Master Class: Lessons from the Bridge Table Book

When most people think of card games, they think of blackjack or poker, but bridge? What does building bridges have to do with cards? Believe it or not, bridge is a card game that consists of bidding and play. It is played with four people sitting at the four cardinal positions. North and south are a partnership, and east and west are are a partnership. Written by Marty Bergen who is a ten-time national bridge champion, Marty Sez is an informational book on the intricacies of the game duplicate bridge. This book is part of a series called Points Shmoints. Marty Sez gives constructive tips on how to play the game well. It is organized with sections about different parts of the game, like hand evaluation or preempts. Every page has one tip about the section with a detailed description. This book is extremely informative to anybody who plays bridge regardless of whether they are a beginner or an expert.
I would give Marty Sez five stars because as a bridge player, I found it to be very useful. For instance, this book taught me efficient ways to bid slam. The first part of bridge is the bidding, which occurs when both partnerships try to determine a trump suit, which beats any other card except for higher trumps. If diamonds were trump, for instance, the two of diamonds would beat the ace of spades. A bid of slam predicts the player will win 12 out of the 13 rounds, or all the rounds. Only players who know what the bids mean will bid it. In this way, the book taught me how to understand my cards and the bidding system. The book also teaches "false carding," which allows players to fool their opponents. By false carding, players can trick opponents into using up all their "stopper cards" until they have none left so that the players can win an extra round. Through reading this book, I think that I became a better player because it gave me a deeper understanding of the game.
Ultimately, this book is not for people uninterested in learning to play bridge. It is for more experienced players, but new players could also find it useful because it can educate them quickly. I intend to memorize all the strategies so I can be a better player.