Author: Bill Treble

In the modern game, the majority of auctions are competitive, and every improving player needs to acquire the tools to handle this kind of bidding.

This text covers the basic building blocks of competitive bidding (takeout and negative doubles, preempts, overcalls, competing over their notrump openings and dealing with competition over your own, forcing pass auctions, the Law of Total Tricks, and others). It describes a number of useful conventions and gadgets with which the reader needs to be familiar, and suggests other optional treatments for partnership discussion. Each chapter ends with reviews and quizzes, and the final chapter is a summary quiz covering all the material.

This book will fill a major gap in bridge literature - most books on this topic are intended for expert-level players.

About the Author: Bill Treble (Winnipeg, Canada) is an expert bridge player and former bronze medalist in the Canadian Teams Championship. His wife Sue, a bridge teacher, wishes Bill would listen to the advice in this book.

Paperback: 224 pages: 2012

Contents

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Chapter 1: Principles of Competing and Basic Tools

• Distributional Types
• Losing Trick Count (LTC): Use this tool with care
• Takeout Doubles
• Overcalling
• Two Bids or One?
• The Dos and Donts of Negative Doubles
• Better Late than Immediately or Never: Delayed Actions
• Oh, for the Good Old Days of the Penalty Double&nbsp&nbsp

Chapter 2: How High Can You Fly?

• Preemptive bidding
• Jump Overcalls
• A Wrap-up on Strategy&nbsp&nbsp

Chapter 3: Two! Two! Two Suits in One Bid!

• Michaels 62
• The Unusual 2NT (U2)&nbsp&nbsp

Chapter 4: Bidding as the Auction Progresses

• In the Sandwich Position: What to Do?
• Free Bids in Competition
• Responding to Partners Opening Bid after a Takeout Double
• Third-Seat Openings
• Balancing An Overview&nbsp

Chapter 5: Notrump Auctions

• What to Play over Their 1NT Opening?
• The Simple Option Landy
• The Popular Option Cappelletti
• The Aggressive Option DONT
• The Penalty Double and its Continuations
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