Cuebidding at Bridge: Modern Approach

This is a fascinating little gem, that appears to have gotten much less recognition and praise than it deserves. Ken Rexford has done a superb job of laying down "the basics" of enhanced Italian style cue bidding, and on top of that has built a comprehensive structure for advanced (dedicated) partnerships that are willing to go beyond the basics. Bear in mind, this is not for casual partnerships, as they involve logical but rather elaborate relay and response structures. These structures are mostly geared towards 2/1 GF systems, but can easily be adopted to any other system. Slam bidding has never been so much fun!

Yet another book on using cue bids for slam. There are more general uses for quebids. Yet all we can seem to document is Michael's or slam. Harrumph.

The book is good but lacks example hands. The book arrived very late !!!! I was expecting at least 1 week before it arrived.

A clearly written methodical approach to cue-bidding to slams. Will produce immediate improvements for a serious partnership willing to practice.

If you are looking for a book on learning traditional (Ace first) cuebidding, this book will not help you. Instead try Ron Klingers "Cue Bidding to Slam"If you are looking for a book on Slam Bidding, including judgment, and high level bidding, this book will not help you. Instead try Alan Moulds "Step by Step Slam Bidding". In fact I disagree with several of the authors sugegsted auctions, I think they are poor, and emphasize incorrect aspects of the hand in question (ex - bididng a weak suit that can end up as the trump suit in a high level contract). The author also criticizes an auction by Meckwell, saying he would find the slam they missed. Perhaps so. But maybe Meckwell would stay out of 2 bad slams the author would end up in. In otherwords, one hand picked example does not constitute proof. Meckwell use lots of science and have lots of tools, and great judgment. If they choose to not investigate a slam, they are probably right in the majority of cases.If you are looking for a book on current expert cue bidding, where 1st and 2nd round controls are bid at the same time (Aces, Kings, and singletons), this book will not help you. One of the problems with this method (also known as Italian Style or Mixed Cue Bidding) is you can have ambiguous sequences such as1 Heart - 3 Hearts (Limit Raise, not Bergen)4 Clubs - 4 DiamondsThis shows a club dontrol and denies a spade control.The 4 Diamond bid shows the Spade control but what about a Diamond control?There is also the possibility of ending up in Slam off 2 aces.Offsetting this, there are Slams this method will find or avoid that traditional ace first fails on.Its a complex topic, and I had hoped this book would cover it.It doesn't.This book is an experimental system of techniques used by some players, but it's not commonly used. The system is quite different from other cue bidding systems1S - 2C [2/1 Game force]2D - 2S [establishing spades]2NT = weak trumps, does NOT imply an NT oriented hand2NT = bad trumps.Skipping 2NT implies good trumps.If opener bids responders first suit it shows one of the top 3 honors.3NT is not natural, its to show "Serious Slam Interest". Bypassing 3NT denies serious slam interest.Bidding out Shape is not emphasized.Also, there is a downside to revealing detailed information. If playing strong opponents, you may end up going down in more games as you reveal your shape. Revealing your hand during bidding is a double edge sword against good players.Those who are facinated by system may like this book (for them I rate it a 4 or 5 for curiousity sake). For the other 90% you will never use these ideas, and probably never see them used against you.

The book contains an assortment of complex and memory intensive methods that at the right time can help you bid small and grand slams your opponents will miss, or help you stay out of some bad slams.Off seting this - you are very likely to have memory lapses or confusion (is that a natural bid or a cue bid?)The methods presented are from many sources and not all usuable at once (they are either mutually exclusive or not internally consistent with each other)No examples of judgment are given, just cherry picked hands that present "hard to find slams" that clever you found because of your using these complex methods.No real examples are given of mixed cue bidding (also known as Italian cue bidding) where kings and aces are cue bid at the same time. This is a popular technique with experts (rather than cue bidding just aces) and should have been focused on. There were some examples taht also used the other methiods on top. Not useful to thos ewho don't want to use the other methods, and only want to focus on teh Mixed cue bidding.This book will NOT help you with your cue bidding. It is only a presentation of complex methods some pairs use. While interesting to some, its of no value to most non experts. Non experts should work on their judgment and worry about conventions later.Also, these methods are not just complex, they are prone to bad results when one of the pards misinterprets the meaning of a bid. They might overall give good results to a partnership that spends a great deal of time practicing them.For any other partnership, avoid them. Any good results will be offset by lapses. And your opponents will be allowed to call the tournament director and complain the explanation given was incorrect. :-(This book is more a "oh thats interesting, but I would never use it" type of book. Impractical.