Card Games Books

Bridge Over Troubled Bidding offers a basis to make aacceptable and competent bids, a rule of thumb (a comfort zone) assuring the player he/she can enter the game, enjoy and look forward to the next one. A plus is that we can focus on the cards dealt, what we can do with them and feel secure to enter the auction.

Jan Pittelli offers the reader a wealth of information in an understandable and creative format. Her objectives for each chapter are very clear. She is able to meet the needs of the various learning styles of her readers by providing different approaches to deliver the information. Her visual presentations with the blocked off "Bridge Language", review sections, hands-on workbook practice, audiotape, and helpful advice from her experiences, provide the student with a fun and unintimidating way to learn bridge. Pittelli's encouragement along with a writing style which conveys her enthusiasm and respect for the game are very motivational to the beginning student.

I have played bridge since I was a junior in high school at which time my mother insisted that I take bridge lessons. Although I rather enjoyed the game, the act of bidding was stressful to me. Substituting in a bridge group was always a tense experience. Invariably someone would ask, "Do you bid a (some term I never had even heard of)?" or after the bidding someone would ask, "WHY did you bid THAT". In short, before I read this book, bidding was no fun. I, like others I know, would sometimes pass early to avoid getting the bid. Now, after Bridge Over Troubled Bidding, I enjoy the entire game. I may not always win, and I may not always make my bid, but at least I'm approaching the game with knowledge and understanding which previously had escaped me. I'm personally glad that Pittelli was able to find a new and effective way to explain the act of bidding. I hope many readers will now be better able to enjoy the game and to even teach their own kids in such a delightful manner.

Outstanding book for beginners and for those who only think they know how to bid. Extremely valuable for anyone interested in learning the game or upgrading their bidding skills. This book is an absolute must for beginners and for those who have not played bridge for a while. Along with the book you also receive a workbook and audio tape. The workbook is excellent for practice and the tape is very helpful, easy to understand - you can brush up on your skills in the car.

I have played bridge since I was a junior in high school at which time my mother insisted that I take bridge lessons. Although I rather enjoyed the game, the act of bidding was stressful to me. Substituting in a bridge group was always a tense experience. Invariably someone would ask, "Do you bid a (some term I never had even heard of)?" or after the bidding someone would ask, "WHY did you bid THAT". In short, before I read this book, bidding was no fun. I, like others I know, would sometimes pass early to avoid getting the bid. Now, after Bridge Over Troubled Bidding, I enjoy the entire game. I may not always win, and I may not always make my bid, but at least I'm approaching the game with knowledge and understanding which previously had escaped me. I'm personally glad that Pittelli was able to find a new and effective way to explain the act of bidding. I hope many readers will now be better able to enjoy the game and to even teach their own kids in such a delightful manner.

Clyde Elton Love was my grandfather. In 1987 my mother, (his daughter), Marian Love MacAlpin renewed all copyrights to his books. Dover publications pirated the copyright to this book, and as my mother is dead and my family cannot afford pressing suit, this publication is actually illegal. Happy as I am to see Grandfather's books still in demand, I am saddened that Dover, with its "good" reputation, stooped to such an action. Dover hides behind the quality of the books they publish.

If you read this book thouroghly it will improve your game tremendously. The bidding in it is antiquated and it is written as a very dense textbook, but the declarer play is incredible. Love describes in detail all the different kinds of squeezes and how to execute them. He has detailed examples for you to work through, and then problems for you to try on your own before looking at the answers. His coverage of strip squeezes was a bit confusing, but he covers simple, double, and compound squeezes wonderfully (he covers more exotic squeezes, too). However, I wish he had discussed defending against squeeze plays more (it was only mentioned briefly). This book is not for the beginner or casual player, but it's fantastic if you're serious about bridge.

This is by far the best. Not for beginners. You won't need all of its chapters in your daily play, but if you do know how to deal with every board presented in this book, then you are likely to win the bermuda bowl.

This book will explain all types of squeezes, from the most simple ones to the worst and most complicated. You may be confused with the terminology, but I guarantee that reading this book will make you THINK, and EXECUTE your opponents!

Absolutely fantastic book on squeezes! The book gives a fairly complete survey all types of squeezes and explains the background and particular structure of each type. It does not just give a lot of diagrams and shows that a squeeze of some type exists. Instead it provides a very clear description of all conditions and the reasoning behind 'the cards should be played in this particular order'. I especially love the chapters on double compound squeezes!

This isn't the sort of book you pick up for 10 minutes before bed... it's the sort that you read at a desk with a pad and paper to take notes with! If you're willing to put the time and effort into a serious reading of this book, however, you will learn a tremendous amount.

If you're looking for an accessible, casual introduction to the subject, look elsewhere (I highly recommend David Bird's _Bridge Squeezes for Everyone_). It's also not suitable for beginning players. This is a book for serious study but is well worth the effort.

If you've mastered Hugard and Braue's stuff, if you can do 60 classic passes per minute, if you have all the time in the world to devote to card sleight of hand, then this is the book for you! Seriously, this is a truly excellent book. Buckley's sleights, though not for the faint of heart, are superb. (He must've been one heckuva cardician!) This is a serious, serious card magic book. But if you are serious yourself, you'll get it. Of course, you'll overlook the antiquated prose and Buckley's tremendous ego throughout. (When you read this material you'll forgive Buckley's self-congratulatory tone.) This is a splendid work for those who want to be the best...

This book by Arthur Buckley is amazing.

It has loads of fantastic card sleights, whilst they do need a lot of practice it is worthwhile, as once you have them in your fingers they will never be forgotten.

All of these slieghts are extremely useful. The book is divided into different sections of tricks.

There are tricks for close up and for stage although some may need some imagination to update them, also there is a special section on crooked gambling.

All in all a good book with lots of photographs of Buckleys hands, he was a great card worker.

Buy it if you already know all the basics of card magic well.

I've yet to see a bad review for this book, and there's a reason. This book is terrific. There is however one issue to be addressed. This book is hard!!! Definitely not for beginners, it has some of what I believe are the greatest but hardest card manipulations out there. I definitely recommend it however to the serious card magic enthusiast. There are enough valuable ideas in here to last you a lifetime.

Pretty good book with a variety of unique card sleights (palming, manipulating cards in the deck, etc.). These sleights are the 'real work', so it will take a little perseverance. Many of these utility sleights are ones that you ought to know if you want to be a card sleight-of-hand worker.

The instructions are generally clear, but sometimes a detail here and there gets a little confusing. There's a fair number of photos showing how to do many of the sleights.

Sometimes a sleight is a little more complicated than it needs to be. My recommendation is to follow the author's steps in slow-motion with a deck of cards in hand. After you are familiar with the overall effect, you can make adjustments based on what your comfortable with. There may also be other newer methods for learning these sleights if you want to invest in newer card sleight instruction (such as the Daryl Encyclopedia of Card Sleights videos, etc.).

Right now, I'm working on the side steal sleight. He gives a T. Nelson Downs version which has some merit, but it is much more complicated than necessary. The author's own version is a little more do-able. But even the author's method becomes a little too fidgety, so I've made minor modifications to make it work well for me. I start in slow-motion, counting through the substeps to keep pace while I do the move (1..2..3..4). Then I repeat it until I can bring it up to full speed.

If you want to learn sleights for cheap, try this book. You may have to pick and choose through the sleights, and there may be better methods to perform some of these sleights now, but it's not bad for under $10.

When I unexpectedly came across a picture of Buckley on the first page of the book, and after hearing the other reviews of how difficult and advanced the techniques in the book were, I couldn't believe my eyes. I was surprised to see the face of a handsome teenager, of which my previous impression was COMPLETELY the opposite to the one I held in my hands. And this guy was a professional card magician at the age of 18, and able to do tricks infront of hundreds of people on-stage in 1908!

I have a feeling that this guy's mystery and skill probably gained him significant success with girls his age. The mysterious effects of these difficult to execute sleights are priceless and dazzling beyond belief. If a 3 columns card trick can make girls believe in magic.. then Buckley's stuff probably knocked their socks off... literally! Believe me, this guy would be able to blow David Blaine out of the water and make him look like Bob Longe.

That being said and out of the way, the book itself is amazing. There are very clearcut photos of Buckley's hands and very impressive card tricks, or as he calls them in the fourth section, "Card Experiments". Best of all, this book isn't like most others where the authors seem to purposely be vague (S.W. Erdnase) and not give the best descriptions. Mr. Buckley gives you every detail and is your friend throughout the book, showing you exactly how everything is done without any confusion.

And there is SO much different good stuff in here, that you'll probably never need another book for advanced materials.

It is a great book and a great reference to help you on your way to card excellence and showmanship. You will not be disappointed with this purchase.

First the downside: Its a bit of work going through this book. This is not some light read, with lots of jokes. Expect to spend a lot of time thinking aabout whats going on given a bidding sequence, and your hand. You want to improve? You have to work at it!

The upside: This will really help you to understand not just overcalls, but hand evaluation, bidding, opening leads, defense, and what in general is going on. Who holds what, etc.


Its a study of whats going on in all 4 players hands, given the information of a single bid, or one round of bidding. Why, with the exact same hand, you can overcall with one sequence, and pass with the other. I spent a few weeks reading this, going over the hundreds of sequences and hands. I'm now more aware of certain lurking dangers, and what to look out for.

The classic book on overcalls. Excellent advice on non-vulnerable overcalls at the one level and on which overcalls to avoid. Newer players might want to start with Edgar Kaplan's Competitive Bidding in Modern Bridge

Everything you need to know about overcalls. That's all.
(4card overcalls are simply outstanding).

Mike Lawrence must be a direct descendant of Sherlock Holmes! He uses every scrap of information available on any particular hand/auction, and uses these to arrive at the best bid to make. And it is because of this attention to detail that this (and his other books) are intended for those players in the intermediate or advanced category.

Interesting to place this book's approach alongside more modern bridge textbooks. Take the likes of Cohen's 'Law of Total Tricks'. It expounds the 'Law' and then illustrates how a player should use it via a modest selection of example hands. By contrast, Mike Lawrence bombards the reader with every conceivable hand and explains (albeit in logical order) how you should be thinking about these along the way.

This hardly SEEMS a sound teaching approach: the type is small, there is loads of repetition (Lawrence admits it), and the 'quizzes' at the end of each section are not organised in a 'reader-friendly' way.

But where this book succeeds and some modern books fail, is curiously in its insistence upon looking at each hand in a strictly individual way, as opposed to selling out to easy mnemonics or rules.

While more modern books (take one of Eddie Kantar's books on defence, which I also think are excellent) are nicely presented, contain witty 'after-dinner' asides, and have an interactive feel, their neatness sometimes makes me feel that bridge is all clearcut rules and decisions, hard for the beginner, easy for the expert.

But Mike Lawrence seems to be experiencing real pain on many of his example deals! You will frequently see him write, 'I don't know what to do with this hand', not because he's not a good player, but because he understands the difference, for a bridge player, between 'knowing the path' and 'walking the path'.

The writer of this book won't sit on his pedestal and lecture you with rules, he will walk the path WITH you. If you will take the time to let him lead you, it should prove time well spent.

This book is probably the best book on bridge ever written. There is so much insight in this book that you will have to re-read it time and time again each time adding to your own insight in not only overcalling but the game as a whole. The style is lucid sometimes nonchalant; Lawrence gives insight into his own considerations when making bidding decisions and makes it clear that many decisions are not absolute. But following the logic and type of arguments he presents you will get more and more decisions right. I strongly recommend this book to every bridge player who aspires to improve his or her game.

I like crafting very much. Greeting cards hold an especially dear place in my heart and I love to make them constantly. Just about everyone I know has received at least one homemade greeting card from me at one time or another. So yes, I'm always on the lookout for new books on the subject. This one, I have to say, is great!

It has innovative projects rnaging from the colorful, really creative ones to subtler, more elegant ones. There really is one for everyone and the instructions are very clear, detailed and, simple to follow. No crafter, regardless of skill, will have any trouble completing any of these cards.

The authors did a great job of writing this book. Also worthy is the creative use of rather unusual materials (for a card at least). I've been working with paper for a long time now and it still helped move some things inside of me which helped me come up with a whole set of new ideas on how to work and what to do. The pictures are great, you'll enjoy them and they'll inspire you to create some new, totally different projects of your own.

This is one book you'll definitely enjoy.

The first word that came to mind when I saw the projects in Making Greeting Cards with Creative Materials was "artsy". The next word was "collage". I think those two concepts neatly sum up the style and involvement level you can expect from this multimedia craft book.

Author MaryJo McGraw is clearly an experienced artist who has explored many techniques, but whose first love is obviously the paper arts. Although this is a book on greeting cards, there were a lot of projects that would work on a different scale for other purposes, such as embellishing scrapbooks; and many of them could be frame able art in their own right. The designs and color choices reflect rich, muted tones and multilayers of materials such as fibers, charms, gold leaf, wires, inks, watch pebbles, beads, punches, stamped papers and photos. Often the card shapes and closures are not the standard rectangular format. The processes are carefully explained and illustrated as though to first-timers, but the results will make you look like a terribly sophisticated artist.

If you're hoping for ideas that would make for good quantity mailings such as invitations, be aware that most people would probably not have the time or money to make these cards in bulk: these are complex labors of love that are definitely not suited to mass production. Never once did I read a suggestion that the reader purchase ready-made embellishments or stickers, because the emphasis here is on handcrafting rather than time efficiency. For the crafter who has special, personal sentiments to express however, these are the ideal medium for that individual touch to the recipient.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

This book is an excellent starting place for skill building.

I don't know how the woman does it, but MaryJo McGraw has produced another winner. One might think that by the fourth book, her ideas and designs might be repetitive, but McGraw's latest foray into the seemingly overly crowded subject of "greeting cards" shows that the well is still quite full.

The title says it all and the paper artist/craftsperson who is looking to expand their skill and designs they will be pleased with the concepts that McGraw presents in this well illustrated and clearly written guide. She takes you beyond rubber stamps and beyond cute...many of the designs are just downright art but on a smaller canvas. More than a few of the cards are just...well, they are just too cool for words.

If you want to make cards just out of your rubber stamps, don't buy this book. If you want to expand your creative possibilities and make cards out of some very interesting stuff, then you should buy this book.

If you want to make greeting cards that are "oh, so sweet" don't buy this book. If you want to make greeting cards (or adapt the designs for other paper arts projects) that will knock the socks off the recipient then buy this book right now.

Dear prospective owner,
This book is definitely artsy and collagey as per the other descriptions--in what I would describe as a Stevie Nicks-kind of way. That said, it is very helpful for the beginner cardmaker like me.
My only caution if you're stocking up on how-to books is not to make my mistake and also buy the Everything Crafts Create Your Own Greeting Cards (Ed. Courtney Nolan), because 80% of the material in this book appears there as well. Save your $$ and buy this one--it has full color photos throughout.

This is the most interesting & best bridge book I have read. It is even entertaining, which is unusual in a bridge book.

From the Rule of 20 to the right and wrong way to use the Big Double, Marty Bergen has set the standard for modern bridge tip books. His engaging storytelling style and insightful teaching provide clarification to readers of all levels, although the book is clearly aimed at the novice to intermediate crowd.

A great re-entry to the book arena by Marty. I just miss the mad scientist who wrote the "Better Bidding with Bergen" books!

This book is filled with entertaining stories along with easy-to-understand tips and techniques that will improve every facet of your game. 1996 Bridge Book of the Year.

Marty Bergen's "Points Schmoints" is a fun-to-read book that offers a dozen tips on how people who've already mastered the basics of bidding and play can improve their game. The Law of Total Tricks, in particular, is extremely useful for duplicate games.

While Bergen writes with wit and flair that keep this book engaging, I wish he'd done a bit less story-telling and provided a bit more depth of content instead. For the price I feel his book is a bit thin, and that's the one thing that keeps me from rating it 5 stars.

This is the perfect book for players who more-or-less have the basics in place. This will correct your misconceptions and raise your game a couple of levels. The first half of the book is all about bidding, and rather than just talking about basic bidding, tells you what to do in those tough borderline situations. A great example is his "Rule of 20", used to decide whether to open the bidding or not: If the sum of your HCP and the number of cards in your two longest suits is 20 or more, open with your normal 1-level bid; else pass. Very effective, and better than counting short-points or long-points, since this takes into account the ENTIRE distribution.

The second half of the book is about declarer play and defence, and is equally good. What distinguishes this book from the rest is that the author doesn't waste space on the basics, and instead concentrates on the intermediate-to-advanced stuff.

Both Soul Decks 1 &2 are excellent , but require a real intuitive approach and use. There are no meanings given,so unlike tarot, where we have become used to many accepted images and traditional meanings,here you must now OPEN UP touch your SPIRIT and truly intuit. It will not be easy at first, but opens you up and expands as far as you want. Not for beginners,probably, and even for the "experienced" takes practice.
I recommend these decks highly, for they will guide us to be real "readers" and touch the Soul of our clients.

This 60 cards deck has become one of my favourites instantly - the cards touch the soul and speak with it directly.

The accompanying tiny white book doesnt list any titles or meanings to the cards - the pictures are intuitively understood, somehow their meaning is self-explanatory/evident.

The cards themselves are of the highest quality I've seen yet - good cardboard with shining coating that, in combination with the excellent art, are, IMO, good enough to be hanged on an art gallery's wall.

The cards can be used for both reflection and divination, and I almost immediately started using it for myself in place of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

The one small thing I dont like about this deck is it's somewhat dark colours, which gave a couple of my friends a first impression of being, well, somewhat dark and scary.

The box, which is of good material, doesnt have any mechanism to keep it closed, so I keep the cover closed with a ruber band.

And a clarification - this is not a tarot deck proper, as it appears that some reviewers expect of it to be. Though some of the cards are comparable to tarot cards, it does not derive from the 78 cards tarot decks, doesnt have suits or minor/major arcanas.

The way I added meaning to these cards was by having people pick their favorite card and telling me what it meant. I've found that each person is able to tell me something about the card that I couldn't see before. I now have tenantive meanings for almost all of the cards and I find it really helpful for actually doing readings with them.

I use these cards personally and in groups. I like that there is no booklet telling me what each card 'means'. I have the opportunity to explore the gestalt of what the cards evoke in me. I have combined these cards, movement and collage making to create a fulfilling workshop experience. Thank you Deborah for your beautiful, deep, inspiring work!

Using the Soul Cards as a tool to delve into my deeper psyche has been invaluable as I've been tearing down my beliefs and re-examining them. The Soul Cards are by no means an attempt at divination, but to be used to trigger the unconscious to reveal itself to the conscious.

The ups and downs. The highs and lows. The good the bad and the ugly of LV advantage playing. Could not put it down.

Read it all in one sitting. I just couldn't put it down!

LV Pro is a card counter. He turns himself from a degenerate losing gambler into a degenerate winning card counter and shares all the details as he proceeds to build his bankroll trip after trip, beating the casinos at their own game of blackjack. Unlike the high-rolling whiz-kids on the MIT team in Bringing Down the House, LV Pro grits it out, starting on small teams, but deciding to make it on his own. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas is the usual rule, but not this time. The good games, the interesting folks who count cards and pursue them, sex, drugs, and money...all find their way into this genuine account of one man's pursuit of the Vegas dream.

I too have been following LVPro's adventures in the Blackjack Insider newsletter. When I heard that he was compiling a book of his trips, I just had to read it and see how it all started!

His approach to grinding out an advantage in BJ play against the casinos was written in a much more realistic style than other books I have read on the subject. I could relate to his goals, problems, highs and lows in his pursuit of the elusive bankroll.

His style of writing is easy to read as well as humorous. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and found many nuggets of knowledge that I can apply to my own pursuits.

I have followed Barfarkel's trip reports as posted on bj21.com for many months now. "You've Got Heat" is a compilation of the reports that blackjack fans have followed for several years on bj21.com and on Henry Tamburin's Blackjack Insider site.

"You've Got Heat" is not a how-to manual on card counting. It is, however, a very entertaining read about the author's journey into both the secretive world of the card counter and the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas.

Books such as "Bringing Down the House" would have one believe that card counters live a lavish existence and routinely throttle casinos for millions of dollars. "You've Got Heat" dispels this myth and shows that the card counter faces an enormous challenge. Barfarkel describes the emotional highs and lows of his grind against the casinos in a very straightforward fashion.

Las Vegas guidebooks and Travel Channel specials generally show only the glitz and the glamour of Sin City. "You've Got Heat" explores the various cultures and subcultures of Las Vegas from many angles, ranging from the ritzy shows at the Bellagio and other high-end Strip properties to the prostitutes, vagrants, and other unsavory characters at the city's numerous run-down casinos.

Anyone with an interest in either Las Vegas or blackjack will like Barfarkel's book. Frequent Vegas travelers can learn a great deal from Barfarkel's experiences. All aspiring card counters should read this book so that they may thoroughly understand the focus and discipline required for long-term success.

Dorothy Hayden Truscott's BID BETTER, PLAY BETTER has been in print for over twenty years, and no surprise. This is a generous and well-explained guide to correct evaluation of the hand, with an emphasis on "reading" what your partner and opponents are holding; Ms. Truscott excels in making us read the context of the bidding process. And this book offers sound strategies for the playing of the hand as well.

This is not my very favorite book for rank beginners (in my opinion BRIDGE FOR DUMMIES by Eddie Kantar is actually quite good and more comprehensive), but it is really meant for developing players -- advanced beginners and intermediates. Those who would forego Ms. Truscott's no-nonsense prose style might instead consider S.J. Simon's WHY YOU LOSE AT BRIDGE. Like BID BETTER, PLAY BETTER, it deals with how not to form bad bridge habits or how to chuck them a-borning, but its take on bridge-playing is more social and Simon's prose style is appropriately quite droll.

This is a new, updated edition of one of the greatest bridge books of all time. Teaches you how to think like a bridge player. Much of the material is aimed toward advanced beginners and intermediates, but even new players will benefit from her clear approach and practical advice.

I was looking for a book without a lot of blather. This is it. It's straight forward and simple. I can sit down and read a particular section and get the idea quickly. No cute stories or long-range examples covering 50 years. I'm happy.

This book explains bridge in a simple manner and the information that my partner and I (she lives in Dallas and we play on Bridge Base Online) have utilized from this book has improved our game, and our understanding of it. It is in sync with the bridge lessons I have taken from my genious and excellent educator bridge teacher Bob Hinkle in Tucson Arizona.

Thank goodness Dorothy Hayden wrote this classic BEFORE " for Dummies" became the obvious title for any non-text book one might read to learn ANYTHING. Yet, that is really what this book is about. Reading (and practicing what you learn by reading) will indeed develop "card sense" where once there was very little (or none). After you have the basics of our amazing game in hand, this book can help you take another step toward mastery.

If you're up on modern bidding methods, you'll feel a temptation to skip the "old" material on bidding. Don't do it. Unless you're expert enough to design a complete bidding system from earth, air, fire, and water; the presentation of the fundamentals herein will help you improve both your understanding of Standard American (or 2/1) biddng methods AND your grasp of the foundation of your own bidding methods (even if you bid differently). That foundation will help you intelligently incorporate (or reject) new methods as your personal biddng methods and style mature.

This book is superb; the author's thoughts flow through my mind during every auction, competitive or not. He discusses in detail, for example, when a holding of xxx in a suit opened by opponents is terrible, neutral, or mildly positive. The studious reader will understand why a hand which opened 1 Spade with xxxxxx in spades improves vastly more than a hand which opened 1 Spade with KQJTx when partner raises Spades vigorously (in Lawrence's words, "Beware the short stubby suit.") Attention to the principles carefully explained and extensively illustrated (sometimes the same hand is geven with half a dozen different auctions to explain evaluation niceties) by Lawrence will vastly reduce your phantom sacrifices, -800s when dummy hit with "all the wrong cards," and +1370s which delight your teammates, who were -630 defending 3NT at the other table when their opponents never looked for a minor-suit slam.

Someone once charitably described me as an "average player." So, take my review for what it is worth.

I believe that this is an excellent book for its target audience. But, most novices are probably not ready to make much use of it.

The introduction says that it is for "experienced bridge players." I would interpret that as meaning those who have completed a series of beginning classes (perhaps based on the Audrey Grant - ACBL - series) and have played at least a year.

The book is well written. (An enhanced discussion of what Lawrence terms "shell points" would have been helpful to me.)
It helped me to understand in a more profound way how both "shape" and competitive auctions affect hand evaluation.

I think that this is a very insightful book, which I will read and re-read several times.

This book is superb; the author's thoughts flow through my mind during every auction, competitive or not. He discusses in detail, for example, when a holding of xxx in a suit opened by opponents is terrible, neutral, or mildly positive. The studious reader will understand why a hand which opened 1 Spade with xxxxxx in spades improves vastly more than a hand which opened 1 Spade with KQJTx when partner raises Spades vigorously (in Lawrence's words, "Beware the short stubby suit.") Attention to the principles carefully explained and extensively illustrated (sometimes the same hand is given with half a dozen different auctions to explain evaluation niceties) by Lawrence will vastly reduce your phantom sacrifices, -800s when dummy hit with "all the wrong cards," and +1370s which delight your teammates, who were -630 defending 3NT at the other table when their opponents never looked for a minor-suit slam.

You hold AQTx in a suit. 6 HCP. The suit is overcalled on your right. Its likely RHO holds the K and J. Your hand is worth maybe 2 extra tricks (finesse the T and Q). Lets say LHO overcalls the suit instead. Oh, oh! Bad news, they probably have the K and J, your hand is probably good for 1 trick, though its still got stoppers for NT.

The books has many bidding sequences where your hand fluctuates in value.
A singleton in your partners first bid suit is not necessarily an asset as their suit is hard to set up and secondary honors are worthless.

Axx gives you control as to when to take the ace - 1st 2nd or 3rd round. COmpared to a stiff ace.

You need some practical experience to get something out of the book. Read some books, play for a year, THEN read this. This is beyond counting HCP

No ZAR points or silver bullets, just how to dynamically value your hand.

A must for any serious player. Good advice on every aspect of reevaluating your hand as the bidding proceeds by one of the most readable of all bridge authors.