Customer Reviews

Bridge for Bright Beginners

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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?

Bridge can be scary and complicated to the newbie but this book really helps calm the terrors! It is designed to take you step by step through the process of bidding and taking tricks. It points out where your focus should be in the beginning so that you can advance without feeling overwhelmed. I also recommend this book for Bridge players who need help in grasping the concept of the game as a whole.

I am a 48-year-old Mensa Member, Ivy League graduate CEO who taught himself Chess, four programming languages, became fluent in French at age 30, learned enough of a couple Asian languages at age 40 to get around with the basics - so maybe I'm not Einstein but I am a fairly bright study. This book is awful - in the first hand example there are two mistakes in cards with it calling for cards to be played and then again calls for the same card later in the same hand. I believe that is page 12 or 13 - so not far into things. On the subsequent example it suddenly ends the tradition of telling you how to play card by card and loses any value whatsoever except as a headache inducer.

It would be nice if the light tone it was written in was matched by any semblance of careful proofreading. Very disconcerting and horrible. For example, in the first failed card by card example it tells you to play 3 of Diamonds and then again later in the same example it again tells you to play 3 of Diamonds, causing chaos, confusion and for me, a headache and for my wife total disruption in any sort of understanding while we searched for the already played 3 of Diamonds in the stacks of tricks already played. Happens again soon after and then next example you are left to sort out how to play the 4 different hands on your own with only the goal of not mis-playing them as your guidance.

Avoid this book by all means and shame on the other two reviews.