Tips for Better Bridge
by Bernard Magee

Batsford, £12.20 inc p&p from the Mr Bridge Mail Order Service Tel 01672 519219 (code BK100)

This latest work from Bernard Magee is very well done - largely, I am sure, because the author is such an experienced teacher. I firmly believe that books for improvers - which this one clearly is - are much better if written by people who have knowledge of the types of problems which the uninitiated struggle to come to terms with.

So what is this book all about? It consists of sixty-five tips divided between bidding, declarer-play and defence, which should be standard practice for the experienced player but less so to the newcomer. Mind you, I expect some of the advice would be treated with raised eyebrows by some of our more intrepid players as in Tip12: 'You need two top honours for a second seat pre-empt' - not six to the ten, then . . . I'm being facetious, obviously, because the advice is patently sound: it is only when you become really good that you can make up your own rules.

There are loads of tips I liked a lot as in: 'Consider what a defender might be thinking about.' When a defender starts to think in a situation which to your mind warrants no thought at all, you can be sure he has a problem, not wondering what the contract is but maybe which card to discard, how to avoid an endplay, that sort of consideration.

Another very useful tip is: 'Do not always assume a suit will break well.' On this theme, how would you play the following deal?

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

You are in 4 as South. West leads the K.

It is all too easy to think: 'I have ten tricks on top, probably,' without giving enough thought to the fact that trumps will break 4-1 a lot of the time. It doesn't matter if they do, so long as you aim to make all your six trumps by ruffing diamonds - but to do that you have to play ace and another diamond at tricks two and three, then test trumps. If they break 3-2 there is no problem, but if they don't - and you have taken the precaution of winning the second trump in dummy - then you ruff another diamond, enter dummy with a club and hopefully ruff the last diamond. In the end-game the player with a master trump will find himself ruffing his partner's winner.

This book is very good for anyone determined to improve and all the advice is very sensible, although I'm not too sure about: 'Accept defeat and victory with grace.' I haven't met a player yet who hasn't said, 'We should have won,' even after a 60-imp rout!

Dave Huggett

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