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Defense in Bridge: A List of the Top Bridge Defense Books

July 3, 2011

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kevlarsen

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Beginners Bridge, Bridge Lessons, Learning Bridge

Defense in Bridge is typically thought of as an intermediate topic, though it is very interesting and useful to understand the basics even if you are a beginner. Eventually, after you learn the basics of bridge, you will want to know everything you can about this topic. I have wrote this article to talk about the major bridge defense books. Please note that buying products through links below will earn me a commission. I try to provide honest and reliable reviews regardless of any commission I may make.

Introduction to Defender’s Play by Edwin B. Kantar – This is the first book anyone should read on bridge defense. It covers the very basics of what to lead and what to play.

Eddie Kantar Teaches Modern Bridge Defense and its companion Eddie Kantar Teaches Advanced Bridge Defense. This is probably the standard book to learn bridge defense nowadays. This covers all the aspects of defense simply, though if you haven’t read Introduction to Defender’s Play, you probably won’t understand a lot of it. These books won American Bridge Teachers’ Association Book of the Year Award for “Basic Book” and “Advanced Book” for 1999.

How to Defend a Bridge Hand by William S. Root – This is an excellent book going over all aspects of bridge defense. It is very thick and with lots of exercises for all topics. This is much more of a workbook and in-depth study book while I find Eddie Kantar’s books teaching the concepts with small exercises. William Root’s book can be very in-depth with its exercises and variations. This book won American Bridge Teachers’ Association Book of the Year Award for 1994.

Defensive Bridge Play Complete by Edwin B. Kantar – This book is put here for a more complete view of bridge defense books. It is out-of-print and other of the books might cover topics better, but before those books this was the book to go for learning bridge defense. Edwin B. Kantar is in the American Contract Bridge League Hall of Fame, and it wouldn’t hurt to get all of his books. That’s how I see it. This book is also mentioned in William S. Root’s other book How to Play a Bridge Hand. Omar Sharif in the introduction names it as one of the best bridge books ever written.

I hope that this gives you a wide and helpful view of the books on bridge defense. If you are just starting out, all you’ll need is Introduction to Defender’s Play, but the others will be necessary once you get past the basics.

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The Three Bridge Books of a Serious Bridge Player

November 21, 2010

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kevlarsen

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Beginners Bridge, Learning Bridge

Before I get started, I must say that these books are not really suited for the beginner. One of them can be used to learn bridge, but a newer, clearer, and more conversationsal book would be a better fit. There is a reason these books are for a serious bridge player, and not a beginner. A beginning bridge player will find a lot of information over their head, but still… it is good to have these books as a resource if you discover bridge to be a compelling game for you. These are the three books to sit on any serious bridge player’s bookshelf for the rest of their life.

Please note that buying products through links will earn me a commission. I try to provide honest and reliable reviews regardless of any commission I may make.

Contract Bridge for Beginners – A book for beginners to teach them how to play bridge for the very first time. There are pros and cons. Pro: clear description of how to play in relatively little number of pages. Cons: old bidding system not used anymore. Also a person would have to translate very dry reading into clear ideas.

The Play of the Hand at Bridge – according to Amazon reviews, this is a book for every serious bridge player’s bookshelf, and a favorable position at that. It goes over a great discussion of playing the cards to maximum effect.

Goren’s New Bridge Complete – This is called the bible of bridge. It is written by a multiple national champion of bridge, and covers every aspect of bridge in detail. Although it is more of an encyclopedia book, and not a course, it serves a great purpose as a book and resource.

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Bridge Lessons Review

December 6, 2010

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kevlarsen

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Beginners Bridge, Bridge Lessons, Learning Bridge

Please note that buying products through links below may earn me a commission. I try to provide honest and reliable reviews regardless of any commission I may make.

This is a fun review to me. As I have thought of making my own ebook and selling things online, it is kind of fun to critique other people’s ebooks. I should mention though that real books are usually cheaper than ebooks. A used copy of Bridge for Dummies is relatively cheap and an out-of-print classic like 5 Weeks to Winning Bridge used to be as low as a penny plus shipping. eBooks can have their place, however, especially if you can’t buy them offline and here are a few on bridge I’ve found.

Dan Berkeley’s Bridge Lessons – This is a good eBook. The sample that is available on the website is very good quality. The thing I worry about is that the website looks old. So maybe he’ll respond to his email, maybe not? Who can tell? But if I wanted to spend the $20 on an ebook, I’d go with this guy. In some ways it’d be better to buy a regular book, but this is the best bridge ebook I’ve seen.

It is very interesting, the bridge courses you can find online. Even though it takes a lot of time to uncover the best ones, it was definitely worth the trouble. They are excellent. The quality of the courses are so good, you may not even need a beginner bridge book.

Bridge World – Learning Center – A very interesting course. It is from *the* bridge magazine. Although it is an introduction only, since it is from a very reputable sources, it has a level of authority on the matter.

For Bridge Players – Bridge Basics – Another interesting find. It seems this is a series of lessons for bridge, put up for anyone to find and use. Especially good in this one is that there are questions and quizzes at the end of each page.

Contract Bridge Course with Michael Furstner – I have saved the best for last. If you are going to use only one online bridge class, this is the one. This is a very extensive 24 lesson source that covers the entire gamut of bridge, including the different systems and types of bridge.

From this series you can see there is plenty of resources out there for people looking to play bridge.

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Play Bridge Online – The Best Places

November 14, 2010

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kevlarsen

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Beginners Bridge, Learning Bridge, Play Bridge Online

People starting out playing bridge may not know the places to play online or the best ones. Even experienced players may not have thought hard to realize the best place to play for their skill level and enthusiasm. This article is meant to make clear the differences and benefits of each place to play online. Mostly though, to learn and get better at bridge almost requires you to play often online, unless you play often with friends. Even then, abilites improve greatly by playing against many different people. (Update 2022: The original article talked about Yahoo! Games Bridge and Pogo Bridge, which sadly don’t exist anymore. Now Bridge Base Online is the only real free bridge game online.)

Bridge Base Online is about the only free service, but is dedicated to bridge alone. This means advanced and serious players frequent the site often – many of them, and from around the world, not just local to the US. More advanced controls and display is featured, and a very large discussion forum as well.

OKBridge is for bridge players looking for a premium experience. It is $99/yr or $10/mo and has a 14-day trial. For the price, you get an quality interface superior to the others, bridge articles, and dedicated moderators. I tried it recently (2022 update) and while it provides the best value for the money, $0.70/day for multiple ACBL-sanctioned online tourneys a day, most people on the site are advanced players and focused on the the tournaments, and even play on Bridge Base Online as well, for more casual games, I suppose.

Swan Games is a service I don’t know much about, I tried to sign up but they required me to add an ACBL membership number to start. You can get a guest ACBL membership if you want to try that and this out, however.

Fun Bridge seems more interested in having a smartphone interface and play on the go style. It has a limited amount of plays for free and after that you have to pay to keep playing.

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Free Bridge Computer Programs: a List

November 8, 2010

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kevlarsen

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Beginners Bridge, Computer Bridge, Free Bridge Games

Easy Bridge

WBridge5

Quick Bridge

Learn How to Play Bridge I and II

Blue Chip MiniBridge

Although programs I talked about in an earlier article are generally expensive, there are free bridge programs to be found online. One of them is even a computer bridge world champion.

Starting with the simplest first, Quick Bridge for Windows and its browser-based version Wiki Bridge is a good game if you just want to play bridge against the computer in a quick game. It is very easy to install and set up. This could be an excellent program for someone learning the game but not ready to play against real people yet.

Also good for learning is another great program called Easy Bridge. Easy Bridge not only plays against you, but can give hints and tips for what would be best to play in a situation. Excellent free tool for a beginner. (2022 update: Unfortunately it seems Easy Bridge only works for 32-bit Windows systems)

WBridge5 is a former computer bridge world champion for years 2005, 2007, and 2008. Even though the web page is in French, the program is in English or French.

There are a couple of free programs for learning bridge as well. Learn How to Play Bridge I and II are a couple great lessons for teaching beginners how to play the game of bridge. It is like a few small lessons running on your computer.

Blue Chip MiniBridge (archive) is a software program made to teach a beginner the game of MiniBridge. MiniBridge is a simplified version of bridge created to ease beginners into the whole game of bridge. Using this software, you can go from not knowing much to knowing MiniBridge.

With all these programs you can go from not knowing anything, to knowing how to play bridge. More advanced users can play the computer opponents and gain insights into the games.

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Computer Bridge Programs – A General Overview of the Most Popular Software

October 27, 2010

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kevlarsen

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Computer Bridge

Computer Bridge Programs come in different kinds. There are Internet play, computer opponents, and analysis of different hands. The software we are looking at today are main software programs for bridge education: Jack, Bridge Baron, and a website based program called Bridge Doctor.

Name with link to official website and World Computer Bridge Champion years below.

Jack 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2015

Bridge Baron 1997

Bridge Doctor

Bridge Doctor is a tutoring software and is different from the rest. Jack and Bridge Baron allow play against the computer and hand analysis. Jack is a newer, more up-to-date, as well as stronger, computer program. Most people prefer Jack over Bridge Baron. This information is based on average online review scores and product descriptions, you can check the online stores and the website themselves to see for yourself. Below are links you can use to purchase the software yourself.

Baron Barclay: Jack 6 Bridge Baron 29

Use of software to analyze hands is very useful to see deficits in a person’s game and from that how to improve.

Jack is a 10-time computer world champion so it’s very useful for analysis. Other programs that are current winners don’t have a user interface for general use. Which is maybe why Bridge Baron hasn’t won in a long time, it was just getting updates for home use.

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Online Bridge Lessons

October 13, 2010

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kevlarsen

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Bridge Lessons, Learning Bridge

Searching YouTube for Bridge videos, I found some interesting ones. I even found some YouTube Bridge lessons.

While looking, I found something amazing. There are three free bridge courses online. You should look at them, because it won’t cost you anything to try them out.

Bridge Union (web archive) has bridge lessons by a Russian named Bridget. Bridge Union is a site that tries to get new people to play bridge and players to connect with each other. Her bridge course is only one aspect of her site.

iBridgePlayer (web archive) also has bridge lessons. (web archive, videos don’t play) The first lesson is about available resources for bridge players. Note, though, it is aimed at European players and the books he recommends are for a bidding system used in Europe. Later lessons teach you to play bridge by learning MiniBridge, which Bridget does as well. His YouTube channel (web archive, videos don’t play) has more good bridge videos. (2022 edit: his videos are now currently unavailable on YouTube)

Shafik Ismail has bridge lessons as well. He is an experienced bridge player who teaches bridge basics and techniques in his videos.

Although I have spent this time talking about free bridge courses online there may be a point when getting a bridge teacher or buying software and books will help you more than these lessons. Information in a book can be more sophistocated and exhaustive. Owning your own book or software can be very rewarding.

Hopefully you find these courses helpful to your bridge.

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Bridge Resources

October 12, 2010

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kevlarsen

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Bridge Lessons, Learning Bridge

There are three kinds of bridge resources: basic equipment, information, and the bridge community.

Equipment is concerned with being able to play bridge. Basics include a table, four chairs, a card deck, and a pen and paper. Computer play requires a computer program to play against or a place to play bridge online.

Information resources are another type of resource. There are books, videos, software, online tutorials, and bridge lessons with a teacher. Information is set at different levels: beginner, intermediate, or advanced.

When you choose your information, pick information for your current skill level, and make sure it gets good reviews. Also pick clear and easy-to-read information. Complicated, hard-to-understand information doesn’t always help your game.

A third resource is a bridge community. They are people to play against and people with which to talk bridge. They can point you in the right direction to play better.

Mainly, get enough resources to play and play often, and, if you want, study to gain understanding and play better.

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Why Learn Bridge?

October 12, 2010

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kevlarsen

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Learning Bridge

There are many reason why bridge an excellent game to play and learn.

It isn’t gambling, like poker, backgammon, or sports betting.

It’s not expensive. Video games cost about $50 a game and $300 a system. A collectible card game can cost lots of money to buy specific cards. A designer board game or a war board game could cost $50 or more. All you need is a table, four chairs, a deck of cards, and a pad and pencil.

It’s an Olympic sport. Yes, it’s in the Olympics! Only chess and contract bridge are in the Olympics. The other board games aren’t.

It can be played your entire life. Many other sports require good reflexes or lots of physical exertion to play. You can perfect your skills and enjoy it your whole life.

It’s played all over the world. They play it in China! There is a UK, US, an Australian association, and a world organization.

There are more books on contract bridge than any other card game. It is the chess of card games. There is a lot of theory to learn and master.

One more piece of information to get you thinking about playing bridge: Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, two of the richest people in the US, play bridge. Bill Gates says good bridge players are usually good at other things in their life as well.

So, I hope I have shown you some good reasons why bridge could be the card game or sport for you. Bridge can be a lifelong hobby and learning endeavor.

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