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Outsmart the Bridge Experts |
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$14.95 |
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Introduction
Do
you suffer from an inferiority complex? Do you walk into your local bridge club
or tournament terrified of the big names, those who have played at county and
international level and are all but worshipped by we lesser mortals? You do?
Well, you should not! There is nothing to be scared of.
I tumbled to this many decades ago, when I first appeared on the duplicate
scene playing at the Grand Slam Bridge club in the Queensway-Lancaster Gate
area of West London. Many recognised ᴯp-class⠮ames regularly turned up for
the Tuesday evening duplicate. True, they tended to make fewer and less serious
mistakes than the remainder and usually finished higher up the rankings as a
result. However, they were far from perfect and their errors, some beyond
belief, abounded.
As time progressed towards the present, I regularly read books and articles by
so-called perts⠡nd I started a collection of misanalyses and missing the
point of the hand altogether ― by one pert⠩n particular. His/her
numbers accumulated at such a rate that I lost patience. It was time somebody
spoke up and impressed upon these ⧯ds⠴hat they were not quite so marvellous
as they are thought to be. That was the initiation of my notorious unders⍊series. Spot the Bridge WriterⳠBlunder was followed by Beat the
Experts at Bridge and You Never Stop Learning at Bridge. This book
is the fourth in the series and despite the appearance of the Deep Finesse
program and other computerised analytical aids, the cascade continues and I
have easily enough material for a fifth already! One point which never fails to
fascinate me is the number of hands which are considered ᤥclarer⠰roblems
but are far more interesting from the defenders⠰oint of view, and vice-versa.
At the risk of boring readers who have suffered one or more doses of me before
and are obviously gluttons for punishment, I need to repeat a few basics.
Obviously, I extend a special welcome to those who are joining me for the first
time.
You, the reader, will be presented with a problem in declarer play or defence
with just two hands on view, your own and dummyⳮ The format will make South
declarer at all times so that the exposed hand at the top will be NorthⳠdummy.
You will then be told the bidding (with any explanation of conventional bids),
the opening lead and early play up to a certain point. Any conventions in
defence which are relevant will also be clarified. Now you will be asked for
your continuation.
Other relevant information will be given on preliminary analysis under ᆩrst
Thoughts⮠On the next page, the full deal will be displayed and I shall detail
what actually happened and how proceedings were reported. I shall then point
out where there was more to be discussed than may have been appreciated.
Hopefully, therefore, you will benefit in two ways, being shown:
1.࠼/span>How to tackle the problem and
2.
What analysis is required
However, in one important respect, I differ from other authors. Almost invariably
in bridge-problem books, the reader is taken up to the critical moment. I shall
do that most of the time but, on occasions, will stop well short of it or go
well past it. That way, I shall try to get as close to reality as possible. At
the table in the heat of battle, nobody is there to nudge you and say:࠼/span>This is your big moment; you will be
expected to do something unusual䠦#8213; far too easy and unrealistic.
The important thing is that you enjoy the problems and benefit by making mistakes away from the table when it costs nothing rather than during actual play when it costs a lot! Good luck!