Karen's Bridge Library

AMAZON.COMGreetings from Champaign, Illinois USA

Home of 500,000 acres of corn and soybeans,

the University of Illinois Fighting Illini,

the Bridge at Ginger Creek duplicate club,

the Illini Regional Bridge Tournament (May 20-25, 2025) and

Karen's Bridge Library

For bridge players . . . current and aspiring

Bridge books,
software & gifts

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♣ For Beginners

♥ Quick-Start Course: Teach yourself to play with this 12-step guide ♥
The basics -- Lessons on how to play bridge
Introduction	Opening 2-bids (weak)	Slam bidding
Bridge glossary	Opening 2-bids (strong)	Defense: Opening leads
Bidding "cheat sheet"	Opening 3-bids	Defense: Play & signals
Opening 1-bids	Opening 4-bids	Declarer Play: Forming a Plan
Opening and rebidding minors	Overcalls & takeout doubles	Declarer Play: Establishing Tricks
Responding to an opening 1-bid	The redouble	Declarer Play: The Finesse
Responding with a two-suited hand	Opener's reverse rebid	Declarer Play: Simple Odds
Opener's second bid	Game-try bids	Quick tips to improve your game
Responder's second bid	Responder's bids in competition	Rubber-bridge strategy
Responding to 1NT	Forcing & non-forcing bids	Rubber-bridge scoring
Hand evaluation

Learning to play bridge -- How to get started, and get better		Bridge for Beginners and Beyond A self-teaching guide to good bridge for beginning and intermediate players. Updated and expanded 18th edition, featuring new lessons on the 2-over-1 system.
Why play bridge?	*FREE* Learn to Play Bridge software
Group classes & self-teaching	Web links to good sites for learners
On-your-own activities to build skills	Just for fun: Should you be a bridge player?
Developing your "card sense"	*Want to help others learn?* Guide for new teachers

♦ For Advancing Players

Lessons and convention summaries -- For experienced beginners and intermediates

Declarer play	Competitive bidding	Other conventions
Counting the Hand - Part 1 & Part 2	Balancing over 1-bids	New minor forcing
Tips for declarers	Balancing over other auctions	Michaels & Unusual 2NT overcalls
Safety plays	Preemptive openings & overcalls	Jacoby transfers
Hold-up plays	Responding to partner's preempt	Jacoby 2NT major-suit raise
Defense	Bidding over opponents' preempts	Drury convention
Opening lead strategies	Advancing partner's bid over a preempt	Roman Keycard Blackwood
Trump leads	Lebensohl over their weak two-bids	DONT convention
Lead conventions	Cuebids of the opponent's suit	Lebensohl over reverses
Signaling methods	Mixed raises	Soloway-Style Jump Shifts
Doubles	"Sandwich seat" bids	Constructive bidding
Negative doubles	Lebensohl in 1NT auctions	Accepting game-try bids
Responsive doubles	"Law" of Total Tricks	What is 4NT?
Lead-directing doubles	5-level decisions	Game-before-slam principle
Lead-directing penalty doubles
Penalty doubles and exceptions

Duplicate bridge

IMP (teams) strategy	Matchpoint (pairs) strategy	Web links for duplicate players
Discover the Fun & Challenge of Duplicate -- a booklet on duplicate play, scoring, customs & strategies. PDF format

♥ For Intermediate to Advanced Players

Advanced bidding conventions and treatments

2-over-1 Game-Force System	Opener's Jump-Reverse	Your 2C Bidding Structure (4 parts)
Forcing Notrump Convention	Defenses to 2-Suited Overcalls (3 parts)
Improving the 2-over-1 System	Negative freebids (5 parts)
2-over-1 partnership checklist	Strong Jump Shifts (3 parts)

ACBL Bridge Bulletin articles -- Opening Leads, Counting, Troubles with Redoubles, Table Feel, Notrump defenses, "12 Habits" series, "Relearning bridge" series

Bidding forums and quizzes

♠ For Players of All Skill Levels

Flashes of brilliance -- Bridge feats & fun (all true) from my favorite partners & team-mates

The one that got away The missing redouble cards Sometimes, pessimism pays off

Toby and the Passion Coup Count, count, count A nightmare on opening lead

A rare trump squeeze Never put down an 8-card suit in dummy If I had bid hearts ...

Bridge features

A tribute to my first bridge teacher	Bridge & basketball	The King has left the building
D-Day memories of the Bridge Player in Chief	Bridge & poker (interview with Barry Greenstein)	The Obvious Solution (a bridge poem)
Most disastrous bridge hand ever played	Bridge & marriage (interview with Chip & Jan Martel)	Concentration (another bridge poem)

Bridge books, software & web sites

Bridge Bookstore -- Recommendations and reviews of books for beginners through experts, with links for discounted purchases from Amazon.com

Bridge for Beginners and Beyond -- A self-teaching guide and class textbook

Online clubs -- Links to multi-player bridge games on the Internet

Playing online -- Getting started with Bridgebase Online

District 8 Online -- Homepage of District 8 of the American Contract Bridge League (Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri)

District 8 Advocate newsletter

Bridge features, Solvers Forum column & Midwest bridge news.
Published bi-monthly by ACBL District 8.
Archive of previous issues & Solvers Forum columns.

Search for books by topic, title or author.

Bridge in Champaign-Urbana IL

Bridge at Ginger Creek -- Champaign-Urbana's community bridge center Game results with hand records Club photo album

Local bridge lessons

Central Illinois Virtual Bridge Club -- Online ACBL masterpoint games on Bridgebase.com

Illini Regional Tournament -- May 21-25, 2025 (Memorial Day week), Holiday Inn, Champaign IL

Travelogues & photos

England 2001	Ireland 2003	Scotland 2004	France 2006 article & photos	Hawaii 2006
Alaska & DeNali 2010	South Africa 2011	Peru 2013 Newspaper story	Galapagos Islands 2013 Newspaper story	Tanzania 2014 Newspaper story 1 & 2
Rhine River & Amsterdam 2016	Sydney & New Zealand 2016	Tanzania 2017	Baltic & Scandinavia 2018	Tanzania & Zanzibar 2019

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For when the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name,

He marks not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.

-- Grantland Rice

The one that got away	The missing redouble cards	Sometimes, pessimism pays off
Toby and the Passion Coup	Count, count, count	A nightmare on opening lead
A rare trump squeeze	Never put down an 8-card suit in dummy	If I had bid hearts ...