Hey POG,

I need to get a book for a class from Amazon, and if I get something else that's at least $14, I can get free shipping. I was thinking of getting a bridge book. Any suggestions?

My dad already has most of the "25" series, so the book I'm looking for would ideally be for advanced declarer and defense play.

Lawrence: How to Read Your Opponents' Cards
Kelsey: Killing Defense at Bridge
Love: Bridge Squeezes Complete (Winning Endplay Strategy)

I have the Clyde Love book, but I'll check the other ones out. How are the Kantar defense books?

Haven't read them, probably should.

all books by eddie kantar are top notch and a must read for players that want to improve.remember defense is 50% of the game.

The Lawrence book on card reading seems pretty good, but it still leaves me about four bucks short.....so I can either get that and another book, or instead get David Berkowitz's book on precision. Has anyone read that one?

the berk precision book is really good if you are trying to learn it.

When we are talking books. I'm still just getting started with this Bridge thing, but I've noticed the few tournaments I've played that we usually end up in the right or at least not worst spot with the bidding, but we lose tons of points by not playing the hand as good as we should both in defense and as declarer.

When everyone finds the 3NT contract, and we are the only ones to go +1 instead of +2 thats very costly.

Is there a really good book that deals with the fundamentals of both play as declarer and defense for a beginner/intermediate?

Root: How to Play a Bridge Hand

Defense is hard. Make sure you have good carding agreements with your partner.

Among the items mentioned in the last few posts, the Kantar defense book would be my first pick. The Lawrence card combinations book is a good suggestion for intermediate declarer play. Another good but hard-to-find intermediate declarer book is Fred Karpin's "The drawing of trumps and its postponement."

Great material in the Love squeeze book, but very tough going, especially if you are not used to the way mathematicians write.

Berkowitz Precision isn't bad if you want to learn Precision. That said there are about 100 other things more urgent to learn.

The Root declarer play book, in my experience, intimidates almost all beginners and most intermediates. I use it extensively as a source when I am teaching, but rarely run across a student who wants to read it on its own. The world needs more in-print intermediate-declarer-play books!

I'd put Kelsey's "Killing Defence", mentioned a few posts up, as the best book to learn the fundamental skill of defence: counting.

Watson- The play of the hand.

Best bridge book I ever read.

Kelsey had another great counting book, "Countdown to Better Bridge." It's as hard to find now as Killing Defence is, AND somebody else stole the title for another lesser book.

r/r IMPs with chuck. Playing Precision

A K T 7
A K 8 7 5
A K
6 5

Opponents are silent. I'm in second seat and the bidding goes:

Me Chuck
1* 1**
2*** 2NT****
4NT 5
5NT 6
6 pass

* 16+ HCP
** 8+ HCP, 5+hearts, game forcing
*** Agree on trump suit, asking for trump suit strength
**** Showing the Q (since I have AK)
4NT is RKC 1430 blackwood, and chuck shows the A. I ask for a count of kings, and he shows the K.

Does the bidding look right here? Can I improve this line?

Houstonians,

To avoid the $150/nt of staying at the Hilton for the Spring NABC, we're going to be looking to stay somewhere cheaper. How reliable is public transit, if any? Are there neighborhoods we should or shouldn't stay in? How easy will it be to grab a cab late night after zips? FWIW, my P and I are only coming for a few days -- arriving the evening of the 18th, leaving the morning of the 23rd. We're planning to play the flight C NAP and the Red Ribbons.

I don't know too much about hotels in Houston, but I know a little bit about the public transit. The buses are all right; nothing spectacular, but you are riding the buses, so you probably shouldn't expect too much.

The Metro Rail is pretty nice. It goes down to Reliant Stadium-Med Center-Rice-Zoo-Museum District-Downtown. It's a really linear path though, and it basically just cuts through the center of Houston (like inside I-610). You won't get to the Galleria using it though. Houston is fairly spaced out, but I guess it really depends on where you want to go.

Also, if anyone in POG would like to play pairs (or even teams if we get four people) during NABC, let me know!

Normally in precision, your 2H inquiry sets trump (tentatively -- the 1C bidder can mastermind later); now a 3C bid would ask pard what round control he has in the suit, and you could, among other things, avoid getting too high when you have two quick club losers. The answers are in steps, so 3D = Jxx or worse, 3H = third round (queen or doubleton), 3S second round (K or singleton), 3NT first round, 4C better than that (depends on your agreement, but AK for sure, AQ maybe/maybe not [yes, the way CC Wei originally wrote it], void maybe/maybe not [no, iirc, in CC Wei precision]). Here, he'd say 4C, and you'd then make the same inquiry in spades, allowing you to bid a safe grand when he holds a doubleton spade or the queen.

Lacking that tool, I'd do some control bidding before toting out blackwood -- i.e., if a 3-level bid is not a conventional asking bid, but rather a natural bid, I might try 3S, hoping to hear 4C (as I would in this case -- I'd follow with 4D, and then ask for aces over any signoff, hoping pard will work out the importance of the spade queen). It's even possible you could hear partner get excited about spades, suggesting Qxxx and making 7NT pretty safe.

On the actual auction you're not in enormous danger of going down if you get the wrong answer to 4NT, but you're forced to guess about the grand. Most people would say that with a ten-card trump fit including AKQ, and no first- or second-round loser in any side suit, you should be bidding a grand. It will have no play if partner holds xxx QJxxx xx AKx, but that would be pretty bad luck, and with even slightly more there may be a spade/minor squeeze.

Note that you have to do all this even if you play that the 1H positive response is limited to 13 HCP, as many do (with 2H showing any 14+, or a more sophisticated version). It's pretty easy for him to have the spade queen, making a grand a good bet, but even opposite as little as xx Qxxxx xxx AKx you are cold for 7H.

Also, if you're using 1430 it's probably time to switch to showing specific kings over 5NT.

As Siegmund says, precision should be nowhere near the top of your list.

Plenty of decent suggestions here, and there was more discussion of it much earlier in the thread, too. Watson isn't $14 (I think it's cheaper, really), but if you don't have it yet, you do want it. (This is also the answer to Melchiades's question.) The Love squeeze book is by no means beginner fare, but in my opinion it is a book you will want some day... but probably not now. However, David Bird's book on squeezes is pretty accessible, yet still very useful. It absolutely helped me improve my declarer play, and I had already been through Kelsey.

bump

r/r imps, partner deals i have:

s:
h: 4
d: AQT643
c: Q98754

lho - p - rho - 64
... - 1h - p - 2d?
3s - 4h - p - ???

leave him there i guess?

Do you play forcing NT? Here's one possible auction if you do.

I'd bid 1-forcing-NT with your hand. If he bids a minor, I will raise it (invitational). With your partner's hand, he'll bid 2C, you'll bid 3C, and he's got a nice accept with 3H (choice of games). You have no nice way to find out if P has the K of D, so 5C it is.

1H - 1N
2C - 3C
3H - 5C

If instead it goes:
1H - (P) - 1N - (3S)
4H - You can pass, and yell at him later.

1H - (P) - 1N - (3S)
P - (P) - 4N I think offers a choice of minors. It's a little drastic, but partner opened r/r in 1st seat, so he's got a decent hand at least.

Just my thoughts.

Pre-spoiler: Definitely leave him there; if the majors were reversed I might pull to 5C, but I'm concerned that my partner might take it as more forward-going than I mean it.

Post-spoiler: Bummer.

Also, I'd bid 2d in your situation. It's not ideal, of course, but what else really?

The experts I polled bid 2D and followed up with 5C over 4H.

OK you guys, I just got back from the Houston Regional, and I have this gem of a hand.

I'm sitting W. Dealer: S. R/R MPs

A

A K J 8 5 3
A Q 9 6 5 2

RHO passes. What's the plan if I'm playing 2/1?

I would open 1D. There aren't really any plusses to opening 2C; it's hardly going to get passed out in 1D, so you don't need to get the message "I has a really good hand" to partner right this instant. Mentioning the first of your suits at the three level is a very hefty price to pay and you are going to run into trouble with 2C in a number of sequences. RHO interfering with 2H was one of the milder things that could happen to you; a 3H or 4H interference is pretty ruinous, and a positive response from partner in a major may be difficult to deal with.

Edit: Not that 2H, 3H, 4H overcalls are any picnic to deal with if you've opened 1D either, but at least you can always simply bid 5C or 6C. You're still guessing as to what level is right, but unless you can get a very constructive auction starting with 1D, that will always be the case. I would generally guess to play at the 6 level.