First published in 1955, this comprehensive survey of declarer play and defence has been very hard to find for the last decade. It is perhaps the single most-requested out-of-print bridge book, and is widely regarded as the best intermediate-level book on card play ever written. Gardener's technical expertise and Mollo's witty writing style combine to provide a unique instructional experience. This new edition has been updated and modernized by Bridge Magazine editor Mark Horton and also includes a new foreword by Gardener's daughter, Nicola Smith, herself a multiple world champion.

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.

Using the same format as The Pocket Guide to Bridge, this book will provide a handy pocket summary of the popular 2/1 bidding system. In a concise but readable manner, it goes over the basic ideas for Standard players who want to make the switch. The contents are based on Thurston's 25 Steps to Learning 2./1 which was the American Bridge Teachers Association Book of the Year in 2003.

A complete refresher course for bridge players returning to the game in middle age, summarising the key changes to the game that have occurred over the last thirty years. Bridge is a game that people often decide to learn as empty-nesters. There are also those who learned the game when they were younger -- but while they would like to start playing again, they are nervous about how much the game may have changed. There are new ways of bidding, new conventions, and other things they will need to know before they are confident about playing even with friends. That's exactly the audience for this book -- those who are 'coming back to bridge'. It summarizes the key changes that someone who has not played for twenty to thirty years will encounter, and explains simply and clearly what they will need to know to be comfortable in the modern game. Skill level: Intermediate

The perfect stocking filler for lovers of Bridge. When you open this little book, the state secrets of the game of bridge lie in your hands. They cover everything you need to know to go from being a bridge beginner to an international mastermind! The book is split into short, concise and easy-to-follow tips that will help to improve all aspects of your game and strategy. They reveal how to play a good defensive hand, how to devise a bidding system, what you can read from an opponent's play, plus lots more. The beautifully decorated pages and luxury pocket style make this book something a little bit special. With it by your side you'll always come up trumps!

Ten years after their award-winning Planning the Play of a Bridge Hand (August 2009, ISBN 978 1897106 51 8), Seagram & Bird tackle the hardest part of the game: defence. Using the same step-by-step approach, they guide the reader through the minefield of signalling, making a defensive plan and, above all, counting - points, tricks and distribution.

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.

An expert bridge coach's guide for beginners who are looking to move their game up to the next level. This book is for readers who have finished their beginner lessons, and are trying to move their game up to the next level. The tips cover all aspects of bridge -- bidding, play and defence. Advice and examples are drawn from material Barbara Seagram has developed for her students over the last twenty years -- it's like having your own personal bridge coach sitting beside you!

The classic first book on defensive cardplay at bridge, covering the topic with clarity, skill and humour. 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.

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.

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

Just about every bridge player over forty has read Victor Mollo's Bridge in the Menagerie, a book that is on any list of the all-time top ten on the game. Towards the end of his life, Mollo continued to write stories about the same well-loved characters (Hideous Hog, Rueful Rabbit, Oscar the Owl and the rest), but they appeared in various magazines around the world, and if you weren't a subscriber, you didn't get to read them. This is the fourth and final collection of these lost Menagerie gems, collected for the first time in book form. Previous titles in this series: Bridge in the Menagerie; The Hog Takes To The Precision; Diamonds are the Hog's Best Friend; Swings and Arrows.

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.

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!

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.

Having doubled the opponents, you now have to find the best way of enforcing your call. Are the odds so close that defeating the contract is the over-riding priority? But if the opponents' intention were to deprive you of a certain game you should be looking to inflict severe penalties. These are the sort of questions that will face you in this quiz book of bridge problems. The deals have been chosen from major national and international championships. In almost every case you have the chance to do better than the defenders did at the table. As long as you tackle the problems with zeal and determination, your own defence is bound to improve, even if you do not find the best answer every time.

The opponents have doubled your contract and you have to decide how best to play the hand. Are you aiming to make your doubled contract? Is there a possibility of doubled overtricks? These are attractive objectives, but often they are not realistic. Should you accept that you will not make your contract and limit your losses as best you can? Obviously it is better to go one down than three or four down and it is important not to panic just because of the double. If you have sacrificed against the opponents' game or slam, which would have made, it is vital that your loss does not exceed the value of their contract. This quiz book contains problems taken from major national and international championships. In most cases you have the opportunity to outperform the actual declarers. No matter how you do, seeing the logic and technique behind the right play will no doubt improve your own standard.

CROSSWORDS WITH A BRIDGE FLAVOR Now bridge players who enjoy crosswords can combine their favorite pastimes! For this book, New York Times and Los Angeles Times crossword constructor Jeff Chen has designed 52 brand-new crosswords with bridge-themed clues and solutions, providing hours of challenge and fun. The puzzles in this book range from Easy (N.Y. Times Monday level) to Challenging (N.Y. Times Thursday level). JEFF CHEN is a children's book writer and a crossword puzzle constructor with 50+ puzzles published in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. He's been playing bridge for ten years but still couldn't identify a squeeze or a Deschapelles Coup opportunity even if it came up and bit him on the bottom.

If you are a middling player and are keen to advance, this book will show you the way forward. David Bird has taken ten key areas in bidding and play and has applied his considerable skills as a player and critic to prove how results can be gained. The topics covered range from bidding the opponents' suit and battling for the part-score to support doubles and redoubles, and splinter bids and fit jumps. The essential points to remember are summarised at the end of each chapter and there are problems to solve which will show how much you have taken on board. Why wait any longer? Your opportunity to become a better player is here!

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.

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