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Partnership Bidding
Build your partnership the way the professionals do..... In Partnership Bidding, Mary Paul (one of Canada's leading woman players) reveals the partnership techniques used by the world's best players to prepare for competition. By working through the questionnaires in this book with your partner, you will be able to refine your bidding system, select the conventions that suit your style, define your defensive carding agreements, and give your game that winning edge. All players from intermediate to advanced who are serious about improving their game will learn from this unique workbook.
Mary Paul (d. 2019) was born in Romania and moved to Canada in 1950. In 1977, Mary was the first woman to win the open Canadian National Teams Championship (CNTC). She won the event again in 1993. In addition, she won seven of the nine Canadian Women Teams Championships (CWTC) held between 1980 and 1991. She represented Canada ten times in World Championships, winning two bronze medals.
Partnership Bidding - A Workbook
Available for download in an eBook Edition By working through the questionnaires in this book with their partner, readers will be able to refine their bidding system, select conventions and agreements that suit their style, define their defensive carding agreements, and give their game a winning edge. The first book ever published by Master Point Press, Partnership Bidding had been revised and updated to include today’s bidding methods.
Mary Paul (d. 2019) was born in Romania and moved to Canada in 1950. In 1977, Mary was the first woman to win the open Canadian National Teams Championship (CNTC). She won the event again in 1993. In addition, she won seven of the nine Canadian Women Teams Championships (CWTC) held between 1980 and 1991. She represented Canada ten times in World Championships, winning two bronze medals.
Pathways to Better Bridge Defense
Become a better defender! So you tend to get dealt very bad hands. I know exactly how you feel! But, facing the facts of life and recognizing that it is not your fault, you are going to have to accommodate this failing and improve your defense. It's a hard part of the game; even in international competitions, the standard of defensive play is, to put it kindly, modest. Yes, you will get plenty of reports of brilliancies involving spectacular switches, deceptions, unblocks and discards of honors. But for every one of those, there are countless others in which the display would disgrace any beginners' class. I am going to assume that you are a regular club or tournament player who knows the basics of defense but who comes unstuck when it comes to situations where you have to work the hand out in detail. This book will help you to improve dramatically in this area.
Danny Roth, of London, England, is a professional bridge teacher and writer with more than twenty books to his credit. His most recent MPP offering, 'How Good is Your Bridge' won the Best Book for Intermediate Students Award in 2008 from the American Bridge Teachers Association.
Patrick Jourdain's Problem Corner
In 1985, Patrick Jourdain was commissioned by Britain's TV Channel 4 to provide bridge problems as part of its Teletext service. The problems caught the eye of the editor of BRIDGE Magazine, and eventually formed the basis for the popular ‘Problem Corner’ feature, which began in 1990 and still appears in the magazine every month. It is from these same problems that the contents of this book have been selected. A combination of real-life deals and constructed themes, they will provide a stimulating challenge to any solver.
Patrick Jourdain (Wales), who is President of the International Bridge Press Association, is an international player and one of the UK’s best-known writers on the game. This is his third book.
Planning in Defense (The Bridge Technique Series J)
Short and full of practical examples, each book in the 'Bridge Technique Series' takes the reader through the most important aspects of card-play technique at bridge. Where appropriate, play is examined from the point of view both of declarer and defenders. Full of quizzes and chapter reviews, these award-winning books will also reinforce the bridge concepts you learn. At this price, what bridge player could stand not to have all twelve?
Marc Smith (Southampton, UK) is the author, with Barbara Seagram, of the world's best-selling bridge book in the past sixty years, 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know. He has written many other bridge books and played successfully in several international championships. He is a popular online bridge teacher, conducting many classes at all levels of play.
Planning in Suit Contracts
Test your declarer play! This book is designed to accompany Planning in Suit Contracts, Book 6 of the Bridge Technique series. It will give you the opportunity to practice planning declarer play in situations that involve many of the key techniques relevant to contracts in a trump suit. While we start out gently, it is only fair to tell you that by the end of this book you will be working hard. To solve the later problems you will need to understand not only how to make a plan but also some fairly advanced cardplay techniques. It will be an exciting journey, though, and the winning lines of play will be clearly explained in the solutions. By acquiring the discipline of always making a plan before you embark on a contract, you will greatly improve your results when you return to a real card table.
David Bird (Southampton, UK) is the world's most prolific bridge writer, with 150 bridge books to his name. Known for the clarity of his writing and explanations, he has won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year Award a record nine times. His celebrated humorous fiction series, featuring the cantankerous Abbot, has run for over 45 years.
Planning in Suit Contracts (The Bridge Technique Series 6)
Short and full of practical examples, each book in the 'Bridge Technique Series' takes the reader through the most important aspects of card-play technique at bridge. Where appropriate, play is examined from the point of view both of declarer and defenders. Full of quizzes and chapter reviews, these award-winning books will also reinforce the bridge concepts you learn. At this price, what bridge player could stand not to have all twelve?
Marc Smith (Southampton, UK) is the author, with Barbara Seagram, of the world's best-selling bridge book in the past sixty years, 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know. He has written many other bridge books and played successfully in several international championships. He is a popular online bridge teacher, conducting many classes at all levels of play.
Planning Notrump Contracts
Test your notrump play! This book is designed to accompany Planning the Play in Notrump, Book 7 in the Bridge Technique series. This is a book of problems that will test your knowledge of the basic principles of playing notrump contracts, and the tactics available for developing extra tricks. The topics covered include hold-up plays, deciding which suit to attack, reading the opening lead, keeping the danger hand off play, combining your chances and exerting pressure on your opponents. The basic principles of notrump play are straightforward, but applying them is not always so easy. Rest assured that some serious challenges await you in these pages!
David Bird (Southampton, UK) is the world's most prolific bridge writer, with 150 bridge books to his name. Known for the clarity of his writing and explanations, he has won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year Award a record nine times. His celebrated humorous fiction series, featuring the cantankerous Abbot, has run for over 45 years.
Planning the Defense
Ten years after their award-winning Planning the Play of a Bridge Hand, Seagram & Bird tackle the hardest part of the game: defense. Using the same step-by-step approach, they guide the reader through the minefield of signaling, making a defensive plan and, above all, counting – points, tricks and distribution. Runner-up in the 2020 ABTA Book of the Year intermediate/advanced category.
David Bird (Southampton, UK) is the world's most prolific bridge writer, with 150 bridge books to his name. Known for the clarity of his writing and explanations, he has won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year Award a record nine times. His celebrated humorous fiction series, featuring the cantankerous Abbot, has run for over 45 years.
Planning the Defense: The next level
Following on from their earlier book, Planning the Defense, Seagram & Bird move on to more sophisticated aspects of defensive cardplay for advancing players. Using the same step-by-step approach, the authors guide the reader through the issues involved in communications, deception, trump promotions, discarding and avoiding the embarrassment of being endplayed.
David Bird (Southampton, UK) is the world's most prolific bridge writer, with 150 bridge books to his name. Known for the clarity of his writing and explanations, he has won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year Award a record nine times. His celebrated humorous fiction series, featuring the cantankerous Abbot, has run for over 45 years.
Planning the Play in Notrump (The Bridge Technique Series 7)
Short and full of practical examples, each book in the 'Bridge Technique Series' takes the reader through the most important aspects of card-play technique at bridge. Where appropriate, play is examined from the point of view both of declarer and defenders. Full of quizzes and chapter reviews, these award-winning books will also reinforce the bridge concepts you learn. At this price, what bridge player could stand not to have all twelve?
Marc Smith (Southampton, UK) is the author, with Barbara Seagram, of the world's best-selling bridge book in the past sixty years, 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know. He has written many other bridge books and played successfully in several international championships. He is a popular online bridge teacher, conducting many classes at all levels of play.
Planning the Play of a Bridge Hand
The book, Planning the Play of a Bridge Hand, won the 2010 ABTA Book of the Year award. Now in interactive software, the user can play through all the examples onscreen, going through them as many times as necessary to understand the principles involved.
David Bird (Southampton, UK) is the world's most prolific bridge writer, with 150 bridge books to his name. Known for the clarity of his writing and explanations, he has won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year Award a record nine times. His celebrated humorous fiction series, featuring the cantankerous Abbot, has run for over 45 years.
Planning the Play of a Bridge Hand
Do you get that terrible sinking feeling when you first see dummy? Does your mind go blank as everyone waits for you to play to the first trick? If so, you're not alone. Beginning bridge players are taught some of the basic techniques of declarer play: suit establishment, ruffing losers, the finesse, and so forth. The hard part is learning what to do when. In the dreaded moment following the opening lead, the typical novice declarer has no idea where to start. Yet the key to success is simple: before playing from dummy at Trick 1, make a plan. In this book, two of the world's best bridge teachers/authors explain how to go about making a plan as declarer — using a simple step-by-step process. Readers will learn how to decide what to do on a given deal, both in notrump contracts and suit contracts. By the end of the book, even the most inexperienced declarer will be comfortable with more advanced material, such as entry management and counting the hand.
David Bird (Southampton, UK) is the world's most prolific bridge writer, with 150 bridge books to his name. Known for the clarity of his writing and explanations, he has won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year Award a record nine times. His celebrated humorous fiction series, featuring the cantankerous Abbot, has run for over 45 years.
Planning the Play: The Next Level
Seagram and Bird’s Planning the Play of a Bridge Hand was named Book of the Year in 2010 by the American Bridge Teachers’ Association. It introduced the basic concepts of how to go about making a plan as declarer for beginning and improving players, and is a popular text for bridge teachers. This sequel extends the plan to more complex situations, and covers ideas such as safety plays, avoidance play, trump control, dummy reversal, and endplays. It will appeal to players who have a good grasp of the basics of declarer play, and are looking to improve from there.
David Bird (Southampton, UK) is the world's most prolific bridge writer, with 150 bridge books to his name. Known for the clarity of his writing and explanations, he has won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year Award a record nine times. His celebrated humorous fiction series, featuring the cantankerous Abbot, has run for over 45 years.
Play Bridge with Reese
Reese introduced the 'over the shoulder' approach to describing bridge hands in this classic book, and it was an immediate success. In this book, the reader can follow the thought processes of an expert through the bidding and play of many fascinating hands. First published in 1960, it is now back in print after being unavailable for a number of years.
Terence Reese (August 28, 1913 — January 29, 1996) was a British bridge player and writer and was regarded as one of the finest of all time in both fields. He was born in Epsom to middle-class parents and was educated at Bradfield College and New College, Oxford. As a bridge player, Reese won every honour in the game, including the European Championship four times (1948, 1949, 1954, 1963) and the Bermuda Bowl in 1955. He was World Pair champion in 1961 and placed second in the World Teams Olympiad in 1960 and the World Open Pairs in 1962. He also represented Britain in the 1960 Olympiad, the Bermuda Bowl of 1965, and in five other European Championships. He won the Gold Cup, the premier British domestic competition, on eight occasions. Reese last played international bridge in the 1970 European Championship, but his career as a bridge writer continued unabated.
Play Bumblepuppy Bridge
Learn the world’s most popular card game in no time. What is Bumblepuppy Bridge? Bumblepuppy Bridge is a wonderful stepping-stone to standard bridge. A total beginner can learn in an hour how to play the game — without any help from a bridge player. This novel game was created by award-winning bridge author and historian Julian Laderman, by blending simple features from several early forms of bridge. The game is appropriate for ages 6 to 106. A free video enables readers to watch the examples in the book being played. This book is an essential gift for your non-bridge playing friends. This may be your last chance to save them from living their entire life without bridge. Haven’t they suffered long enough? Warning: Anyone who has played more than three hands of bridge in the last decade is far too advanced for this book. Bumblepuppy Bridge In No Time: Watch three complete hands in detail on YouTube. Additional Material From Bumblepuppy Days available at ebooksbridge.com FREE Download of Bridge on Training Wheels: a brief description of the game and the rationale for creating it. Bridge teacher Chris Hasney of Arizona posted an endorsement on YouTube.
Dr. Julian Laderman is a retired mathematics and computer science professor (Lehman College, City University of New York). He is a two-time winner of the American Bridge Teachers’ Association Book of the Year Award, winning for A Bridge to Simple Squeezes in 2006 and A Bridge to Inspired Declarer Play in 2009. His book on the history of bridge, Bumblepuppy Days, received the Alan Truscott Memorial Award from the International Bridge Press Association in 2016. For many years he wrote the bridge column for The Bronx Journal.
Play it Safe!
At rubber bridge or teams scoring, declarer's objective is to make his contract -- nothing else matters. Playing it safe is of vital importance. Yet playing safe can take many forms -- it might involve simply choosing the best percentage line of play, or keeping one opponent off lead, preserving entries, or even giving up a trick you don't have to lose, all in the cause of bringing that contract home securely. Even at matchpoints, there are times when safety is more important than anything else. Recognizing all these situations, and knowing what to do when you encounter them, will improve your bridge scores by leaps and bounds. Reviews "Tired of watching a favourite partner go down in contracts thatmight have been made? Add this to your Christmas shopping list. Geared for Intermediate players, the text covers a wide range of declarer-play strategies designed to maximize the chances for making contracts. Some may think this cautious approach should be reserved for team or rubber bridge but even the matchpoint duplicate fiends who hunger for overtricks, often at the cost of their contract, would benefit from a study of this book." -- Paul Thurston, National Post
David Bird (Southampton, UK) is the world's most prolific bridge writer, with 150 bridge books to his name. Known for the clarity of his writing and explanations, he has won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year Award a record nine times. His celebrated humorous fiction series, featuring the cantankerous Abbot, has run for over 45 years.
Play or Defend? 68 Hands to Test Your Bridge Skill
How good an analyst are you? HAND 2 - ACHILLES HEEL North ♠ A 9 8 5 ♥ Q J 5 3 ♦ Q J 10 ♣ K 4 West East ♠ K 10 7 2 ♠ Q 3 ♥ 8 7 2 ♥ K 10 6 4 ♦ A 8 ♦ K 6 5 2 ♣ 9 6 5 2 ♣ 10 7 3 South ♠ J 6 4 ♥ A 9 ♦ 9 7 4 3 ♣ A Q J 8 West North East South 1♣ Pass 1♥ Pass 1NT Pass 2♦* Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass *Checkback asking for 3♥/4♠ Contract: 3NT Opening Lead: ♠2 Going up with dummy's ace of spades will not work because the resulting blockage will be merely temporary. East can win the first diamond and cash the spade queen. The defenders will score three spades and two diamonds. Playing low at Trick 1 seems more obvious, and the queen wins. If East returns a spade, the contract makes. North's nine will take care of the fourth round of spades and declarer can take the winning heart finesse after setting up the diamonds. Is the contract always cold, or can the right switch at Trick 3 kill it? See page 86 for the second part of the answer.
Wales) is best known as a bridge problem constructor, and his many awards include IBPA Book of the Year. His most recent book for MPP was <em>Defend or Declare?</em>
Play These Hands With Me
Reese was the first author to introduce the 'over the shoulder' approach to describing bridge hands, and it was an immediate success. In this book, the reader can follow the thought processes of an expert through the bidding and play of many fascinating hands. First published in 1960, it is now back in print after being unavailable for a number of years.
Terence Reese (August 28, 1913 — January 29, 1996) was a British bridge player and writer and was regarded as one of the finest of all time in both fields. He was born in Epsom to middle-class parents and was educated at Bradfield College and New College, Oxford. As a bridge player, Reese won every honour in the game, including the European Championship four times (1948, 1949, 1954, 1963) and the Bermuda Bowl in 1955. He was World Pair champion in 1961 and placed second in the World Teams Olympiad in 1960 and the World Open Pairs in 1962. He also represented Britain in the 1960 Olympiad, the Bermuda Bowl of 1965, and in five other European Championships. He won the Gold Cup, the premier British domestic competition, on eight occasions. Reese last played international bridge in the 1970 European Championship, but his career as a bridge writer continued unabated.
Playing 2/1: The Rest of the Story
Paul Thurston’s 25 Steps to Learning 2/1 was an instant bestseller, winning the 2003 American Bridge Teachers’ Association Book of the Year award. In a tantalizing postscript to that book, he promised a sequel, one that would cover ‘the rest of the story’ for those who wanted to add modern sophistication to their 2/1 bidding. Here at last he delivers, and the long wait has been worth it. The book describes an understandable and playable version of today’s most popular system, something that has been missing from the literature until now.
Paul Thurston, who lives in South Ontario, Canada, divides his time between golf and bridge. He is the bridge columnist for Canada's National Post newspaper, and has been teaching and writing about bridge for many years. A former national champion, he has represented Canada in world competition both as a player and captain.
Playing a Bridge Hand: Just the Basics
Want Better Results? Try better declarer Play! Have you noticed that good bidding doesn't always mean good results? Sometimes you don't make your perfectly-bid contract. Sometimes other declarers make an extra trick or two. If it's time to get serious about better declarer play, this is the perfect 'how to' book. You'll find it's surprisingly easy to: • Count your winning and losing tricks. • Master three basic techniques for eliminating losers. • Manage your entries. • Set priorities. What to do first, second, and so on? • Plan the play. You'll work through plenty of practice deals in this simple guide to better declarer play. You'll also find quizzes at the end of every chapter to test your new-found skills. With a little practice, you'll soon be getting the results you deserve!
MARY ANN DUFRESNE (Florida) is a retired U.S. government project manager. She lives in Weeki Wachee — mermaid country — with her beloved menagerie of furry dependents, and is a full-time bridge teacher.
Playing With the Bridge Legends
What is it like to play with Zia? What makes Rodwell-Meckstroth the best pair in the world? Why are the Polish experts everyone's least favorite opponents? The answers to these and many other bridge questions can be found in these pages. Since winning the 1976 Sunday Times Pairs in his early twenties with an even younger Michael Rosenberg, Barnet Shenkin has had the chance to play with and against most of the world's best players. Indeed, he knows most of them personally, and few bridge writers can match his insights into their successes. By recounting his own bridge career to date, with tales of triumph and disaster from world championships to big-money rubber bridge, the author puts you at the table with the greatest players of our time, and lets you find out exactly how it feels to play with the bridge legends.
Michael Rosenberg (New Rochelle, NY) is a stock options trader on the rare occasions he is not playing bridge. Michael has two gold medals in world competition, as well as numerous national titles, and his partnership with Zia has been one of the world’s best for the best part of two decades. He grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, and is still the youngest player ever to win the Gold Cup, Britain’s premier teams event. His wife Debbie is a US international player who has won the world Women’s Pairs title.
Polish Club 2020: Expert
The motto of the Polish Club 2020 Expert system is: ‘Bid aggressively with an offensive hand, keep quiet with a defensive hand.’ Non-vulnerable one-level light openings and responses are introduced here. But the main merit of the Polish Club, i.e. to ‘keep an eye on the total strength of the bidders’, is still preserved. In comparison to other versions of Polish Club (including Polish Club 2020 Standard), the meaning of the 2C opening has been changed. The Precision approach has been dropped, and replaced by the major two-suiter. This treatment, added to weak two-suited openings, makes the system’s two-level openings very aggressive. And this brings IMPs and matchpoints! The list of useful additional conventions in uncontested and competitive auctions is richer than in any other version of the Polish Club system. Some novel ideas (such as Cheap Transfer) are universal enough to be applied in any bidding system.
KRZYSZTOF JASSEM (Poland) is a well-known international player whose successes include winning the Vanderbilt Cup and a silver medal in the World Olympiad Teams. He is professor of computer science at Poznan University.
Polish Club 2020: Standard
The Polish Club bidding system is based on an ambiguous 1C opening, limited one-level openings, 5 card majors and a Strong No Trump. The concept makes it possible to find partner’s total strength on a lower level than in all-natural systems. In the Standard version, a 2C opening is Precision, 2D is Multi, and remaining two-level openings are weak Polish two-suiters. One of the key original features of the system is the concept of the artificial reverse (“odwrotka” in Polish), which occurs in the sequence: 1C – 1H / 1S – 2D – ? The convention lets players quickly find the fit in the major and determine whether the hands are worth slam investigation. The latest version of the system, Polish Club 2020, has been based on a questionnaire among potential users of the system. It adapts most popular treatments used in various contemporary bidding systems. A 1D opening is now almost always 5 cards, and the twolevel opening bids are more aggressive than in earlier versions. The introduction of modern conventions to both uncontested and competitive auctions makes the system more attractive to expert players.
KRZYSZTOF JASSEM (Poland) is a well-known international player whose successes include winning the Vanderbilt Cup and a silver medal in the World Olympiad Teams. He is professor of computer science at Poznan University.
