What Will I Learn In This Series?

Everything to Get Started Successfully. You'll learn the what, where, when, how, who, why and everything else about duplicate bridge.

Duplicate bridge is a world unto itself and it's a wonderful, exciting pastime for people of all ages.

The series includes sections about playing at a competitive level of skill -- about how to enter Club games and tournaments -- about the advanced parts of bridge that you don't need for social bridge -- how to organize and play duplicate at home -- how to become a Life Master and how to bid and play the Two Over One System.

There's Lots of Bridge Books. As you get into duplicate, you will want to read many more books, but this series is your guide through the whole process.

Series Organization

This Competitive Bridge series has five major parts, each described below.  You can read them in any sequence -- they're a reference and learning guide. They assume you're already a contract bridge player.  Click on the links at the top of the every page to jump around among them.

Introduction to Competitive Bridge

What is Duplicate? How is it Different from Regular Bridge? How can I get started at Duplicate? Is There a Lot to Learn? How Do I Keep Score at Duplicate? What's a convention card? Where Do I Play Duplicate? What's a Bridge Club like? What Does It Cost? What Are the Behaviors and Protocols of Duplicate? 

The Two Over One System    The Two Over One Bidding System

A. Two Over One bidding -- is a standard bidding system used by most Duplicate players in the USA. 

It's very close to Standard American -- most of the bids using Two Over One are the same ones you would make playing 'Standard'. The difference is Two Over One is much more precise for the hard bids -- the in-between counts, slams, and competitive part scores. 

B.  Two Over One Conventions -- 25 + special bids and plays for Duplicate players.

Competitive Bidding Techniques    Bidding in Competition

Bidding against good opponents is half the fun of Duplicate ( playing against them is the other half). But bidding is very competitive at Duplicate, like everything else about the game.   "Duplicate' means that hands are duplicated so many pairs play the same cards -- taking the luck out of it and enabling real competition. (You'll also quickly become much better at 'party' bridge if you take up Duplicate.)

Defensive Play    Defense at Duplicate

Defense -- playing against Declarer -- is where your good bidding pays off.  Declarer should have to fight for every trick -- and so should the defense.  You spend half your bridge time playing defense, so you need to be really sharp at defense to win.  It's exciting to beat Declarer at a Two Clubs bid because you defended well. It includes section on Leads, Signals and Counting. 

Tournament Bridge   Tournament Bridge

Bridge Tournaments are the ultimate treat for a Duplicate player. There are bridge tournaments every weekend in larger cities, as well as regional and national and international tournaments. Anyone with a few dollars can enter, and it's strictly a matter of your skill at bridge that day versus all the others who show up to play.

(c) Robert D. McConnell, 1998  All Rights Reserved