01_924261 ffirs.qxp 8/17/06 2:49 PM Page i Bridge FOR DUMmIES‰ 2ND EDITION by Eddie Kantar 01_924261 ffirs.qxp 8/17/06 2:49 PM Page iv 01_924261 ffirs.qxp 8/17/06 2:49 PM Page i Bridge FOR DUMmIES‰ 2ND EDITION by Eddie Kantar 01_924261 ffirs.qxp 8/17/06 2:49 PM Page ii Bridge For Dummies®, 2nd Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permis- sion of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2006926377 ISBN-13: 978-0-471-92426-5 ISBN-10: 0-471-92426-1 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2O/QW/QZ/QW/IN 01_924261 ffirs.qxp 8/17/06 2:49 PM Page iii About the Author Eddie Kantar, a transplanted Californian, is one of the best-known bridge writers in the world. He has more than 30 bridge books in print, some trans- lated into 8 languages, and is a regular contributor to the Bulletin, The Bridge World, Bridge Today, and many other bridge publications. Eddie, a two-time World Champion, is highly regarded as a player and known as one of bridge’s great ambassadors. Eddie learned to play bridge at age 11. By the time he was 17, he was teaching the game to his friends. Eddie was so enthusiastic about bridge that he often took his bridge books to school, hiding them behind his textbooks so that the teachers couldn’t see him reading about bridge during class. At the University of Minnesota, where Eddie studied foreign languages, he taught bridge to pay his tuition. Eddie gained stature as a player by winning 2 World Championship titles and 11 North American Championships. His North American titles include wins in the Spingold Knockout Teams, the Reisinger Board-a-Match Teams, the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, and the Grand National Teams. Eddie is a Grand Master in World Bridge Federation rankings and an ACBL Grand Life Master. Today Eddie is best known as a writer, and many of his books are considered classics. When not playing bridge or writing about the subject, he can be found playing paddle tennis (an offshoot of tennis) or bridge at the paddle tennis courts at Venice Beach (come and join the fun in either game). By the way, Eddie is the only person ever to have played in both a World Bridge Championship and a World Table Tennis Championship (he did better at bridge). Eddie was inducted into the Bridge Hall of Fame in 1996, the same year he was inducted into the Minnesota State Table Tennis Hall of Fame. 01_924261 ffirs.qxp 8/17/06 2:49 PM Page iv 01_924261 ffirs.qxp 8/17/06 2:49 PM Page v Dedication I’d like to dedicate this book to my mom and dad, who stuck with me even when all the relatives were telling them that I’d come to no good end being a card player and asking why I didn’t find a “regular” job like everybody else. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Author’s Acknowledgments I have to start by thanking Joyce Pepple, the acquisitions director, who I con- vinced that the diagrams in the first edition had to go. She, along with Stacy Kennedy, the acquisitions editor, were instrumental in convincing the powers that be that the diagrams needed more of a “bridge look.” Second, I would like to thank Georgette Beatty, my project editor. Georgette is an absolute dream to work with. She couldn’t have been more supportive, and her ideas, suggestions, and corrections were spot on each time. I also had a great copy editor, Krista Hansing, and an equally wonderful tech- nical reviewer, Cyndy Cradick. What a team! But every team needs a coach and I had the best: my wife, Yvonne. Her patience and understanding of just how far to go in this book saved me headaches and heartaches, not to mention extra work. Just as with the first edition, there would have been no second edition without Yvonne. I kid you not. 01_924261 ffirs.qxp 8/17/06 2:49 PM Page vi Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Composition Services Development Project Coordinator: Jennifer Theriot Project Editor: Georgette Beatty Layout and Graphics: Barbara Moore, (Previous Edition: Mary Goodwin) Heather Ryan, Alicia B. South, Acquisitions Editor: Stacy Kennedy Julie Trippetti, Erin Zeltner Copy Editor: Krista Hansing Proofreaders: John Greenough, Leeann Harney, Christy Pingleton, Techbooks (Previous Edition: Diane L. Giangrossi, Joe Jansen) Indexer: Techbooks Editorial Program Coordinator: Hanna K. Scott Special Help Victoria M. Adang Technical Editor: Cyndy Cradick Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker Editorial Assistants: Erin Calligan, Nadine Bell Cover Photo: © INSADCO Photography/Alamy Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 02_924261 ftoc.qxp 8/17/06 3:14 PM Page vii Contents at a Glance Introduction .................................................................1 Part I : Beginning with Basic Notrump Play ...................7 Chapter 1: Going to Bridge Boot Camp ...........................................................................9 Chapter 2: Counting and Taking Sure Tricks.................................................................19 Chapter 3: Using Winning Trick Techniques at Notrump Play ...................................27 Chapter 4: Outsmarting Your Opponents at Notrump Play........................................45 Part II: Playing the Hand in a Trump Contract..............63 Chapter 5: Introducing Trump Suits ..............................................................................65 Chapter 6: Creating Extra Winners and Discarding Losers.........................................81 Chapter 7: Establishing the Dummy’s Long Suit ..........................................................91 Chapter 8: Getting Rid of Losers by Using the Dummy’s Trump Cards ..................103 Part III: Bidding for Fun and Profit............................111 Chapter 9: Starting with Bidding Basics......................................................................113