Competitive Bidding in the 21st Century

Rating:
Summary: Competitive Bidding in the 21st Century
Review: Fantastic Book!! Marshall Miles is at his best when he tackles the most difficult area of Contract Bridge - Competitive Bidding. His book is the latest in a line of excellent resource materials for the advancing player and covers all aspects of competitive bidding. Miles introduces a complete competitive bidding system, which taken as a whole, will answer many of the questions a partnership might encounter during a session. It is well laid out and covers each aspect of competitive bidding in a detailed manner. He starts with some interesting comments on overcalling with 4 card suits, details how both the overcalling and opening sides could deal with various situations including when "Not" to negative double and ends with a chapter on various "Gadgets" available to the serious competitive bidding partnership.

Rating:
Summary: Ahead of the Leading Edge
Review: Miles's ideas will not be for everyone. Read the book any way. Some of your opponents will adopt these avant garde methods (or similar but less extreme notions from Bergen and others). Those folks will bushwhack you if you do not understand what they are doing.

More importantly, seeing a radically different view on competitive bidding can drive a dialogue with your steady partner. Since competitive bidding and defensive play often stand among the weakest links in a partnership, that dialogue cannot hurt. Maybe, you'll simply firm up your current agreements without adopting anything Miles describes, but the dialogue will have served a valuable purpose.