The perfect book for when you're ready to move beyond 52-card pickup Feeling rummy? Ready to bridge the gap? In the mood to go fish? Card Games For Dummies is your source for rules, strategy, and fun. You'll learn everything you need to know to play and win at your family's favorite games, plus a bunch of others that are probably new to you. If you're the gambling kind, you can get started with poker, blackjack, and other casino favorites, right here. This handy guide takes card game enthusiasm to the next level and explains the tips and tricks that can turn game night into some serious competition. Learn the official rules for all your favorite card games Discover strategies for winning at bridge, poker, hearts, and many more Play easy games that are perfect for the whole family Get started in the world of online card gaming Card Games For Dummies will whet your appetite for play. Start shuffling!

This is the 5th in the American Contract Bridge League's series of bridge books for beginning and advancing players. Successfully used for over 20 years, this edition has been updated to reflect modern theory. Lessons include Negative Doubles, Other Doubles, Overcalls, Two-Suited Overcalls, Blackwood and Gerber, Finding Key Cards, Leads and Signals, and Two-Over-One.

Learn how to play bridge with this simple step-by-step guide. While good bridge classes are, of course, of great value, this book is itself the complete tutorial. It will help you to learn properly without other help and give you a solid foundation on which to start playing this absorbing game. Work at your own pace Understand the key basic principles Learn about the Acol system of bidding Discover how to play a hand, both as declarer and in defence

Here is a new edition of this exhilarating and ingeniously laid out guide to improving both your bidding and play. Sixty hands are presented and you must first find the key bid. Then, as declarer, you have to work out the best way to play the hand. By the time you have completed the sixty problems you will undoubtedly be a much improved player.

Checkers, backgammon, chess and Go. Poker, Scrabble and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across fourty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against "modern rationalism" and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon programme so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt; the Indian origins of chess; how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programmes better than any human player and what that means for the games-and for us. Funny, fascinating and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history and how play makes us human.

Using the same format as The Pocket Guide to Bridge, this book will provide a handy pocket summary of the popular SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card) bidding system. In a concise but readable manner, it goes over the basic ideas of SAYC, which is the most popular natural system for online bridge players around the world. The contents are based on Standard Bidding with SAYC, by the same authors.

Designed for those who have finished a beginner course and would like something easy to carry around for reference, this handy little book will fill a major gap in bridge literature. In a humorous, conversational style, it covers all the basics of Standard bidding as well as offering some ideas on play and defense. The book includes a scoring table and a useful glossary of technical bridge terms. Designed to fit in a purse or pocket, this book will be perfect for those times when you want to point to something and say "Look partner, it says here you should have done this!" and win your argument! This book is aimed at the same market as 'The Biggest Little Bridge Book in the World', which is published by a New York bridge club, and not readily available elsewhere. This guide is, however, much more comprehensive in its content.

Bridge is a superb card game, perfect for keeping your memory sharp, played by millions around the world. This Fast Fact Finder is a guide and summary to the basics of bridge for the beginner and novice player, enabling players to check quickly important points in bidding and play. It is designed to be used in conjunction with Basic Bridge and Acol Bridge Made Easy, both by Ron Klinger. 'Many games provide fun, but Bridge grips you. It exercises your mind. Your mind can rust, you know, but Bridge prevents the rust from forming' Omar Sharif

This is the 2nd in the American Contract Bridge League's series of bridge books for beginning and advancing players. Successfully used by students and teachers for over 20 years, this edition has been updated to reflect current standards for playing bridge. This book concentrates on the play of the hand (making a plan, promoting winners, finessing, trumping losers, etc.). The initial bidding concepts are reviewed and Jacoby transfers and slam bidding are introduced.

A follow-up to the perennial best-seller, 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know, which has sold almost 35,000 copies and has been translated into French, German and Japanese, and won the American Bridge Teachers' Book of the Year Award in 1999. This book uses the same successful format as its predecessor, and will appeal to those who liked the original so much.

The Fun Way To Serious Bridge is for anyone who wants to learn and understand the fundamentals of the mind-stimulating and challenging game of bridge -- and enjoy every minute of it! Harry Lampert combines his skills as a bridge player and teacher with his artistic talents to bring you a totally new FUN way to learn the game. The magic of his superb cartoons and simple, informative language will help you to absorb the principles of serious contract bridge -- and remember them. You'll laugh and learn every step of the way from opening bids to strip and end plays. Whether novice or seasoned social player, this unique book will make good bridge a simple "trick." You'll learn all about:

* Opening bids, suit bids, response and no trump bids, and how to force bids
* Competition and the reasons and ways behind it
* Big hand bidding such as Blackwood Convention, grand slam force and Gerber Convention
* Patterns of play including how tricks are won, the finesse, establishing a long suit, when to pull and delay trumps and entries.
* Defensive and advanced play -- plus much more!

Regarded as one of the best ever written on the topic of signaling in the game of bridge, this book will help you defend better regardless of your experience or skill level. It explains several ways to describe your holding which are commonly used by experts but not generally known.

It compares new methods with old, including the pros and cons of upside-down versus standard signaling. It explains how to draw inferences, not only from partner's signals, but also from what he fails to do. Even if you are an expert and think there is nothing about defensive signals you don't already know, you will probably see a few situations you haven't thought about and discover how other experts handle them.

Originally published in 1995, this book has been unavailable for more than 20 years.

For the past fifty years, Monday afternoons in New Haven have always been the same: Roz, Rhoda, Bea, Jackie and Bette - the Bridge Ladies. A card table with four folding chairs (and one dummy seat). A plate of homemade cookies or brownies on the kitchen counter somewhere, largely untouched. And once they begin the game, hours of silence, punctuated only by the sound of cards being plucked up or snapped down. As a child, Betsy Lerner thought the Bridge Ladies were fascinatingly chic, with their frosted hair-dos and shiny nylons. To the teenage Betsy, they seemed hopelessly square. As an adult, working in New York City, they were a relic of her past. But when her husband accepted a job in New Haven, she found herself right back where she started. Suddenly, the Bridge Ladies came hurtling back, their Monday lunch and Bridge Club still ongoing. They had accepted their lot in life and were, mostly, grateful. They didn't talk about their problems, much less those involving sex, relationships, or their children. On paper, they were unremarkable, even dull. But once Betsy started really looking at them, she realized that they were anything but. Wildly perceptive and, in turns, hilarious and fearlessly vulnerable, Lerner's memoir is required reading for anyone who has ever had a mother. And it teaches us an important lesson: Facebook may connect us across the world, but social media can't deliver a pot roast and it won't dry your tears.

Runner-up in the beginner/novice category of the American Bridge Teachers Association 2020 Book of the Year Awards. Bridge is a hugely popular pastime enjoyed by millions, and yet whole books have been written about single aspects of the game, and learning the seemingly complex rules and language can be a daunting idea. So this is the essential guide to beginning your journey and getting in on the fun, covering everything you need to know to get started and progress, from bridge basics, language and no-trump declarer play to analysing hands and working with trump suits. Defence play is then covered before going into bidding essentials and further bidding techniques and conventions. Keeping score and advice on taking things further rounds off this invaluable guide for the beginner. Clear explanations and examples make learning easy, and fresh writing from seasoned expert Mark Horton keeps things interesting, while a glossary of terms is a handy at-a-glance reminder of the meaning of key words and phrases. Suitable for standard playing methods used worldwide.

Another title in the best-selling '25' series, using the same popular format. Over the last fifteen or so years, the 2/1 Game Forcing bidding method has gained substantial popularity, but for various reasons it is not taught in beginner classes. This book is therefore designed for players who are familiar with Standard bidding and are interested in switching to the 2/1 method. It covers basic concepts as well as the differences between 2/1 and Standard auctions, and includes a discussion of more advanced ideas and conventions that fit particularly well with 2/1 methods. Existing books on this topic (notably by Max Hardy and Mike Lawrence) are too advanced and/or too technical for this level of player.

20 years ago, bridge writer Mike Lawrence published a series of short pamphlets for intermediate players with advice on various aspects of bidding and card play. Long unavailable, this material has now been revised, updated, and republished in three anthology volumes, each comprising about 10 of the original booklets. The topics here include: defence, including opening leads, signalling and third hand play, declarer play including endplays, simple squeezes, loser on loser plays, and timing. There is also a general discussion of the mistakes we all make in cardplay but need to avoid. This is the third volume in a three-volume series, 'Mike Lawrence Bridge Tips', based on bridge tips for intermediate players first published twenty years ago.

You asked for it! 25 Conventions You Should Know has sold more than 250,000 copies since it was first published, and continues to top the bridge bestseller lists. Over the years, readers have suggested that it would be an even better book if it offered some way to practice what they had learned. Well, here it is: a brief summary of each of those 25 conventions, together with example hands which can be dealt out and used to apply your new knowledge. Bridge teachers and students will find this book invaluable.

The pompous and self-important Abbot returns from his heroics in the Chennai Bermuda Bowl to discover that his fellow monks have taken little interest in this adventure. It is no easy matter for him to once again endure the aggravating ups and downs, familiar to us all, of life as a bridge player. The Abbot plays matches and duplicate sessions against a range of colourful opponents. How can it be that a battle-hardened veteran of the Bermuda Bowl cannot always sweep such moderate opposition aside? Claude Yorke-Smith, his overbearing brother from Devon pays the monastery a visit. The Abbot spends a week in the Convent of Hilda's and is shocked by the severe attitude of the Mother of Discipline. In the final part of the book, the Abbot is visited by his partner from Chennai, the Parrot. How will the bridge players of Hampshire react to such a feathered and outspoken opponent? Other Abbot titles by David Bird: Miracles of Card Play; Unholy Tricks; Doubled and Venerable; Cardinal Sins; The Abbot's Great Sacrifice; Heavenly Contracts; Celestial Cardplay; The Abbot and the Sensational Squeeze; Divine Intervention; The Abbot, the Witchdoctor and the Disastrous Double; The Abbot, the Parrot and the Bermuda Bowl.

The classic first book on declarer play at bridge, covering the topic with clarity, skill and humor. More than fifty years after its first publication, this book has been revised and updated to bring it into line with modern methods of play and bridge education.

Based on Barbara Seagram's bestselling book, 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know, each book in this series offers the opportunity to learn more about a common convention and to practice it on your own or with a favorite partner.

First published in 1988, this book has been out of print for several years. It's a mystery and a bridge textbook all in one, and accomplishes both exceptionally well. Based on the author's own experiences, and set in and around a Manhattan bridge club, the story includes many real-life characters whose names will be familiar to readers. First in a set that includes I Shot my Bridge Partner.