Theo Todman's Book Collection (Book-Paper Abstracts)

Amazon Customer Review

1. On first reading Mike Lawrence's book on card combinations, I was disappointed. In fact, the book only deals with how to play seven particular suit combinations (one chapter on each). The obvious disappointment is that, even after having fully mastered the book, one will ostensibly only have mastered seven suit combinations!
2. Yet, on further consideration, any disappointment was mitigated by two realisations:
   … 1) At least one will have mastered seven suit combinations; that is, be able to play them perfectly in any of a number of situations - no trumps contracts, suit contracts, contracts where entries to dummy are at issue etc.
   … 2) One expects that the logical discussion employed to analyse these particular hands can be gradually applied to other suit combinations.
3. The title "humbling concept" applies here, as Mr. Lawrence's book makes it clear how difficult a task it is to become a master of bridge. Let us say there are 200 suit combinations which actually are of interest. Then one would need to read almost 30 books of this size (227 pages) to master the topic thoroughly.
4. In conclusion, I suspect that if it were possible to discuss all (or even most) suit combinations thoroughly in one book, Mr. Lawrence might have written such a book. Instead, one should respect his decision to concentrate on seven suit combinations, and we can perhaps hope for other books to follow.