Eddie KantarBridge For Dummies

Good intro to Bridge. I can't say if it is "great" or not since I'm not that good at Bridge yet. Cover the basics well. Other people may disagree since there are competing conventions on Bridge bidding and no single bidding system will suit players with incompatible systems.

Book arrived in a timely manner… I think it arrived even earlier than expected. There were no marks on the book, nor were there any signs of wear/use. The book looked new. Excellent topics that were relevant and written clearly for a novice Bridge player. I would purchase from this vendor again.

This book was advised by a friend to help me relearn the game I had not played for about 50 years. A bit complicated, but so is the game.

I decided to take a beginning bridge class, and found it very confusing. I bought this book to supplement the instruction, and it was a great help in sorting out the information for me.

Early impression, as I have only read 25% of the book so far! The trouble with most Bridge books and online guides is that they tell you what to do without giving any reason why. I had hoped a Dummies book would explain why, and not expect me to figure it out for myself. Certainly, some explanations are given in this book. But, far too often, the standard "just trust me" advice is presented. Maybe I'm dumber than most dummies, but I'm totally lost on the concept of "extra winners." For some reason, discarding from other suits is far preferable to playing a useless card from the suit led??? In Chapter 7, advice is given to establish a side suit before pulling trumps. In most cases, I find that dangerous, but the reasoning for establishing a side suit first is never discussed (maybe later?). Getting best advantage from a 5 or 6 card side suit is discussed, and it is declared without explanation that this only works if it's in the dummy. I could use some more explanation if I am ever to be a creative and intelligent player, instead of a recipe memoriser.

I’ve taught bridge for about 15 years. This is now the book I teach from. It’s a better value than the ACBL series or the Audrey Grant series, both of which require multiple books in a series to cover the same material that Kantar covers in this one book. (I don’t teach the material in the order Kantar presents it because I find students want to learn bidding and play simultaneously, an approach that enables them to (sort of) play bridge as they are learning it.) One major drawback is that the book has no "test yourself" quizzes of the sort that are really essential to learning basic bridge (and are included in the ACBL and Audrey Grant books). I supply that deficiency in the courses I teach with quizzes I created.Some may be curious about changes in the fourth edition as compared to the third. They are extremely minor. Other than layout changes throughout and wording changes here and there, I noticed about 5 changes. They are:1. The choice of minor to open with 4-4 minors in a balanced hand out of range for notrump. The third edition recommends 1D for all such hands. The fourth recommends 1D for 4441 (unless the singleton is in diamonds, obviously), and the *better* minor for 4432 hands.2. There is now a suit-quality requirement for a positive response to a 2C opening. In the third edition the requirement was simply 7+HCP plus any 5-card or longer suit.3. In one place Kantar suggests that a 1NT response to a 1C opening shows 8-10 HCP, but the main section on responses to 1C preserves the 6-10 range of the third edition.4. Kantar now includes criteria for opening 1 of a major rather than 1NT with a 15-17 HCP 5332.5. Kantar explains leading K from AK doubleton.(One new oddity in the fourth edition: In addition to its normal copyright notice on the verso of the book’s title page, the publisher adds a copyright notice after each hand or deal diagram. Why?)

Well-written and easy to understand.

This book explained bridge to me well enough to persuade me not to learn how to play bridge. Not fun for me.

This book arrived in excellent condition ~ literally "as good as new". Carefully packed.Seller highly recommended

I have been learning in German so this booked shone a whole new light on the topic of Bridge for me. Very very happy 😀

Book is very easy to follow, charts are extremely helpful and I seem to be picking up the basics of the game quickly.. or at least that’s what my more experienced co-players say. Also like the snippets of humour as Bridge can be intimidating. There is a lot of info and nuance to absorb but as I progress in playing I’m able to put it in context. A “cheat sheet-sheet” for beginners would have been a nice addition tho’ . never-the-less I HIGHLYrecommend it!

Assisted my understanding of the rules and techniques of Bridge play

I have only recently started playing bridge and this book is very helpful.I enjoy the "for Dummies" format and this book is no exception. The layout of the text and figures is clear and suitable for a beginner.