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Bid Better Play Better: How to Think at the Bridge Table
The top woman player in the World Bridge Federation rankings gives clearheaded advice on winning at bridge. "The best bridge book ever written. It teaches you how to think like an expert."--B. Jay Becker
176 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1976
115 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Hayden Truscott
11 books1 followerDorothy Hayden Truscott, for many years the top-ranked woman in bridge and the winner of four world titles and more than two dozen national championships, died July 4 in New Russia, N.Y. She was 80.
Her death, announced by her daughter Margaret Cooke, followed a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
Mrs. Truscott won four world titles as a player: the Venice Cup in 1974, 1976 and 1978, and the Women's Team Olympiad in 1980. She was the nonplaying captain of the winning U.S. team at the 1989 Venice Cup.
Dorothy Johnson was born in New York City on Nov. 3, 1925, four days after Harold S. Vanderbilt had introduced his new game, contract bridge, to three friends while sailing the Panama Canal. She graduated from Smith College and briefly became a math teacher in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Bridge was already an important part of her life. Her parents, Dorothy and Reginald Johnson, were keen players and had taught her the game when she was 7. Normally, Mrs. Truscott would watch her mother play, but if her father was pouring some drinks, she would bid and play his hand. Then one evening a player arrived an hour late, and Mrs. Truscott filled in. She was addicted for life.
Mrs. Truscott moved to Park Forest, Ill., and one afternoon a week took the train into Chicago to play rubber bridge. She returned to New York City in 1956 and worked for three years as an actuary at New York Life Insurance.
It was clear, though, that bridge would be a major element of her life. She won the first of her national titles in 1959, and in 1965 became the second woman to play for the United States in the Bermuda Bowl world team championship. (The first was Helen Sobel.)
Mrs. Truscott competed in Buenos Aires and was one of the main accusers in a major bridge scandal involving cheating allegations against the British pair of Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro.
She won one world silver medal, from the 1965 Bermuda Bowl, and six world bronze medals, from the Open Pairs in 1966 (she is the only woman to win a medal in this event); the Women's Team Olympiads in 1968, 1972 and 1976; and the Women's Pairs in 1962 and 1974.
Mrs. Truscott was inducted into the American Contract Bridge League's Hall of Fame in 1998.
Mrs. Truscott's first two marriages ended in divorce. She is survived by her daughters, Catherine Hayden Thurston of Cambridge, Mass., Margaret Cooke of Painted Post, N.Y., and Bobette Thorsen of Lititz, Pa., and 10 grandchildren. Her son William died in July 1951, and her son Brian died in January 1992. Her husband since 1972, Alan Truscott, the bridge columnist for The New York Times, died last year.
Also an excellent bridge teacher, Mrs. Truscott wrote two best-selling bridge books, “Winning Declarer Play” (1969) and “Bid Better, Play Better” (1970). With her husband, she wrote “Teach Yourself Basic Bidding” (1976-77) and “The New York Times Bridge Book” (2002). Also in 2002, she published “Hell Gate,” a historical novel about early Dutch settlers in Harlem.
Her death, announced by her daughter Margaret Cooke, followed a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
Mrs. Truscott won four world titles as a player: the Venice Cup in 1974, 1976 and 1978, and the Women's Team Olympiad in 1980. She was the nonplaying captain of the winning U.S. team at the 1989 Venice Cup.
Dorothy Johnson was born in New York City on Nov. 3, 1925, four days after Harold S. Vanderbilt had introduced his new game, contract bridge, to three friends while sailing the Panama Canal. She graduated from Smith College and briefly became a math teacher in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Bridge was already an important part of her life. Her parents, Dorothy and Reginald Johnson, were keen players and had taught her the game when she was 7. Normally, Mrs. Truscott would watch her mother play, but if her father was pouring some drinks, she would bid and play his hand. Then one evening a player arrived an hour late, and Mrs. Truscott filled in. She was addicted for life.
Mrs. Truscott moved to Park Forest, Ill., and one afternoon a week took the train into Chicago to play rubber bridge. She returned to New York City in 1956 and worked for three years as an actuary at New York Life Insurance.
It was clear, though, that bridge would be a major element of her life. She won the first of her national titles in 1959, and in 1965 became the second woman to play for the United States in the Bermuda Bowl world team championship. (The first was Helen Sobel.)
Mrs. Truscott competed in Buenos Aires and was one of the main accusers in a major bridge scandal involving cheating allegations against the British pair of Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro.
She won one world silver medal, from the 1965 Bermuda Bowl, and six world bronze medals, from the Open Pairs in 1966 (she is the only woman to win a medal in this event); the Women's Team Olympiads in 1968, 1972 and 1976; and the Women's Pairs in 1962 and 1974.
Mrs. Truscott was inducted into the American Contract Bridge League's Hall of Fame in 1998.
Mrs. Truscott's first two marriages ended in divorce. She is survived by her daughters, Catherine Hayden Thurston of Cambridge, Mass., Margaret Cooke of Painted Post, N.Y., and Bobette Thorsen of Lititz, Pa., and 10 grandchildren. Her son William died in July 1951, and her son Brian died in January 1992. Her husband since 1972, Alan Truscott, the bridge columnist for The New York Times, died last year.
Also an excellent bridge teacher, Mrs. Truscott wrote two best-selling bridge books, “Winning Declarer Play” (1969) and “Bid Better, Play Better” (1970). With her husband, she wrote “Teach Yourself Basic Bidding” (1976-77) and “The New York Times Bridge Book” (2002). Also in 2002, she published “Hell Gate,” a historical novel about early Dutch settlers in Harlem.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 31, 2021
К сожалению, издание 66-го года очень сильно устарело. Было бы интересно почитать revised and updated edition.
September 17, 2018
One of the best books on bidding and playing bridge hands. Written for the not-quite-beginner, Dortohy Truscott Hayden (who for many years co-authored the bridge column in the NEW YORK TIMES), takes the relative neophyte away from the rubric of "If you have eight points, support; if you have nine of ten points, bid two notrump" and other such rote responses. I can witness that I became a better bridge player after reading this. It made me think, and it freed me to think.
January 12, 2018
Great book
Great read for experienced beginners to intermediate. Ideas will sometimes go over your head but you can figure it out. Very good summary and advice for conventions.
Great read for experienced beginners to intermediate. Ideas will sometimes go over your head but you can figure it out. Very good summary and advice for conventions.
July 23, 2023
Loved the bridge tales at the end. Although this was the 1998 edition, it was still surprising how modern the system and conventions were.
November 19, 2023
The chapter on forcing bids alone will help most people play better.
September 28, 2024
As an intermediate bridge player, I learned a lot about bidding and defense. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their bridge skills.
March 31, 2018
Trash!
Written by Dorothy Hayden Truscott, and published by Devyn Press, Inc. in 1998, this book is an introduction to the bidding and playing of the contract bridge card game. Ms. Truscott is an acknowledged expert on the subject, and her books are non-controversial and educational. Unfortunately, I read this 110-page treatise in the Adobe e-Pub format on my NOOK Tablet, and I was greatly disappointed. The editing is of such poor quality that it is mostly impossible to follow the author’s examples of bridge hands and bidding. Most of the time, the fourth hand or bid that is being displayed is simply truncated—cut-off on the right side of the page so that the reader is unable to see all four of the hands, or all four of the bids.
When hardcopy books are scanned and converted to electronic format, a process called Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is used. Unfortunately, OCR is not a perfect technology, and scanned works must be carefully edited by hand in order to correct scanning errors. It appears that the publisher of this book failed to take that necessary step, and the result is that a goodly portion of the book is just plain incomprehensible. The book is rife with uncorrected scanning errors. There are hand diagrams that are missing altogether, but that are then discussed in the subsequent text, making it very difficult to grasp the point the author is trying to make. In some places, the number “4” is displayed in place of the correct ♦ symbol. In other places, the capital letter “V” is displayed in place of the ♥ symbol. An upper case “I” is frequently displayed instead of the correct number “1.” Also, the ♣ symbol is sometimes displayed instead of the expected (and correct) ♠. It’s all very confusing, and there are sequences that are sometimes several pages long that are largely indecipherable on my NOOK Tablet e-reader. Many bidding sequences simply bleed off the right side of the page and can be only partially seen, or cannot be seen at all. I can’t imagine that any beginning bridge player could come away after reading this book with anything other than confusion.
This e-book has some other major deficiencies. One of them is the lack of a Table of Contents (TOC). A TOC would be especially useful in a book of instruction, such as this one. A second deficiency is the lack of an index. Although not as important as a TOC, an index would have been helpful for readers to find specific instructions and examples in this what-could-have-been great book. There were a couple of lessons in the book that I would have liked to be able to return to . . . if I could only find them.
I have no doubt that this is an excellent book on the bidding and play of the game of contract bridge—IN HARDCOPY FORMAT! In the Adobe e-Pub electronic format, however, it is practically useless. The publisher (Devyn Press) did author Truscott a great disservice by publishing this book in an unfinished electronic format. The author did not write trash, but the publisher chose to publish trash. How unfortunate! Read the book but not in the electronic format. Because of the extremely poor e-book formatting, I can award no more than a single star for this book. Save your money and don’t purchase the e-book version (nor even borrow it from your library). Acquire the hardcopy version and I believe you might appreciate it a lot. I believe that the author attempted to present valuable information and instruction on the topic, and she might very well have succeeded in the hardcopy version of the book. Not so much with the e-book.
When hardcopy books are scanned and converted to electronic format, a process called Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is used. Unfortunately, OCR is not a perfect technology, and scanned works must be carefully edited by hand in order to correct scanning errors. It appears that the publisher of this book failed to take that necessary step, and the result is that a goodly portion of the book is just plain incomprehensible. The book is rife with uncorrected scanning errors. There are hand diagrams that are missing altogether, but that are then discussed in the subsequent text, making it very difficult to grasp the point the author is trying to make. In some places, the number “4” is displayed in place of the correct ♦ symbol. In other places, the capital letter “V” is displayed in place of the ♥ symbol. An upper case “I” is frequently displayed instead of the correct number “1.” Also, the ♣ symbol is sometimes displayed instead of the expected (and correct) ♠. It’s all very confusing, and there are sequences that are sometimes several pages long that are largely indecipherable on my NOOK Tablet e-reader. Many bidding sequences simply bleed off the right side of the page and can be only partially seen, or cannot be seen at all. I can’t imagine that any beginning bridge player could come away after reading this book with anything other than confusion.
This e-book has some other major deficiencies. One of them is the lack of a Table of Contents (TOC). A TOC would be especially useful in a book of instruction, such as this one. A second deficiency is the lack of an index. Although not as important as a TOC, an index would have been helpful for readers to find specific instructions and examples in this what-could-have-been great book. There were a couple of lessons in the book that I would have liked to be able to return to . . . if I could only find them.
I have no doubt that this is an excellent book on the bidding and play of the game of contract bridge—IN HARDCOPY FORMAT! In the Adobe e-Pub electronic format, however, it is practically useless. The publisher (Devyn Press) did author Truscott a great disservice by publishing this book in an unfinished electronic format. The author did not write trash, but the publisher chose to publish trash. How unfortunate! Read the book but not in the electronic format. Because of the extremely poor e-book formatting, I can award no more than a single star for this book. Save your money and don’t purchase the e-book version (nor even borrow it from your library). Acquire the hardcopy version and I believe you might appreciate it a lot. I believe that the author attempted to present valuable information and instruction on the topic, and she might very well have succeeded in the hardcopy version of the book. Not so much with the e-book.
July 17, 2020
Some good points on SAYC and useful conventions for beginners/intermediate. Some of it doesn't relate to my go-to system (Polish club) but the rest of it is good quality stuff. If you're new to bridge, an instant read.
December 30, 2015
Excellent book for beginners.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews