Bridge: Play Your Cards Right
by Paul Mendelson

Right Way, £4.99, ISBN 0 7160 2162 5

The blurb on the back cover of the book hails this as a 'ground-breaking companion' to several other oeuvres by Financial Times writer Paul Mendelson, but I have to state at the outset that I never found that. What we do have is a pretty thorough treatise on just about every popular gambit known to declarer and how best for the defence to counter these measures - but ground breaking it ain't! Just about every book ever written on declarer play covers all that is included here, but if this is the first book you have ever bought on this subject, then I guess it will do fine.

The book is divided into six main chapters examining the key strategies for suit contracts and no-trump contracts, and then focusing in more detail on the elements that make up those strategies. So in the 'suit contract' section, for example, we examine whether or not to draw trumps, how to establish dummy's long suit, keeping entries fluid, and so on. And in the 'no-trump' section we see how to avoid the wrong hand gaining entry at an unfortunate moment, getting the timing right, making sure we have analysed the lead correctly. What about this deal:

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

You play in 3NT after an uninterrupted auction and receive the lead of the 5. Normal play in these situations with a doubleton honour in dummy is to play it, so that the remaining honour in the other hand might be made safe from attack. That of course does not apply here. Assuming the club finesse is wrong, it will be East who gains the lead anyway and then you will require diamonds to break 4-4. No: a better move would be to duck the opening lead entirely - East will play the jack - and hope that if the club finesse is wrong that diamonds break either 4-4 or 6-2.
After each section on play there is a section on defence but nothing you probably would not know already. However, the book does give some good insight on whether to make attacking or passive leads depending upon how you interpret the bidding, and suggests a sensible signalling system.

I was a little concerned about one or two errors. Mendelson gives information on the likelihood of suits breaking in a certain way but the figures he quotes are at variance - and quite significantly so - with all that I have ever believed and certainly according to the writers of The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge. That's pretty basic, surely?

However, let me repeat an initial assertion: if this is the first book you have ever bought on how best to improve your declarer play it will fit the bill, but if you are looking for something 'ground-breaking', it won't. At any rate it is certainly good value for just £4.99.

Dave Huggett

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