November 2015 - 31

Product Reviews
Tips on Bidding and
Tips on Competitive
Bidding
By Mike Lawrence
$19.95, Softcover, 286/280 pages
Rating A/A
Reviewed by Sue Munday

At the feet of the master

More than 20 years ago, Mike
Lawrence produced a collection
of short booklets titled "Topics on
Bridge." The series won the American
Bridge Teachers' Association's coveted
Book of the Year award in 1991.
Now - three ABTA awards and 20
books later - these 30 booklets have
been updated substantially, consolidated into three volumes and handsomely
edited and published by the always
reliable Master Point Press. "Tips
on Bidding" and "Tips on Competitive Bidding" are available now. "Tips
on Cardplay," which will cover both
declarer play and defense, is coming off
the presses soon.
The series is aimed at intermediatelevel players. Lawrence writes with
great patience and humor. Like the
best kind of teacher, he suggests how
to see and think about a hand or an
auction. There are some rules, but
they're there as a kind of Bidding 101
foundation. Each chapter is filled with
examples, and the ensuing discussion is as easy and enlightening as you
might experience were you to chat up a
friendly, three-time world champion/
too-many-to-count NABC winner after
a local club game. Each chapter ends
with a quiz.
"Tips on Bidding" opens with a
lengthy chapter called Avoiding

Common Errors and ends with The
Fine Art of Hanging Partner. These
- plus his expanded examination of
reverses (The Mystery Topic) - are
worth the price of the book.
You'll find the expected topics: supporting partner (three-card raises,
splinters, Drury), weak two-bids and
passed-hand bidding. Lawrence calls
preempts one of the most important
of all topics. "You'll be surprised at
how aggressive you should be when it
comes to preempting," he writes, and
helps you lace up your jumping shoes
with this introduction:
Your RHO opens 5♦ and you have
this hand:
♠A J 10 9 8 3 2 ♥A K Q 5 ♦5 4 ♣-
Irritating as stepping on a skunk.
Whatever you were hoping to do with
this hand has been dashed by your
RHO's preempt. You don't know what
to do? Neither do I. My advice? Stop
being Mr. Nice Guy and give your
opponents a few headaches like this
one.

The quiz at the end of the preempts
chapter - Lawrence points out that a
quiz assumes there are correct answers and in the world of preempting,
you can't tell if you have done the right

thing until the facts are in - looks at a
variety of preempts from all four seats.
The second part of the quiz delves into
preemptive jump overcalls, beginning
the transition into the second book in
the series.
"Tips on Competitive Bidding" starts
at step one: overcalls. He then takes
on the always controversial subject of
four-card overcalls and never-gets-old
lessons on how to make and respond
to takeout doubles. Having learned to
become a more aggressive preempter
in the first book, now he tackles how to
cope with preempts.
Lawrence's updated material includes a variety of methods for bidding
over the opponent's opening weak or
strong 1NT. The book closes with penalty doubles - lots and lots of penalty
doubles! The third volume, with its tips
on opening leads and defense, can't
come soon enough.
Published by Master Point Press
(masterpointpress.com) and available
at bridge supply houses.

The Canterbury Bridge Tales
By David Silver and Tim Bourke
$15.95, Softcover, 160 pages
Rating: BReviewed by Paul Linxwiler

A Chaucerian mess

"The Canterbury Bridge Tales" is
a deeply strange book. This latest
collaboration between authors David
Silver of Canada and Australian
Tim Bourke - who provides most of
the interesting deals in the text - is
ostensibly modeled on Chaucer's "The
Canterbury Tales," wherein a group
November 2015 Bridge Bulletin

31
http://www.masterpointpress.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2015
