[mohitz]

Hi,

I am looking to improve my declarer play, specifically at suit contracts. I am an advancing player. Can you recommend some good books?

[gwnn]

Masterpieces of Declarer Play by Pottage
Test Your Timing by Kelsey

[Hanoi5]

Watson's Play of the hand.

I improved a lot by reading 5 weeks to winning bridge by Sheinwold. This book has 2 parts a bidding part (which of course is really old-fashioned) and a play of the hand part which I deem to be GREAT. I think you'll find it out of print but it's probably in any good bridge library.

[Stephen Tu]

Hate Watson, for the writing style as opposed to the content.

Sheinwold 5 weeks is fine.

My favs:
beginner->int/adv:
Root, How to Play a Bridge Hand
Mollo & Gardner, Card Play Technique
Dorothy Truscott, Winning Declarer Play

int->adv:
Lawrence, How to read your opponent's cards
Reese, Play these hands with me, Play bridge with Reese, Reese on play

[peachy]

Dorothy Hayden's "Winning Declarer Play" is a great book for an advancing player and instructs on all the basic theme's of declarer play technique. Nice format for learning. I would stay away from Watson's "Play of the Hand" which is a classic and the substance is on the spot, but it is a boring book.

[y66]

Hard to beat those books on play by Watson, Reese, Kelsey, Mollo & Gardiner, Root and Hayden-Truscott.

2 books not mentioned -- not classics, but worth reading:

Card Play Made Easy 3 - Trump Management by Klinger and Kambites. Good fundamental stuff for intermediate and advancing players. Some books are just too many pages for me. Not this one. Ditto for the other books in this series.

Off Road Declarer Play by David Bird. Really enjoyed this book. The chapter on ways to handle 4-1 splits in the trump suit is worth the price of the book alone. This one might be a better fit for the advancing player.

[Phil]

Declarer play is all about two things:

- Recognizing 'themes'.
- Learning to count and use the information effectively.



For themes:

If you are intermediate (-), get Card Play Technique. Read it 10 times and memorize the hands.

As you advance, get a hold of Reese's Master Play and Kelsey's Test Your "____" series. These will give you the standard arsenal of declarer ploys, such as trump control, squeezes (that you need to know), unblocking, communication, etc..



To learn how to count:

Start with Lawrence's How to Read Your Opponent's Cards.

Then read Kelsey's Logical Bridge Play.

Finally, Reese's "over the shoulder" books. There is no unifying theme, however, many of the hands are outstanding.



When you are done with all of the above, add to your library with these:

Kantar's Test Your Play (s). Harder than they look.

Anything by Julian Pottage.

I also like Danny Roth's stuff.

These are the new classics IMO.


This will keep you busy for five years

[skjaeran]

Hugh Kelsey's "Test your...." series is suberb.