Standard American Yellow Card or SAYC is described and explained in this book. This book aids anyone wanting to learn and understand SAYC, or anyone who simply knows the basics and is eager to fill in the missing pieces in their repertoire. It also gives basic introduction to the standard bidding conventions used online.

Bridge Lessons for Aspiring players

The instructive material in this book is presented in a novel way, as if the author is delivering a series of bridge lessons to a small group of enthusiasts. Occasionally, members of the audience ask questions, or make comments.

Twelve important topics have been chosen, describing defensive techniques that you might apply several times during every session you play. Each lesson contains at least eight illustrative full deals, which are fully explained in David Bird's clear and lucid style. There is then a set of recap questions to test you on the chosen topic, along with the answers. Finally, there are four defense problems, which can be solved with the techniques just described.

Early lessons cover the basics of defense, signaling to partner, defensive communications, continue or switch, also a novel lesson on opening leads, based on results from computer analysis. You may be surprised how much there is to learn about these apparently straightforward elements of defense. Later, you can enjoy lessons on making declarer's life difficult, scoring ruffs and promotions, keeping the right cards, unblocking techniques, the forcing defense, breaking declarer's communications, and counting in defense. You can sharpen your defense by revisiting these lessons time and again.

Declarer Play at Bridge: a Quizbook, by the same author team, was named Book of the Year by the American Bridge Teachers' Association. Building on the success of that title, this book gives the improving player a chance to practice the principles on which sound bidding is based, from the opening bid onward.

Is this book packed with all the best bidding conventions and instruction on how to apply them? Not at all! Instead, it explains the sound natural bidding methods that will allow you to play in the right suit (or notrump) at the correct level. Each of the fourteen chapters begins with three or four pages of instruction, followed by several pages of multiple-choice bidding problems, illustrating everyday situations you will face countless times at the table.

To bid or not to bid -- the perennial dilemma in competitive auctions. The easy answer to the question lies in the correct use of the Law of Total Tricks. The LAW has been part of bridge literature since the 1950s, but it was in this book that Larry Cohen brought it to the attention of the majority of bridge players. Still the most lucid explanation of the LAW ever published, this is a book that every bridge player needs to own, to read, to re-read, and to study in order to improve their results.