The correct play of suit contracts is a skill which the top players acquire only after many patient hours of study and play. When the opposition are lurking with their small trump cards ready to pounce and ruff your winners, you must exert great vigilience. There are countless factors to take into consideration when planning the play and difficult decisions arise on almost every trick: should you clear the trump suit early? can you establish a side suit? is it safe to cross-ruff? In this ground-breaking book, renowned bridge author Brian Senior helps you to answer these questions and to comprehend the reasoning as to why certain decisions are taken. Each independent principle is thoroughly examined and the reader is then invited to test their own understanding of the concept by answering a number of puzzles, typical of those that arise in practical play. Written by a leading bridge author and journalistUser-friendly layout enables the reader to quickly absorb the key ideasAn ideal bridge book for players looking to improve their card handlin

A collection of bridge problems which provide a fun way to practice an important play technique. This is part of a twelve book series that will add an extra dimension to the Bridge Technique series (Bird & Smith), which won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year award in 2002.

Each book in this series is a collection of bridge problems which provide a fun way to practice and develop your skill in an important cardplay technique at bridge. These books are designed to add an extra dimension to the detailed instruction contained in Bridge Technique series (Bird and Smith).

Winning Notrump Leads was a ground-breaking and very well-received book that used the power of computers to determine which opening leads work best against a variety of auctions at notrump. Using enhanced software, the authors now turn their attention to suit contracts. They generate millions of random deals, retaining those that match the chosen auction, for example 1S-2S-4S. By playing these deals automatically against each of the 13 possible opening leads from a given hand, they are able to discover which lead is most likely to beat the contract (also the best lead at matchpoint pairs). The authors provide insightful commentary to each result, answering timeless questions such as: When should I lead a trump? When is a doubleton a good opening lead? Should I lead differently against a partscore? Should I make an aggressive or a passive lead? Should I lead an ace against a small slam? Which leads work best against a grand slam? By using the number-crunching computer power available nowadays, there is no longer any need to rely on general opening-lead guidelines passed down by our ancestors. We think you will be surprised by many of the discoveries made during this investigation! DAVID BIRD (top) and TAF ANTHIAS were contemporaries at Cambridge University, both reading mathematics. They carried out research and development on software systems for over 30 years at IBM's UK Laboratories. In the 1970s they formed a successful bridge partnership, winning a number of national events. David is now one of the world's top bridge writers with 116 books to his name. Taf moved on to the USA, where he became a vice president of Cisco Systems. They have joined forces on this ground-breaking book.

This book is designed to give a comprehensive and systematic view of the rules of play for suit contracts. The various subjects contain rules for when to use the dummy reversal, when to spurn a finesse, when to duck a trick, the avoidance play, how to handle a defenders singleton, how to discard, how to unblock, how to deceive, how to handle transportation problems, and how to make inferences from the defenders bidding, opening lead, play and discards. Under each subject, there are numerous examples of how to handle each rule of play.