Search results for ""Master Point Press""

Master Point Press has been appointed the official distributor worldwide for the World Bridge Federation’s annual Bridge World Championship books. The official book of the 2022 World Bridge Series in Wroclaw, Poland, is published to coincide with the EBL’s Transnational Championships in Strasbourg in the summer of 2023. The principal contributors are David Bird, Barry Rigal, Mark Horton and Ron Tacchi. The book is in full colour thoughout its 392 pages, featuring many photographs from the 16th World Bridge Series championships, sample hands and games, a full list of results and extensive coverage of the major championship events.

Read more less

In 2007, Mark Horton wrote Misplay These Hands with Me, (Master Point Press, ISBN 9781897106280, now out of print) a deliberate homage to Reese's classic Play These Hands with Me. The difference was that the declarer in Horton's book always made an error, sometimes obvious, sometimes not so much. This successful book was the basis of a long-running column in the American Contract Bridge League’s Bridge Bulletin, a sequel in 2019: Misplay More Hands With Me (published by Honors ISBN 9781771402019), and last year, Misdefend These Hands with Me (Master Point Press, September 2021, ISBN 9781771400633). Now the same author turns to the topic of bidding, and once again gives the reader a chance to learn from someone else's mistakes. All the deals are taken from top-level play.

Read more less

At rubber bridge or teams scoring, declarer’s objective is to make his contract – nothing else matters. Playing it safe is of vital importance. Yet playing safe can take many forms – it might involve simply choosing the best percentage line of play, or keeping one opponent off lead, preserving entries, or even giving up a trick you don’t have to lose, all in the cause of bringing that contract home securely. Recognizing all these situations, and knowing what to do when you encounter them, will improve your bridge scores by leaps and bounds.

Read more less

The official book of the 2021 World Bridge Championships in Salsomaggiore, Italy, will be published to coincide with the start of the 2022 World Bridge Series in Wroclaw. The principal contributors are Brian Senior, Barry Rigel, Mark Horton, Marek Wojcicki, Daniel Gulyas and Ron Tacchi. The book is in full colour thoughout, featuring many photographs from the championships, sample hands and games, a full list of results and extensive coverage of the major championship events.

Read more less

A common form of pairs scoring in the game of bridge is by “matchpoints”. On each board, a partnership scores two matchpoints for each other partnership that scored fewer points with the same cards, and one point for each other partnership that scored the same number of points. Most players would agree that matchpoints is harder than IMPs (“international match point scoring”) – it is certainly different. Yet many players approach the two forms of scoring in the same way. In this book, the author explains the differences in approach, the whys and wherefores of the right way to bid, play and defend at matchpoint scoring for optimum results.

Read more less

Close Encounters is a two-book series that describes some of the most memorable bridge matches of the last fifty years. It features titanic struggles for World and National titles, involving the greatest players from Europe and North America. There are amazing comebacks, down-to-the-wire finishes, overtime victories, and an insight into how the game has changed over the last half century. Book 2 starts with Italy losing a world title in bizarre fashion on the final board, and ends with the USA’s nail-biting 2-IMP victory over France in Lyon in 2017.

Read more less

Perhaps the best way to improve your bridge is to watch an expert play, and to try to understand the reasoning behind their bids and plays. Here, readers follow the bidding and play (or defence) of fifty-two hands – one a week for a whole year – and listen to the author’s thinking as each hand develops. Understanding why the experts do what they do is the first step towards being able to do it yourself – at least some of the time!

Read more less

Following on from their earlier book, Planning in Defense (January 2019; ISBN 978 177140 053 4), Seagram & Bird move on to more sophisticated aspects of defensive cardplay for advancing players. Using the same step-by-step approach, the authors guide the reader through the issues involved in communications, deception, trump promotions, discarding and avoiding the embarrassment of being endplayed.

Read more less

An expert bridge coach’s guide for beginners who are looking to move their game up to the next level. This book is for readers who have finished their beginner lessons, and are trying to move their game up to the next level. The tips cover all aspects of bridge -- bidding, play and defence. Advice and examples are drawn from material Barbara Seagram has developed for her students over the last twenty years -- it's like having your own personal bridge coach sitting beside you!

Read more less

"Slam bidding is perhaps the most exciting part of bridge, but at the same time it is the most technically challenging. The rewards for success are high, but so are the penalties for failure. Using this book as a launching pad, the author introduces some useful agreements and conventions. After that, he addresses how to decide whether to try for slam, and how to investigate via cuebidding. More direct and advanced techniques, competitive auctions and a final quiz make up the remainder of the book. Studying this book will make for a smooth transition to becoming an effective slam bidder.

Read more less

52 more crosswords featuring the world's most popular card game. Jeff Chen's first book of bridge-themed crosswords was widely acclaimed, and his many fans will welcome a second collection. They know what to expect! Now bridge players who enjoy crosswords can combine their favourite pastimes! For this book, New York Times and Los Angeles Times crossword constructor Jeff Chen has designed 52 brand-new crosswords with bridge-themed clues and solutions, providing hours of challenge and fun. "Jeff Chen's crosswords are always ingenious. He's one of my favourite puzzlemakers." Will Shortz, Crossword Editor, The New York Times.

Read more less

Bill Buttle's 'Out of Hand' cartoon panels appear regularly in a number of bridge magazines, notably the ACBL's monthly Bulletin (the American Contract Bridge League). This is his first collection in book form devoted solely to bridge humour.

Read more less

First published in 1955, this comprehensive survey of declarer play and defence has been very hard to find for the last decade. It is perhaps the single most-requested out-of-print bridge book, and is widely regarded as the best intermediate-level book on card play ever written. Gardener's technical expertise and Mollo's witty writing style combine to provide a unique instructional experience. This new edition has been updated and modernized by Bridge Magazine editor Mark Horton and also includes a new foreword by Gardener's daughter, Nicola Smith, herself a multiple world champion.

Read more less

In 1974, Eddie Kantar wrote Defensive Bridge Play Complete (Wilshire Books), a book which has only recently gone out-of-print, and is a consensus nominee as one of the ten top bridge books ever written. But the technical theory of the game has come a long way in the last 25 years. This book covers the basic concepts of bridge defense for the modern novice player, and will undoubtedly be the standard teaching tool and reference work for the next quarter-century. Kantar's various beginner books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, not least because of his unique style and the humour that he introduces into the learning process. Designed to be used by bridge teachers, or by students learning on their own, it contains a host of features that help the student to grasp the material: clearly laid-out concepts, margin notes, practice hands, chapter-end quizzes, key-point summaries at regular intervals, and an index.

Read more less

A complete refresher course for bridge players returning to the game in middle age, summarising the key changes to the game that have occurred over the last thirty years. Bridge is a game that people often decide to learn as empty-nesters. There are also those who learned the game when they were younger -- but while they would like to start playing again, they are nervous about how much the game may have changed. There are new ways of bidding, new conventions, and other things they will need to know before they are confident about playing even with friends. That's exactly the audience for this book -- those who are 'coming back to bridge'. It summarizes the key changes that someone who has not played for twenty to thirty years will encounter, and explains simply and clearly what they will need to know to be comfortable in the modern game. Skill level: Intermediate

Read more less

The emphasis here is on ‘useful’. This is not an academic tome, but a discussion of the aspects of probability that every bridge player needs to know and understand. Topics include suit splits, suit combinations, percentage plays, the Principle of Restricted Choice, and even the application of probability to bidding decisions.

Read more less