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.

If you want to prove you're a good poker player, you don't have to battle against the best. Nobody really cares if you ever bluffed Phil Ivey or got Daniel Negreanu to make a bad call. You're at the table for the money, not stories of conquest. A disciplined player, one who's playing for the right reasons, would rather sit with the worst, those he's sure to outplay. He's looking for donkeys and donors. He's hunting fish.
In "Hunting Fish" author Jay Greenspan sets out on a cross-country drive---from Connecticut to Los Angeles---looking for players he can outclass. In casinos, underground clubs, and home games throughout the country, Jay shared tables with the most inept gamblers America has to offer. In South Carolina he wiped out some racial-epithet-spewing good ole boys; in Houston he fleeced the country club set; and in Vegas he happily pounded drunken tourists.
"Hunting Fish" is, however, not merely the story of a hustler's travels. In addition to fleecing suckers, Jay was convinced he could beat the very best and make it as a full-time pro. This trip gave him the opportunity to build his bankroll to the point where he could test his mettle in high-stakes games when he reached Los Angeles. Although to play in the high-limit rooms at Commerce Casino he needed a steady nerve---and a fatter bankroll. In his three months on the road, he needed to pad his roll with an additional twenty thousand dollars. That's a lot of fish to hunt.

"Essential Poker" is a long overdue compilation of the brightest, daftest, most memorable and, above all, most entertaining comments ever made about the remarkably popular, and enduring game of Poker. In its 150 or so years of existence, Poker has fascinated some of the world's great thinkers, great gamblers and great personalities, many of whom have found something pithy, funny, helpful, original and quotable to say about this deceptively simple yet perennially absorbing game whose raison d'etre is man's obsession with beating the odds, the fates and the opponent opposite at the card table. These bons mots about poker will not make you a better player, nor a better person. But they may make you a better bettor, and will certainly provide you with a veritable royal flush of poker pleasure. Nothing can match the thrill, drama and sheer joie de vivre of playing poker - but this book captures the essence and spirit of the world's greatest gambling game and lays it out for all to see - just like the greatest winning hand you ever drew. And that's not bluffing.

What makes this book different than any other blackjack book is that it was written for beginner and novice blackjack players. Unlike most gambling books, where the author tries to prove how much he knows by using complicated math and confusing terms to make his point, Blackjack - Made Simple will not intimidate or overwhelm new players. If you are new to blackjack, or just want to improve your understanding of the game in general, this book was written for you.
This book covers: The basic fundamentals of playing blackjack and all aspects involved in the game of blackjack.
It also includes an introduction to card-counting, blackjack tournaments, basic strategy, simple betting strategies and table etiquette.

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.

"I had just learned standard bridge bidding and was trying to learn 2/1. Every person that I played with had their own style and followed their interpretation of standard bidding. Then I met Bob Gish and he introduced me to his bidding system: The New Awakening. I could not believe how this system has helped me. I make better bids and get to good contracts."

Manish Dixit

Life Master

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.

Professor Silver is back! The hero of "Tales out of School", "A Study in Silver", and "Bridge the Silver Way" takes on new opponents as the author finds fresh literary targets to lampoon. Yes, the man who brought us the Silver Certainty Principle, the Eastwood convention ("Do you feel lucky, partner?") and the concept of the supremacy of the heart suit in bridge now takes aim at (among many others): "The Matrix" ("Will you cut the red cards or the blue?"); "The Three Musketeers" ("All for one, all for me"); "All Quiet on the Western Front" ("Have you heard of the Geneva Convention?"). This new collection will keep Silver aficionados laughing all the way through the Christmas holiday season.

Crazy Pineapple 8b Poker covers the rules, strategies and review examples one needs to play this insane version of poker. A popular home game among enthusiasts, Crazy Pineapple 8b is a is a hi/lo split game meaning that the person with the highest hand splits with the person with the lowest hand (with the 8b standing for "Eight or better" - eight being the highest card allowable for a low hand). The game is played initially with three cards unlike Texas Hold'em which starts with two. One card is discarded after the flop. The book also briefly covers Omaha 8/b, Pineapple and Tahoe. The author, Kim Greenblatt, a technical specialist and "poker hater" (though he is pretty good at it), has written the popular book, "Practical Low and No Limit Texas Hold'em Ring Games." Readers of that book wrote in and asked him to write a book on this nutty variation of poker that is still played in some casinos and card clubs. Part of the proceeds from the sales of this book will go to finding a cure for Rett Syndrome.

Improve your memory, improve your game! The aim is to encourage players to improve their bridge by solving the puzzles This challenging book of puzzles will help you to improve your game by concentrating on defensive play. By the time you have solved the last puzzle, your astonished partners will be well advised to secure copies for themselves. Whatever the situation, this splendid selection of defensive play puzzles will test your skills - and you will learn from the detailed explanation that Ron Klinger gives on the page following each puzzle.

Originally published in London in the 1920s as a revised and enlarged edition based on Hoyle's early works of the 1700s. The book is an illustrated compendium of over eighty games and their varieties including card, billiard and board games. These are fully explained with rules and advice on play. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

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.

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.

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.

Each book is a collection of bridge problems which provide a fun way to practice and develop your skill in an important cardplay technique at bridge. These books are designed to add an extra dimension to the detailed instruction contained in Bridge Technique series (Bird & Smith), which won the American Bridge Teachers? Association Book of the Year award in 2002.

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).

This book is about computer simulation, experiments, and theoretical approaches to unify various strategies in black jack. The computer simulation uses the simple strategy that a player must stay when the number of low cards is two or more. Otherwise, when the number is exactly one then the player must hit. Contrary to the author's expectations, the simple strategy did give consistent positive results for the player.

Experimenting further, the author found other observations that are important in winning such as when to start playing, busting condition of the dealer, and the shifting property of the cards. The author unified all the observations using the TM*L model. In the model, T represents the tens 10, J, Q, and K. The M* represents the medium cards 7, 8, and 9, and the ace. L represents the low cards from 2 to 6.

He also represented the game using a partial differential equation. The solution of the equation showed the sensitivity of winning with the tens, the medium cards, and the low cards. In addition, the solution verified the shifting property of the cards. The property shows that good cards move from the player to the dealer. Conversely, they can move from the dealer to the player.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Originally published in London 1890. This interesting little book gives descriptions and advice on fourteen different variations of the game of Dominoes and a chapter on Solitaire. Skill at dominoes is founded on accurate calculation, ready observation, and rapid deduction. The author deals with these, and the various rules, in a professional but straight forward manner. The book is well illustrated with explanatory line drawings.Keywords: Straight Forward Manner Dominoes Line Drawings Accurate Calculation Author Deals Solitaire Variations Observation London Game

Learn Bridge in One Hour by Samir Riad will show you a new way to learn a complex game in ten easy steps. The key to success is learning while you play. You don't have to memorize anything at first, just use the reference tables provided in each section to guide you through bidding, scoring, and playing the hand. You'll quickly learn the basics of the game. George Washington played bridge and now you can, too. Appropriate for all ages, the author hopes to induct a whole new generation of players into the fun game of bridge.

Everyone knows that control-showing bids are the expert route to slam, but it is remarkably hard to find a comprehensive treatment of this vital area of the game. Until now, that is. This is an exhaustive work, covering a lot of territory. The average reader won't want to use everything they read about here - and it would be a mammoth undertaking to try to adopt it all - but it will get them thinking about their bidding and offer many ways to improve it. After all, bridge is the ultimate game for thinkers. This book fills an important gap in the literature of bridge for serious players. Foreword is by Brent Manley, editor of the "ACBL Bulletin".

If you think a gang of real-life geeks can't take on the world and win big . . . think again. And whatever you do, don't sit down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is his amazing true story: the jaw-dropping, zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of cards-and turned it into a fortune.
The ultimate bully-magnet, Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until destiny came in the form of a trading-card game called Magic: The Gathering. Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultracool world champion.
Once transformed, this young shark stormed poker rooms from the underground clubs of New York City to the high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card-counting blackjack team in the country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel's squad of brainy gamers became the biggest players in town. Then they took on the town's biggest game, the World Series of Poker, and walked away with more than $3.5 million.
Thrilling, edgy, and ferociously feel-good, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the stuff of pop-culture legend. And David Kushner, acclaimed author of "Masters of Doom," masterfully deals out the outrageous details while bringing to life a cast of characters rife with aces, kings, knaves . . . and more than a few jokers. If you secretly believe every player has his day, you're right. Here's the proof.

"From the Hardcover edition."

If you're like most beginning bridge players, you want to know more about bidding systems, and especially conventions. Even if you just play socially, it can't hurt to add a few choice gadgets to your bidding arsenal. This book describes and explains 25 basic conventions that you can easily assimilate into your own bidding. Each one is clearly and simply explained, and you'll see how it fits in the ACOL system if you decide to use it. Each chapter includes a helpful summary of key points and a quiz with full explanations of all the answers.