Another title in the best-selling '25' series, using the same popular format. Over the last fifteen or so years, the 2/1 Game Forcing bidding method has gained substantial popularity, but for various reasons it is not taught in beginner classes. This book is therefore designed for players who are familiar with Standard bidding and are interested in switching to the 2/1 method. It covers basic concepts as well as the differences between 2/1 and Standard auctions, and includes a discussion of more advanced ideas and conventions that fit particularly well with 2/1 methods. Existing books on this topic (notably by Max Hardy and Mike Lawrence) are too advanced and/or too technical for this level of player.

Here, in 25 simple, easy-to-master steps, is the key to unlimited power-power that will enable you to dominate all competition and enjoy complete success in your career, social life, and personal relations.

This book contains an innovation that makes it much easier to bid slams. This innovation will enable the bridge community to dramatically increase its bidding of grand slams. This book incorporates the 2/1 Game Force bidding system for major suit opening. This book also expands the Game Force system to partners holding 5 spades and an opening hand. The forcing response when R has 6-12p and a spade response is modified to show if O has 3-card spade support. The traditional 2/1 system is modified by the mechanics of a fast arrival convention to show game-level points. In addition, a simple worthless suit convention using a single bid is employed to show a worthless suit as opposed to the more complicated control system used in traditional 2/1. For minor suit openings, the book presents a simple method for using reverses. The book also shows how to use the Jacoby Transfer mechanism to show R’s 5-card major. The book then shows how R can effectively use inverted minors to hamper the opponents’ bidding. The book next shows how to bid overcalls of a 4-card heart suit to hamper the opponents from finding their spade suit. The book outlines the Kantar slam bids and shows how to locate the trump Queen after a 4NT bid. Finally, the book shows how to improve slam bidding using the Minorwood convention. Ken has published 5 core books on how to play bridge: “Beginning Bridge” (5th ed. 2023), “Tournament Bridge for Intermediate Players (5th ed. 2021), “Advanced Bridge” (4th ed. 2021), “Bridge Defense” (4th ed. 2020) and “Bridge for Notrump Contracts” (4th ed. 2020). Ken served as a Russian interpreter during the Vietnam War and then spent over 30 years practicing as a tax attorney. Ken also has an MBA in accounting and a CPA.

This book incorporates the 2/1 Game Force bidding system whenever the opener bids a major suit. Five new conventions have been added to the 2/1 system. This book is also designed to improve your bidding of minor suit openings in 4 steps. The 1st step involves the use of the Casey-Jacoby Transfer and the Casey overcall (a 1NT bid shows 4 hearts). The 2nd step involves adoption of the strong 2 bid, a bid of 20-21p. This allows the opener to use the Casey Reverse to show a hand of 16-17p by bidding at the 2-level and to show a hand of 18-19p by bidding at the 3-level. The Casey Minor Suit Rebid convention allows O to show a 4+ card suit at the 2 or 3-level. The 3rd step involves optimizing your slam bidding with the Casey Trump Queen convention and the Casey-Minorwood Kickback convention. The 4th step involves the use of the Weak-1NT (a 1NT bid shows 4 hearts) and Weak-2NT bids, both designed to hamper the opponents.

This book gives a comprehensive view of the various types of hands a beginning player might expect to encounter in a tournament. The various categories of hands presented will teach you how to play the first card, how to ruff, how to set up a long suit, how to avoid the danger hand, how to avoid being ruffed, how to play for the drop, how to get a count on the hand and how to handle special card combinations. In addition, you will learn about finessing up to a lone honor, the ruffing finesse, the backward finesse and other finessing techniques.

This book is meant to be a comprehensive book on all the various types of bridge hands. Each type of hand is categorized in a separate chapter. Volume One contains a partial compilation of my three books on tournament bridge. These three books are Tournament Bridge for Beginning Players, Tournament Bridge for Intermediate Players and Tournament Bridge for Advanced Players. All three of these books were revised in 2018. Volume Two contains a partial compilation of my two books on playing Notrump hands and on playing defense. These two books are entitled Playing the Notrump Hand in Bridge and Tips on Bridge Defense. Both of these books were also revised in 2018.

So you tend to be dealt very bad hands. I know exactly you feel! But, facing the facts of life and recognising that it is not your fault, you are going to have to accommodate this failing and improve your defence. It is a hard part of the game; even in international competitions, the standard of defensive play is, to put it kindly, modest. Yes, you will get plenty of reports of brilliances involving spectacular switches, deceptions, unblocks and discards of honours. But for every one of those, there are countless others in which the display would disgrace any beginners' class. I am going to assume that you are a regular club or tournament player who knows the basics of defence but who comes unstuck when it comes to situations where you have to work the hand out in detail. This book will help you to improve dramatically in this area. -- Danny Roth.

This book is designed to highlight the flaws in Standard American bidding, i.e. the SAYC system. The book discusses the major failures of SAYC, namely the failure of the ACBL to adopt the Bergen point-count system, the failure to simplify reverses, the failure to find an 1819p bid for unbalanced hands, and the failure to adopt New Minor Forcing. In addition, the book points out numerous minor failures such as the failure to find a means of bidding a direct game, the failure of SAYC to require takeout doubles to have a four-card major, and the failure to adopt the six-keycard Roman Keycard system. The book also points out the ACBL's failure to clarify certain issues, such as the failure to clarify Os reply to Rs two-level response, the failure to clarify cuebids, and the failure to clarify Stopper-Ask bids. The book provides a solution for all these problems in a new system called Precision Diamond.

"Leaders at all levels will benefit from Marcia Conner's amazing book of strategies, exercises, and stories to maximize learning. This book is a must for your reading list this year."--Ken Blanchard, Chief Spiritual Officer, Ken Blanchard Companies "A road map to reawakening the natural process of integrating learning into our daily lives."--Kathy O'Driscoll, Human Resources Director, Microsoft "Finally a publication that genuinely respects learner diversity as much as it offers tangible ideas for dealing with it....Marcia L. Conner is a true learning champion."--Gunnar Bruckner, former Chief Learning Officer, United Nations Development Programme We're all born with a vast capacity to explore and learn. Unfortunately, many of us never discover what we're truly capable of. What if you could reclaim your birthright and tap into your full potential for learning? Imagine how much you could accomplish--how much you could become. Here's your chance to find out. Through her innovative learning programs, Marcia Conner has helped thousands of people unleash the power of their intuition to rediscover the joy of learning and to expand their personal and professional productivity. In Learn More Now, she distills her renowned learning solutions into an easy-to-use ten-step program that will help you: * Learn better, smarter, and faster * Identify your learning style and your motivational style * Synthesize your experiences, perspectives, thoughts, and actions * Develop new pathways in your brain to increase your opportunities * Absorb facts on the fly and overcome information overload * Optimize your environment for concentrating and learning Packed with fun, easy-to-do action steps and exercises, Learn More Now will help you discover how to be more focused and aware, work in step with your natural rhythms, be improvisational in your approach, and transform your life into a learning adventure.

In 25 concise steps, you will learn the basics of blockchain technology. No mathematical formulas, program code, or computer science jargon are used. No previous knowledge in computer science, mathematics, programming, or cryptography is required. Terminology is explained through pictures, analogies, and metaphors. This book bridges the gap that exists between purely technical books about the blockchain and purely business-focused books. It does so by explaining both the technical concepts that make up the blockchain and their role in business-relevant applications. What You'll Learn What the blockchain is Why it is needed and what problem it solves Why there is so much excitement about the blockchain and its potential Major components and their purpose How various components of the blockchain work and interact Limitations, why they exist, and what has been done to overcome them Major application scenarios Who This Book Is For Everyone who wants to get a general idea of what blockchain technology is, how it works, and how it will potentially change the financial system as we know it