Card Games Books

From back cover:

"Taking you from world championship tournaments to big-money rubber bridge games, this book puts you at the table as thousands of dollars (or a world title) change hands on the turn of a card. In the smoke-filled rooms of London and New York, characters such as Harry the Horse, Moonbeam, Godzilla, and Hannibal the Cannibal play for high stakes. World Championships hang in the balance in Chile, Italy, and Bali. In the jet-set resorts of Europe the top pros play invitational money tournaments with millionaire sponsors. Share the favorite bridge memories of one of the world's best, as Zia Mahmood takes you 'Around the World in 80 Hands.'"

although what else would you expect from Zia, one of bridge's great personalities? A highly entertaining book full of interesting hands and interesting people.

I hadn't played bridge in 45 years, and I wasn't very good even then. Audrey's book presents a clear and well-organized introduction to bidding and playing, with many good example hands with explanations.

Grant's series goes from beginning bridge players to medium skilled. A wonderful, easy to read and understand series.

I picked up this book in the Las Vegas airport at the end of my first trip to Las Vegas. I wish I had got it at the beginning of the trip. This is a thin little book that teaches basic strategy and can easily be read in one sitting before arriving in Vegas. Once you have mastered basic strategy, you can move on to some other more advanced books such as Blackjack Bluebook.

A quick easy read. NO CARD COUNTING. Simple tips and strategies make the game fun for the amature, and almost completely remove the house advantage in Blackjack. You gain confidence and can relax and enjoy the game because you know you are doing it right. Using the easy techniques taught in this book, you can even the odds. Don't lose another winning hand because you are too lazy to read a few pages. A must-read for anyone who intends to visit a blackjack game, especially first-timers.

this book on pokemon is the largest, most complete source you'll ever need for all U.S. and Japanese Pokmon trading game cards--With up-to-the minute information on new releases,it has helped me in my trading and finding out what cards are worth something or not.A excellent book

I think that the Beckett Pokemon Collector Priceguide is the most helpful Pokemon guide book out there. It has price guides for every Pokemon trading card, even Japanese. It also includes a list of all the Pokemon, including 151-251. The book also has updates on the latest in Pokemon news, cards, games, and the most popular Pokemon. If you are looking for a good guide to Pokemon, this is the book you are looking for.

These four basic strategy cards fit in your shirt pocket yet contain everything you need to optimize your odds under virtually all table conditions. Cards work for 1, 2, and 4-8 deck games covering most variations of house rules. Give yourself the best chance to beat the casino. Use these cards and experience how much fun blackjack can be when you play like the pros.

Las Vegas has a saying, "players depend on luck, casinos depend on math". Well, here's your chance to almost even those odds to within 1/2%. These blackjack strategy cards (all 4 for 1, 2, or 4-8(2) decks) do the math for you and stretch your money a long, long way. You will get your money back in the first hour of play and wish you had had them a long time ago. If you play blackjack, this is the one item you should take with you. And you don't even have to think, pretty nice ugh.

These four basic strategy cards fit in your shirt pocket yet contain everything you need to optimize your odds under virtually all table conditions. Cards work for 1, 2, and 4-8 deck games covering most variations of house rules. Give yourself the best chance to beat the casino. Use these cards and experience how much fun blackjack can be when you play like the pros.

Las Vegas has a saying, "players depend on luck, casinos depend on math". Well, here's your chance to almost even those odds to within 1/2%. These blackjack strategy cards (all 4 for 1, 2, or 4-8(2) decks) do the math for you and stretch your money a long, long way. You will get your money back in the first hour of play and wish you had had them a long time ago. If you play blackjack, this is the one item you should take with you. And you don't even have to think, pretty nice ugh.

excellent book, very interesting system.

The author gives a different approach to winninng at blackjack. Scott Frank presents the CORE System to counting cards in an easy to understand way. I really enjoyed the book and found Scott's theories to be helpful. I used the strategy in Vegas and actually won.

This book is a perennial gem and justly deserves its classic status. Reese is most adept at presenting the world of bridge not just as a mathematical proposition, but a real-life competition against real players who are dying to sacrifice to keep you from making game -- and also for players whose partner is a bit of a doofus.

There are many excellent books written by many bridge experts. I would say in a short amount of time BRIDGE FOR BRIGHT BEGINNERS covers a lot of time in a fair, friendly manner and leaves the reader much better informed. Who could ask for more than that?

This little book uses a teaching strategy that one might think would be obvious: Explain what problems mean before showing readers how to solve them. The way it does so is to show how to play a hand before talking about bidding.

I remember how frustrated I was when I first learned how to play bridge: I had a bunch of rules dumped on me about how to bid, and had no conception of whether or not a bid made sense beyond seeing whether it followed those seemingly arbitary rules. If I had read this book then, it would have let me avoid all that frustration.

There is one point about which prospective readers of this book should be aware: It is based on British bidding style rather than American style. Nevertheless, I have absolutely no doubt that it deserves five stars, and should be much better known than it is.

as is BRIDGE FOR DUMMIES. Also IMHO while there are many introductory texts to bridge, the more recent ones tend to be the most useful. This includes BRIDGE IN THREE WEEKS as well.

Every other beginners bridge book focuses teaching bridge via memorization. This book, by contrast teaches you to THINK. It shows you the logic that underlies the "rules" the other books focus on. More importantly, because it focuses on the logic, it does not have to "simplify" things to avoid taxing your memory. When you finish reading this book, you'll use modern bidding methods that any bridge player will understand. If you want to learn to play bridge, this is by far and away the best book to do it with. More importantly, this book focuses on building a solid core of bridge skills. When you are finished with this book, you will be able to play casually with your friends and will be ready to start improving your skills if you are interested in tournament play.

My one gripe with this book is that the suggested bridge library in the back is a bit sparse, and somewhat poorly chosen. The books on declarer play and defense are a bit too advanced, and the bidding book he suggests is well out of date and below the level you'll be at when you finish this book. Here is my advice instead:

When you buy this book you should buy these two classics as well:
Introduction to Declarers Play
Introduction to Defender's Play

Truscott shows you the basics of play and defense, but these books really go into the logic behind the basic skills, and they do so far better than any newer books. You'll be much better off if you focus on mastering this material before tackling the more advanced books he recommends.

At this point you are perfectly capable of playing casual bridge and having a good time with your friends. If you want to play tournament bridge, or you are serious about getting good, you've got a way to go yet. When you are ready to take your game to the next level, try Bid Better Play Better and How the Experts Win at Bridge.

I have improved a lot after I got this book. It's very good for advanced players.

For Intermediate Plus/Advanced players.
Perhaps 350 problems in 24 chapters covering all aspects of defense. You will be exposed to many types/categories of defensive problems. Such as:

- opening leads
- signaling
- inferences from bidding (shape, HCP)
- counting the hand (shape, HCP)
- avoiding end plays
- 2nd hand High
- Ducking
- Giving Declarer a losing option
- Carding technique (pinning/smother play)

Many of the hands took me several minutes to think about.
Not that I could do that at the table, but it helps focus you on what the correct thought processes are.

Very worthwhile book