August 2018 - 30

Product Reviews
Demystifying Defense
By Patrick O'Connor
$16.95, softcover, 134 pages
Reviewed by Sue Munday

The silent D in bridge

Declarer play is sexy, and
bidding conventions are like
shiny new toys. But defense?
Defense is hard! Too often, defense ends up being
the break newcomers take
between playing one hand and bidding
the next.

Upcoming
Best Practices
Teacher Workshop
Syracuse NY (Regional)
Aug. 13-14

Here's Patrick O'Connor
with "Demystifying Defense" to build newcomers'
defensive prowess and
confidence.
Sound defense is deadly
and worth a lot of points
at the table. In theory, it
shouldn't be as hard as it's
made out to be: Jump into
declarer's seat, see what he
needs to do to take as many
tricks as possible, figure
out how to stop him, and then jump
back into your own seat and do it. The
catch, of course, is doing this in sync
with your partner, whose cards are, for
the most part, unknown. But when a
good D clicks, it is intoxicating.
O'Connor's "A First Book of Bridge
Problems," which won the American
Bridge Teachers' Association's Book
of the Year award in 2012, focused on
declarer play with a sprinkling of de-

fensive problems. Now, the Australian
bridge teacher switches seats entirely
to cover the basics of defensive cardplay: opening leads, second-hand play,
third-hand play and signaling. Each
chapter is summarized, and there's a
quiz to solidify the lessons learned.
The meat of the book is in the final
chapter: O'Connor invites the reader to
defend 40 problems with him.
The author's presentation is clean
and straightforward. It is impossible
for a newcomer who follows the principles in this book not to walk away with
a greater appreciation of the defensive
aspect of the game. A rudimentary
glossary of bridge terms answers the
most immediate terminology questions, and a handy list of themes at the
end enables the reader to refer back to
the material that's been covered.
Who knew defense could be so - dare
I say it? - fun!

Hand of the Week

at the table. While bidding
comes into play when constructing a plan of attack,
it is not the author's focus:
"Each story strives to recreate the thought processes
that I used - or should
have used - as I played the
dummy or defended the
contract, or as I watched my
partner declare and defend."
Unusual in Martineau's
approach is his emphasis
on the language of bridge, as well as
strategy and tactics. "I try to highlight
vocabulary, believing that if readers
become more comfortable with the

Available from bridge supply houses.

Mary Miller
mary.miller028@gmail.com

Richardson TX (Regional)
Aug. 27-28
Eileen Smith Davidoff
eileen_s@hotmail.com

Asheville NC (Sectional)
Oct. 19-20
ACBL Education Department
education@acbl.org

Honolulu HI (NABC)
Nov. 23-25
ACBL Education Department
education@acbl.org

30 Bridge Bulletin August 2018

52 Bridge Stories

By Joel Martineau
$19.95, softcover, 222 pages
Reviewed by Sue Munday

Bite-sized nuggets

What better way to start
every week than with a
bridge boost? Here's Joel
Martineau with just the
ticket - 52 of them, to be precise.
An experienced bridge teacher as
well as player, Martineau invites the
intermediate reader to sit with him
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2018
