[kellonius]

Hi Folks,

I'm mentoring a new player who is very intelligent, a decent card-player, but an atrocioius bidder. In learning the game, no one seems to have taught him basic bidding concepts.

Can anyone think of a comprehensive book on bidding that is targeted for the intelligent, or advanced, beginner? Comprehensive is good, and difficulty is no problem, as long as there is a chapter that gives him basic rules, too.

(We're planning to eventually play a club standard 2/1 system of sorts)

Thanks!

[Zelandakh]

When I was teaching new players I simply created my own crib sheet bidding notes. Start with some definitions, then opening bids, responses, opener's rebids and then responder's rebids. I think this is better than taking a book, most of which are too wordy and do not have everything summarised in one place, and then having to adjust what the book suggests to match the club standard system. It does not take very long to create such notes and they can be reused for other students. The "wordy" parts you provide yourself as a supplement to the notes.

[ggwhiz]

I take the opposite approach from comprehensive and use handouts on specific points from a variety of sources.

One of the good ones is Marty Bergen and if he could absorb the whole thing you will have concrete examples to point to from playing sessions. Imo the dry comprehensive tomes don't lend themselves to that nearly as well.

[Winstonm]

kellonius, on 2013-December-01, 07:27, said:

Hi Folks,

I'm mentoring a new player who is very intelligent, a decent card-player, but an atrocioius bidder. In learning the game, no one seems to have taught him basic bidding concepts.

Can anyone think of a comprehensive book on bidding that is targeted for the intelligent, or advanced, beginner? Comprehensive is good, and difficulty is no problem, as long as there is a chapter that gives him basic rules, too.

(We're planning to eventually play a club standard 2/1 system of sorts)

Thanks!

No one ever seems to support me on this (maybe because it is so old few know about it) but I still insist that for the rank beginner who has no clue about bridge the best place to start is with Charles Goren - Goren taught America how to play bridge and was guru to the masses by keeping it simple and fun. With Goren as your guide, you can start playing the same night you are introduced to the game - very simple and clean: 4-card majors, forcing raises, penalty doubles, strong NT, strong jump shifts. Goren took pride in being called the Simple Simon of bridge - and it made him a household name.

Once you have those Goren basics under control, then you begin to understand why more sophisticated methods came about and if they are right for you to adopt.

[Mbodell]

The Grant and Rodwell 2/1 book seemed pretty decent for beginners to me.

I really liked the philosophy and emphasis of "Bid Better, Play Better: How to Think at the Bridge Table" by Dorthy Hayden Truscott when I was first learning (you can look inside from amazon at http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/0939460777), but it may be a little out of date in conventions and practices (I think the version I read had standard american and 16-18 nt).

[plaur]

No book, but I still like bobs-lesson-notes for beginnners

[mycroft]

Grant and Rodwell for me as well (for the specifics cited). If he's capable of making the switch after, or understanding and understanding why we play differently now, 5 Weeks is always good, because it explains *why*, not what. Once Mr. Scheinwold has been listened to, we can get to why to play 5cM and 1NTF, and all the gadgets required to make that switch sanely.

[neilkaz]

plaur, on 2013-December-02, 07:05, said:

No book, but I still like bobs-lesson-notes for beginnners

These notes are nice!

To the OP, if you plan to start your student with 2/1 just get the Rodwell/Grant book and don't worry about other books for now.