Adventures in Card Play

by Hugh Walter Kelsey, Géza Ottlik, Hugh Kelsey

Book Overview

G?za Ottlik had a remarkable talent for discovering and analysing strange and fascinating aspects of card play in bridge. This brilliant book is the result of his collaboration with Hugh Kelsey whose skill at high-level analysis of bridge problems was equalled only by his ability as a writer able to express complex ideas in simple prose.

ADVENTURES IN CARD PLAY is regarded universally as one of the all-time great classics of bridge.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0304368075
• ISBN13: 9780304368075
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Fun, instructive and it happens in real life

I have been away from the tournament trail for a couple of decades, and am re(re)reading this book for the joy of the positions examined. It is truly an analytic masterpiece presented in a style that I find most enjoyable. While it is true this is not a book for other than expert players... you really need to know Clyde Love or an equivalent squeezes book thoroughly... these positions do come up at the table. I was playing a few months after this book was first published at an all expert table (I was the least expert at the table) when an immaterial squeeze position arose. It was discussed as it was being played, from about trick five. The fellow who claimed these position can't be found at the table simply knows not whereof he speaks. Perhaps he can't find them, but certainly one can find them. On the other hand, these positions are not common... finesses are common, squeezes and end-plays routine but not common in the sense of finesses. These positions are less common still. I think the book is lots of fun. The worst that can happen if you read it is your bridge imagination ( & , hopefully, visualization) will be expanded while you read a thoroughly pleasant book. PS I happened upon these reviews whilst looking for a bridge book of similar complexity to engage my imagination.

Wow

There's probably not much practical value to this book, but the hands are just amazing.

The Sistine Chapel of Bridge Books...

The most sublime bridge book ever written is an extensive exploration of a core of intricate themes in card play. Covered are entry squeezes, trump squeezes, entry-shifting squeezes, elopement, throw-ins, dummy reversal, and backwash squeezes. There are also three chapters on a unique subject, squeezes, finesses and throw-ins against cards that do not immediately lead to any material gain, yet are necessary to set up a later trick. In reading these chapters, one feels that universal secrets are being revealed, like observing the birth of stars through some powerful telescope. A life-enriching experience that begs for an annual re-rereading!

Desert Island book

This is one book I shall take onto the desert island with me -- at least, I would if I hadn't given away all of my copies to various bridge-playing friends.I first picked up "Adventures on Card Play" many years ago, at the same time that I was learning about squeezes and throw-ins and other beautiful techniques in card play. Simple squeezes, strip-squeezes, criss-cross squeezes, ... I thought I'd seen it all. After all, how many different ways can there be to play a hand of cards?Kelsey and Ottlik's wonderful, glorious book showed me just how wrong I was. Each chapter (with delicious chapter headings like "The Fiercer Trump Sqeezes") is a banquet in itself, hand after hand of richly ingenious card-play manoeuvres. It's stunning, exuberant entertainment. Just like Raymond Smullyan in his remarkable "Chess Mysteries" books, Kelsey and Ottlik have the ability to squeeze nectar from a stone. Uncanny.

The play of the cards at the highest level!

Based on a series by Ottlik published in The Bridge World, this book features the most difficult play problems and deepest analysis of the play of the hands in all of bridge literature! The book is more for entertainment than instruction, because no one plays hands as difficult as these this well consistently, even at the championship level! Lots of squeezes with and without the count, dummy reversals, and throw-ins, and Ottlik is especially fond of elopement plays. Not for beginners, and casual players will find the play difficult to keep up with. More experienced players will likely absorb some of what's going on: Stunning exhibitions of declarer play!