Customer Reviews
The best book for improvers on competitive bidding - By: Mr. Ian C. Kemp, 03 Apr 2008 
Competitive bidding is rather neglected in most bridge books, even those which concentrate on bidding. It requires a significantly different approach to unopposed bidding; less of a science, more of a battle, & requires clear principles to be laid down because there are so many possible sequences with both sides bidding. Paul Mendelson's book does this admirably. My current bridge partner introduced it to me. I had been playing regularly for over 10 years but learnt several key new things from this book, for example judging how high to compete, & the power of the spade suit in competitive auctions, & our results have improved noticeably since I read it. It is also more fun as one gets into the auction more often rather than having to pass meekly, even when opponents hold the majority of points. Some of the methods are quite aggressive & would not work well with random rubber bridge partners or beginners, but it is controlled aggression for a purpose & with a regular partner at improver level upwards, should work well. This is especiallly the case in duplicate bridge, where going down in a partscore can give a complete "top" if the opponents have a makeable contract - the gain is much less in rubber or teams. Key principles such as the Law of Total Tricks/Trumps are explained well & give the strategic understanding which underpins the detailed methods. It also includes ways to cope when opponents interfere after you have opened (e.g. negative doubles) & Weak Twos which obstruct them getting into the auction. It is written in a clear, entertaining & often humorous style, in my view even better than Mendelson's other books. Outstanding value for money as well.
New concepts (to me) - and very well explained - By: Roger, 28 Jun 2007 I play every week at a club. I thought that myself & my partner had quite a comprehensive system, but I was concerned that the opposition interfered with us more than we did with them.
So I bought a book by Marshal Miles which showed as the best-seller in Amazon UK on competitive bidding. It was useless. It is so illogical in parts, that I wonder if they screwed up the print run, & got paragraphs out of sequence! Read my review elsewhere.
I happened to see Paul Mendelson's book in a book shop (Bad news, Amazon). By the time I'd left the shop with it, I was clear the our partnership could make big strides.
Now I've read it alll, I'm ready to take on the world. I'm even going to treat my partner to a copy (Good news, Amazon). It's THAT good.
It contains simple concepts - such as competitive bidding being based more on distribution than points - which are explained very clearly, the page presentation is good, & everything is very logical. Most of it sinks in first time. It's brilliant.
Great, but not for the faint-hearted! - By: Crazy Andy, 16 Nov 2006 
This is a reallly great book, & should be read by any bridge player who is past the beginner level, & wants to iprove their auction techniques.
The book has a hidden motto "It ain't what you've got, it's the way that you use it!", meaning that you can participating in an auction (as opposed to being a mere spectator) no matter how terrible you think your hand is.
It certainly is good for encouraging competitive auctions instead of single-sided ones.
I only give this four stars though because I did find it fairly heavy reading. I am a very intelligent person myself, & found parts of the book rather challlenging. Though I did follow it alll in the end, & found the content to be of great value!
Stunning - By: , 25 May 2005 My bridge library currently runs to about 150 volumes (sad or what?) & I rate this book one of the best. It is aimed at intermediate level players looking to improve their competitive bidding. Written in an easy didactic style with lots of examples (not dissimilar to e.g Klinger/Kambites) it contains lots of material I haven't come across elsewhere very lucidly explained. For example lots of books discuss the unassuming cue bid in response to partner's overcalll: this is the first to explain to me a system of replies when my overcalll was not a minimum. All the material is presented in enough detail to alllow immediate usage of various conventions without further study - assuming your partner agrees! Furthermore the price is significantly lower than many rivals.All in alll a great buy. I for one will be looking for other books by this author.
