Bridge for Bright Beginners

By Terence Reese

Book Overview

Terence Reese, "the world's best bridge player and best bridge writer" (The New York Times), turns his attention in this book to you, the bright beginner. He gives a complete guide to the game with sample bidding and sample game play and coverage of everything the beginner needs, from point count bidding to finesses, to make bridge the exciting, competitive game it is.
Mr. Reese isn't content with presenting rules the beginner will later abandon. Instead he builds up the game in simple steps with chapters on opening bids of one, responses, defensive overcalls, opening bids of more than one, play and defense in no trump, play and defense in suit, scoring, and so on, until the game is taught as you can expect to play it against strong competition. In the course of the book you will learn the common terms used in bridge, the fundamentals of offensive and defensive bidding and play, the reasons why bridge strategies work, and how to use such popular conventions as the Blackwood and the Stayman. Altogether you will have had experience evaluating 130 normal bidding hands and playing through 18 sample games. An index and summary of bidding at the end also make the book useful as an instant reference for later use.
Both the bright beginner and the player who has had some experience will want to use this book to learn the fundamentals of bridge and increase his ability to establish best possible bid and play. For a further competitive advantage and even more bridge fun, you will also want to read Reese's other bridge books, Bidding a Bridge Hand and Play Bridge with Reese.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486229424
• ISBN13: 9780486229423
• Release Date: June 1973
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Firm, Fair, and Lively

This book is a perennial gem and justly deserves its classic status. Reese is most adept at presenting the world of bridge not just as a mathematical proposition, but a real-life competition against real players who are dying to sacrifice to keep you from making game -- and also for players whose partner is a bit of a doofus. There are many excellent books written by many bridge experts. I would say in a short amount of time BRIDGE FOR BRIGHT BEGINNERS covers a lot of time in a fair, friendly manner and leaves the reader much better informed. Who could ask for more than that?

Why doesn't everyone teach bridge this way?

This little book uses a teaching strategy that one might think would be obvious: Explain what problems mean before showing readers how to solve them. The way it does so is to show how to play a hand before talking about bidding.I remember how frustrated I was when I first learned how to play bridge: I had a bunch of rules dumped on me about how to bid, and had no conception of whether or not a bid made sense beyond seeing whether it followed those seemingly arbitary rules. If I had read this book then, it would have let me avoid all that frustration.There is one point about which prospective readers of this book should be aware: It is based on British bidding style rather than American style. Nevertheless, I have absolutely no doubt that it deserves five stars, and should be much better known than it is.