Bridge for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide to One of the Most Challenging Card Games

by Paul Mendelson

Bridge is the ultimate card game. It is truly a mind sport, as taxing on the brain as a decathlon is to the body. Bridge for Beginners is the ultimate introduction.
Bridge for Beginners starts with the basics, even suggesting that the reader remove the jokers from a full deck of cards. With the basics established, the book progresses, and by the end, the beginning player will be ready to go as far as desired, whether it be to social bridge, club bridge, competitive bridge, or trying out for the national team.
Bridge, and this book, is divided into two the bidding, or auction, and the play of the cards. Each is examined closely, in a step-by-step method that greatly simplifies one of the most complex card games.

Chapters
Absolute Beginners -The Game Unveiled - The Scoring - The Shape of the Hand - The Bidding-Positions at the Table - Opening and Responding - Supporting Partner - Competitive Bidding - Conventions - No Trump Contracts - Suit Contracts - Finesses - Etiquette - Scoring-Basic Rules

With valuable advice on evaluating hands, working with your partner, and even spotting cheating, Bridge for Beginners is the only guide a novice will ever need.

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Paul Mendelson wrote stories at school when he should have been doing other things, but went on to become the, then, youngest ever playwright performed at the National Theatre, with his play, "You're Quite Safe With Me". This was followed by further work for theatre and, briefly, for television.

For twenty years, Paul has written on mind sports, such as bridge, poker and casino games, becoming the UK's best-selling author within his genre. He has contributed to magazines and newspapers worldwide, has a weekly bridge column in the Financial Times, and also writes interviews and features.

His debut crime novel, "The First Rule of Survival" was published in 2014, making the short-list of the CWA Golden Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year.
His second novel, "The Serpentine Road" was short-listed for several awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger again - an almost unheard of achievement - and received great acclaim in South Africa where it's political elements chimed with many that were in the news at the time.
Book 3, "The History of Blood" was published in July 2016, receiving accolades from reviewers in the national press in the UK, Eire and South Africa. It has been chosen as a Recommended Summer Read, Thriller of the Week and Thriller of the Month.
"Apostle Lodge" is his fourth novel set in Southern Africa, released for export on November 2017 and in the UK in February 2018, and it has received plaudits from around the world, hitting the top-ten Bestseller List in South Africa throughout the Christmas period.
Mendelson's fifth novel is set in England with a new detective.

Paul's novels now appear as audio books, Large Print books, and have been translated into French and German, with more languages to come, including Afrikaans (for the huge crime reading market in South Africa)

Each of the novels in the Vaughn de Vries series are set in Southern Africa, the novels allowing Paul's creative writing once again to come to the fore, and providing the perfect excuse to return to his beloved Cape Town to gain inspiration and time to write.

Paul lives in London (and, sometimes, Cape Town) with his two and four-legged family.

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up because I was curious as to what he had to say (I've started playing again after 40+ years). He talks about social bridge, not duplicate. I find the proceedural rules of duplicate a pain; I would just rather play the game.