BBO Discussion Forums: Your Favourite Bridge Book - BBO Discussion Forums

Jump to content

  • 2 Pages +
  • 1
  • 2
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • This topic is locked

Your Favourite Bridge Book

#21 User is offline   haka9 

  • PipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 48
  • Joined: 2011-March-04

Posted 2020-November-01, 12:30

View PostFelicityR, on 2019-September-16, 05:02, said:

Only occasionally do I buy a new bridge book as there are plenty to pick up from charity shops, secondhand booksellers and eBay. However, I am really glad I found this one by accident as it is very instructive and funny, too.

Master of Bridge Psychology by Jeppe Juhl and Peter Fredin.

It deserves to be a bridge bestseller. Having read the book, I can conclude that Peter Fredin is the Scandinavian equivalent of Zia Mahmood, not only an excellent bridge player but a larger-than-life character too.


I will try to buy that book (Amazon?). I have lots of favourite books. The oldest is Elimination by Roger Trezél in Swedish, Jannersten Bridgebibliotek. I was a young and eager player working for a while in Sweden years ago. I bought many bridge books and this was one of them. This was one of my first "advanced" view of how to play. Last week I played a classic "elimination och inpetning" 4 .

Then some years later I was visiting London and of course a book shop. I opened a bridge book just to look at it. On page 13: Oscar the Owl, senior kibitzer at the Griffins: 'Curious hand. Both sides can make 4 hearts.' Peregrine the Penguin, senior kibitzer at the Unicorns: 'A technician is a man who knows exactly what to do the moment he has done something else.' Of course I bought it and many others. Victor Mollo is still my favourite bridge writer, both Menagerie and serious-minded books.

Mike Lawrence books on overcalling and balancing are also my favourite books. The last to mention is "Bid Against the Masters. The Best of Bidding Forum." by Keith McNeil & Terence Reese. Deals from Bidding Forum in Australian Bridge. It contains a lot of McNeil's (sometimes brilliant) comments to expert players' answers of bidding problems and a Sum Up from Terence Reese to every deal.
0

#22 User is online   blackshoe 

  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Advanced Members
  • Posts: 17,562
  • Joined: 2006-April-17
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Rochester, NY

Posted 2020-November-01, 23:23

View Posthaka9, on 2020-November-01, 12:30, said:

Then some years later I was visiting London and of course a book shop.

I spent the last three years of my Navy career at HMS Centurion in Gosport, across the water from Portsmouth. During that time I bought a good chunk of my current bridge library at Foyle's in London. Fun bookstore, that was. B-)
--------------------
As for tv, screw it. You aren't missing anything. -- Ken Berg
I have come to realise it is futile to expect or hope a regular club game will be run in accordance with the laws. -- Jillybean
0

#23 User is offline   spade7 

  • PipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 41
  • Joined: 2009-August-08

Posted 2021-January-15, 19:31

Right Through The Pack. There are some excellent twists in some of the stories.

From an educational perspective The Art of Declarer Play by Tim Bourke and Justin Corfield. Advanced Plus to Expert declarer technique.
0

#24 User is offline   Douglas43 

  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Full Members
  • Posts: 661
  • Joined: 2020-May-11
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Isle of Man
  • Interests:Walking, boring my wife with bridge stories

Posted 2021-October-06, 22:23

Strange as it might sound, I'd like to nominate "Golf is not a game of perfect" by Dr Bob Rotella as a worthwhile book for bridge players, because bridge is not a game of perfection either. The author is a sports psychologist.
1

#25 User is offline   Winstonm 

  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Advanced Members
  • Posts: 17,190
  • Joined: 2005-January-08
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Tulsa, Oklahoma
  • Interests:Art, music

Posted 2021-October-15, 09:37

It's impossible to review this thread and not add Master Play by Terrence Reese.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Black Lives Matter. / "I need ammunition, not a ride." Zelensky
0

#26 User is offline   P_Marlowe 

  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Advanced Members
  • Posts: 10,029
  • Joined: 2005-March-18
  • Gender:Male

Posted 2021-October-20, 09:18

Since it got mentioned in a parallel running thread

How The Experts Win at Bridge, 1997, Burt Hall and Lynn Rose-Hall.

https://www.bridgeba...09#entry1031709
With kind regards
Uwe Gebhardt (P_Marlowe)
0

#27 User is offline   mikeh 

  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Advanced Members
  • Posts: 12,835
  • Joined: 2005-June-15
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Canada
  • Interests:Bridge, golf, wine (red), cooking, reading eclectically but insatiably, travelling, making bad posts.

Posted 2021-November-13, 14:11

View Postmcphee, on 2020-October-05, 11:47, said:

All the choices mentioned are excellent books, but Adventures in Card Play is exceptional, not for newer players though.

I like the book but it is really nothing more than a curiosity. I’m sure I’ve played some hands where an overtaking squeeze or a backwash squeeze was there, but nobody saw it.

The one useful segment is about elopement…that is a very useful tool but I expect all good players know this technique from other sources.

The Rodwell Files has more and more useful, in actual play, techniques, and the best part is that it is, imo, accessible to advanced players as well as experts.

Returning to the OP, for years (when playing seriously), I’d re-read Kelsey’s books on imo play….The Needle Match, etc. The bidding was weird by modern NA standards but the books were a wonderful way to help remember how to think during the play.

I’d also re-read Love on Squeezes. I can do most basic squeezes without much effort (due to practice, practice and then some practice) but again the re-read is primarily to reset my mind heading into an important event.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
1

#28 User is offline   keylime 

  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: FD TEAM
  • Posts: 2,735
  • Joined: 2003-February-13
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Nashville, TN
  • Interests:Motorsports, cricket, disc golf, and of course - bridge. :-)

Posted 2021-November-26, 21:08

"The Art of Declarer Play" by Bourke and Courfield has been my latest joy.
"Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill. " - M. Ali
0

#29 User is offline   armantt2k 

  • PipPipPip
  • Group: Full Members
  • Posts: 58
  • Joined: 2020-January-06
  • Gender:Male

Posted 2022-July-21, 11:37

For Declarer play exercises, I recommend Take All Your Chances (Volumes 1 and 2) by Eddie Kantar.
For card play as both Declarer and on Defense, I'm currently enjoying Card Play Technique, or How to Be Lucky, by Gardener and Mollo.
0

#30 User is offline   michel444 

  • PipPipPipPip
  • Group: Full Members
  • Posts: 241
  • Joined: 2022-September-10

Posted 2022-September-17, 12:31

Simple Squeezes by Hugh Kelsey
found it in a second hand bookshop
tokk me 5 time to read to begin to understand how Squeezes work
0

#31 User is offline   bluenikki 

  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Full Members
  • Posts: 554
  • Joined: 2019-October-14

Posted 2022-October-01, 18:32

View PostFelicityR, on 2019-September-16, 05:02, said:

Only occasionally do I buy a new bridge book as there are plenty to pick up from charity shops, secondhand booksellers and eBay. However, I am really glad I found this one by accident as it is very instructive and funny, too.

Master of Bridge Psychology by Jeppe Juhl and Peter Fredin.

It deserves to be a bridge bestseller. Having read the book, I can conclude that Peter Fredin is the Scandinavian equivalent of Zia Mahmood, not only an excellent bridge player but a larger-than-life character too.

Not only do I like the idea of a biographical - Jeppe Juhl is a personal friend - analysis of Peter Fredin, I personally like the way the book is presented. Anecdotes asides, I enjoyed the format where you are given the opportunity to think like Fredin, only to realise that your own bridge psychology and play is, for me, never going to be anything like his, and then actually admire how brilliantly intelligent the man is.

I found it a great read, brimming with good humour, published in easy to read print, and it has now replaced 'Bridge in the Menagerie' by Victor Mollo as my favourite bridge book. And whilst I still like 'Menagerie' and the St Titus monastery articles of David Bird, there is a difference reading about a real bridge character as opposed to imaginary ones.

Kelsey's "Killing Defense at Bridge."
0

#32 User is offline   Douglas43 

  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Full Members
  • Posts: 661
  • Joined: 2020-May-11
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Isle of Man
  • Interests:Walking, boring my wife with bridge stories

Posted 2022-October-17, 13:58

Since i last posted, I have read Under the Table by Avon Wilsmore. Depressing (it compiles evidence that the Blue Team cheated) but an excellent read.
0

#33 User is online   Cyberyeti 

  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Advanced Members
  • Posts: 13,899
  • Joined: 2009-July-13
  • Location:England

Posted 2022-October-17, 14:54

View Postbluenikki, on 2022-October-01, 18:32, said:

Kelsey's "Killing Defense at Bridge."


The Kelsey books were my first series, I won Advanced play at bridge aged 12 for winning an adult tournament and while it may not have been the most appropriate thing at the time, given my bidding my play needed to be pretty good, so it wasn't too terrible.
0

  • 2 Pages +
  • 1
  • 2
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • This topic is locked

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users