Bridge for Bright Beginners

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?

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.