'Life's tough being an ace.' On everyone's list of all-time favorite bridge books is Right Through the Pack by Robert Darvas and Norman Hart. Published just after the end of World War II, the book presents 52 tales using exquisite deals, one for each of the cards in the deck. Now, decades later, Julian Pottage has collected 104 deals - two for each card in the pack. He presents each story through the eyes of the cards, paying homage to Darvas and Hart. Keeping the intermediate bridge player in mind, Pottage takes extra care to have the cards educate while entertaining the reader. "The deals are excellent and the setting pleasantly reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland." - David Bird

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.

Winner of the 2012 ABTA Book of the Year Award. 65 hands to practice cuebidding Aces and Kings. Includes responding to cuebids and the concept of mild slam try. Does not include use of technique to cuebid voids or singletons.

60 hands to practice asking for help as well as responding to a Help Suit Game Try. Includes practice identifying when, and how, to respond with an alternate suit when lacking help in the requested suit.

A conventional double to make a game try after you and partner have found a major suit fit.

In 2004, Julian Pottage's 'Play or Defend?' was the IBPA Book of the Year. An unusual problem format, it gave the reader all four hands and challenged them to analyze the deal and decide whether they wanted to play or defend. This sequel comprises 72 problems, presented in the same unique fashion, and will appeal to the same readership.

A convention designed to help your partnership reach those borderline games which succeed when you have well fitting hands.

A major suit raise structure designed around the advantages that can be realized when assured that responder has a four-card or longer raise in your major suit.

One of the most useful conventions in bridge, Splinter Bids help you find those elusive slams.

1NT Forcing is the keystone to the 2/1 Game Force system of bidding. It is the one convention you should learn going forward.

This work focuses on the opening and bidding of the major suits at duplicate bridge. It represents a cohesive and complete system that gets the partnership off to a good start on most contracts as the consideration for the score sheet is best initiated with concern for the majors--before notrump or the minors.

Travel and Teach at Sea Learn how to break into the wonderful world of teaching bridge on luxury cruise ships. This little book covers everything you need to know from finding an agent and making a lesson plan to packing the right clothes. " A must read for any bridge teacher who wants to teach on cruise ships." Barbara Seagram

Whether you're an advanced beginner, an intermediate or an advanced player, this valuable book can help you win more frequently and gain greater personal satisfaction from contract bridge. This is a book on the play of hands, full of wise counsel; it will entertain experts and help them teach others. EDDIE KANTAR (Santa Monica, CA) is one of the most popular and prolific bridge writers in the world. A winner of two World Championships, and a member of the Bridge Hall of Fame, his many books include Modern Bridge Defense, Advanced Bridge Defense, the hilarious Kantar on Kontract, and of course, Roman Keycard Blackwood. His work appears regularly in many bridge magazines around the world.

How to bid those pesky 5-4 major suit hands after opening NT bids. 23 pgs.

How to bid a minor after partner's No Trump opener? Four Suit Transfers will solve those problem hands.

One of the most useful conventions in bridge. Jacoby Transfers are used by responder after a Notrump opening bid or overcall to show hands with five-card or longer major suits.

Antoinette Akasheh is a veteran bridge player who has successfully participated in many national and international bridge tournaments. This book provides her very simple way, with her extensive knowledge of the game, to take the reader along an interesting journey, to absorb the most popular, skilful, entertaining, passionate brain exercise, which will keep one alert and entertained for years to come. Antoinette uses her wealth of experience to introduce the reader to 'Bridge' in her first book, written in a simple straightforward manner.

Bridge is one of the few games you don't have to play for money to enjoy. It's a fun game played by people who want to have fun, but often hide that fact with a serious face and demeanor. Bridge, like good love making, takes time, effort, patience, concentration, and energy and is good for your mind, body, and soul. In Alterman Big Club, author Dr. Stanley B. Alterman presents a new world of bridge-the Alterman Big Club (ABC)-that enhances the current aspects of the game you now enjoy eliminating complexity and adding constructive precision.

Developed over the last five years, Alterman Big Club details a simple, novel system that bridge players can use to obtain above-average results. He uses his personal experience and research as a starting place for an insider's guide that presents some history of playing systems and insights into the key strategies used by successful professional players. He invokes the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle to allow players to learn the ABC system as easy as they did their ABCs.

Alterman Big Club shows how ABC is a precise system marked by with natural, simple bidding rules and none of the complexity and ambiguities of Precision or Standard American bridge bidding systems.

In the modern game of bridge, the majority of auctions are competitive, and every improving player needs to acquire the tools to handle this kind of bidding. This textbook covers the basic building blocks of competitive bidding (takeout and negative doubles, pre-empts, overcalls, competing over their no-trump openings and dealing with competition over your own, forcing pass auctions, the Law of Total Tricks). It describes a number of useful conventions and gadgets with which the reader needs to be familiar, and suggests other optional treatments for partnership discussion. There are reviews and quizzes, and the final chapter is a quiz covering all the material.

When God created the No-Goods, which He called Man, He also taught them bridge. You'll watch Him, J.C., Sister Mary (who never draws trump) and Brother Bill (who recites smutty limericks) play out over 50 bridge hands, some of which require divine inspiration if the best play is to be found.

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.

Granny's Kiss represents a new bidding system for contract bridge scored with International Match Points. The book provides the reader with both the system and the reasons and objectives which lie behind its bidding treatments.

A book to assist all developing bridge players in learning to use the tools of the experts to become better players. Can also be used by teachers as a textbook. Covers Standard American Bidding, a new outlook on hand evaluation, a new outlook on defense, traditional declarer play including simple explanations of how to execute strips, end plays, and squeezes. Teaches counting. Four chapters on understanding and using the Law of Total Tricks.

Twenty years ago, Kantar set about distilling his bridge wisdom into a trilogy of books for the intermediate player, one each on Bidding, Play and Defence. Each consisted of several hundred short tips, and the author believes that any reader who absorbs even a fraction of them will improve his or her game by at least 25%. The tips in this book have been completely revised and updated by the author in the light of modern bidding, and a number of new tips have been added.

Bridge Philosopher 3 by James S. Kauder He's back That old curmudgeon, the Bridge Philosopher, is back for a third try at explaining the art of dummy play. He claims that he is losing his memory, but he hasn't lost his ability to reason or to analyze a bridge hand in an instant. And, as usual, he has cogent (often biting) comments to make about the sad state of affairs in the world at large: the rising cost of living; unfunded Social Security liabilities; dysfunctional political parties. He unashamedly (in fact, somewhat proudly) admits to personal weaknesses of one sort or another: diet; neatness; relationship issues; and all around dissatisfaction with the world. Learn a little; laugh a lot. He isn't the only one who isn't getting any younger.