Great book for novices and beginners. Very easy to understand and use as a reference.

BRIDGE FOR DUMMIES is a good and generous book and I have no trouble saying it excels over most similar beginners' books.

Why? It's CONCISE. Kantar, a world-class authority and bridge player, takes the reader who doesn't even know that Aces top Kings and introduces the fundamentals of play. IMHO I don't think he goes too fast for the beginner, but the book is . . .

EFFICIENT. Kantar teaches the elements of play before the elements of bidding. He does this by teaching play at notrump (so the tactical elements of a trump suit are not at issue) and generally assumes a 3NT (notrump) contact, which is worth game. And it works quite well; play at bridge is difficult but probably less difficult than bridge bidding. Later on, we can take the strategic and tactical material we use at notrump and apply them to contracts at one of the four suits (Kantar defines trumps as "wild cards," perhaps not strictly according to Hoyle but helpful nonetheless.)

COMPREHENSIVE. Kantar goes all the way through trump suits, booking slams (contracts to take all, or all but one, of the card tricks), and other recognizable situations. He has an amiable, at times amusing way of introducing tips and necessary bridge terminology. He's also . . .

MODERN. He assumes the use of 5-card majors and will allow an opening with eleven high-card points (HCP to initiates) in a hand at any position if the bid suit is good enough. Weak two-bids, too, of course.

I'm not crazy about advocating the 11 HCP opener in all positions but this is a very small wrinkle in this engaging and useful book.

Notes on production: It is certainly true that the text of BRIDGE FOR DUMMIES is only in black-and-white and does not show red for the red suits of diamonds and hearts, but then neither does the daily bridge column in the newspaper. The FOR DUMMIES series needs to keep costs down, after all. Also, I am saddened to see that at the point of this writing (mid-February 2006) that the book is listed as out-of-print. I didn't realize how lucky I was to have bought the book from Amazon two weeks ago. But used copies and remainders are out there to be found.

I am also new to bridge, and have also tried several other books on the subject. The three that I tried previously started with covering hand evaluation and bidding. By the time I get to the sections on "Responding to Responses at No Trump", I was getting lost. Kanter's approach is just the opposite. He teaches the mechanics of playing the hand first, THEN teaches how to evaluate the hand and bid. This is a great approach because once you learn how the play should be done, you are in a much better position to understand WHY you should evaluate and bid the way a hand demands you should. I've only studied the first 65 pages or so, but can already see a dramatic improvement in my bidding and my play. I can't wait to continue to study this great book.

Overall, a terrific approach to teaching this great game. I can't wait to read some of Kanter's other books as well.

Addendum: I continue to read and carefully study the chapters on play which preceed the chapters on bidding. There is lots of great material here. Don't let the "For Dummies" title fool you. This is a great book by a great teacher.

Addendum 2: Here I am 6 months after buying this book, and am I glad I did. I'm playing online regularly, and am gearing up for my first NABC in July! I'm still a novice, and there is a tremendous amount of learning and practice ahead, but this book has been a tremendous first step. I think that of all the beginner books that I've read on ANY subject, this has been the best in terms of preparing me for the next level.

I am new to Bridge, although I have played Chess and Hearts for 40 years. I first started wading through other Bridge books and got bogged down in bidding conventions before the authors finally explained the objective for which we were contracting. Taking tricks is the objective. Kantar begins by explaining how to cleverly make contracts, while temporarily sidestepping how those contracts are reached. Only after that does he ease us into the bidding conventions. Some Chess books make a similar mistake. They teach openings, middle game, and endings in that order. One needs to first grasp the later stages of a game before he sees meaning behind preparatory moves. Eddie does it all the right way. And his breezy humorous style makes the learning process a pleasure.