Watson's Classic Book on the Play of the Hand at Bridge

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ISBN: 9780064632096 | 0064632091
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 7/27/2009

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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.

Introduction	p. ix
Fundamentals of Play
Introduction to Part I	p. 1
The Power of Honors	p. 3
The Meaning of Rank	p. 4
The Developing Power of Honors	p. 8
Control	p. 12
Summary	p. 12
The Positional Value of Honors	p. 14
How to Play Tenaces--The Finesse	p. 17
Summary	p. 25
Double and Combination Finesses	p. 27
Finessing Against Lower Honors Than the King	p. 29
Some Miscellaneous Examples	p. 34
Summary	p. 36
When Not to Finesse	p. 37
Summary	p. 39
Entries	p. 40
The Vital Meaning of Tenaces	p. 45
Summary	p. 46
General Principles	p. 47
The Contract Is the Thing	p. 51
Summary	p. 52
Establishing a Suit at No-Trump	p. 53
Establishing a Suit Before Eliminating Entries	p. 57
Choosing Between Two Establishable Suits	p. 60
Summary	p. 62
Establishing a Suit at No-Trump (Continued)	p. 63
The Time Element in Establishing a Suit	p. 65
Establishing a Suit by Finessing	p. 67
A Second Look at the Double Finesse	p. 68
Reserving an Entry for a Second Finesse	p. 69
Summary	p. 70
The Strategy of Control and the Hold-up	p. 71
When the Situation Does Not Call for the Hold-up	p. 74
Should Dummy Play High or Low Second Hand?	p. 79
Keeping a Weather Eve Open for Suit Control	p. 82
A Hold-up in a Suit With Two Stoppers	p. 83
Summary	p. 85
Unblocking	p. 86
Unblocking by Leading a Singleton Honor	p. 87
Unblocking by Overtaking an Honor	p. 89
When Failure to Unblock Immediately Means Defeat	p. 91
Unblocking by Discarding	p. 92
Unblocking to Discover Hidden Entries	p. 94
Summary	p. 95
Ducking	p. 97
Ducking Twice to Establish a Suit	p. 101
How to Decide Whether to Duck	p. 104
Ducking by Refusing a Finesse	p. 105
Ducking in Desperation	p. 107
A Matter of Judgment	p. 109
Summary	p. 109
Trump Management at Suit Play	p. 110
When to Lead Trumps	p. 111
When Not to Lead Trumps Immediately	p. 115
Summary	p. 118
Ruffing Power	p. 119
Struggling to Realize on a Short Suit	p. 121
Ruffing After First Leading Trumps	p. 122
Diverting to a New Type of Finesse	p. 124
Unblocking the Trump Suit	p. 125
Ruffing Power Is Confined to the Dummy	p. 126
Summary	p. 127
Plays Postponing the Trump Lead	p. 128
Postponing the Trump Lead for a Specific Discard	p. 130
Another Way of Taking Discards Before Leading Trumps	p. 133
Summary	p. 135
No-Trump Plays at Suit Contracts	p. 136
Again Establishing a Side Suit Before Leading Trumps	p. 138
Setting Up a Side Suit by Preserving Ruffing Power	p. 139
Establishing a Side Suit After Drawing Trumps	p. 140
Retaining Trump Entries Until a Side Suit Is Established by Ruffing	p. 143
Gaining Tricks by Refusing to Ruff	p. 144
Is Declarer or Dummy the Dominating Hand?	p. 145
Summary	p. 147
Miscellaneous Trump Plays	p. 148
The Cross-Ruff	p. 148
High-Card Tricks in the "Other" Suit	p. 150
Sacrificing a Principle to Efficiency	p. 151
Another Exception to the Rule	p. 153
Playing a Hopeless Trump Contract	p. 155
Leading Trumps With a Weak Suit	p. 156
Summary	p. 158
Elementary Defense Against No-Trump	p. 159
Opening Leads Against No-Trump	p. 162
The Honor-Sequence Length Lead	p. 163
The Plain Length Lead	p. 164
Leads From Ace-King Suits	p. 165
Continuation Honor Leads	p. 167
Leading the Ace	p. 167
Choosing Between Two Length Leads	p. 167
Short-Suit Sequence Leads	p. 169
Short-Suit Leads (Desperation)	p. 169
Leading Partner's Suit	p. 171
Choosing Between Your Own Suit and Partner's	p. 172
Summary	p. 173
When Partner Has Not Bid	p. 173
When Partner Has Bid a Suit	p. 173
Third Hand Defense Against No-Trump	p. 174
The Rule of Eleven	p. 175
When Third Hand's "Highest" Is in Sequence With the Card Below It	p. 177
When Not to Play "Third Hand High"	p. 179
Summary	p. 183
Elementary Defense After the First Trick	p. 184
Choosing the Card in Returning Partner's Suit	p. 186
An Exception	p. 189
Holding Up in Defensive Play	p. 189
Unblocking in Defensive Play	p. 191
Ducking in Defensive Play	p. 192
Summary	p. 194
Defensive Discards	p. 195
The Echo and Its Uses	p. 196
When to Encourage and When to Discourage Partner	p. 197
Echoing With an Honor	p. 201
Echoing When Unable to Follow Suit	p. 201
Temporizing Discards	p. 203
Miscellaneous Discarding	p. 207
Third Hand's Play to Partner's Short-Suit Leads	p. 208
Summary	p. 209
Defensive Plays by Second Hand	p. 210
Playing Defensively Before the Dummy	p. 210
Playing Defensively Before the Declarer	p. 221
Summary	p. 222
Continuation Plays	p. 224
Applying Leads Through Strength and Up to Weakness	p. 227
Shifting to a Suit Other Than Partner's Lead	p. 228
Summary	p. 231
Opening Leads Against a Suit Contract	p. 232
The Most Desirable Leads Against a Suit Contract	p. 232
Other Good Leads Against a Suit Contract	p. 233
Opening Leads Based on the Bidding	p. 237
Summary	p. 238
Defensive Suit Play by Third Hand	p. 240
Discards (Signals) in Suit Defense	p. 242
Another Echo to Show a Short Suit	p. 245
Discouraging and Temporizing Discards in Suit Defense	p. 246
Third Hand Play to Short-Suit Leads	p. 247
Summary	p. 249
The Policy of Suit Shifting	p. 250
Summary	p. 255
Forcing the Declarer to Ruff	p. 256
Spotting a Danger Signal	p. 261
Not Forcing When It May Establish a Trick in Dummy	p. 262
Forcing the Dummy	p. 265
Preventing a Declarer From Discarding	p. 266
Summary	p. 267
Trump Leads by the Defending Side	p. 268
A Similar but Simpler Situation	p. 270
Killing Ruffing Power With the Opening Lead	p. 271
Summary	p. 274
Over-Ruffing by the Defending Side	p. 275
Leading a Low Card for Over-Ruffing	p. 278
Summary	p. 280
Advanced Play and Expert Technique
Introduction to Part II	p. 281
The Less Common Finessing Situations	p. 283
The Obligatory Finesse	p. 285
Finessing to Eliminate a Guess	p. 288
Again the Simple Finesse Is Not Enough	p. 290
The Backward Finesse	p. 292
Summary	p. 294
Safety Plays	p. 295
Refusing a Trump Finesse	p. 296
Rendering an Adverse Ruff Useless	p. 297
Providing for the Worst Possible Distribution	p. 298
Providing Against a Special Kind of Adverse Distribution	p. 300
Refusing a Trump Finesse to Lose but One Trick	p. 302
A Safety Finesse	p. 303
A Safety Play Against the Queen	p. 304
Providing Against a 4-1 Break in Trumps	p. 306
Giving Up a Trick When It Is Seemingly Unnecessary	p. 307
Establishing a Tenace for the Sake of Safety	p. 309
Unblocking as a Safety Measure	p. 310
A Safety Play in a Side Suit	p. 312
The Acme of Foresight in a Safety Play	p. 313
Destroying an Entry Card to Play Safe	p. 314
Summary	p. 317
End Plays	p. 318
A Simple End Play	p. 322
Throwing the Lead in the Suit Desired as the Return	p. 324
An Elimination End Play	p. 326
Choosing Between an End Play and a Finesse	p. 328
Making an End Play for an Extra Trick	p. 330
The End Play at a Suit Contract	p. 332
Another End Play When There Is a Trump Suit	p. 334
A Throw-in With Another Suit	p. 336
An End Play by Giving Up a Trick That Might Be Saved	p. 337
An Optimistic Try for an End Play	p. 338
Another End Play as the Only Chance	p. 340
A Brilliant End-Play "Coup"	p. 341
Another End-Play "Coup"	p. 343
An End Play in Trumps	p. 345
Summary	p. 346
Defense Against End Plays	p. 347
Escaping an End Play by Unblocking	p. 348
Proper and Improper Defense Contrasted	p. 350
Protecting Partner From an End Play	p. 352
Superior Attack Met by Superior Defense	p. 354
Making the Declarer Guess	p. 357
Summary	p. 359
Counting	p. 360
Counting Makes Possible a Double End Play	p. 362
Giving Up Losers to Get a Count	p. 364
A Simple and Common Method of Counting	p. 366
Using a Percentage Play When the Count Is Doubtful	p. 368
Placing Cards From the Bidding	p. 370
Counting by the Defending Side	p. 372
Mathematical Tables	p. 373
Summary	p. 373
Coups	p. 375
The Bath Coup	p. 375
The Deschapelles Coup	p. 376
The Trump Coup	p. 380
A Double Simple Coup	p. 383
The Double Grand Coup	p. 386
Defense Against the Trump Coup	p. 386
An Unnecessary Finesse in Preparing for a Coup	p. 388
Trump Coups in General	p. 390
Summary	p. 391
Squeeze Plays	p. 392
The Simple Squeeze End-Play Situation	p. 392
Working Toward the Squeeze	p. 394
The Backward Squeeze	p. 396
The Pseudo-Squeeze	p. 398
The Progressive Squeeze	p. 400
A Squeeze to Obtain a Count	p. 403
The Double Squeeze	p. 404
The Essentials of a Squeeze Situation	p. 408
The Vienna Coup	p. 409
The Vienna Coup Par Excellence	p. 411
Choosing Between a Squeeze and a Finesse	p. 413
Making an Adversary Squeeze His Partner	p. 414
Summary	p. 415
Two Unusual Echoes	p. 417
The Trump Echo	p. 417
The No-Trump Echo	p. 419
Summary	p. 420
Miscellaneous Advanced Plays	p. 422
Holding Up With King-Queen and With Queen-Jack	p. 422
An Ace-King Hold-Up to Avoid a Guess	p. 425
Establishing a Trick in a Short Suit First	p. 426
Leading into a Tenace--The Time Element	p. 427
Leading into a Tenace to Establish a Suit	p. 428
The Time Element and the Opening Lead	p. 429
Unnecessarily Giving Up a Trump Trick	p. 430
Choosing Between Two Re-Entries	p. 431
Keeping the Dangerous Hand out of the Lead	p. 432
Trumping Your Partner's Ace	p. 433
"Double Dummy" Playing Problems	p. 434
Duplicate Strategy	p. 436
Summary	p. 436
Psychological Strategy	p. 438
False-Carding	p. 439
Refusing to Play Third Hand High	p. 444
An Unusual Play	p. 445
Misleading the Opponents by Playing Normally	p. 446
Desperation Tactics by the Declarer	p. 447
A Desperation Surprise Lead	p. 448
A Deceptive and Unusual Lead	p. 449
Leading Against Slams	p. 450
Leading Against Doubled Slams	p. 451
Leading Away From an Ace	p. 452
Another Unconventional Opening Lead	p. 454
A Pair of Unusual Deceptive Plays	p. 455
Two Deceptive Ace Leads	p. 456
Summary	p. 459
Planning the Play	p. 460
Plan of the Declarer	p. 460
At a No-Trump Contract	p. 460
At a Suit Contract	p. 461
Plan of the Defending Side	p. 462
The Opening Leader Against a No-Trump Contract	p. 462
The Opening Leader Against a Suit Contract	p. 462
Third Hand	p. 463
Summary	p. 463
Some Modern Innovations	p. 464
Suit-Preference Signals When Ruffing	p. 464
Extensions of Suit-Preference Signals	p. 467
What Do You Lead from Three Card Suits?	p. 470
Some Loose Ends	p. 472
Delaying for a Squeeze	p. 472
An Extension of the No-Trump Echo	p. 474
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Watson's Classic Book on the Play of the Hand at Bridge

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