No comments about Bridge Basics: An Introduction to the Game.

No comments about Intermediate American Bidding System (Vol II).

No comments about Precision in the 90s.

1 comments about I Shot My Bridge Partner.

1. This is a great Bridge Game Mystery!!It's highly recommended!!!

No comments about Six Popular Card Games.

3 comments about Vulnerable in Hearts: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons, and Contract Bridge.

1. While Vulnerable In Hearts easily reaches an adult audience, this memoir is reviewed here for its special interest to young adults as well, telling of a father, a son, and contract bridge, which binds their worlds. Eight decades of Balfour's father's life and the same period in the history of bridge are provided in an intriguing world history of the game. Plenty of teens will find the father, son and game interrelationships intriguing.



2. You don't have to be a bridge lover to enjoy this story of a young man's experiences in pre World War II Scotland, England and South Africa. But it helps! As the author's father says "Everyone likes bridge, they just don't know it yet." I highly recommend this wonderful memoir.



3. Sandy Balfour's family memoir, with emphasis on his father, is a charming and unusual book, and an easy read at only 200 pages. Bridge was the anchor for Dad's life, which otherwise was a disappointment in several ways, compared to his potential. Dad could shine at the bridge table and let his personality come through. Lessons in bidding, playing the hand, and relating to your partner and opponents also were proxies for life.
   
   The title comes from a comment near the end: "to be alive is always and everywhere to be vulnerable in hearts," recounted as he waited for father's imminent death. The title is simply a wonderful play on words and suited for a memoir that combines the complex game of contract bridge and similarly complex life in general. To some degree, to understand bridge is to understand the father.
   
   The book opens and closes with the death of the author's father. In between is a combination of the author's memories, a recounting of his father's life, and the history of contract bridge. The connection, besides the importance of the game in his father's life, is that contract bridge was invented the same year as his father was born.
   
   Father and his brothers were shipped from Scotland to South Africa as youths in advance of World War II, presumably to avoid service. Father ended up serving anyway and returned to South Africa permanently, although never completely leaving his native Scotland.
   
   The history of bridge, blended with the story in small doses as well as more extended sections, was very well done. I will assume it is accurate. It flows briskly, with a nice mixture of overview and detail, aided by several colorful personalities, such as Culbertson, and big names, such as Goren.
   
   Knowledge of bridge is not required, although it is helpful. I have played a little, so that the re-telling of various hands and the evolution of different bidding systems was not foreign. Players will no doubt enjoy some specific hands shown and speculate on what they might have done, just as in a bridge column.
   
   My only slightly negative comment is that the book lacks for action; not a lot happens. Perhaps some more anecdotes would have been appropriate. The family wasn't quite interesting enough, as presented, to take the book to the next level.
   
   I highly recommend the book for readers looking for an unusual memoir, and especially for bridge fans of middle age and beyond who can appreciate the bonus view of contract bridge over their own lives.

2 comments about Inferences at Bridge.

1. This is not a simple book, based on just counting HCP. You will need to think deeply about the bidding and play. The author presents his own ideas on bidding and defensive signaling (which he explains even if you don't agree with). There are some interesting hands and ideas. There are also many difficult hands involving Squeezes and deep thought on card play technique.
   
   I would suggest that Intermediate players first read several other books on Deduction and save this for later.
   Its worth reading, but unless you are advanced you probably won't get much out of it.
   
   
   * Advanced = counting the hand is routine, comfortable with different types of squeezes and card play technique, generally experienced



2. This is way way deeper than Mike Lawrences "How to Read Your Opponents Cards". Don't even open the cover if you are not already an above average player.
   
   Al Dormers "Dormer on Deduction" is a Classic I'd suggest reading over this one.
   
   Frank Stewart has 2 books that cover the drawing of inferences.
   
   - Better Bridge for trhe Advancing Player
   
   - Winning Defense for the Advancing Player
   
   I liked both of them a lot more than this one.
   
   This one has some difficult inferences that its unlikely anyone below National Champion would be able to find at the table. The chapters on carding are found in other books on defense.
   
   Is this book worth reading? I guess so. I'd suggest reading other books instead, and saving this for later.

1 comments about All You Need to Know about Play (Master Bridge Series).

1. I have been playing bridge for years but had little improvement before and now I know why.

   I need a reference book that help me to tackle the common situations that come up in the play.

   This book contains 14 chapters each deals with commonly encountered situations in bridge play. Each chapter has self-explanatory sub-headings that I can reference the materials very easily. Moreover, examples are illustrated under each sub-heading that help me to grasp the principles extremely fast.

   Thanks to this book I find myself be a winner more often and enjoy the game much more than before. Its contents are really so practical that next time they can be used and every time they can be applied. It is a book that comprises the materials all I need to know about play.

1 comments about The Hands Of Time: The Most Exciting Bridge Deals ever Played!.

1. This book misses. It ends up as a rather dry recitation of events that happened to impact World Cup bridge matches. There is not enough information on bidding systems or hand analysis to make it interesting the the technical player, and there is not enough gossip to make it interesting to the merely curious. And, alas, it is not funny. Find a differnt book.

No comments about The Golden Rules for Rubber Bridge Players (Master Bridge Series).