Help
What bridge books have actually changed how you think about the game? One for me is Mike Lawrence's book on overcalls.
Page 1 of 1
Bridge books
#2
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 3,459
- Joined: 2020-March-30
- Gender:Male
- Location:Netherlands
Posted Yesterday, 10:30
I've read quite a lot of bridge books. Some of my favourites include:
I've kept it to only the ones that had a significant impact on my way of thinking about the game at the time, but there's many more great books out there. Unfortunately I've also read "The Complete Book on Overcalls" by Mike Lawrence - it's near the bottom of the list for me (below the 100+ books I did not list). I think a lot of the advice in that book did not withstand the test of time, and I would struggle a lot with a partner who took a lot of advice from that book.
- "Virtual European Championship" by Krzysztof Martens
- "Partnership bidding at bridge" by Robson & Segal
- "Good, Better, Best" by Jan Eric Larsson
- "Spingold Challenge" by Allan Falk
- "Winning Declarer Play" by Dorothy Hayden Truscott
- "How to read your opponents’ cards" by Mike Lawrence
- "Killing Defense at bridge" by Hugh Kelsey
- "Bridge squeezes complete" by Clyde E. Love
I've kept it to only the ones that had a significant impact on my way of thinking about the game at the time, but there's many more great books out there. Unfortunately I've also read "The Complete Book on Overcalls" by Mike Lawrence - it's near the bottom of the list for me (below the 100+ books I did not list). I think a lot of the advice in that book did not withstand the test of time, and I would struggle a lot with a partner who took a lot of advice from that book.
#3
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 13,714
- Joined: 2005-June-15
- Gender:Male
- Location:Canada
- Interests:Bridge, golf, wine (red), cooking, reading eclectically but insatiably, travelling, making bad posts.
Posted Yesterday, 12:05
In no particular order other than memory and trying, imprecisely, to go from the earliest to the most recent, leaving out 80%+ of 'modern' bools and 100% of the many books published before 1940:
Five Weeks to Winning Bridge: my very first book, bought the day after my first attempt at playing, at the university bookstore. I would not recommend it now, since it is very dated in terms of bidding, but it was wonderful at the time
Opening Leads by Ewen: again, not one I'd recommend since there are far better books now, but it changed the way I thought about leads
Master Play by Reece. Opened my eyes to the possibilities of the game and how to think at the table. A classic but dated
How to Read Your Opponents' Cards Lawrence. Expanded my understanding of how to draw inferences. I'd definitely recommend this today to any beginner or intermediate
To Bid or Not to Bid: Cohen's first book on the Law of Total Tricks. Its faced some criticisms and personally I think a lot of non experts have misunderstood his ideas or overlooked the subtleties that should be borne in mind but I still strongly recommend it (I added this and put it out of chronological order)
Bridge Squeezes Complete by Love. Not an easy read: I do not think Love is a very good writer but this book taught me how to intentionally execute many squeezes: my first double squeeze happened by accident and it triggered my buying the book. I used to re-read it before any tournament
Aces Scientific by Goldman. Dated, not recommended but showed me more possibilities in terms of what was then considered very scientific bidding
Five Card Majors, Western Style by Hardy. Popularized the 2/1 method, putting together elements from the then leading West Coast US experts. I have played some form of 2/1 ever since. Not recommended...Hardy was not a good writer imo and there are better, more up to date, books out there
Precision...I don't recall the exact title but it was by CC Wei who invented the Precision Club. I played it for a few years and one partner and I developed our own big club method influenced by this and others. Not recommended because its dated and there are better books out there
Power Precision by Sontag. Expanded my ideas about complex methods. Not recommended because the methods are out of date.
A series of short books by Reese and Trezel, each dealing with a particular play technique, some declarer and some defence. Published mid 70's and hard (and expensive) to find. But very very good for the intermediate player. Highly recommended
A Design For Bidding by SJ Simon. Outlines the philosophy behind Acol as it was back in the day. I wasn't at all persuaded to take up Acol but the way he discussed his thoughts as he developed a coherent system was instructive. While my bidding ideas are almost diametrically opposed to the loose structure he described, I think this book helped me immensely when, as I have often done since, I was inventing or significantly changing methods. Don't read it for the system: it is way out of date
The Tough Match (may be The Tough Game) and The Needle Match both by Kelsey. Highly recommended. Each book presents you with 64 hands, in 8 board segments, imp scoring. Both defence and declarer. Ignore the very dated bidding and the fact that everybody gives honest count. Even today I sometimes get a hand wrong! I have probably read these every 5-10 years since I bought them a long time ago. Wonderful hands.
Camouflage by Martens. Not sure where you can get it: I emailed Martens and he sent me a digital copy. Full of ideas about how to bid constructively while not telling the opps too much. Not sure if he invented 1N 2S as clubs or range ask, but that's where I first read about it and that one passage justified my getting the book, and my main partner and I have tried, in system design, to incorporate some of his concepts. But not recommended for the majority of players: it is esoteric
The Bird and Anthias books on leads v notrump and against suits. I think that the authors underestimate the double dummy issues but on the whole the books are brilliant. I used to be an aggressive leader...these books persuaded me that passive openng leads are (often) a better choice. Plus shortly after reading them my partner was on lead against 1N 3N, with xx Kx xxx xxxxxx. He led the heart King....dummy had QJ tight and I had A1098xxx! Declarer called the TD because, he claimed, nobody would find that lead and I had hesitated over 3N. Fortunately we were on video (playoffs in the national finals of the GNT) and the TD said I had paused for almost precisely 10 seconds (which is my invariable habit after a mump bid on my right). The lead was made based on the notrump book!
I second David's comments on Lawrence's book on overcalls. I read it at the time and used his style, especially 4 card overcalls with length in RHO's suit. Didn't work out very well very often. His style was always a minority view amongst experts and I definitely do not recommend it
Five Weeks to Winning Bridge: my very first book, bought the day after my first attempt at playing, at the university bookstore. I would not recommend it now, since it is very dated in terms of bidding, but it was wonderful at the time
Opening Leads by Ewen: again, not one I'd recommend since there are far better books now, but it changed the way I thought about leads
Master Play by Reece. Opened my eyes to the possibilities of the game and how to think at the table. A classic but dated
How to Read Your Opponents' Cards Lawrence. Expanded my understanding of how to draw inferences. I'd definitely recommend this today to any beginner or intermediate
To Bid or Not to Bid: Cohen's first book on the Law of Total Tricks. Its faced some criticisms and personally I think a lot of non experts have misunderstood his ideas or overlooked the subtleties that should be borne in mind but I still strongly recommend it (I added this and put it out of chronological order)
Bridge Squeezes Complete by Love. Not an easy read: I do not think Love is a very good writer but this book taught me how to intentionally execute many squeezes: my first double squeeze happened by accident and it triggered my buying the book. I used to re-read it before any tournament
Aces Scientific by Goldman. Dated, not recommended but showed me more possibilities in terms of what was then considered very scientific bidding
Five Card Majors, Western Style by Hardy. Popularized the 2/1 method, putting together elements from the then leading West Coast US experts. I have played some form of 2/1 ever since. Not recommended...Hardy was not a good writer imo and there are better, more up to date, books out there
Precision...I don't recall the exact title but it was by CC Wei who invented the Precision Club. I played it for a few years and one partner and I developed our own big club method influenced by this and others. Not recommended because its dated and there are better books out there
Power Precision by Sontag. Expanded my ideas about complex methods. Not recommended because the methods are out of date.
A series of short books by Reese and Trezel, each dealing with a particular play technique, some declarer and some defence. Published mid 70's and hard (and expensive) to find. But very very good for the intermediate player. Highly recommended
A Design For Bidding by SJ Simon. Outlines the philosophy behind Acol as it was back in the day. I wasn't at all persuaded to take up Acol but the way he discussed his thoughts as he developed a coherent system was instructive. While my bidding ideas are almost diametrically opposed to the loose structure he described, I think this book helped me immensely when, as I have often done since, I was inventing or significantly changing methods. Don't read it for the system: it is way out of date
The Tough Match (may be The Tough Game) and The Needle Match both by Kelsey. Highly recommended. Each book presents you with 64 hands, in 8 board segments, imp scoring. Both defence and declarer. Ignore the very dated bidding and the fact that everybody gives honest count. Even today I sometimes get a hand wrong! I have probably read these every 5-10 years since I bought them a long time ago. Wonderful hands.
Camouflage by Martens. Not sure where you can get it: I emailed Martens and he sent me a digital copy. Full of ideas about how to bid constructively while not telling the opps too much. Not sure if he invented 1N 2S as clubs or range ask, but that's where I first read about it and that one passage justified my getting the book, and my main partner and I have tried, in system design, to incorporate some of his concepts. But not recommended for the majority of players: it is esoteric
The Bird and Anthias books on leads v notrump and against suits. I think that the authors underestimate the double dummy issues but on the whole the books are brilliant. I used to be an aggressive leader...these books persuaded me that passive openng leads are (often) a better choice. Plus shortly after reading them my partner was on lead against 1N 3N, with xx Kx xxx xxxxxx. He led the heart King....dummy had QJ tight and I had A1098xxx! Declarer called the TD because, he claimed, nobody would find that lead and I had hesitated over 3N. Fortunately we were on video (playoffs in the national finals of the GNT) and the TD said I had paused for almost precisely 10 seconds (which is my invariable habit after a mump bid on my right). The lead was made based on the notrump book!
I second David's comments on Lawrence's book on overcalls. I read it at the time and used his style, especially 4 card overcalls with length in RHO's suit. Didn't work out very well very often. His style was always a minority view amongst experts and I definitely do not recommend it
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
#4
- Group: Admin
- Posts: 2,519
- Joined: 2003-February-12
- Gender:Male
- Location:Dartmouth, NS, Canada
Posted Today, 17:11
mikeh, on 2026-June-12, 12:05, said:
A series of short books by Reese and Trezel, each dealing with a particular play technique, some declarer and some defence. Published mid 70's and hard (and expensive) to find. But very very good for the intermediate player. Highly recommended
8 short books? Pretty sure they have been reedited as 2 books: Accurate Cardplay and Imaginative Cardplay.
Accurate Cardplay comprises Safety Plays in Bridge; Blocking and Unblocking Plays in Bridge; Elimination Play in Bridge; When to Duck and When to Win in Bridge.
Imaginative Cardplay is based on Master the Odds in Bridge; Snares and Swindles in Bridge; Those Extra Chances in Bridge; The Art of Defense in Bridge.
Available as E-book, too.
Page 1 of 1