[ArcLight]

Focus on Declarer Play by Danny Roth.

Danny Roth is an English writer and may Americans may not be familiar with his books. His Step by Step Discarding is excellent, a very good intermediate level book on defense.

Focus on declarer play is intermediate level, and covers many common situations where declarers so wrong.
Such as:
1) Safety plays
2) trump management
3) Timing
4) Loser on Loser, Cutting opps communications, avoiding ruffs

It doesn't cover squeezes or anything exotic, just meat and potatoes hands that are frequently missed. Its a focused, concise, clear book, and I highly recommend it to players of intermediate level and below.

Given the quality of the 2 books by Danny Roth I've read, I'll certainly read more of his books. (focus on bidding, focus on defense)


P.S. A while back I wrote that I didn't care for the way Terrence Reese came across in some of his books. He seemed a bit arrogant and nasty. I recently read "Play Bridge with Reese" and found it excellent. (he does come across to me a not a nice person, but he can certainly write) I got several more of his books, and will read through them over the next year. His "The Mistakes you make at Bridge" is decent, his "Bidding a Bridge Hand" may be a bit out dated in some ways, but it still has good ideas on hand evaluation, fit for pard, tactical bidding, and judgment. An added plus is his books then to be available for very low prices (used in great shape for around $5 each with shipping included)


PPS As for Killing Defense and More Killing Defense, when I tried reading them after playing bridge for all of 5 months, they were above my head, as was Mike Lawrence's Dynamic defense. Now taht I've been playing for almost a year and a half, I'll definitely read them in the next year or so.

[Winstonm]

No doubt Reece is somewhat arrogant, and some of his views on bidding are simply arcane; however, Master Play is a classic and should be eventually read by all aspiring bridge players IMO - but like Killing Defense , it is not a read for the beginning-to-intermediate player.

WinstonM

[ArcLight]

Right Through the Pack: A Bridge Fantasy by Robert Darvas & Norman D. Hart. Published shortly after World War 2.

Well written, entertaining book, where each of the cards tells a story in which it played a key part. What I don't like is most of the hands are double dummy, so there is little to learn. But the hands are generally interesting, and each story quite entertaining. There are quite a few interesting squeeze hands, some unusual safety plays, and other assorted clever plays. The card telling the story and narrating the play of the deal also gives background about the characters.

I'd rate it an A- for Bridge entertainment. Don't expect to learn much as these hands are generally uncommon, with lots of iffy slams, and unreasonable bidding.


Available (with shipping for $5 - $9 used)
http://www.campusi.com/bookFind/asp/bookFi...odId=0910791694

[JSilver]

I'd recommend anything by Mike Lawrence. His Complete Book of Balancing, mentioned by ArcLight, is a thorough treatment of a topic that is highly practical, yet poorly covered in the literature. Lawrence has a talent for identifying and exploring these subjects. The Complete Book of Card Combinations is another example.

There may be reasons for not admiring Terrence Reese as a person, but one can certainly learn a lot from him about declarer play. My favorite is Play These Hands With Me. Reading it is like having a perch inside the mind of a master.

I've enjoyed many of Hugh Kelsey's books, but have not read Killing Defense. A good book on this topic is Frank Stewart's Winning Defense for the Advancing Bridge Player. It systematically explores and exemplifies the major themes of defense.

Kit Woolsey's Matchpoints is a great examination of the decisions peculiar to that form of the game. Among other topics, it covers the law of total tricks.

[JSilver]

Meant to add this to the book reviews topic.

Fixed... even though it means subtracting one from our new thread count. -- inquiry

This post has been edited by inquiry: 2005-June-17, 12:36

[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.

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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)