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Bridge Flipper Cassell / Peter Crawley, £3.99, ISBN 0 304 3664 1 Somebody once asked Winston Churchill to prepare a speech and how long the preparation would take. 'How long will I have for the speech?' came the reply. 'Two hours'. 'That's fine,' Churchill said, 'it will only take me about ten minutes to prepare. I was worried you were going to say ten minutes - that would take me two hours to prepare.' With this in mind you will appreciate the enormous effort and organisational skills required to condense the entire Acol system of bidding into a flipper, or 'Fast Fact Finder', that measures 169 mm by 96 mm and weighs 24 g. Hardly cutting any corners, Klinger has achieved this by not including any example hands. Without them, it is amazing how much information one can pack in. He starts from first principles explaining how to value a hand and even defines what an 'x' means. I particularly liked the fact that he differentiates length points (used before you have found a fit) from ruffing points (only used once you have located an eight-card, or better, fit). Each page represents a chapter and the topics covered are: Opening the bidding, Two-level openings, Responding to no-trump openings, Replying to a suit opening, Open-er's rebids, Responder's rebids, Reverses and jump shifts, Pre-emptive bidding, Over-calls and Jump overcalls, Take-out doubles, Slam methods, Opening leads, Signalling and, last but not least, Defensive strategy and Scoring. If you find it hard to believe that anybody could cover all these topics in the space available, you will need to get hold of the Acol Bridge Flipper. Evidently a large number of people think you can, as the promotional material I received with the flipper indicates that earlier editions have sold 160,000 copies - making it one of the best-selling pieces of bridge literature in the modern era. Probably the best way I can illustrate the level of detail that the author has managed to include is by quoting a small section: Reverse bids by opener After this Klinger explains weak rebids by responder (with 5-8 points) and responder's strong rebids (with 9+ points). Possibly someone enthusiastic enough about the game to subscribe to a monthly magazine would want to go for the same information in a book format, for which I can recommend New Instant Guide to Bridge by Hugh Kelsey and Ron Klinger. However, if you play four-card majors and a weak no-trump, and want a highly portable document, then the Acol Bridge Flipper could be for you. It also might suit those of your bridge playing friends who are slightly less serious about the game. Julian Pottage |
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© Bridge Plus 1999-2006
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The reverse shows 16+ points and suits of unequal length, with the suit
opened being the longer suit. A reverse after a 1-level response is forcing
for one round; a reverse after a 2-level response is forcing to game.
