Review 157, The Bridge Philosopher, James S. Kauderr

Reviews

The Bridge Philosopher
by James S. Kauderr

SQueeZe Books, US$18, ISBN 0-304-36808-3, from www.vivisphere.com/squeeze/

Originally published in 1972, this book has stood the test of time remarkably well. It contains stories of sixty-one interesting deals played or defended by the author. The relaxed style will appeal to Bridge Plus readers and the author's eccentricities caused no more than acceptable level of irritation. (He uses 'trump' as the plural of 'trump' and insists on calling the two the 'deuce', for instance). The author usually explains the bidding well, and it tends to be fairly straightforward in any event. I liked the fact that he includes a good number of defensive deals. The analysis is also first class.

The one real difficulty I had was working out where to sit at the table during the early part of each tale. The author has arranged for South to become declarer no matter which hand he held, which is not in itself a problem. However, this, combined with the fact that the examples come in no particular order and that the bidding diagrams start with North (rather than the normal West or South), strains the reader unnecessarily.

This example comes from a tournament on the (US) East Coast some time in the mid 1970s. The author sat East:

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

West	North	East	South
			1
Pass	1	Pass	2NT (1)
Pass	3NT	End

(1) 18-19 points

Partner leads the J. You overtake with the queen and this holds.

It looks tempting to return the K to drive out the ace. The snag is that, in addition to the J, partner can hold at most one more jack. So declarer can probably hold up again and cash the ace-king-queen of spades before playing on diamonds. Then it will do you no good to hold up the A. When you get in with it you will only have minor-suit cards left and be forced to yield an entry to dummy.

Your correct return (found by the author) is a low diamond. When partner shows an odd number, you take the ace on the second round and then revert to hearts.

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

The full deal is shown above.

Julian Pottage