Competitive Bidding in the 21st Century Paperback – March 1, 2000

This book should be on the bookshelf of all serious bridge players and it should be read studiously. It presents several excellent analyses and explanations of the weaknesses of the standard modern approach to defensive bidding. While the analyses are excellent, the solutions offered, while almost always intresting with some merit, frequently are not so sound. Miles fails to recognize that a more effective strategy to resolving the weaknesses of the standard modern defensive bidding approach now in vogue might be to adopt a completely new and different structural approach rather than trying to put band-aids on a structure that he convincingly demonstrates to be fundamentally flawed. His solutions, such as overcalling on unremarkable four card suits at the one level (which are often combined with canapé style rebids after these overcalls), fix some problems while causing others that, in my opinion, are at least as severe (if not more severe) than those addressed.Nevertheless, discussions about subsequent treatments and competitive bidding by both responder and advancer are intriguing and offer food for thought that can be readily incorporated in a variety of defensive bidding structures and competitive auctions stemming from opening bids in a variety of constructive bidding systems. Again, one may not always agree with Miles's solutions or conclusions (and I certainly do not), but one will undoubtedly come away with a more thoughtful and considered view of competitive bidding and be able to incorporate new ideas that improve the competitive arsenal now employed by his or her favorite partnerships. Excellent discussions regarding the use of negative doubles, doubles of artificial bids, card showing doubles, support doubles, penalty doubles, responsive doubles, competitive and game try doubles, and defenses to commonly used conventional openings abound. Perhaps worth the price of the book alone is the set of analyses pertaining to competitive doubles when the opponents use two suited overcall conventions such as the unusual 2NT and Michaels cue bid; I think Miles is onto something that should become expert standard in this realm. Also warranting serious notice are his discussions of the theoretical issues surrounding, and the proper application of, two suited overcalls.While overall the discussions of the various topics covered were sufficiently comprehensive to be valuable, there were times when the ideas presented were overly superficial. For example, Miles touched on the theoretical benefits and drawbacks of negative free bids, but this discussion got less than a page's worth of space and leaves an intelligent and thoughtful reader interested in this topic thirsting for far more. Also, a lot of unnecessary text is spent rehashing what other mainstream authors have covered without raising on any points that are controversial or different. And sometimes Miles presents complete deals that add virtually nothing to his presentation; they seem to be included only to allow him to tell some story about his playing experience. So I found parts of the text to be boring and a waste of space that could have been dedicated to other topics that received only superficial mention (e.g., negative free bids or the advisability of the emerging tendency of some experts to make traditional weak two bids on true two suiters).Despite the shortcomings that I allege for many of the specific stylistic recommendations and conventional treatments Miles espouses and the unevenness in the narrative quality of the topics discussed, there is little doubt the thinking and serious bridge player will become a more thoughtful and effective competitive bidder after reading this book. There's a lot of meat to chew on within these pages.

Very well written and makes sense!!! Easy to understand the philosophies and actual demonstrations of the bidding systems and conventions.

Marshall Miles is an excellent writer. It goes downhill from there. If you read all the multi-star reviews, you will notice how they all say, sooner or later, that it's unlikely you will be adopting Marshall Miles' ideas, but . . . . THAT is the problem. Those of us good enough to say such things are not the real market. The market is people trying to learn something. And that is where this well-written book fails. I read it through when I bought it. Although some ideas seemed out-to-lunch, I tried to use some of those ideas in club play. Whoa is me. Not a single idea seemed to work for me, and I quickly erased what I read from my memory. Why not read books by Mike Lawrence, who is an even better writer (and world champion) and whose ideas all work.

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.

I bought this book for a Bridge class for intermediate players, however it is for the more advanced player. I (and a few others in the class) find the material somewhat "scattered." The author presents so many examples of different things to do, the material becomes overwhelming and somewhat unmanageable. A good foundation and experience in playing is a must to get much from this book.

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.

...and the book is better. But, it still has flaws cause the theory many places doesnt stick. Apparently Miles is the "big boss" at the table. A title you get when you dont trust your partner. Prebalancing has never been winning bridge, so why make a book about it?Still there are some useful modern conventions in this book, so its not totally useless. First time when I started to read it, I put it away and thought about throwing it. But, at least I have to admit its better than that...

I bought this book, unseen, because it was Amazon UK's top-selling book on competitive bidding. I wasted my money.It is the worst bridge book that I've ever read.The author may have valid knowledge to impart, but his writing style fails to communicate the message.The book is composed of chapters (naturally), but that is the extend of its structure. Each chapter rambles aimlessly around the subject. Sentences are far too long and are punctuated by irrelevant asides. There is no structure of theory, principles, conclusions, or a resulting bidding strategy.Your eyes read the words, you finish each chapter, and then you think "So what?".Save your money and look elsewhere.Update 2010-----------I'm now happy with my competitive bidding, thanks primarily to a book by Paul Mendelson (see my review). But I've also read a couple of books by Mike Lawrence, on different topics, which are both very good. I see he's got a best-seller on Overcalls, and I'm sorely tempted to get a peek at it.Update - April 2011-------------------I've now got Mike Lawrence's book ("The Complete Book of Overcalling"?), and it's awesome! Mendelson took me in the right direction with some concepts. Lawrence fills in lots of gaps, dots loads of i's and crosses loads of t's. See my review.But Lawrence, himself, admits that his book doesn't cover competitive bidding properly - only overcalls and the subsequent auction. He's written a couple of books whose titles begin with "Double" which he says are about competitive bidding - but I'd like to see them before I buy one. After all, the 'Mike Lawrence' section of my bookshelf is already pushing everything else out.Whilst I can read "The Complete Book of Overcalling" again and again, I'm still looking for the ultimate book on competitive bidding. I've investigated every one I can find, but am still not happy.

The content of the book is not brilliantly structured but it is a source of good ideas to consider and develop.

è molto interessante ed è scritto molto bene da un punto di vista didattico.lo consiglio a tutti i bridgisti che desiderano migliorare le prestazioni in gara con il loro partner abituale salvatore tambascia

あんまり体系的ではない。いろんな状況に対して、取り決めの提案をしている本です。まあ筆者もわりと有名なんで、全く役に立たないってことはないです。一部は結局ほとんど使ってるのを見たことがないですが、ごく一般的な取り決めも紹介されています（ダブル関連とか）結局流行んなかったっぽいのは、１ＭＯＣをカナッペにするっていうの。イタリアのどっかのペアが一時期使ってたようですが、アレは３枚以上しか保証しないブラウンステッカーだったようだからここのとは少し違うし。あとはジャンプＯＣをインターミディエートにするとか。ＯＣに対してアドバンサーにＴＲＦを使うことも結構推奨しています。これはよく見かけますね。でも、細かい解説はなされていません要するに、これを読んで、何かを使えるようにしようってのは間違いで、アイディアのひとつとして参考にしようって感じで読むべきだと思います。そこまで良いとは思わないけど。