Counting at Bridge 2
by Mike Lawrence

Bridge Software by Bridge Base Inc, US$34.95 from www.michaelslawrence.com

Mike Lawrence has been at the top of the game now for many years, both as a teacher and player, and after working through his latest bridge software it is easy to see why. Counting at Bridge 2 is not for the faint-hearted, simply because it contains so much information on all aspects of the game, but for anyone who wishes to improve their game immeasurably and is willing to put in the time this CD is an absolute 'must'.

'Counting' used to be considered for experts only, basically because it is too much like hard work too much of the time, but Lawrence makes it seem like real fun and not so difficult after all. The software consists of one hundred play hands which are problematic either from declarer's or defenders' point of view, but before we even get that far the bidding is analysed in great detail. Before turning the electronic page, so to speak, you are asked various pertinent questions at each stage of the hand, from bidding until the last card has been played, so that at the conclusion of each deal you should have a thorough understanding of the points being made. (If you don't like the sound effects which greet your answers you can opt for mute.)

Here is a deal that most people would get wrong:

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

South opens 3 and North raises to 4 and your partner leads the 2. Declarer wins with the A over your 10, and plays a club to the jack and your ace, partner playing the 2. What now?

If you simply return a heart to put partner in to lead a diamond, you are missing the whole point of the hand because declarer must have the K. Why?

Well, declarer is known to have three hearts from partner's lead and he can't have started with A-Q-x because he would have won the first trick with the Q. Strange as it may seem, he must have both top honours in hearts and therefore cannot have the A, so you have to return a trump. From partner's length signal in clubs you can infer that declarer started with a singleton, and therefore a doubleton diamond. It's easy now, isn't it!

There are also twenty-five bidding quiz hands and I guess it is here that the British buyer would have to be just a bit careful, because the bidding does assume strong no-trump and five-card majors and some of the recommended treatments - like the forcing nature or not of bids after a reverse - might seem a little strange. On the other hand, a lot of the more useful and commonplace conventions are looked at in depth and questions are raised about them which perhaps you have not discussed with your favourite partner. However, the program focuses mainly on teaching how to make inferences from counting - points, distribution, everything - and it does that amazingly well.

The software is very user-friendly and if I could manage it, then anybody can. The system requirements are any version of Windows with at least 3MB free HD space and naturally a
CD-ROM drive.

Dave Huggett

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