Marty Bergen

This is a short, but very intelligent book. It covers seven common difficult competitive bidding situations, with excellent suggestions about how to cope with them. It offers many quizzes on how to bid in those situations and 7 interesting play problems. It is also written with a wry (and maybe even funnier and more Jewish than Edgar Kaplan) sense of humor. I regret only that the book was so short. Write more of these, Marty.

(JAB)

Marty Bergen has written yet another clever and informative book on bridge tactics and strategy, this time focusing on play of the hand in defense. As usual, the book is snappy and funny as well as instructive.

Marty gives a good rule of thumb to determine which kind of signal one should give partner: attitude when partner leads; count when declarer leads a side suit. Suit preference signals are often given when on lead, but can be given when partner or declarer leads.

He emphasizes the show more importance of counting (both points and cards), but then, who doesn’t. Bergen throws in a few helpful hints against defending against slams and when to play a forcing game. This book is not as innovative as Points, Schmoints!, but it is a useful addition to a bridge player’s repertoire. show less

Excellent book on declarer play directed to intermediate to advanced duplicate players. Bergen delineates about 20 basic techniques for taking tricks and avoiding losers. The diction is light-hearted, but the content is solid. In particular, the author shows how many intermediate players draw trump too soon. (JAB)

This is a very useful, short book on bridge. Bergen covers five important topics with insight and humor. The topics are: (1) opening in the first or second position; (2) later bids by an opener whose partner originally passed; (3) bidding after an openers has rebid his minor suit; (4) rebids by a takeout doubler; and (5) balancing after a preempt. The scope of the book is quite limited, but each topic is covered thoroughly.

As always, he emphasizes the importance of shape over point count. He show more begins each topic with a quiz in which the reader is asked to bid 10 different hands, beginning with the same bidding sequence. For three of the topics, he gives an analysis of what virtually every possible next bid could (or should) mean.

At only $7.95, this is a highly recommended addition to the library of anyone who wants to improve his or her bridge game.

(JAB) show less