[mike777]

2010 was a disappointing year when it came to bridge books so I will go back to the best book of 2009.

Take All your Chances at Bridge by Eddie Kantar. Intermediate, 18.95$. 166p.

This book is all about squeezing out every extra chance to make your contract.
He covers 100 different but very basic themes in 100 hands in a short, fun, and easy to read 166 pages.

I reread it again in 2010 and needless to say my declarer play improved 100%.
I plan to reread it again in 2011.

Buy this book!

[inquiry]

Books come in a variety of forms. In general, I like best books that descibe particular type of play or concept and then have some example hands. Think Clyde Love's squeeze book as an example. My thougth processes work best when I can get help trying to classify things into groups. Another type of book is a collection of interesting hands presented as problems. I like some such books, and others not so much.

I recently had an opportunity to read Kantar's book. For the most part the problems were not overly challenging, but the concept, to combine your chances, was thematic like the first kind of books I said I like, but here the entire book was on that theme. As such, I think this book drove home Kantar's point excellently. I agree with mike that this is an excellent book. I recommend it for beginner/intermediate and early stage advanced players. It would be a little simple for a full fledge advanced player, but even so, if you are an advanced player and really like to solve bridge problems (and you will solve most of them without too much difficultly) this book might be for you as well, but the price per useful lesson hand will be a bit high.

I give it a 4 star rating for intermediate players but only a two star for "advanced" players. However, I really like the concept about a problem book surrounding one related family of plays (combining chances in this case).

[ArcLight]

inquiry, on 2011-February-14, 10:45, said:

<snip>

I recently had an opportunity to read Kantar's book. For the most part the problems were not overly challenging, but the concept, to combine your chances, was thematic like the first kind of books I said I like, but here the entire book was on that theme.

...

I give it a 4 star rating for intermediate players but only a two star for "advanced" players. However, I really like the concept about a problem book surrounding one related family of plays (combining chances in this case).

I agree. Good book for beginners, not so good for advanced intermediates and above. It's not like I got 100% right, but I got little out of the book. Still a good book for newer players.