Bridge for Bright Beginners

Rating:
Summary: Why doesn't everyone teach bridge this way?
Review: 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.