Paul Mendelson - Bridge for Complete Beginners

By the same author

The Right Way To Play Bridge

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Paul Mendelson MMII

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Part One
Introduction to Bridge: How it is Played and Scored

Part Two
The Bidding

Part Three
The Play of the Cards

Part Four
Dull but important information on Etiquette, Scoring and Basic Rules

Bridge is the ultimate game. It is truly a mind-sport, for it is as taxing on the brain as a decathlon is on the body. The beauty of bridge is that whatever your standard you will always gain pleasure from it. It is hugely social, always leads to an expanding circle of friends and, on more than one occasion, has led to marriage but dont let that put you off! It is absorbing, all-consuming and, I have to confess, pretty addictive.

Anything worth learning is going to take effort; bridge is no exception. The first few weeks of lessons (or sections of this book) will tax you and you will need time to practise, read and re-read. Ideally, you will have friends or relatives who play who can advise you, or adult education or bridge club classes you can attend locally. However, when the going gets tough, just remember your friends who play, think of the most daft you know, and tell yourself that if he can master it, then so will you.

Actually, you will never master bridge. No one has yet. The world number one at the time, Bob Hamman, famously said: The worlds best players arent very good, and everyone else is a whole lot worse... That is the great challenge that bridge poses.

In Bridge for Complete Beginners no knowledge of the game is assumed. Right from the beginning, you will be led through the key basic principles to ensure that you have a solid grounding on which to build. With these basics established, you will be ready to go as far as you want, whether your aspirations are merely social bridge, club bridge, competitive bridge or trialing for the national team. My aspiration for you, right now, is to make you a popular, winning, social bridge player a player all your friends will want to have at their bridge afternoons and/or evenings.

The advantage of this book is that you wont miss classes, get ahead or behind anyone else: you have the material at your fingertips and you can move at the pace that you set yourself.

Bridge is divided into two parts: the bidding (or auction) and the play of the cards. Each is examined here. The play is pretty much universal, the language of the bidding varies from country to country. However, once you have a grasp of the basic Acol system, that is played throughout the UK and elsewhere in the world, you will be able to adapt quite quickly to versions, or dialects, of this bridge language in other parts of the world.

It is enormous fun to play bridge in foreign countries. You get to meet so many new people, with an instant interest in common. Bridge is a global phenomenon. Great players have emerged from the UK and the rest of Europe perhaps most notably Italy both North and South America and, now, the Pacific Rim countries. China has become obsessed by the game and it will not be long before they challenge for the world championship. Gone too are the days when bridge was merely for the older generation. Many children are offered the chance to learn the game at school and university, and continue playing all their lives. Of course, many older people still play and will continue to do so; I have students aged thirteen to ninety-three. Trials in America have found that bridge is particularly effective at stimulating and exercising the brain, fighting the onset of mental degeneration. So, its official: bridge is good for you.

As a mental challenge, it is unsurpassed. As a social experience, it is fantastic. As a gymnasium for the brain, it is the ultimate workout.

Enjoy.

Bridge is a game for four people. Throughout the ages, the world over, bridge players have been heard wailing because they can find three players but not a fourth. Thankfully, when learning, you can be on your own, with a mate, or have a complete four. If youre learning on your own, simply pretend that youre playing with three others and play their cards as well as your own.

Dealing the Cards

Before we learn anything further about the game, lets get some cards in your hands. Use a full deck of 52 cards, removing the jokers which are not needed for bridge. Give the pack a good shuffle and then start dealing the cards to the four people around the table. Thankfully, dealing is easy. You start with the player on your left and then deal one card to each player facedown in a clockwise direction until you run out of cards. If youve dealt correctly, from a full pack, you will deal everyone thirteen cards each and yourself the final card.

Sorting your Hand

Once the deal is complete, everyone picks up their cards, without showing them to anyone else, and sorts them into groups of cards of the same suit: all the spades together, hearts, diamonds and clubs. Because its easy to mistake cards in the heat of play, I recommend sorting them so that the suits run black-red-black-red. In this way, even after a glass or two of that excellent Chardonnay of yours, youll still be able to pull out the right card. If you can, try to arrange your cards in a fan, facing you and out of view of the other players at your table. If this seems hard at first, youll soon get used to it once you play cards for a few days.