Bridge books reviewed - 7

In the most readable segment of bridge literature - the collection of deals built around a cast of characters (as reviewed on review pages 4, 5, 6, & 7) - England has had a virtual monopoly for the past 60 years.

.

Bridge with aunt agatha north

.

Bridge with Aunt Agatha

.

Freddie North

.

.

.

Aunt Agatha Plays Tournament Bridge freddie north

.

Aunt Agatha Plays Tournament Bridge

.

Freddie North

.

.

This long line of humerous bridge books includes S.J. Simon's Mrs. Guggenheim, Victor Mollo's Hideous Hog and David Bird's Abbot. And now we have Freddie North's Aunt Agatha, a formidable old lady with an acid tongue and a strong will to win at the bridge table.

Bridge with Aunt Agatha	Aunt Agatha Plays Tournament Bridge

Her entertaining exploits are described in ''Bridge with Aunt Agatha'' and there are more tale of Aunt Agatha in the sequel "Aunt Agatha Plays Tournament Bridge". Here's a sample deal from the first book: -

Dealer:		♠	-
South		♥	A986542			West	North	East	South
Both vul		♦	532			-	-	-	1♥
		♣	984			pass	4♥	pass	4NT
♠	A4			♠	9876532	pass	5♣	pass	7♥
♥	73			♥	-	dbl	redbl	all pass
♦	A9876			♦	4
♣	A753			♣	QJ1062
		♠	KQJ10
		♥	KQJ10
		♦	KQJ10
		♣	K

Aunt Agatha is never speechless, but she was close to that unfamiliar condition at the end of the first deal of the book. As shown in the diagram, she held the West cards at rubber bridge, and thought she was the beneficiary of an opposing confusion.

South, a known optimist, had a very rare hand indeed: 13 honor cards without an ace. When his one-heart opening was raised to game, he charged ahead with Blackwood. North, a timid player named Mildred, attempted to slow her partner down by denying an ace. Unfortunately for her, South drew a rather implausible inference from the five-club bid.

Nobody, he decided, would bid four hearts with virtually no highcard points, so North must have all four aces. Failing to consider that nobody would contemplate a four-heart raise with four aces, he bid seven hearts.

Aunt Agatha, of course, could tell that the bidding was totally muddled. ''Even worse than usual.'' was her later comment. She doubled confidently. Mildred, sitting North, assumed that the ace of trumps she had up her sleeve had to be a good card and so she produced a shy, hesitant redouble.

Aunt Agatha was ver happy at the turn of events and now had to find a lead. She concluded, rationally in theory but wrongly in practice, that a minor-suit lead had nothing to recommend it. She considered the spade ace, which would have done her no good, and settled for a trump.

South won in his hand, and felt cheered by the thought that Aunt Agatha was well supplied with aces. He ruffed out the spade ace and returned to his hand with a trump. Dummy's diamonds were discarded on spades, and the maneuver was repeated. The diamond ace was ruffed out, and the diamonds provided discards for clubs.

In an animated post-mortem, South asked why North had not shown her ace. North meekly suggested that a grand-slam bid missing four aces was ''perhaps taking a slight chance.'' Aunt Agatha ground her teeth, and tried to explain why she had not led a minor-suit ace. East, an innocent victim, devoted himself to calculating the score: 3,190, including 100 for honors.

____________________________________________________________________

		"Why You Lose at Bridge" by S.J. Simon was voted the number one bridge book of all time in Dec 1994 ACBL survey. In this reprint of the classic book you learn how to win more consistently with the skill you already possess by following this simple advice. A wealth of common sense, philosophy, and 'how to attain the best result possible.' "Cut for Partners" is the sequel, featuring the unforgettable, fictional players - TheUnlucky Expert, Mrs Guggenheim, Mr Smug and Futile Willie. S.J. Simon invented a quartet of characters whose exploits at the bridge table are both instructive and hilarious. One was The Unlucky Expert, who frequently met disaster by assuming that the others knew what they were doing. The second was Mr. Smug, a conceited individual with little technical skill but a good deal of practical common sense. Third in the group was Futile Willie, totally lacking in judgment and brimming over with undigested theory. The fourth was Mrs. Guggenheim, a bad player who was resigned to being screamed at by the others.

On the diagramed deal from ''Cut for Partners'', Simon's last book, Mr. Smug and The Unlucky Expert were East and West, with Futile Willie and Mrs. Guggenheim North and South.

Dealer:		♠	K3
East		♥	976			West	North	East	South
N-S vul		♦	KQJ1043			-	-	pass	1♥
		♣	J2			pass	2♦	pass	2♠
♠	Q108742			♠	6	pass	3♦	pass	3♥
♥	832			♥	J	pass	4♦	dbl	4♥
♦	A			♦	98765	dbl	redbl	all pass
♣	AK9			♣	876543
		♠	AJ95			West led the ♣K
		♥	AKQ1054
		♦	2
		♣	Q10

The bidding needs explanation - a lot of explanation. The Unlucky Expert had a normal overcall of one spade but chose to lie in wait for reasons known only to himself. He had to continue to lurk when spades were then bid on his right.

Willie's bidding as North became progressively more futile. He should clearly have supported hearts at his second turn, and even more so at his third turn. He started out with a desire to make Mrs. Guggenheim the dummy, a common ambition of her partners, and eventually decided to lure the opponents into doubling. When he succeeded in this, he redoubled, hardly a sensible move with this partner.

The double of four diamonds was remarkable, even for Mr. Smug, whose simple creed is to double everything he thinks he can defeat. The truth is that he had the heart jack mixed in with his diamonds, but even at that the double had nothing to recommend it objectively.

Mrs. Guggenheim was - for once -bidding more sensibly than the others, although her final retreat to four hearts is open to question. Now she had to play four hearts redoubled, and West began by taking his two club winners. The Unlucky Expert frowned at the dummy. It was much better for heart purposes than he had expected, and he could not understand what his partner had doubled with. Six diamonds headed by the nine?

West came to the conclusion that South must have begun with five spades, six hearts and a diamond void. He decided that it would not help to play a spade, for his partner would be ruffing a loser. Instead he led the club nine, deliberately giving a ruff and discard. It seemed that this could not hurt, but to his astonishment South ruffed in the dummy and threw a diamond.

Thinking about an overtrick, South cashed the spade king and led the three. Mr. Smug refused to ruff, because the heart jack was still in with his diamonds, and the ace won.

		♠	-
		♥	7
		♦	KQJ1043
		♣	-
♠	Q87			♠	-
♥	832			♥	-
♦	A			♦	98765
♣	-			♣	87
		♠	J
		♥	AKQ1054
		♦	-
		♣

''Blast,'' said Mr. Smug suddenly. He picked a card violently out of the center and jabbed it crossly elsewhere. It was obvious, even to Mrs. Guggenheim, that he had found a trump, but she saw no cause for alarm. She ruffed a spade with the nine and was overruffed with the jack, reaching this position.
Mr. Smug led a club and Mrs. Guggenheim trumped with the ace. ''I can afford it,'' she told the goggling Futile Willie. The Unlucky Expert discarded the ace of diamonds. She couldn't. The heart eight scored the setting trick.

____________________________________________________________________

Many bridge books have been written over the years. The one judged to be the best of all time is 'Why You Lose at Bridge' by S.J. Simon. Even Charles Goren, himself, in his forward to the book says that, not only weaker players can benefit from it, so can the more experienced.

Although bridge players don't always lose, they seldom win as often as they would like or even as often as they should. "Why You Seldom Win at Bridge" by Joe Blatnick aims to put you in the winner's circle more often. Observe a good player in action for any length of time and you might not see many spectacular plays, but you'll also see very few mistakes. The better players make far fewer than we mortals. Consider tennis for a moment. The winner will almost always be the player who makes the fewest unforced errors. The same applies to bridge. Make fewer mistakes and win more often. It's the players who make the same blunders, time and time again who seldom win, and then bemoan their bad luck or blame the bridge gods. Covering those little things in the bidding, declarer play and defence that too may players mess up, is the main feature of this book.
The game of bridge has changed a great deal in recent years. This book will help you with those little things that you aren't doing well or aren't doing at all.

____________________________________________________________________

"On the Slam: A Bridge Club Mystery" by Honor Hartman features Emma Diamond as a novice bridge player, recently widowed, and the kind of person who has a very inquiring mind. And now, after a vile woman in her new neighborhood in Houston is poisoned during a bridge game, Emma has a new identity: amateur detective. This new series features bridge tips.

"The Unkindest Cut" is the second of Honor Hartman's books featuring the bridge playing amateur sleuth Emma Diamond. This time she takes a retreat with her friends to the Texas Hill Country, which happens to be hosting two battling bridge instructors. These professional contenders are infamous enemies- and only one will survive the weekend. This book again includes bridge tips.

.

Bridge in mutropolis

.

What the Hell is Trumps

.

Joe James

.

.

"What The Hell Is Trumps?" by Joe James is a lighthearted read, a humorous and very entertaining treatise of the game. This is the way bridge was meant to be played, if of course nobody is serious and everyone approaches life the same way as Joe James. This is a great addition to any bridge library, to be referred to after one of those sessions where nothing went right.

.

Trick

13

.

.

Trick 13

.

Terence Reese & Jeremy Flint

.

.

"Trick 13" by Terence Reese and Jeremy Flint is a murder story set in the future involving wild sexual escapades of jealous, ruthless international bridge players, with cheating allegations thrown in for good measure!

.

Bridge in mutropolis

.

Bridge in Muttropolis

.

Jeff Rubens

.

.

''Bridge in Muttropolis'' is a collection of reprints of fictional episodes by Jeff Rubens.

.

Bridge in wonderland

.

Bridge in Wonderland

.

Jeff Rubens

.

.

The topsy-turvy existence of Alice, in Wonderland and in the Looking Glass, often has bridge-table parallels. 30 years ago, some of them were described by Jeff Rubens in a series of articles in The Bridge World. These have recently been reprinted in this booklet.

.

Aces bridge

.

Aces Made Easy

.

W. D. H McCullough

.

.

"Aces Made Easy" by W. D. H. McCullough is a classic collection of humorous bridge stories with cartoons.

The stories and anecdotes in David Bird's "Somehow We Landed in Six NoTrumps" have one thing in common: in every case, the contract is 6NT! The first half of the book features the world's finest players at work. The second half contains humorous short stories, featuring many of David Bird's well-loved characters.



"Bridge Mix: Chocolate-Covered Contracts and Plenty of Nuts" by Paul Holtham. Think of Douglas Adams with a dash of Victor Mollo, and get ready for a wild ride! Whether you look at this as a novel, or a linked series of short stories, it represents the arrival of a brilliantly imaginative new writer of bridge fiction. Fast-paced, crazy, funny, full of great bridge deals in settings that vary from a major bridge tournament through ancient Egypt to outer space, "Bridge Mix: Chocolate-Coated Contracts and Plenty of Nuts" takes the reader on a breakneck journey that will not soon be forgotten.


	"Bridge Behind Bars" - or 'Hard Time - At The Bridge Table' by Julian Pottage is a bridge novel filled with unusual chracters and great deals - and a bridge game that gives new meaning to the term 'cutthroat'! There was a loud mettalic thud as the outside door closed behind Timothy Newman. So this is my new home then, he thought. Prison, clink, the slammer. Prison is no place for an ordinary, law-abiding, middle class guy like me. But it turned out that prison life in Great Yarborough had a silver lining for Tim - bridge. An expert player, he found that his ability earned him unlooked-for respect amongst his fellow-prisoners, many of whom passed their 'time' at the card table.

"The bridge adventures of Androcles MacThick" by Dr. Ernst Theo Theimer chronicles the adventures of an Australian expert in 247 pleasantly illustrated pages. The hero is Androcles MacThick who has wandered in so many unlikely domains that he has virtually lost his down-under habits of speech. During 35 extraordinary adventures he meets, among others, Macbeth's witches and a clergyman who never has any clubs. In the looking glass he encounters the Red King and the Red Queen. He meets a flying saucer, descends into Hell and rises to Heaven.

Search for other items at Amazon.com	Search for other items at Amazon.co.uk

Search over 800 bridge books on this site. Enter author, title or descriptive words.

		go to the Bridge shop, Bridge CD-ROM's or Conventions books or Bridge book authors or Bridge book review index or page: -
		B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 89, 98, 98, 99.

		Visit Bridge Books website for a list of bridge books categorised by content and level.