"A revised re-issue of a classic bridge textbook, generally regarded as the definitive guide to the oldest (and most useful) convention in the game - the takeout double."--Publisher description.
Try a hand at bridge—and outsmart your opponents Bridge is the most popular card game in the world—and, as any player will tell you, is simply the best card game ever. Whether you're new to the game or a long-time player looking for new tricks, this new edition of Bridge For Dummies walks you through the intricacies of the game and arms you with tried-and-true tips and strategies for being a better player and beating your opponents from the very first draw. Covering not only traditional contract bridge, but other popular variations of the game—including ACOL, Rubber, and Duplicate Bridge—this hands-on, friendly guide takes the guesswork out of this beloved game and arms you with the knowledge and know-how to make your game mates your minions. From knowing when and how high to bid to bringing home the tricks when you end up in a trump contract, it'll take your bridge skills to the next level in no time! Strategize with your bridge partner Confidently play bridge in clubs and tournaments Use basic and advanced bidding techniques Find bridge clubs and tournaments all over the world Are you ready to trump the competition? Success is a page away with the help of Bridge For Dummies.
The original Pocket Guide to Bridge has sold more than 30,000 copies since it was published in 2002. Thousands of bridge players have found it an indispensable and handy guide to bidding, something that can be tucked into a handbag or jacket pocket and easily used as a reference at the bridge table during lessons and practice games. This new version of the book uses the same user-friendly approach and features to explain the most important bidding conventions for players who use the ACOL system -which means essentially everyone in the UK and the Commonwealth countries.
William S. Root, winner of many national bridge championships, premier bridge teacher, author of classic bridge books, and recently elected to the Bridge Hall of Fame, is one of America's foremost bridge personalities. As a player, Bill Root has won all three of the most important American trophies (the Vanderbilt, the Spingold, and the Reisinger) a total of thirteen times. He has represented the United States in the Bridge Olympiad; in the Bermuda Bowl; and on exhibition tours to South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. He is rated a World Master by the World Bridge Federation. As a bridge teacher, Bill is considered to be one of the best of all time and has helped tens of thousands to enjoy the world's most popular card game. He has been the director for the National Intercollegiate Bridge Tournament and has served as Card Games Authority for the Association of American Playing Card Manufacturers, making him the modern-day Hoyle for the 120 million card players in America. His many best-selling bridge books include Commonsense Bidding, How to Play a Bridge Hand, and How to Defend a Bridge Hand (all of which won the Book of the Year title awarded by the American Bridge Teachers' Association.) He also coauthored the popular Modern Bridge Conventions with Richard Pavlicek.
The 2/1 Game Force bidding system is an improvement over the Standard American System that has been in effect and played by bridge players for many years. The advantage of the 2/1 system is that it allows the partnership to know that game is possible with only a single bid. In this book, I have tried to present the fundamental aspects of the bidding structure for playing a pure Two-Over-One Game Force system of bidding. This is not a book on conventions, it is a book about bridge that incorporates conventions that allow the partnership to reach game or slam. In this regard, I have incorporated modern methods for hand evaluation developed by Marty Bergen. New bidding conventions like SARS (Shape Asking Relays after Stayman), Quest transfers, and an overview of Bridge Rules and Laws that I hope will improve your approach to the bidding structure you may use today. In this second edition, I have included additional Bridge Rules, expanded and added material in several sections and included many more conventions common to the 2/1 Game Force System. This edition includes the Montreal club and diamond relay bids, the Kennedy club, the Kaplan interchange bid, the Ekren 2? convention, picture bids, the forcing pass, masked mini splinters, the Ingberman and Ping Pong conventions, and the Marvin two spades convention, among others. In the third edition, I have made corrections brought to my attention by several readers. The chapter on slam bidding has been expanded to include asking for aces and kings simultaneously, the Baron 4NT convention, and more. New material on Roman Jump overcalls, the Mc Cabe Adjunct and the Reverse Mc Cabe Adjunct, Bergens Jacoby 2NT bids, Meckwell major suit bids, and Meckwell responses to minor suit openings, more on interference over strong no trump, minor suit Stayman, Kokish Relays, and several other conventions have been added to this latest edition. Finally, new chapters on Transfer Precision, the Meckwell Precision (Meckwell Lite) Bids are also included in this issue. The Meckwell Lite material (chapter 18) was developed by a Luke Gillespie and Jim Streisand and is included in the book with their kind permission.
The 2/1 Game Force System is an improvement over the Standard American System that has been in effect and played by bridge players for many years. The advantage of the 2/1 System is that it allows the partnership to know that game is possible with only an initial single bid. This book is about bridge that incorporates conventions that allow partnership’s to reach game or slam. In this regard, I have incorporated modern methods for hand evaluation developed by Marty Bergen called the ADJUST-3 Method and Zar points, new bidding conventions like SARS (Shape Asking Relays after Stayman) and Quest transfers, and an overview of “Bridge Rules and Laws” that I hope will improve your approach to the bidding structure you may use today. Also included is the bidding structure are Bergen, Reverse Bergen, and Combined Bergen major suit raises, inverted minor suit raises with crisscross and flip-flop, cue bidding, modified scroll bids, and many more methods not used in Standard American or Precision. The bidding conventions in the previous editions have been enhanced, corrected, expanded upon, and reorganized with new ones added. Given the release of the new ACBL convention charts, the chapter with the modifications to Fantunes, in my prior edition, is no longer needed. Fantunes may now be played using the Open Convention Chart. The Mid-chart no longer exits. Hence, I have deleted the chapter and replaced it with a new chapter on Bridge Tips, and Agreements. New conventions include a Modern Splinter Bidding Convention, the Zirconia Convention, Unusual 2-level bids, Jump Transfer bids, a new Two-Way Check-back Convention, 1430 Modified Jacoby 2NT*, additional Bridge Rules with more examples, Four-Way Transfers with the range ask bid and more are included in this edition. Also included is an update of the Minorwood and the Roman Keycard Blackwood Conventions, Two-Way New Minor Forcing with modified Wolff Signoff bids and new bidding sequences using Mini/Weak Notrump. The topic of Offense to Defense Ratio (ODR) is included in this revision as well as expanded bidding sequences when opening and responding to the bid of 2 playing the 2/1 Game Force System and many new Bridge Rules have been added to Chapter 10. A copy of this book is on the web site www.bridgewebs.com/ocala. A hard copy is available from the publisher or from Amazon.com – search on neil timm.
This book is intended for intermediate and advanced players and is designed along the lines of a convention card. Each subject (No Trump, Majors, Weak Two Bids, etc.) gets its own chapter. Within each chapter each topic gets a page of text along with examples and a quiz. Most intermediate players have a working, but incomplete, knowledge of the various topics. This book will fill in the blanks, add new ideas to your bidding arsenal and significantly improve your bidding skills.
The 2/1 Game Force bidding system is an improvement over the Standard American System that has been in effect and played by bridge players for many years. The advantage of the 2/1 system is that it allows the partnership to know that game is possible with only a single bid. In this book, I have tried to present the fundamental aspects of the bidding structure for playing a "pure" Two-Over-One Game Force system of bidding. In this book, I have tried to change behavior by presenting a series of bids geared toward the 2/1 bidding structure that includes Bergen, Reverse Bergen, and Combined Bergen Raises, inverted minor suit raises with crisscross and flip-flop, cuebidding, modified scroll bids, and many more methods not used in Standard American or Precision. In the fourth edition, the Minorwood Convention has been expanded and several variations of the Flannery Convention are included in this edition. I have added the Hello and SCUM conventions used to interfer over strong notrumps and a Modified Landy convention designed to compete over partnerships that employ a weak notrump bid. The Equal Level Conversion (ELC) double is discussed in Chapter 6 and additional material on slam bidding has been added to Chapter 3. The material on two-way new minor forcing and the Gazilli Convention has been expanded upon in Chapter 1 and Jacoby transfers with a superaccept structure has been added to Chapter 2. Finally, a new chapter that reviews the new Italian System of bids called Fantunes has been included in this edition. The System has been modified to be in compliance with the General Convention Chart.
Explains twenty-five bidding conventions, including the grand slam force, lead-directing doubles, negative doubles, new minor forcing, responsive doubles, reverse Drury, splinter bids, Stayman, takeout doubles, and weak two-bids.
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.