If you found the lessons in Steps 1 and 2 to be clear, concise and easy to understand, then you may also find this Pocket Guide for Beginner Bridge to be helpful as well. It has been created specifically to give a compact and brief summary of the 10 beginner lessons in a handy booklet.
This guide is ideal for beginners to carry with them as they are learning. It’s a good way for them to check their bidding from time to time and reinforce their knowledge. My students have told me that it helps to build their confidence with bidding at the start when they were still unsure of themselves. Just like training wheels on a bicycle, eventually they did not need it anymore, though they often still bring it with them, to be used as a quick reference.
The original booklet has been updated and improved over time. Good rules apply indefinitely! I have sold more than one thousand copies to bridge players and teachers around the world and have received many compliments about it.
If you would like a copy of this booklet, it is available for a cost of $13.00 (US). You can pay with a credit card by clicking on the “Buy Now” button below.
Once ordered, you will receive via email the password to access the download. Once you receive the password, you can download it and print as many copies for your group as you need. If you share it with a large group of players (e.g., you are using it to teach a class), perhaps you or someone else could make another purchase of it for $13. Unlike many pocket guides, this one can be easily copied, so it wouldn’t be fair if you copied it for everyone you know.
The folded dimensions are 8 1/2″ tall by 5 1/2″ wide. The sample shows the cover page and the inside pages 1 and 2.
This booklet is set up to be printed on four 8 1/2″ by 11″ sheets of paper in landscape format. Once printed, it can be folded easily and assembled into an 8-page booklet.
I have also used the bridge placemats with my beginner groups. Click on: placemats for the link to go to the page with a full description. The Pocket Guide is useful as a reference book once beginners have studied the lessons, but the placemats are for real beginners — when they need help to get started. The placemats are right there on the table, as a quick and easy reference. My recommendation is to use the placemats when first learning if all players are new to the game, but don’t use them for too long. The placemats can be a good idea for a new player who is joining a more experienced group, so the “rookie” can find their bid quickly and move the game along, if that is okay with the rest of the group. Some have told me that the placemats are ideal for introducing young people to the game.
Just a side note: Sometimes experienced bridge players may offer well-meaning advice that may differ somewhat from these beginner lessons. This can be very confusing. I always recommend that new bridge players should have one teacher. Nothing is more confusing than having more complex rules when simple rules are where you need to start. There are different approaches to the game, but you will not go wrong with following ATeacherFirst's rules to begin and adjust them slightly if you play with others whose rules are more sophisticated or different. At some point, you will have to decide which rules you will follow. Here’s a polite response you could use: “Thank you for your help, but I wish to use simple, basic bidding methods for now. Later, if I need to, I will be pleased to seek your advice.” These lessons are based on the American Standard Bridge Rules. Bidding methods can be much more complex, precise, and sophisticated compared to what I have shown here. My lessons are set up to be as simple and uncomplicated as possible so that beginners have a good, solid platform on which to build. You can stay at this level, following these lessons, and do quite well. You really don’t need much more than this, except what experience will teach you. Bidding is only one part of the game. Playing the hand, assessing the opponents’ bids and what they mean, and remembering the cards as they are played — these are all very important as well, and you can learn those skills by experience and concentration. When you are ready and if you wish, you can always add many more conventions to these basics and change your bidding to match your partner’s bidding system if it differs from yours. Good luck!