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Countdown
to Winning Bridge
by Tim
Bourke & Marc Smith
Master Point Press, Paperback, £10.99 available from
Bridge
Magazine
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This book, as the title suggests,
is all about the art of counting a hand. It is by two authors physically
separated by almost half of our planet, but obviously not by very
much distance where their thinking is concerned!
Tim Bourke is an Australian
who has already appeared in print in this country with Tournament
Acol co-written with David Bird, and Marc Smith is English,
living in Southampton, and his earlier Enterprising Tales (a Star
Trek bridge parody) is well worth a read even if you do not consider
yourself a 'Trekkie'.
Despite the geographical distance
between them, they have produced a superb book which will repay
some earnest study.
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This is not to say that it is a dry, difficult
read - it is a book that makes the reader think, but makes that thinking
a pleasant exercise.
As the title suggests, the book is all about working out the distribution
of declarer's hand as a defender, and the defenders' hands as declarer.
You are shown how to put together an accurate picture of the hidden hands'
shapes (and how to act on the basis of your analysis) from the clues in
the bidding and the early play, and how to go about making the necessary
shape assumptions when only one of two plans might conceivably work.
After a general introductory chapter entitled 'Why Count?', the
book is divided into section two 'Counting as Declarer' and section
three 'Counting on Defense'. In each of these sections there are
chapters covering the essential approaches to finding out what you need
to know, and how to apply what you have learned from working out a hand's
shape, and point count. In defensive situations there is a lot of constructive
comment about what types of signals should be used, and how, and when.
In much of this, the emphasis is upon helping partner to do the right
thing; he is not looking at your hand, after all.
There are many, many hands to illustrate the principles which the book
sets out, some constructed for the book (and very well constructed), and
some taken from international trials and competitions.
One of the pleasures of reviewing books on play and/or defence often comes
(sadly!) from looking for (and finding) the seemingly inevitable analytical
mistakes: well, I was denied the pleasure of that success here, as all
of the analyses seem error free!
One of the best features of the book is that the writing always seems
to address appropriately the level to which it is directed'; section one
'The Basics' is instructive without being condescending, and the later
chapters do not rush ahead assuming you '…know most of this by now…'
but continue to guide clearly as to what you should be looking for, and
how you might set about acquiring, and using, that information.
If you work solidly through this book, it is hard to imagine how your
game would not be improved.
Another winner from Master Point Press, and one of the best
books of the year so far - highly recommended.
Roy Dempster for Bridge Magazine
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