Winner of The Bridge Book of the Year 1999

Winner of The Bridge Book of the Year 1999

I first read this book when I was a beginning player hoping to become an intermediate one. My regular partner and I studied it together and integrated it into our game one chapter at a time. We both felt that it had been written for the person who'd been playing for a while (not a complete beginner), but was motivated to learn more. Our scores improved dramatically (we went from last in club games to placing regularly in a matter of two months).

This book covers all aspects of defense: opening leads and communicating with your partner through defensive signals. There are quizzes at the end of every chapter, and the book is clearly written with excellent example hands. Eddie Kantar has a sense of humor, which makes reading the book much more pleasant. My only complaint about this book is that he refers to upside-down carding only in a side note; it's not easy for the budding intermediate to translate standard carding to upside-down in the later chapters. ( )