When I woke up yesterday, my first thought was "I'll spend the day reading. I have all these bridge books I want to read!"
By dinner time, I had advanced by a whole chapter - maybe 6 pages. (Such is life. I traded reading time for family time.)
Nonetheless, in the evening I was able to largely finish the first of my bridge book order - Neil Kimelman's Improve Your Bidding Judgement. This book came recommended to me, as I was looking for a book that would help with judgement. The advice I was given was "Neil Kimelman's book is pretty advanced, but certainly would repay study".
I think I agree on both counts. The book generally focuses on bidding decisions in competition, which is exactly what I was looking for. Some of the auctions were a little over my head, and I wasn't exactly sure how to interpret the preceding auction. That will come with time, and rereading this book down the road will undoubtably open my eyes.
There were definitely a few points that were faitly accessible, including:
- takeout double vs overcall (one of these came up last night, and I think based on the book I made the wrong decision)
- opening NT vs opening 1M. (Not sure I agree, but I think his point is well made, and worth thinking about)
The high level double/pass/bid is something I certainly plan on revisiting as time goes on.
The problems/solutions at the back were useful, and I think illustrated that I have some ways to go before I fully grok the book.
This was the book I was most looking forward to reading. Hopefully I've learned something from it, and hopefully future rereadings will help even more.
I'm still waiting for Lawrence's 2/1 book, and I'm seriously debating picking up Thurston's. For now, I think that next up will either be Downey/Pomer's SAYC book (I think this is the book I have the best chance of breezing through), or Hardy's 2/1 book.
I'm hoping that working through some of the drudgery of bidding theory will help me when I get into the good stuff - the card play - later on.
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