The "Official" ACBL Standard American Yellow Card (SAYC) system is published on the ACBL web site at ACBL Standard Yellow Card System Booklet

[ArcLight]

I've ordered many books from Carl Ritner, shipping in the US is far less than $11, even when ordering many books. He charges media mail rates which is low.

The best place to look for books is the following search engine:
http://www.campusi.c...ind/default.asp

I have used it to buy well over 100 books of all types.

------------------------------------------------------------------

A very nice book on Squeezes is
Bridge Squeezes for Everyone by David Bird.
Its clear and covers many types of squeezes with many hands. I found it far superior to Clyde Loves book (Bridge Squeezes Complete). Each chapter teaches a different type of squeeze with problems at the end.
The only "knock" I have on the book is you know exactly what type of squeeze is needed in a problem (because of the chapter headings).

I rate it an A-, and will eventually read it again.


(Eventually I want to read Kelseys 4 volume set on Squeezes and also Terence Reeses book - Squeeze Play Made Easy)

[Double !]

ArcLight, on Jul 2 2005, 10:16 AM, said:

(Eventually I want to read Kelseys 4 volume set on Squeezes and also Terence Reeses book - Squeeze Play Made Easy)

definitely recommend Reese-Jourdain: "Squeeze Play Made Easy"

darned good book

maybe not as good, though, as Ben's soon-to-be-released material?

[helene_t]

Test your Bridge Play, Vol II, by Kantar

100 excercises in declarer play. What I like is that the problems are given in more or less random order, that is, not according to theme or difficulty. That means that when solving the problems you have to keep both your eyes open, you can't make inference like "this is section 4 so it must be about partial elimination".

The problems are not awfully difficult, I think the level could be rated as low intermediate. But the themes are most varied, including deception ("Which card should you play against strong opponents? And which against weak opponents?").

It is generally assumed that overtricks are not important and that opponents lead 4th best against notrump contracts. Those assumptions should have been stated explicitly, I think, since it will often not hold true.

I would like a similar booklet about defense. Recomandations, anyone?

[P_Marlowe]

ArcLight, on Jul 2 2005, 10:16 AM, said:

Bridge Squeezes for Everyone by David Bird.
<snip>
I rate it an A-, and will eventually read it again.

Hi,

I agree, this book is really a great introduction into squezzes,
... belonging into the category "everyone" myself, after reading
the book, I was able to understand squezzes and execute my
first one on the table, it needed some help from the opponents,
but that's ok.

Looking at the book as an introduction, I would rate it A.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[ArcLight]

Kantar has puzzle books on defense such as Defend With Your Life (supposed to be very hard, at least thats what Kantar told me in an email),
A New Approach to Play and Defense, has 50 defense and 50 declarer problems. I read it and liked it.

[ArcLight]

How good is the pamphlet
The Forcing Pass in Contract Bridge by Eddie Kantar in 1983?
Where can I get a copy? (I searched Google and a book search engine for rare books and came up with nothing)