Bridge books reviewed - 16

In "Three NoTrumps in Depth" the Professor (Augie Boehm) and Sally Fourth cover 3NT contracts. The first half of the book is about bidding judgment, whether to bid 3NT or prefer four of a major and how to ask for stoppers and half-stoppers etc. The second half tackles planning the play and inferences from the opponent's bidding and play.

"When to Bid, When to Pass" by Ron Klinger tells you how to refine your bidding judgment by seeing how the value of your hand changes depending on which suits the high-card strength are in and how the auction has gone so far. Ron starts with a few simple rules and then considers many different common types of auction.

"Control the Bidding" by Paul Mendelson demonstrates that winning at bridge demands control of the bidding. Before a card is played you must fight for the high ground or hustle your opponents beyond their safe level. Pro-active and fearless but not reckless, you must judge every last auction nuance and, terrier-like, destroy your opponents' communication and confidence whilst enhancing your own.

Ron Klinger's international reputation as one of the world's leading bridge teachers means that large numbers of players seek his advice and solutions to bridge problems. The answers given in "Ron Klinger Answers Your Bridge Queries" create a veritable treasury of bridge wisdom.

"Ron Klinger's Master Class" covers topics ranging from bidding and opening leads to better card play and slams, leading Australian bridge expert Ron Klinger describes ten of the key aspects of the game that can raise a player's performance.

In "Squeeze Play Made Easy " by Terence Reese and Patrick Jordain the authors stress that learning to execute a squeeze requires study in addition to play. They provide a clear, well-organized manual for spotting squeeze positions and mastering the most common techniques.

"Duplicate Bridge Flipper" by Ron Klinger is a reissue of an essential tool for all duplicate players, a key title in this bestselling series. This Fast Fact Finder covers the methods commonly used at dupliate bridge - the conventions you are playing and those which you will find being played against you. The Flipper is designed to fit comfortably into the pocket or handbag and so be readily available for use at the bridge table.

"The Modern Losing Trick Count" by Ron Klinger examines the Losing Trick Count (LTC) which is a simple yet accurate method of hand evaluation. It has been around since the 1930s but has only really been practiced in the UK, with the rest of the world generally preferring Milton Work's HCP. The LTC has several advantages over HCP (but it is only valid for suit contracts). It accounts naturally for the importance of having honours in the same suit rather than scattered honors; and it forces you to think about counting tricks rather than points. There are however (as with the HCP) adjustments to be made, and these are all explained in detail.

Commonsense Bidding by William S Root is one of the best books available that covers good old-fashioned Standard American bidding. Just about every common bidding situation (and a lot of uncommon ones!) that don't involve any conventions fancier than Stayman and Blackwood is in this book. It is excellent for new bridge players after they finish their first course of lessons; a solid grounding in natural bidding principles is essential to know what conventions are worth learning and when to use them.

With "Bridge is Fun" Ron Klinger has devised an entertaining way of helping players to improve their game through solving problems and at the same time having a good laugh! The book contains more than 80 problems from recent tournaments, and covers constructive and competitive bidding, opening leads, defensive and declarer play. Working through the problems is bound to improve your game.
You will also find the lighter side of bridge after each solution. Hopefully these will brighten your day if your session with your partner has not done so!

The world of tournament bridge does not stand still. Styles change, new ideas come forward and more effective methods are developed. Ron Klinger's "Guide to Better Duplicate Bridge" was first published in 1995, but even in the short time since then there have been a number of improved strategies and conventions which can help you to win more often. This new edition contains the standard methods which have proved successful in the past as well as the recent developments, how they work, when they apply and why you can expect to obtain better scores by adopting them.

No matter how good your bidding system or your partnership understandings, such advantages will vanish if you fail to make an accurate evatuation of the value of your hand. As the bidding proceeds, you constantly need to make adjustments to your initial assesment. In "How Good is Your Bridge Hand?" Andrew Kambites and Ron Klinger show you how to do just that. They provide guidelines which allow you to judge whether your hand fits well with your partner's, whether the danger of a misfit exists, whether your high cards lie well or badly in relation to the opponents', how high to bid, when to try to outbid the opponents and when to choose to defend. This stimulating book reveals the methods used by the experts to evaluate their hand and reach a precise appraisal of the partnership assets.