Improve Your Bidding and Play
by Derek Rimington and Ron Klinger

Master Bridge Series, £7.99, ISBN No. 0 304 36330 8

If you enjoy the stimulation of reading a book set out in problem format but find most books of this type too advanced, your prayers may have been answered. Aiming unreservedly at improving players, the authors have put together a quality selection of hands to test your bidding and declarer play skills. Rimington and Klinger complement each other admirably and, as they point out in the introduction, there are almost no squeezes or other plays that average players tend to regard as beyond them. I can confirm this, having come across no strip squeezes, trump squeezes, smother plays, or trump endplays. Whilst experts might be disappointed, the book is not really for them - they would solve most problems in a matter of seconds. However, for the target audience this is a shrewd move and will be music to many people's ears.

The writing style is clear and concise, helpful and easy to follow, making the book a real pleasure to study. Those who read every book that is going will recognise a number of the deals - then again, some of the old favourites are the best. The bidding, based on Acol, is sensible and comprehensible, modern but not beset by too many conventions. The book seems excellent value too. On each odd-numbered page you get a bidding problem or two, as well as a test of your declarer play; answers for the latter come on the left hand sides. This gives 68 problems on 144 pages.

How do you think these two hands should be bid with West dealer and North-South passing throughout?

K 10 9 8 4 3 K Q J 10 5 K 10

Q J 6 - A K 6 4 3 A Q 6 5 2

Clearly West opens 1. East, with a two-suiter and some partial spade support has the wrong hand for a jump shift, and settles for a simple 2. West rebids 2, showing minimum values and a rebiddable suit, over which East continues the description with 3. Holding a double stopper in the unbid suit, hearts, West calls 3NT next. East now decides that there is enough information to place the contract: 6.

Working out that dummy will come down with a heart shortage, North leads ace and another trump, South following. How do you propose to make twelve tricks?

You can score five trump tricks, five top cards in the minors and, after North's defence, only one heart ruff. No doubt you want to avoid the risk of the ruffing heart finesse by setting up one of the minors. If you test the suits in the right order, you can handle a 4-2 break in either one.

Since one ruff will suffice to set up the clubs (on a 4-2 break), but needing two to set up the diamonds (if they are 4-2), you should tackle the diamonds first. If they break 5-1, you still have time to test the clubs. When in practice both opponents follow to two rounds of diamonds, you are home. You ruff a diamond, ruff a heart and ruff another diamond. If you made the mistake of tackling clubs first, the 5-1 split would beat you unless diamonds divide 3-3.

Julian Pottage

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