Bridge books reviewed - 19

"Guide to Better Card Play" by Ron Klinger covers both declarer play and defense phases equally, with tutorials, summaries, reviews, quizzes, example deals and an appendix that enables your foursome to set up the practice deals yourself. The Bridge World magazine wrote that this book is an elementary-intermediate textbook on declarer play and defense. Appropriately, the two phases of the book receive equal attention. The book can be used either as a self-teacher or as the basis of a series of lessons. In addition to the tutorial material, which is comprehensive, careful and instructive, the work is filled with summaries, reviews, quizzes and example deals; there is even an appendix that allows your bridge foursome to set up the practice deals yourself.

This is how Danny Roth introduces his book "Focus on Bidding": -
This is not a book about systems, nor is it a book about conventions (although I confess I shall attempt to persuade you to adopt one or two in the course of it). This is a book about bidding and the places in the auction that we (and I use the word advisedly) go wrong. I don't care whether you prefer to play a weak or a strong notrump, or eight-card majors, or the Purple Spotted Forcing Club. But I do care about how you decide when to bypass a major to bid one notrump, or what constitutes a decent opening bid, and why, and what sequences you regard as forcing. You see what I mean about 'bidding' as opposed to 'system'?

For most bridge players, defence is the hardest part of the game. In this book "Focus on Defence", acclaimed British author Danny Roth takes his readers through the most common causes of errors on defence: taking tricks too early, not cashing out when necessary, not using all the information available from the bidding and play, not making the most of the defensive trump holdings, careless discarding, and many more. He explains how to recognize the dangers, and how to handle each of them correctly. The situations he describes are encountered every day; careful study of the examples in this book will make the reader a better card player, and improved scores will certainly follow.

For most intermediate bridge players, declarer play is both fascinating and challenging, but too often they are left after a hand is over with the sinking feeling that they could have done better. In his book "Focus on Declarer Play", Danny Roth takes his readers through the most common causes of errors on play: mishandling communications, making errors involving trumps, failing to take advantage of all possible chances, and many more. He explains how to recognize the danger signals, and how to avoid the pitfalls. The situations he describes are encountered every day; careful study of the examples in this book will make the reader a better card player, and improved scores will certainly follow.

"Better Bridge With a Better Memory: How Mnemonics Will Improve Your Game" by Ron Klinger 'goes beyond ...wide-ranging advice ...and investigates one specific technique in detail. The method demonstrated is mnemonics, and the author shows how that approach, already widely in use in naming agreements and providing clues to their details, can be applied to every phase of the game. As is often the case in Klinger productions, many examples used to demonstrate the case at hand have unrelated interesting points, and the discussions thus provide a welcome variety of topics.' - The Bridge World magazine.

"Bridge Play Unravelled" by Freddie North focuses on one of the main difficulties encountered by the aspiring bridge player: how to diagnose declarer play problems. The reader is guided through various patterns of recognition, building up the ability to recognize common themes in declarer-play situations. As a next step, the author explains the techniques that are appropriate to solving this particular type of problem; the reader's new skills are then tested by a series of play quizzes. For each of them, the correct solution is given as are several tips on the applicable do's and don'ts.

"The Bridge Player's Bible: Illustrated Strategies for Staying Ahead of the Game" by Julian Pottage. Bridge is one of the worlds most widely played card games and requires skill, concentration, and practice on the part of its players. This visual guide will help beginners master the rules and principles while also explaining strategies that both beginners and experienced players need to command for successful play. The author presents more than 300 clearly illustrated examples of bid structures, then instructs on how to rank, decode, and defend, from opening bids to endgame strategy. Separate chapters focus on opening bids, responses, rebids, slam bidding, opening leads, general play techniques, both no-trump and suit contracts, defensive leads and returns, and many other topics that are central to a well-played game. The book also features a glossary, an index, and more than 300 colour illustrations. I believe that this book is the same as the book titled "Bridge Players Companion". - (buy from Amazon.co.uk).