Review 122, 52 Great Bridge Tips, Julian Pottage

Reviews

52 Great Bridge Tips
by David Bird

£13.20 inc p&p from the Mr Bridge Mail Order Service Tel: 01672 519219 (CODE BK19)

This book, a new Batsford title, offers 52 pearls of wisdom, covering both bidding and play. Tips include: Seek to combine two chances, Raise responder's suit with three-card support, Signal your count when partner leads the king, When in doubt lead an unbid suit, Don't double when the opponents may run, Against a suit contract do not lead an unsupported ace. Others include: Leave the play of the 4-3 suit until last, Make a loser-on-loser play to set up an extra winner, and Don't cover an honour with an honour!

For each tip, Bird gives two or three almost invariably well-chosen examples to illustrate each point and, as you might expect, you will meet the occasional touch of humour. The tips appear to come in no particular order, which encourages you to take them one at a time. I guess that anyone other than a top expert should learn something from the book.

Two of my favourite examples appear under Tip 43: Foresee a trump promotion and counter it. With this in mind, see how you would tackle 4 as South on the following deal:

8 6 2
A Q 7 4
K 8 4
9 5 2

A 10
J 9 8 5
A 10 6 2
K Q 7 J 7
10 6 3
J 9 5 3
J 8 6 4

K Q 9 5 4 3
K 2
Q 7
A 10 3

West, who opened 1, leads the K against South's spade game.

With four losers staring you in the face (two clubs and two aces), you might start by winning the first club and playing three rounds of hearts to discard a club. Having done this successfully, it may look tempting to play a spade to the king, but watch what happens.

West captures the king with the ace, cashes a high club, and leads a fourth round of hearts. Hoping to promote a trump trick for West, East ruffs with the J and suddenly you have a second trump loser.

West has plenty of entries, so holding up the A would not help. Indeed, it would be a mistake. The way to make the contract is to play four rounds of hearts, discarding two clubs. You will lose the fourth heart, of course, but this way you avoid the trump promotion.

Julian Pottage