Taigabridge Sales

Bridge Books - Intermediate


Navigation:

All Bridge Books * New Titles * Highly Recommended Books * Used / Discounted / Out-of-Print Books
Bidding * Declarer Play * Defense * General * Stories / Hand collections / Fiction
Beginner * Novice * Intermediate * Advanced

Cards and Supplies * Poker Books * Cribbage Books * Backgammon Books

Ordering information * Bookstore home * TaigaBridge main page


The Lebensohl Convention Complete
Ron Andersen
Thorough coverage of all three common uses of Lebensohl: after a 1NT opening, after opponents' weak two-bids, and after partner's reverse. Many example hands shown. Have your partner read this book and never have another expensive Lebensohl misunderstanding! One of the very few books on a specific convention to ever make it onto my "Recommended" list.
$8.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] I Love This Game
Sabine Auken
Hear the top-ranked woman player in the world describe her favourite moments in her bridge career, and share her philosophy of the game. .
$19.95
Available now and ready to ship


Better Bidding with Bergen
Marty Bergen
The ins and out of Bergen Raises right from the horse's mouth, plus much more, from rebids after 1NT Forcing to advanced slam-finding techniques.
$11.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Better Bidding with Bergen, v.2: the Contested Auction
Marty Bergen
Get the full story on tools like Support Doubles and Good/Bad 2NT in the inventor's own words. A comprehensive look at conventions to help you handle auctions when both sides are in the bidding.
$11.95
By special order only


[Cover Photo] Introduction to Negative Doubles
Marty Bergen
Everybody knows that a negative double is "a takeout double after your partner has opened the bidding." But have you ever thought about whether you double or bid after 1C-1D when you have only one 4-card major? What about after 1D-2C? (Hint: the answers aren't the same!) After the general principles are presented, the special quirks of each possible negative double situation from the one level upwards are covered in turn.
Autographed.
$6.95
Available now and ready to ship


2/1 in a Nutshell - Teacher's Manual
Dee Berry
Spiral-bound manual with much more detailed material than the small pocket information in "2/1 in a Nutshell." Intended as a set of lesson plans for a bridge teacher presenting a 2/1 Game Forcing course. Those desiring a more detailed presentation of the system might want this book too for their own reference.
$20.00
By special order only


[Cover Photo] 25 Bridge Myths Exposed
David Bird
"Eight ever, nine never" really means "Eight usually, nine sometimes," but how can you tell when it's the right time to deviate from the rules of thumb? Get the answer to this riddle and 24 others!
$16.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Deceptive Card Play
David Bird
Each book in the Bridge Technique Series highlights one aspect of declarer play or defense. The first chapters introduce simple practice hands and the underlying theory; later chapters show more complex variations and examples of how the experts have used the technique in tournament play.
Great books for polishing particular aspects of your game, very readable.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Eliminations and Throw-ins
David Bird and Marc Smith
Bridge Technique Series.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Entry Management
David Bird and Marc Smith
Bridge Technique Series.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Planning in Defense
David Bird and Marc Smith
Bridge Technique Series.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Planning the Play in Notrump
David Bird and Marc Smith
Bridge Technique Series.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Planning in Suit Contracts
David Bird and Marc Smith
Bridge Technique Series.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Reading the Cards
David Bird and Marc Smith
Bridge Technique Series.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Safety Plays
David Bird and Marc Smith
[needed]
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Squeezes Made Simple
David Bird and Marc Smith
Bridge Technique Series.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Tricks With Trumps
David Bird and Marc Smith
Bridge Technique Series.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Off-Road Declarer Play: Unusual Ways to Play a Bridge Hand
David Bird
Fourteen chapters of advice on how to handle unpleasant problems in the play of the hand when the easy "textbook" solutions don't apply: ways to reach an apparently entryless dummy, to unblock blocked suits, to cope with bad trump breaks, to rectify the count for a squeeze when the obvious way of giving up a trick is dangerous, and more.
$18.95
By special order only


[Cover Photo] Squeezes for Everyone
David Bird
Explanations in layman's terms of how to prepare for and execute the most common varieties of squeezes, illustrated with example hands.
$18.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Complete Book of Opening Leads
Easley Blackwood
One of the classic books on defense: complete coverage of how to decide which suit and which card to lead at trick one, from one of the most recognized names in the history of the game. A special section discusses new innovations in leads, compares them with traditional methods, and explains the rationale behind principles like leading your fourth-highest card from a long suit.
$17.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Three Notrump in Depth
Augie Boehm
The Professor and Sally Fourth tackle "everyone's favorite contract," 3NT. The first half of the book is about bidding judgment -- whether to bid 3NT or four of a major, how to ask for stoppers and half-stoppers, when you can bid 3NT with a long running suit and less than 26HCP. The second half tackles planning the play.
$13.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Great Hands I Almost Played
Sally and Raymond Brock
When's the last time you said to yourself, "gee, I wish I could play that last hand over again!"? You'll feel better knowing that experts say the same thing to themselves more often than you'd think. The Brocks tattle on themselves, showing dozens of real-life hands, and showing how they should have been played and why. (And yes, they confess what really happened at the table on each deal, too.)
$14.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Leading Questions in Bridge
Sally Brock
An opening-leads book with a twist. It has a chapter for each of the common nuggets of opening-lead advice: fourth from your longest and strongest against notrump, singleton against a trump contract, and so on - and then examines each of these in detail, showing several examples where the "nursery rhyme" is right and where it is wrong, explaining how to tell the difference.
$18.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] 100 Bridge Problems: Using Poker Tactics in Contract Bridge
Mike Cappelletti
Cappelletti's key message is that disciplined agression is the key to achieving maximum results in both poker and bridge. He has put together an array of hands covering everything from how high to preempt to choosing an attacking opening lead to preparing yourself for the possibility of psychic bids. Lots of food for thought!
$14.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Following the Law
Larry Cohen
The sequel to "To Bid or Not to Bid." In this volume, we see more examples of the Law in action, more discussion of how to refine your bidding judgment with adjustments to the basic Law, and coverage of several space-age conventions that make it easier for you to make use of the Law in your competitive auctions.
$15.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] To Bid or Not to Bid: the Law of Total Tricks
Larry Cohen
Perhaps the single most influential bridge book of the 1990s!
The "Law of Total Tricks" is based on the simple fact that an extra small card in a long suit is worth an extra trick if your suit is trump and nothing if it is not. The more trumps you have the higher you can afford to bid, even on hands without much high-card strength.
In this book, Cohen covers the most common situations in competitive auctions and gives good rules of thumb for whether to bid on or defend. Your bidding judgment will improve overnight when you start following the Law!
$17.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Standard Bidding with SAYC
Ned Downey and Ellen Pomer
Limited time offer, regular price $17.95!
Every checkbox and convention on the Standard American Yellow Card explained by two of the Internet's leading bridge teachers. The most comprehensive guide to standard bidding since Bill Root's Commonsense Bidding.
Do you really know what you are agreeing to when you sit down with a stranger and ask "SAYC, pd?" After you read this book you will!
$15.00
Available now and ready to ship


Swiss Team Tactics
Harold Feldheim
A detailed look at how Swiss Teams strategy differs from longer knockout teams matches and from pairs play. Special sections on how to cope with exceptionally weak or strong opponents.
This is a very underrated book, very readable, and the bidding and delcaring advice is excellent in general even if you don't play Swisses particularly often.

A very popular item. Out of stock as of 28 May 05 and a difficult book to find. If I can find a supplier I will get as many of them in as I can!
$10.95
By special order only


The Flannery 2D Opening
Bill Flannery
The inventor of the Flannery convention talks about what purpose the convention serves, what hands it is best suited for, and covers the possible responses and rebids in detail.
$7.95
Available now and ready to ship


Conventions at a Glance
Matthew Granovetter
Brief summaries of dozens of the most popular conventions, in a pocket-size format. Handy as a quick reference to take with you to a tournament without weighing down your luggage. A supplement to, not a replacement for, a thorough convention reference for serious study.
Revised and expanded edition,30 new conventions added.
$9.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Advanced Bridge Bidding for the 21st Century
Max Hardy
All the bells and whistles of modern 2/1 as played and taught by Max right up to the time of his death in 2002. This was his last book. Additional bidding tools to complement the material in "Standard Bridge Bidding for the 21st Century."
$20.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Standard Bridge Bidding for the 21st Century
Max Hardy
Max Hardy believed that modern 2/1 was "the new Standard American" and was what all bridge players in the 21st century should learn. He may have overestimated the popularity of 2/1 a little bit -- but he wrote a terrific introduction to the principles of 2/1 that anyone planning to play tournament bridge today shouldn't be without.
This book concentrates on the bread-and-butter sequences of 2/1: establishing a game force, setting trumps at a low level to save room for slam exploration, making full use of tools like the splinter bid to evaluate how well your hands fit together.
$20.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Eddie Kantar Teaches Advanced Bridge Defence
Eddie Kantar
[needed]
$21.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Defensive Bridge Play Complete
Eddie Kantar
This thick 1974 classic was the Bible of defensive methods for an entire generation of bridge players. Topics include how to choose a lead vs. suit and notrump contracts, how to tell what type of signal to give at trick one, and how to adopt a defensive style based on the type of dummy you see after you make the opening lead.
Ask experienced players in your club what their favorite bridge book is and I guarantee you will hear "Big Red" mentioned more than once! The formatting is old-fashioned but the material is timeless. This book has been hard to obtain for several years and will likely soon be out of print forever... don't miss out!
$20.00
Available now and ready to ship


Kantar for the Defense, v.1
Eddie Kantar
A hundred practice problems to hone your defensive judgment. Great bridge advice and classic Kantar wit on every page of hints and answers.
$10.00
Available now and ready to ship


Kanter for the Defense, v.2
Eddie Kantar
100 more practice hands to improve your defense.
$10.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Eddie Kantar Teaches Modern Bridge Defense
Eddie Kantar
[needed]
$21.95
Available now and ready to ship


Test Your Bridge Play vol. 1
Eddie Kantar
100 declarer play problems for you to try your hand at. Each one illustrates one simple lesson about planning the play -- and most of them contain a hidden trap to sort out the intermediate player from the expert! Excellent practice, well worth working your way through the book more than once.
$10.00
Available now and ready to ship


Test Your Bridge Play vol. 2
Eddie Kantar
Another 100 declarer play problems in the same vein as volume 1... some easy, some very deep, many in between... all guaranteed to reinforce a valuable point about how to be a good declarer.
$10.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Eddie Kantar Teaches Topics in Declarer Play
Eddie Kantar
[needed]
$21.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] The Bridge Philosopher
James Kauder
Newly released edition of Kauder's classic book Creative Card Play. My personal favorite of all "collections of bridge deals" books and I am delighted to see it back in print.
Every one of the hands has a logical but non-textbook solution; he explains the clues from the bidding, play, and his reading of the opponents' habits that guide him to the winning line.
$18.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Kelsey on Squeeze Play
Hugh Kelsey
A reprint of Kelsey's four classic books on simple, double, triple, and strip squeezes, bound as one volume. An abundance of examples of hands drawn from real play, and a classification of different types of threats and guards.
Great if you like collections of interesting hands, or if you prefer to "learn by example" at a laid-back pace how squeezes work.
$35.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Logical Bridge Play
Hugh Kelsey
A collection of hands to hone your ability to find the winning line of play as declarer, based on deductions from the bidding and previous play. Starts out with common basic situations like "West didn't open the bidding, and has shown up with 9 HCP already, so East surely has the one ace I haven't seen yet" and "West's opening lead was the three of clubs, so he must not have an honour-sequence in any of the unbid suits" and shows how the experts can get so many of their seemingly blind guesses right.
$16.99
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] The Notrump Zone
Danny Kleinman
When should you exercise your judgment to open 1NT on a semibalanced hand? Are some point ranges better than others? It's all in here. Which conventions beyond Stayman and Jacoby Transfers should you use? He gives three separate answers to this one, depending on whether you and your partner want a simple but functional system or the "most detailed system money can buy."
$18.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Persistent Human Bridge Errors
Danny Kleinman and Nick Straguzzi
Further tales of Chthonic, the perfect bridge-playing computer, and the trouble he has making sense of his human partners, teammates, and opponents.
Lots of material that didn't appear in The Bridge World!
$18.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] 100 Winning Bridge Tips
Ron Klinger
[needed]
$17.99
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] 20 Great Conventions Flipper
Ron Klinger
A pocket-size quick reference covering 20 of Mr. Klinger's favorite conventions, ranging from essentials like splinter bids, Roman Keycard Blackwood, and the Unusual notrump overcall to special-purpose tools to avoid revealing anything opener's hand after 1NT in Stayman auctions.
$8.99
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Cue Bidding to Slams
Ron Klinger
A whole book specifically about control-showing bids -- a vastly more powerful slam exploration technique than Blackwood, but one overlooked by many new bridge players. Emphasizes the traditional ("aces first") style; for the Italian style (either aces or kings first), see Ken Rexford's Cuebidding: a Modern Approach.
$16.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] The Modern Losing Trick Count
Ron Klinger
List price $20!
If you are ready to look beyond the high-card point and refine your bidding judgment, this is the book for you. One of the great books on hand evaluation.
The Losing Trick Count is a simple yet surprisingly accurate hand evaluation method, known in the 1930s but temporarily forgotten in the enthusiasm for point count bidding in the 40s and 50s. It has several advantages over HCP: it accounts naturally for the importance of having fitting rather than scattered honors; and because it forces you to think about counting tricks rather than points, it makes adjustments to the raw count simple -- instead of memorizing rules like subtracting a point for an unguarded face card, you simply count a card that the bidding tells you is unlikely to win a trick as a loser and vice versa!
$16.99
Available now and ready to ship


Modern Losing Trick Count Flipper
Ron Klinger
Pocket-size spiral bound summary of how the Losing Trick Count works and how to apply it to common bidding situations. Functions as a summary of Standard American bidding too.
$8.99
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Understanding the Contested Auction
Ron Klinger and Andrew Kambites
Sixteen chapters, covering everything from the negative double to two-suited overcalls to special matchpoint pairs competitive decisions.
$16.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] When to Bid, When to Pass
Ron Klinger
Refine your bidding judgment by seeing how the value of a hand changes depending on which suits the high-card strength are in and how the previous auction has gone. He starts out with a few rules of thumb and then considers a dozen different common types of auctions.
$19.99
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] The Complete Book on Balancing in Contract Bridge
Mike Lawrence
IN some auctions it is safe to balance with a 4-card suit and a weak hand; in others you should have six or a fairly strong hand! This book helps you know how agressive to be in various balancing situations.
Separate chapters for reopening the bidding when an opening bid is passed around, when the opponents find a sit but stop low, when they bid notrump, and when they are in a misfit auction.
$11.95
By special order only


[Cover Photo] Disturbing Opponents' Notrump
Mike Lawrence
An expert's exposition on when and how to use DONT, one of the most popular conventions for overcalling after a 1NT opening. (Yes, there really IS one convention that Larry Cohen/Marty Bergen and Mike Lawrence BOTH agree is valuable. Amazing!)
In Mike's own words, "don't be a mouse, be a rat and get into their bidding. They will not appreciate you at all which is the goal of bridge players everywhere."
$5.00
By special order only


Double: New Meanings for an Old Bid
Mike Lawrence
A catalog of all the conventional uses of Double, from the simple takeout double, through familiar Lightner and negative doubles, on to new things like support doubles and some toys you've never even heard of lilke the "Thrump double." Pick and choose which ones are right for you and your partner!
$17.95
By special order only


Falsecards
Mike Lawrence
[needed]
$9.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] The Devyn Press Handbook of Partnership Understandings
Mike Lawrence
Not a book to sit down and read by yourself -- a blueprint for a series of discussions with your partner. A detailed series of questions to make you examine almost every aspect of your partnership bidding system and style. Almost like filling out a 64-page-long convention card! You'll save yourselves a lot of bottoms by finding what questions you and your partner don't answer the same way before that particular situation comes up at the table.
$5.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] The Complete Book on Hand Evaluation at Contract Bridge
Mike Lawrence
[needed]
$11.95
By special order only


[Cover Photo] How to Read Your Opponents' Cards
Mike Lawrence
[needed]
$12.95
New shipment expected soon


[Cover Photo] I Fought the Law of Total Tricks
Mike Lawrence and Anders Wirgren
Larry Cohen's Law of Total Tricks books were among the most influential bridge writings of the 1990s. But the law is not absolutely perfect - an extra trump isn't ALWAYS an extra winner for your side - and Lawrence and Wirgren discuss an alternative way to evaluate your playing strength, a modified point-count method.
$17.95
By special order only


Judgment at Bridge
Mike Lawrence
A book about style, rather than system. Should you open 1C or 1D when you have 4 of each? Should you open 1NT with a 4-card major? Should you raise your partner's hearts or show your spade suit?
Full of examples of everyday decisions both in bidding and play, to help you improve your own judgment when your hand meets the textbook definition of more than one action.
$11.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] The Complete Book of Opening Leads
Mike Lawrence
A somewhat different approach to opening leads: broken down by type of auction. He explains what sort of lead works best according to what sort of hand the opponents are likely to have - even describes a few situations where he'll choose what suit to lead without regard to what's in his own hand!
All the familiar rules about which card to lead from a suit are covered too, of course.
$19.95
By special order only


[Cover Photo] The Complete Book on Overcalls in Contract Bridge
Mike Lawrence
[needed]
$11.95
By special order only


[Cover Photo] How I Became a Life Master Playing the Weak Notrump
Eric von der Luft
A thorough guide to how to incorporate a weak notrump opening into Standard American bidding. Chapters on how your suit openings are effected; on the merits of each notrump range; on responses to the weak notrump, including how to escape with weak misfits. A complete overview of standard bidding along the way, too.
$16.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Competitive Bidding in the 21st Century
Marshall Miles
$16.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Inferences at Bridge
Marshall Miles
Learn how to turn the opponents' bids and plays against them, by taking advantage of that extra information to help you decide what to bid and how to plan your own play and defense.
$18.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Modern Constructive Bidding
Marshall Miles
An expert gives his opinion on which modern conventions are useful and which aren't. All the popular conventions and system choices are covered: 2/1 Game forcing or not? 1NT forcing or semi-forcing? Fourth suit forcing one round or to game? You may not agree with all of Miles's opinions but he will provide you with food for thought to help you make your own system decisions. One of the very few sources in print to cover some modern conventions like XYZ and Bart.
$18.95
By special order only


[Cover Photo] Clues from the Bidding
Julian Pottage
[needed]
$16.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Cuebidding at Bridge: a Modern Approach
Ken Rexford
The most detailed coverage of modern "Italian style" cuebidding in print. Rexford has some innovative ideas about using the space between 2 and 3 of your major for cuebidding after an auction like 1H-2C-2D-2H if you use the 2/1GF system.
If you prefer the traditional "aces first" style of cuebids, I recommend Ron Klinger's Cuebidding to Slams.
$19.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Bridge: Common Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
Andrew Robson
A total of 172 of Andrew Robson's newspaper column hands, organized by topic and with a short easy-to-remember tip at the end of each one.
$17.99
By special order only


[Cover Photo] Things Your Bridge Teacher Won't Tell You
Dan Romm
A high-stakes money bridge player talks about methods and tactics that have made him a winner. The first third of the book is about mental preparation and overall approach; the second part tips applicable to particular situations; the third part covers 20 popular bidding conventions: why he loves some, why he hates others. An excellent practical resource if you play a lot of individual tournaments or a wide variety of pickup partners.
$16.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] How to Defend a Bridge Hand
Bill Root
[needed]
$17.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] How to Play a Bridge Hand
Bill Root
"Not for the beginner or the expert, but great for the 90% of you in between," as it says in the preface. Hundreds and hundreds of practice hands illustrating how to play suit combinations, how to establish and maintain trump control, deciding which of two suits to play on. By the end of the book you work your way up to throwins and squeezes, and a chapter on special cases where you play the hand different at matchpoints than at rubber bridge.
$16.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Modern Bridge Conventions
Bill Root and Richard Pavlicek
More than "just" a description of how the 50 or so most popular bidding conventions work. It also goes into great detail about how the second and third rounds of bidding unfold after each convention is used; how different conventions interact with each other; and how to cope with the loss of the natural bid you had to give up to adopt the convention.
Every convention in the book is rated as a "one-, two-," or "three-star convention" according to how complex it is, making it easier for new players to decide which conventions are worth their effort to learn. An appendix shows how to mark each convention on the ACBL convention card.
There are several newer conventions books on the market today, but this one had stood the test of time. Exceptionally well-written and thorough, it is still my top pick in this category.
$16.00
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know
Barbara Seagram and Marc Smith
Twenty-five chapters, one on each of the most commonly used conventions in tournament bridge today.
$18.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] 25 More Bridge Conventions You Should Know
Barbara Seagram and David Bird
A chapter on each of 25 conventions used by the pros, making them accessible to serious club players eager to improve their games.
$16.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] 25 Ways to Compete in the Bidding
Barbara Seagram and Marc Smith
[needed]
$16.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] 25 Ways to Be a Better Defender
Barbara Seagram and David Bird
The latest book in the 25 Steps series, just released in fall 2006. Tips on leads, signals, planning the defense, and more.
$17.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] 25 Ways to Take More Tricks as Declarer
Barbara Seagram and David Bird
[needed]
$18.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Four-Suit Transfers
Barbara Seagram and Andy Stark
[needed]
$7.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] Why You Lose at Bridge
S. J. Simon
One of the classic books of the game! Two volumes in one. Part one is about five common types of technical errors, while part two is about the psychology of the game.
$11.95
Available now and ready to ship


[Cover Photo] The Weak Notrump: How to Play It, How to Play Against It
Andy Stark
The complete guide to the 12-14 notrump opening. "How to Play It" covers transfer-style responses, two-way stayman, adjustments to the rest of your bidding system, coping with interference, and more: "How To Play Against It" discusses reasons why you should defend differently vs. strong and weak notrumps, and offers both a simple and a scientific defense to try.
$18.95
Available now and ready to ship


Two-Minute Bridge Tips
Frank Stewart