February 2021 - 32

PRODUCT Reviews
Playing to Trick One
$17.95, 164 pp., softcover
By Dr. James Marsh Sternberg

One often hears an expert say I've seen this hand before " . What does he mean?
No,he hasn't seen the hand record;he recognizes the hand type. After all, there
are only a finite number of hand types in bridge. For example,second suit
hands,cross-ruffs,ruffing in dummy,a simple finesse,an elimination,a dummy
reversal and a couple of others. You can't reinvent bridge every time a hand
comes down. If you recognize the type,then you have some idea or plan of how
to go about trying to make your contract.

Larry Teaches Modern Bidding
PLAYING TO TRICK ONE

ridge is a game of mistakes.The best players make fewer mistakes.
It's not a matter of being brilliant The real expert players never make
basic mistakes,they keep the ball in the court, in the fairway. Sure there
is an occasional hand where they make a brilliant play but that's not what
distinguishes the true expert from the good player.

Reviewed by Paul Linxwiler

But one of the biggest mistakes non-expert players make is playing to trick one,
then looking around and deciding what to do next. And in many cases,it's already
too late. The key to the hand was trick one. But sorry,no mulligans in bridge.
So this book will present a series of hands,all as quizzes but of course you have a
big clue from the title. Nevertheless,I hope you will find the hands and following
discussions interesting enough to help you learn to do your thinking before not
after you play that first card. Speed kills.

JAMES MARSH STERNBERG MD ( DR. J )
is a radiologist in Palm Beach Gardens Florida
& Professor of Radiology at two northern
universities. He currently teaches bridge in Florida.
He has won several North American National
Championships and has written extensively for
many bridge publications.

JAMES MARSH STERNBERG MD ( DR. J )

No mulligans

Subtitled " There are no mulligans
in bridge, " Jim Sternberg's " Playing to Trick One " is a collection of
more than 150 deals where the play
to trick one is critical. It's a fun problem book, with material
geared to intermediate and newer players.
An example from the text:
South declares 3NT against silent opponents. West leads
the 6, fourth-best. Sternberg:
" Dr J " lives in Palm Beach Gardens with Vickie
Bader. He can be reached at mmay001@aol.com.

 A 10 3

J3

 K J 10 7 6 3

 10 8
 K 4 2
9865
N
 4 W
 Q 10 9 8 7
E
 A 5 4
82
S
 J 9 7 6 4 2
AQ

QJ7

AK652

Q9

K53
East won the ace at trick one and returned the queen. Declarer
played low, so East switched to a low heart. Declarer won, and
after forcing out the A, took a spade finesse for 10 tricks.
Question: Could the defense have possibly defeated
the contract?
We are, by now, familiar with playing the queen in third seat
from A-Q-x, but how about playing low from A-Q doubleton?
The same problem exists for South: Win or duck?
South made the normal play of winning the king to avoid going
down three if West had led from A-J-7-6-4-2. When declarer
started the diamonds, West held up till the third round. This allowed East to unblock the A, and West ran the clubs.

Published by Author House at authorhouse.com and other
book supply houses.

32 | Bridge Bulletin | February 2021

Vol. 1: Openings & Responses
Vol. 2: Opener's Rebid
Vol. 3: Responder's Rebid and Competitive
Auctions
$15 each, spiral bound, 78, 68, 80 pages
By Larry Cohen
Reviewed by Chip Dombrowski

Back to basics
This series compiles and expands
on the material published in Larry
Cohen's Bidding Basics column that has been appearing in the Bridge Bulletin
since January 2017.
" My 25 years of teaching bridge have taught me
that most of my students
never properly learned
bidding basics, " Cohen
explains in his introduction.
" More than likely you will discover how much you don't
know that you thought you knew. "
The series covers the first four bids of the auction, mostly
without competition until the second half of the third
volume. It systematically defines the standard meaning of
each bid in each bidding sequence, providing two examples
(occasionally more) of hands that would make such a bid. As
some bids are wide-ranging, the examples often illustrate
the range from weak to strong and balanced to shapely.
Most of the time Cohen avoids abstraction and generalization, treating each bidding sequence as a unique entity. This
creates a lot of repetition in defining those bids that have
the same meaning in several similar sequences, but it also
allows Cohen to spotlight the differences that make each
sequence unique.
While Cohen prefers to keep the focus on the most basic
meanings and the most common bids, the material has been
expanded to include some finer points, differentiating what
is standard for more advanced players from what Cohen
recommends for newer players.
Each of the 59 parts includes a 12-question quiz, expanded
from the original eight-question quizzes that appeared in
these pages. That's more than 700 questions, offering the
opportunity to recognize all of the possible bids in action -
and see if you fall into any of the common traps.

http://www.authorhouse.com

February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2021