Bridge books reviewed - 3

"The Hands of Time: The Most exciting Bridge Deals Ever" by Mark Horton is a fascinating collection of 'the best of the best, the 100 Best Bridge Deals Ever Played ' taken from nearly a hundred years of bridge history. These deals will provide any bridge player with hours of fascinating reading. . Each of the deals has its own point of interest, sometimes deriving from a brilliant manoeuvre in the play or bidding, sometimes from the circumstances surrounding the deal or its consequences. Some of these deals decided a world title and at least one ended a partnership.

"Masterpieces of Declarer Play" by Julian Pottage, is a collection of classic hands. It's the perfect opportunity to develop your declarer play while enjoying the beauty of the hands themselves as the were played by the experts. Every page offers a piece of wisdom on how to play as declarer.

While it's true that Terence Reese invented the "over my shoulder" style of card play problem, Jim Kauder takes it to a new level. The problems are interesting and the answers logical and informative, but each hand has a connected story and that's where the fun starts.

In this sequel, "Return of the Bridge Philosopher" by James S. Kauder, you get more interesting hands with excellent analysis and humor; the author's comments about his partners and opponents being uncensored and unprecedented.

Life Masters, the 'royalty' of the bridge world, are not common. In 1999, Jim Kaplan set out to become one. "The Jack Who Would Be King: To Life Master and Beyond" chronicles Jim's adventures spanning five continents and features an electrifying series of hands in exotic locations with a string of colourful partners and opponents.

"Bridge: Defense at trick one" by David Weiss is a collection of 60 deals (aimed at the advanced - expert player) presented as problems for the 3rd hand player at trick one. Following a brief introduction the author presents his opening lead methods and and shows how they can assist partner even if your methods are different.

"The Monster Book of Basic Declarer Play", by Dave Huggett and Stephen Cashmore, is a must-have reference book for beginners bitten by the bridge bug. Specifically written for newcomers to the game this introduction to declarer play consists of 240 deals where very basic techniques will bging hime the contract. By working through these hands you can practice counting up tricks and losers, It gives beginners the chance to practice counting up winners and losers, planning the order in which to play the cards, and working out where extra tricks are coming from. Along the way you will learn how to focus on the main problems of playing contracts, gain confidence, and understand how to read a bridge book so that you can move on to more advanced topics.

With a light and refreshing style, "Points Smoints" somewhat different from Marty Bergen's earlier bidding books. There are plenty of excellent tips on bidding, play and hand evaluation - the Rule of 20, when NOT to play second hand low, when you do not always need eight points to bid Stayman, and many more. Any player can find something of interest.

"More Points Smoints" is obviously the sequel to Marty Bergen's highly popular "Points Schmoints". This book is written in the same light, easy - to - read style, and contains many valuable tips to make you a better duplicate bridge player. Learn when to upgrade your hand, and when to downgrade - point count is not accurate for certain shapely hand and a fit with partner is all important.

The best way to enjoy bridge, and win more often, is to learn how to think. In "Private Sessions - A Bridge Education" the 'Professor' Augie Boehm conducts a dialogue with the Student, and reveals secrets about how to improve your bridge memory, visualisation of hands, hand evaluation and much more. Any keen improver can fast track their progress by reading this book.

"Demom Defense and Demon Doubling" is again written in the style of a conversation between the Professor and a student. The student asks the questions that most bridge students would like to ask and the Professor answers them and illustrates with example hands. The underlying theme is to get the student to start thinking like an expert. So, first become a demon defender, then, as confidence builds, become a demon doubler.

Whatever your preferred system of bidding, you and your partner will inevitably decide to play a number of conventions. "Conventions Today", by Brian Senior, briefly explains the best and most popular bridge bidding conventions in every area of the auction. A useful reference summary for players of all levels.

"Expert Tuition for Tournament Bridge", by Raymond & Sally Brock, shows you how to be more self - critical, and to look at your bad results to establish whether they could have been avoided. The experts discuss possible lines of play in an enjoyable chatty style. The book contains 64 deals which are thoroughly examined. Intermediate level.

Defense is the hardest part of playing bridge. In the book "25 Ways to be a Better Defender" Barbara Seagram and David Bird explain how to make a plan as a defender: - How to make deductions from the auction and work out what declarer probably has, and which strategy available is best for the defence.Opening leads, signalling and discards are all covered.

"25 Ways to to Take More Tricks as Declarer" by Barbara Seagram and David Bird deals with declarer's play of the cards. As usual in the this series, the basic ideas on the strategies and tactics available are comprehensively covered in the early part of the book, while in later part more advanced players will find ideas and topics that challenge their own understanding of declarer play.

"25 Bridge Myths Exposed", by David Bird, is aimed at the improving player, The author teaches the reader to think about situations rather than blindly following the rules learned as a beginner. Rules simplify the game for beginners but must eventually be adapted to incorporate proper analysis.

If you're looking for a book that explains basic bridge card play clearly and simply, then "Bridge Cardplay Made Easy: A Textbook for Bridge Classes" by David Bird is it. Will the first few lessons be simple to follow and then then get you lost as the level of play shoots into the stratosphere (as with "Card Play Technique: The Art of Being Lucky" by Victor Mollo and Nico Gardener - buy from Amazon.co.uk)? No! The same level is maintained throughout the book and you will not find a single advanced play. The book is designed to be used in conjunction with organised bridge lessons. However, if you prefer to teach yourself you will have no difficulty whatsoever in following the advice and recommenrations. There are 18 lessons with a question and quiz at the end of each chapter to monitor your progress.

"Great Hands I Almost Played" looks over the shoulders of the experts as they tackle 60 challenging hands. By following the thought processes of leading players Sally and Raymond Brock, the reader will use his own analytical skills to help him feel like an expert. An entertaining way for good bridge players to improve.

"Bridge Squeezes Interpreted", by Raymomd Semp, is the result of many years work and details some eighty bridge hands on how to recognise, prepare and execute a squeeze.