This book was first published in 1959 and quickly became one of the classic textbooks for the playing of bridge. The original version has been out of print for some time and the book is now being republished in its first revision in 50 years. In its new modernised form, bridge players will find the ideas much more accessible, while handy end-of-chapter quizzes reinforce the concepts.

At one time the game was even bigger than baseball. Today bridge is played by more than twenty-five million people in the United States alone, with Bill Gates, a sitting Supreme Court justice, and the guys from Radiohead among its devotees. In this spirited homage, Edward McPherson recounts the colorful history of the game and his attempts to master its mysteries in time to compete at the North American Bridge Championships--despite being barely able to shuffle cards, let alone play competitively. Insightful, funny, and steeped in respect, "The Backwash Squeeze" is an affectionate view of a grand game by an outsider trying to make his way into the inner circle.

Originally published in 1980, this book quickly became recognized as a 'must-read' for any would-be bridge expert, and has never been out of print. Now, almost 30 years later, the author has revised, updated and expanded it to take into account modern developments in the theory and practice of competitive bidding. Anyone serious about improving their game needs to own a copy of this book. Alfred Sheinwold's review of the original edition: 'If you read only one bridge book this year, this should be it.'

Selecting the best line of play in a bridge hand as declarer is not easy. Most novices know something about basic odds and percentages, and can often find a line that offers a reasonable chance of success. However, the expert will skilfully combine options, so as to take advantage of more than chance. Rather than putting all his eggs in one basket, he will 'stay alive', squeezing out every extra chance. In this book of intermediate bridge problems, Eddie Kantar shows the reader how to do this - there is always a line of play that will allow you take all your chances, and bring home your contract.

Larry Cohen is one of the most successful American bridge players of the last 20 years. In My Favorite 52, Cohen presents a collection of his favorite personal bridge moments, using an intimate 'over-the-shoulder' presentation, taking the reader through more than 60 deals (no, not just 52!). Each deal is important to him in some way, or technically interesting, or just plain fun.

The book's interactive style allows the reader to follow bidding and play, and even to make their own decisions at key points. Read this book for fun, or study it in depth and learn from it - whichever you choose to do, you will find it hard to put down.

1927. In this volume, Milton C. Work, Member of the Committee on Bridge Laws of the American Whist League; a member of the Card Committee of the Whist Club, New York, The Racquet Club, Philadelphia, The Cavendish Club, New York; Editor, Auction Bridge Magazine, shortens the road to winning bridge and aids new players in quickly grasping the essentials of Auction Bridge, and serves as a concise and dependable guide for experts.

Prison life has a silver lining for Tim - bridge. An expert player, he finds that his ability earns him unlooked-for respect amongst his fellow-prisoners. This is a bridge novel filled with unusual characters and great deals - and a bridge game that gives new meaning to the term 'cut-throat'!

The stories and anecdotes in this collection have one thing in common: in every case, the contract is 6NT! The first half of the book features the world's finest players at work, tackling all manner of 6NT contracts - some commendable, some truly awful. You will have a chance to plan your play in these contracts yourself before seeing what fate befell the original declarer. The second half of the book contains humorous short stories, featuring many of David Bird's well-loved characters: the bridge-crazy monks of St. Titus Monastery, the nuns of St. Hilda's Convent, and the Rabbi and his entourage. There is further action from Cholmeley School, from the missionaries whose main task in life is to convert the Bozwambi tribe to the Acol bidding system, and even some tales involving Robin Hood, the Sheriff of Nottingham and the much-maligned Sir Guy of Gisburne. Although some of these stories have been published in bridge magazines around the world, none of them have previously appeared in book form.

This is the fifth (and according to the author, the very last - but don't hold your breath!) edition of what is acknowledged to be the definitive book on a convention that every serious player uses. Completely revised and updated from the previous version, this newest version contains even more leading-edge ideas, and is full of examples, quizzes and practice hands. A must for the tournament player. Includes, among many other features: - Why you should play 1430 and 3014 RKB responses, and when - The extensions of RKB: the queen ask, the specific king ask, and more - How to handle voids, as asker or responder - RKB in minor-suit auctions - 60 practice hands for you to bid with your favorite partner This is the only book that explains every facet of one of the most popular conventions in modern bridge. 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.

Winner of the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year award in its original self-published edition, this book takes an entirely new approach to teaching bridge. It is intended to be a short first course on bridge for newcomers to the game. No prior experience with any card game is necessary, and the ideas are developed in short, easy steps. Gary Brown is a Canadian who now lives in Melbourne, where he runs the Brown School of Bridge. A successful tournament player, he is also an experienced high school teacher, and ideal background for his current profession. A regular columnist for two bridge magazines, he is already working on his next book.

This is an author who has been there and seen it all. As a multiple world champion, and former president of the World Bridge Federation, no one is better placed to discuss the big issues that face the game today. He can talk authoritatively about cheating at the top levels of the game, destructive bidding systems, sponsorship, professional players, and the other big issues - and he does. He opens the closets of the bridge world, and shows us the skeletons inside that no one wants to talk about. Wolff names names: as the title implies, he has always been prepared to call a spade and let the chips fall where they may. Wolff describes his own life and career in bridge with a brutally honest and emotional appraisal. This book will receive major review attention, and will be as controversial as one would expect a book from this author to be.

This book gives the reader a chance to watch an expert play a number of hands, either as declarer or defender. Most of the hands come from the author's own experience in top-level play. As usual in this type of presentation, the reader is offered the opportunity to make his own decisions at critical points in the play, and will be able to learn from situations where an expert took a different line of play - rightly or wrongly! It is aimed at advanced skill levels.

Unique in the literature of the game, this book describes and classifies hundreds of tactics, stratagems and coups used during the play of the hand at bridge. Each technique is illustrated with an example deal, and its application fully explained. The topics run the gamut from the simplest finesses to the most complex squeeze positions, and cover literally everything in between. This book will be an essential component of any bridge library.

The late Terence Reese, perhaps the greatest bridge writer of all time, introduce the "over-the-shoulder" style of bridge writing in his classic "Play These Hands With Me." In this wry homage to the master, Horton leads the reader through a plausibly logical line of play on each instructive deal, but usually a line that ends in failure. In each post-mortem, the "expert" realizes how he could have improved on his play, and (usually) made his contract. The deals are all from top-class events, which prove to be a remarkably fertile source of such material. A book filled with subtle humor and great bridge.

Written for complete beginners, this book is based on material that Barbara Seagram uses in her own classes to introduce hundreds of new players to the game every year. The book will take readers to the point where they can enjoy a social game with friends or begin to explore their local bridge club.

Endplays are an aspect of bridge declarer play that many intermediate players think are beyond them. Yet while they can be extremely complex, the basic principles are not. Five years ago, David Bird wrote "Bridge Squeezes for Everyone," a book about an even more complex topic that has become a modern classic. Using the same straightforward, conversational style with recaps and quizzes that characterized the earlier book, this new title will make endplays understandable to many readers who have been afraid to attempt to learn them.

Julian Pottage worked on a number of books with the late Terence Reese, and this one pays homage to a man who was certainly the best bridge writer of his time. One of Reese's classics "Play These Hands With Me" pioneered the 'over-the-shoulder' style of bridge writing. What that book did for declarer play, this present one will do for defence: the reader can follow the thinking of an expert player, stopping at critical points in the play to make their own decisions about how to continue...This is both a tribute and a sequel to one of the most famous bridge books ever published: "Play These Hands With Me" by Terence Reese. It is intended for intermediate to advanced skill levels (for serious club and tournament players).

In bridge, the 'declarer' is the one who nominates which suit is trumps; his/her partner's hand becomes the 'dummy'. Every intermediate bridge player is familiar with the routine techniques of dummy play. What this book describes are less well-known stratagems that may save the day in non-routine situations.

In this book, learning to recognize and appreciate threat cards plays a central role as you begin to understand how squeeze play operates. It won't be long before you can look at a layout and begin to imagine how the East-West cards will need to lie in order for your squeeze to be successful. Very soon, you will get to the point where simple squeezes are a part of your regular bridge arsenal. The first edition of this book was named Book of the Year in 2006 by the American Bridge Teachers Association. DR. JULIAN LADERMAN is a retired mathematics and computer science professor (Lehman College, City University of New York). He has written two books that have won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year Award. His first book A Bridge to Simple Squeezes won in 2006 and A Bridge to Inspired Declarer Play won in 2009. For many years he wrote the bridge column for The Bronx Journal.

Why aren't you an expert bridge player? What makes a bridge expert, and why does he or she always come out on top compared to the average club player? No, it's not the ability to execute esoteric squeezes and endplays - they simply don't come up enough to account for the way the experts consistently win against weaker opposition. It's much more basic than that. This book contains a collection of deals that illustrate the difference between the expert player and the would-be expert. These illustrate the kinds of decisions that will come up in every club game, situations in bidding, play and defense where the amateur will often go wrong, but the expert never will. A study of the concepts in this book will take the reader a long way from amateur status towards actually becoming an expert player.

Chthonic, the bridge-playing computer is back! This time he is attempting to teach humans a little about the game of bridge - not in order to turn them into competent players, because he knows that is impossible. But he thinks he may be able to get the reader to the point where his mobile phone won't laugh at him behind his back (it does, you know). Each chapter of this wickedly funny book highlights a different 'human bridge error', and points out why and how it should be avoided. Chthonic Chthonic, the irascible bridge-playing computer, modestly describes himself as the world's best bridge player. Danny Kleinman Danny Kleinman of Los Angeles is a prolific bridge writer, theorist, professional player, and teacher, who is a regular contributor to several bridge magazines. He is a Contributing Editor of The Bridge World, and is one of the moderators of 'The Master Solvers' Club' in that magazine. He also writes about backgammon, another game which he plays at an expert level. Nick Straguzzi Nick Straguzzi of Mullica Hill, NJ, is a software analyst specializing in artificial intelligence and knowledge management. Nick has researched ways in which computer game theory could be applied to bridge, but concluded that it would be far easier to write about a perfect bridge-playing computer than to actually build one.

Defenders in bridge invariably base their strategy on declarer's bidding. Yet declarers often fail to return the compliment. They play without a thought of what the defenders have or have not done. Just one bid from an opponent may tip off declarer to the winning play - perhaps warning of a bad break or that a finesse is doomed. When the defenders have made several bids the declarer may be able to make spectacular double-dummy plays. The problems in this book contain situations where an astute declarer can listen to the bidding, or lack of it, and derive information critical to the success of his contract. This book was originally published in 1985, and in this new edition it is substantially revised and expanded. Julian Pottage is a British bridge expert who is well-known for his problem books. His previous titles include "Play or Defend?" and "Bridge Problems for a New Millennium".

Most bridge books ignore the fact that bridge is a game between opponents. Instead, they teach players how to strive for theoretical perfection in bidding and play. Dan Romm isn't interested in that - he's interested in winning, which is something he has done for more than forty years against the best players around. Romm also isn't very interested in tournaments - mostly he plays for money; he plays with and against world champions, and is a consistent winner. The way he accomplishes this, the art of treating bridge as a four-person competition, not as a one or two-person mathematical exercise, is the subject of this book. Psychology, deception, and misdirection are among a host of (legal!) tactics that the reader can learn to use himself, on the way to winning more often. This work includes a foreword by Paul Soloway, a many-times World Bridge Champion. It teaches streetwise bridge tactics - a poker player's attitude to winning at bridge.