Right Through The Pack by Robert Darvas and Norman de V. Hart is absolutely my favorite bridge book. First published in 1947, this book lets the cards tell the story-- each one, from the lowly Two of Clubs to the regal King of Spades, has a narrative ranging from instructional to fantastical. The text is over sixty years old, so the bidding seems quite antiquated to our super-modern minds, but the bidding is usually just used as a way to get to the strange contracts that need even stranger plays to come in. (In fact, in
Ely Culbertson's introduction, he states "in many of the deals --
very many! -- the accompanying bidding could not be justified by the world's greatest optimist.") One of my favorite hands from the book is The Tale of the Nine of Hearts:
An "unjustifiable" auction got N-S to seven spades. The eight of clubs was led to the three, nine, and king, and South saw exactly twelve tricks and no legitimate possibility for a thirteenth... but there was an illegitimate possibility lurking around. He drew trumps while eliminating diamonds, finding out that East held one spade and three diamonds. The play to the first trick suggested that East held QJ9 of clubs, and therefore the 1=6=3=3 shape he actually held, leaving the position:
Declarer led to the ace of hearts, then led the jack of spades, overtaking in his hand, leaving the ace of clubs stranded on the dummy! He then played the rest of the trumps pitching hearts from the board, making poor East believe the end position had been this:
East let go his king of hearts to save the club protection, thinking, as who would not, that declarer would never strand an ace on the dummy... but South took the last two tricks with his two little hearts.
Buy Right Through The Pack at amazon.com
Right Through The Pack by Robert Darvas and Norman de V. Hart is absolutely my favorite bridge book. First published in 1947, this book lets the cards tell the story-- each one, from the lowly Two of Clubs to the regal King of Spades, has a narrative ranging from instructional to fantastical. The text is over sixty years old, so the bidding seems quite antiquated to our super-modern minds, but the bidding is usually just used as a way to get to the strange contracts that need even stranger plays to come in. (In fact, in Ely Culbertson's introduction, he states "in many of the deals -- very many! -- the accompanying bidding could not be justified by the world's greatest optimist.") One of my favorite hands from the book is The Tale of the Nine of Hearts:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment