Watson's Classic Book

by Louis H. Watson

Overview

This book, by one of the first and foremost authorities on contract bridge, is regarded as the classic exposition of playing strategy. Practically all variations of play, both in attack and in defense, are explained and illustrated in it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780064632096
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/01/1971
Edition description:	Enlarged
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	901,905
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 8.12(h) x 1.12(d)

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
Part I	Fundamentals of Play
	Introduction to Part I	1
Chapter I.	The Power of Honors	3
	The Meaning of Rank	4
	The Developing Power of Honors	8
	Control	12
	Summary	12
Chapter II.	The Positional Value of Honors	14
	How to Play Tenaces--The Finesse	17
	Summary	25
Chapter III.	Double and Combination Finesses	27
	Finessing Against Lower Honors Than the King	29
	Some Miscellaneous Examples	34
	Summary	36
Chapter IV.	When Not to Finesse	37
	Summary	39
Chapter V.	Entries	40
	The Vital Meaning of Tenaces	45
	Summary	46
Chapter VI.	General Principles	47
	The Contract Is the Thing	51
	Summary	52
Chapter VII.	Establishing a Suit at No-Trump	53
	Establishing a Suit Before Eliminating Entries	57
	Choosing Between Two Establishable Suits	60
	Summary	62
Chapter VIII.	Establishing a Suit at No-Trump (Continued)	63
	The Time Element in Establishing a Suit	65
	Establishing a Suit by Finessing	67
	A Second Look at the Double Finesse	68
	Reserving an Entry for a Second Finesse	69
	Summary	70
Chapter IX.	The Strategy of Control and the Hold-up	71
	When the Situation Does Not Call for the Hold-up	74
	Should Dummy Play High or Low Second Hand?	79
	Keeping a Weather Eve Open for Suit Control	82
	A Hold-up in a Suit With Two Stoppers	83
	Summary	85
Chapter X.	Unblocking	86
	Unblocking by Leading a Singleton Honor	87
	Unblocking by Overtaking an Honor	89
	When Failure to Unblock Immediately Means Defeat	91
	Unblocking by Discarding	92
	Unblocking to Discover Hidden Entries	94
	Summary	95
Chapter XI.	Ducking	97
	Ducking Twice to Establish a Suit	101
	How to Decide Whether to Duck	104
	Ducking by Refusing a Finesse	105
	Ducking in Desperation	107
	A Matter of Judgment	109
	Summary	109
Chapter XII.	Trump Management at Suit Play	110
	When to Lead Trumps	111
	When Not to Lead Trumps Immediately	115
	Summary	118
Chapter XIII.	Ruffing Power	119
	Struggling to Realize on a Short Suit	121
	Ruffing After First Leading Trumps	122
	Diverting to a New Type of Finesse	124
	Unblocking the Trump Suit	125
	Ruffing Power Is Confined to the Dummy	126
	Summary	127
Chapter XIV.	Plays Postponing the Trump Lead	128
	Postponing the Trump Lead for a Specific Discard	130
	Another Way of Taking Discards Before Leading Trumps	133
	Summary	135
Chapter XV.	No-Trump Plays at Suit Contracts	136
	Again Establishing a Side Suit Before Leading Trumps	138
	Setting Up a Side Suit by Preserving Ruffing Power	139
	Establishing a Side Suit After Drawing Trumps	140
	Retaining Trump Entries Until a Side Suit Is Established by Ruffing	143
	Gaining Tricks by Refusing to Ruff	144
	Is Declarer or Dummy the Dominating Hand?	145
	Summary	147
Chapter XVI.	Miscellaneous Trump Plays	148
	The Cross-Ruff	148
	High-Card Tricks in the "Other" Suit	150
	Sacrificing a Principle to Efficiency	151
	Another Exception to the Rule	153
	Playing a Hopeless Trump Contract	155
	Leading Trumps With a Weak Suit	156
	Summary	158
Chapter XVII.	Elementary Defense Against No-Trump	159
	Opening Leads Against No-Trump	162
	The Honor-Sequence Length Lead	163
	The Plain Length Lead	164
	Leads From Ace-King Suits	165
	Continuation Honor Leads	167
	Leading the Ace	167
	Choosing Between Two Length Leads	167
	Short-Suit Sequence Leads	169
	Short-Suit Leads (Desperation)	169
	Leading Partner's Suit	171
	Choosing Between Your Own Suit and Partner's	172
	Summary	173
	When Partner Has Not Bid	173
	When Partner Has Bid a Suit	173
Chapter XVIII.	Third Hand Defense Against No-Trump	174
	The Rule of Eleven	175
	When Third Hand's "Highest" Is in Sequence With the Card Below It	177
	When Not to Play "Third Hand High"	179
	Summary	183
Chapter XIX.	Elementary Defense After the First Trick	184
	Choosing the Card in Returning Partner's Suit	186
	An Exception	189
	Holding Up in Defensive Play	189
	Unblocking in Defensive Play	191
	Ducking in Defensive Play	192
	Summary	194
Chapter XX.	Defensive Discards	195
	The Echo and Its Uses	196
	When to Encourage and When to Discourage Partner	197
	Echoing With an Honor	201
	Echoing When Unable to Follow Suit	201
	Temporizing Discards	203
	Miscellaneous Discarding	207
	Third Hand's Play to Partner's Short-Suit Leads	208
	Summary	209
Chapter XXI.	Defensive Plays by Second Hand	210
	Playing Defensively Before the Dummy	210
	Playing Defensively Before the Declarer	221
	Summary	222
Chapter XXII.	Continuation Plays	224
	Applying Leads Through Strength and Up to Weakness	227
	Shifting to a Suit Other Than Partner's Lead	228
	Summary	231
Chapter XXIII.	Opening Leads Against a Suit Contract	232
	The Most Desirable Leads Against a Suit Contract	232
	Other Good Leads Against a Suit Contract	233
	Opening Leads Based on the Bidding	237
	Summary	238
Chapter XXIV.	Defensive Suit Play by Third Hand	240
	Discards (Signals) in Suit Defense	242
	Another Echo to Show a Short Suit	245
	Discouraging and Temporizing Discards in Suit Defense	246
	Third Hand Play to Short-Suit Leads	247
	Summary	249
Chapter XXV.	The Policy of Suit Shifting	250
	Summary	255
Chapter XXVI.	Forcing the Declarer to Ruff	256
	Spotting a Danger Signal	261
	Not Forcing When It May Establish a Trick in Dummy	262
	Forcing the Dummy	265
	Preventing a Declarer From Discarding	266
	Summary	267
Chapter XXVII.	Trump Leads by the Defending Side	268
	A Similar but Simpler Situation	270
	Killing Ruffing Power With the Opening Lead	271
	Summary	274
Chapter XXVIII.	Over-Ruffing by the Defending Side	275
	Leading a Low Card for Over-Ruffing	278
	Summary	280
Part II	Advanced Play and Expert Technique
	Introduction to Part II	281
Chapter I.	The Less Common Finessing Situations	283
	The Obligatory Finesse	285
	Finessing to Eliminate a Guess	288
	Again the Simple Finesse Is Not Enough	290
	The Backward Finesse	292
	Summary	294
Chapter II.	Safety Plays	295
	Refusing a Trump Finesse	296
	Rendering an Adverse Ruff Useless	297
	Providing for the Worst Possible Distribution	298
	Providing Against a Special Kind of Adverse Distribution	300
	Refusing a Trump Finesse to Lose but One Trick	302
	A Safety Finesse	303
	A Safety Play Against the Queen	304
	Providing Against a 4-1 Break in Trumps	306
	Giving Up a Trick When It Is Seemingly Unnecessary	307
	Establishing a Tenace for the Sake of Safety	309
	Unblocking as a Safety Measure	310
	A Safety Play in a Side Suit	312
	The Acme of Foresight in a Safety Play	313
	Destroying an Entry Card to Play Safe	314
	Summary	317
Chapter III.	End Plays	318
	A Simple End Play	322
	Throwing the Lead in the Suit Desired as the Return	324
	An Elimination End Play	326
	Choosing Between an End Play and a Finesse	328
	Making an End Play for an Extra Trick	330
	The End Play at a Suit Contract	332
	Another End Play When There Is a Trump Suit	334
	A Throw-in With Another Suit	336
	An End Play by Giving Up a Trick That Might Be Saved	337
	An Optimistic Try for an End Play	338
	Another End Play as the Only Chance	340
	A Brilliant End-Play "Coup"	341
	Another End-Play "Coup"	343
	An End Play in Trumps	345
	Summary	346
Chapter IV.	Defense Against End Plays	347
	Escaping an End Play by Unblocking	348
	Proper and Improper Defense Contrasted	350
	Protecting Partner From an End Play	352
	Superior Attack Met by Superior Defense	354
	Making the Declarer Guess	357
	Summary	359
Chapter V.	Counting	360
	Counting Makes Possible a Double End Play	362
	Giving Up Losers to Get a Count	364
	A Simple and Common Method of Counting	366
	Using a Percentage Play When the Count Is Doubtful	368
	Placing Cards From the Bidding	370
	Counting by the Defending Side	372
	Mathematical Tables	373
	Summary	373
Chapter VI.	Coups	375
	The Bath Coup	375
	The Deschapelles Coup	376
	The Trump Coup	380
	A Double Simple Coup	383
	The Double Grand Coup	386
	Defense Against the Trump Coup	386
	An Unnecessary Finesse in Preparing for a Coup	388
	Trump Coups in General	390
	Summary	391
Chapter VII.	Squeeze Plays	392
	The Simple Squeeze End-Play Situation	392
	Working Toward the Squeeze	394
	The Backward Squeeze	396
	The Pseudo-Squeeze	398
	The Progressive Squeeze	400
	A Squeeze to Obtain a Count	403
	The Double Squeeze	404
	The Essentials of a Squeeze Situation	408
	The Vienna Coup	409
	The Vienna Coup Par Excellence	411
	Choosing Between a Squeeze and a Finesse	413
	Making an Adversary Squeeze His Partner	414
	Summary	415
Chapter VIII.	Two Unusual Echoes	417
	The Trump Echo	417
	The No-Trump Echo	419
	Summary	420
Chapter IX.	Miscellaneous Advanced Plays	422
	Holding Up With King-Queen and With Queen-Jack	422
	An Ace-King Hold-Up to Avoid a Guess	425
	Establishing a Trick in a Short Suit First	426
	Leading into a Tenace--The Time Element	427
	Leading into a Tenace to Establish a Suit	428
	The Time Element and the Opening Lead	429
	Unnecessarily Giving Up a Trump Trick	430
	Choosing Between Two Re-Entries	431
	Keeping the Dangerous Hand out of the Lead	432
	Trumping Your Partner's Ace	433
	"Double Dummy" Playing Problems	434
	Duplicate Strategy	436
	Summary	436
Chapter X.	Psychological Strategy	438
	False-Carding	439
	Refusing to Play Third Hand High	444
	An Unusual Play	445
	Misleading the Opponents by Playing Normally	446
	Desperation Tactics by the Declarer	447
	A Desperation Surprise Lead	448
	A Deceptive and Unusual Lead	449
	Leading Against Slams	450
	Leading Against Doubled Slams	451
	Leading Away From an Ace	452
	Another Unconventional Opening Lead	454
	A Pair of Unusual Deceptive Plays	455 From the B&N Reads Blog Page 1 of Related Subjects Activity & Game Books Card Games Bridge (Card Game) Card Games->Bridge->General Activity & Game Books Card Games Bridge (Card Game) Card Games->Bridge->General Customer Reviews