Readers of David Bird's humorous bridge stories will give a delighted welcome to this new addition to the celebrated series. As ever, the irascible Abbot makes his acerbic presence felt and the long-suffering fraternity diverts itself with much entertaining and excitingly interesting bridge. For more than 30 years, David Bird's tales of the bridge-crazy monks of St Titus have appeared in magazines around the world. In this tenth collection in book form, the pompous and self-important Abbot hosts a tricky visit from Monsignor Vecchio, a representative of the Vatican authorities. Everything must be done to ensure that the visitor, a very moderate bridge player, finishes well in the monastery duplicate. In another story, the Abbot visits the Convent of St Hilda's and is not overjoyed to be put in partnership with the 80-year-old Mother of Discipline. Regular followers of David Bird's work will know what to expect - a first-rate mixture of excellent bridge, entertaining characters and sparkling dialogue.

Played around the world - according to one famous player, if you play bridge, you will make friends wherever you go. If you want to bid accurately and achieve greatly improved results at the bridge table, you have to master the Losing Trick Count. It is a tried and tested method of hand evaluation which has stood the test of time. Ron Klinger, famous international player, author and teacher who has more books to his credit than many players have had good hands, has brought the LTC up to date by relating it to modern systems and conventions. Now in its fifteenth impression since original publication, this remarkable book is set to hold its place as the standard text on the Losing Trick Count.

Victor Mollo's Bridge in the Menagerie is on any list of the all-time top ten books on the game. The stories it contains, originally published in the 1960s in Bridge Magazine and The Bridge World, found a worldwide audience in book form. Everyone can relate to the characters (the Hideous Hog, the Rueful Rabbit, Oscar the Owl, and the rest), the bridge hands are brilliant, and the stories themselves hilarious. This is the book against which all subsequent attempts at bridge humour are measured. Bridge in the Menagerie has been out of print for some time, and is reissued now with illustrations by bridge cartoonist Bill Buttle.

Here you can learn how to avoid bidding contracts that prove to be impossible to make. Bidding depends to some extent on the agreed system, but underpinning those methods are standards that are common around the globe: the Golden Rules. The authors combine experience from both sides of the Atlantic and whether you play Acol, Standard American or a Strong Club System, this book offers plenty for you. THE GOLDEN RULES OF CONSTRUCTIVE BIDDING follows the pattern of previous books in this series giving examples of when to use the rule and when not to do so.

This is the most important technical bridge book published since Larry Cohen's To Bid or Not to Bid (60,000 copies in English alone), and may well reach an even bigger audience. There are two aspects to this book, both unique. First, Rodwell describes and explains a host of innovative ideas in cardplay, strategems that can be used as declarer or defender. Second, under the heading 'Common Mistakes', Rodwell talks about the mental side of the game: areas that mark the key differences between an average player and a successful one. The first draft of this book has been in existence for more than fifteen years, but it is only now that Rodwell is prepared to allow his 'secrets' to become public knowledge.

Starts at the beginning, introducing the mechanics of the games. It covers bidding, play and defense.

This book is for you if you are serious about wanting to improve your duplicate skills. If you and your partner adopt most of the bidding methods recommended in the Guide to Better Duplicate Bridge and you regularly follow the guide-lines for declarer play and defence geared towards matchpoint thinking, you should find that your scores will improve significantly. Guide to Better Duplicate Bridge was first published in 1995 and this edition contains the standard methods which have proved successful in the past as well as recent developements, how they work, when they apply and why you can expect to obtain better scores by adopting them.

David Bird and Ron Klinger made a great hit with KOSHER BRIDGE, which was enthusiastically applauded world-wide by the leading bridge critics. In THE RABBI AND THE WEAKER SEX, the retitled KOSHER BRIDGE 2, the cast returns in splendid form and the Rabbi, kindly and considerate, maintains an essential balance between the hilariously warring factions and the excellence of the bridge ensures that readers will be properly instructed while being immoderately entertained. If you did not read the first book you can start with this one. We guarantee you will come back for more.

Whether you play in person, or online, this is a must for bridge lovers around the world This is an important, and in some ways revolutionary, book. The point count method of hand evaluation was first proposed in 1914 and popularized in 1934 by Milton Work. The Banzai Method advanced by David Jackson and Ron Klinger improves on Milton Work by reassessing the relative values of the honour cards but also adds a further dimension to accurate hand evaluation by including the tens and is of crucial importance when assessing balanced hands. According to Eric Kokish, an internationally respected American authority, who has contributed the Foreword, the many example deals are an eye-opener. When you finish this book, it is unlikely that you are going to look at your hand the same way as you have in the past.

Many players feel trepidation when faced with playing a no-trumps contract. In this book Ron Klinger shows you how to approach such contracts without fear. The correct lines and logical thinking are explained clearly and you will not only make your contracts, but also score overtricks as well. This book is about the strategy of succeeding as declarer when you play no-trumps. The first section deals with the approach you should adopt before you even play a card from dummy. Then follow heaps of practical examples, problems for you to solve, deals that arose in major competitions where the very best players did not always find the right answer. Most importantly, the solutions include the logic behind the right play, the clues to locate the missing cards and ideas on how to induce opposition error when you have no legitimate chance for success. In this book, Australian expert Ron Klinger shows you how to come out on top more often. Where you might have felt reluctance when playing no-trumps, you will emerge with a new sense of confidence. No-trumps will no longer hold any fears for you.

To discover which opening lead is best from a given West hand against a particular auction, the authors use computer software to generate 5000 deals that match the North-South bidding. (The West hand remains the same and the other three hands are chosen randomly).

The software then plays these deals automatically, seeing which of the 13 possible opening leads works best at both IMPs (rubber bridge/Chicago) and match-point pairs.

By analysing the results, the authors pass on to the reader the secrets of finding the best lead against notrump contracts on a wide range of different auctions.

'One of the best introductory books I have come across is Basic Bridge. I recommend it to beginners and teachers alike' The European 'By far the best' Bridge Plus This is a definitive Acol textbook, equally valuable to rubber or duplicate bridge players. Set out as a course which can be used in conjunction with bridge classes or as a self-teacher, the book covers all the basic principles of bidding and play and is packed with exercises and quizzes on everything that has been taught. Recommended as the ideal textbook for learning the game, Basic Bridge will continue to be the standard beginner's guide to rubber and duplicate bridge for the foreseeable future. If you only ever buy one bridge book it has to be Basic Bridge.

Why are the world's top players so successful? They make very few basic mistakes! Players at a less exalted level often make the same mistakes over and over again throughout their bridge careers. In this book you will see 52 of the most frequent mistakes - in bidding, play and defense.

The chapter on each mistake will contain several deals where the original player went wrong. It will end with some tips, to help you avoid making such errors yourself. In the first section, Mistakes in the Bidding, the author has used deals from high-level tournament play, including world championships. The cardplay and the defense in such events are usually excellent but it's amazing how often experts surprise the kibitzers with a bid or call that seems to be a clear mistake. Experts make such errors less often than the rest of us but you will find it instructive to look at these wayward decisions. Try to analyze why the bid was wrong before reading the author's thoughts on the matter. When it comes to declarer play and defense, expert mistakes are rarer. These errors will be illustrated with constructed deals, or examples from a lower level of play.

Every time you eradicate one of these 52 common mistakes from your game, your results will improve. Avoid all of them and... who knows what may happen?

200 hands to practice opener's rebid after responder has limited his hand by raising opener's suit or bidding no trump. Focuses primarily on auctions at or below game level - appropriate for beginners.

Bridge students quickly discover that basic bidding will only get them so far. To improve it is necessary to master a certain number of bidding conventions, and be prepared both to play them and to play against them. Each of the books in this series covers a number of useful conventions, explaining them carefully along with numerous examples and quizzes to help the reader understand what is being learned. Included in this book: Opening Leads, Attitude, Count, Suit Preference, Rule of Eleven, Present Count, 3rd Hand Play, 2nd Hand Play, Logic/Communication/Intuition and Review Hands. PATTY TUCKER (Dunwoody, Georgia) is an ABTA Master Bridge Teacher and co-founder of Whirlwind Bridge and Atlanta Junior Bridge. Her success at the bridge table culminated in her victory in the 2000 Baldwin Flight A North American Open Pairs with long-time bridge partner Kevin Collins. Patty and Kevin were married in 2006.

THE WINNING BRIDGE CONVENTIONS SERIES Competitive Doubles Bridge students quickly discover that 'basic' bidding' will only get them so far. If they really want to improve, it is necessary to master a certain number of bidding conventions, and be prepared both to play them and play against them. Each of the books in this series covers a number of useful conventions, explaining them carefully along with numerous examples and quizzes to help the reader understand what is being learned. Included in this book: Takeout Doubles, Negative Doubles, Responsive Doubles, Snapdragon Doubles, Balancing Doubles, Re-opening Doubles, Support Doubles, Maximal Doubles, Common Misconceptions and Practice Hands. PATTY TUCKER (Dunwoody, Georgia) is an ABTA Master Bridge Teacher and cofounder of Whirlwind Bridge and Atlanta Junior Bridge. Her success at the bridge table culminated in her victory in the 2000 Baldwin Flight A North American Open Pairs with long-time bridge partner Kevin Collins. Patty and Kevin were married in 2006.

145 hands to practice opening, responding and rebidding auctions beginning with a Weak Two or Preempt. Includes a thorough discussion of the importance and methodology of counting tricks, as well as a discussion on the impact of vulnerability on bidding.

110 hands to practice opening, responding and rebidding auctions beginning with a Strong Two Club opening bid. Includes a discussion of strong hands which should not open Two Clubs as well as complete practice with the Two Diamond Waiting response.

110 hands to practice responder's rebid. Each section includes an analysis of what has opener told you, to ensure users fully understand the auction progression prior to responder's rebid. An excellent review of workbooks one through four

Beyond Roman Key Card Blackwood! Easley Blackwood introduced and developed the Blackwood Convention. Eddie Kantar then expanded the Blue Team's Roman Blackwood into the Roman Key Card Blackwood that has dominated expert circles for the past half century. Variable Key Card Blackwood may be the next logical step. VKCB allows partnerships to address many problems that neither Blackwood nor Roman Key Card Blackwood solves, while keeping the auction low enough to avoid bad slams. And, better yet, it is relatively easy to use. Suppose you have enough power for slam but only the J732 in trumps, in support of partner's five-card suit. You also know that partner has only one of the top three honors. If the honor is the ace, the slam seems good. If it is the king, the slam is not so good. Using VKCB, partner can tell you which honor he has. What about holding 8732? Now you need partner specifically to have the ace and the jack. VKCB has a solution for that problem as well. In fact, you might also find out about a particular side king, all before committing to a slam and without any cuebidding. VKCB solves your problem without going past the safety of the five-level. KEN REXFORD (Ohio) is a Master Point Press author known for his contributions to bidding theory. His first book, Cuebidding at Bridge, introduced the bridge world to a modern approach to Italian cuebidding. His most recent books for Master Point Press are Modified Italian Canape System, New Frontiers for Strong Forcing Openings, Really Unusual Notrump (R.U.N.T.), and Overcalling Opponent's 1NT.