Best Bridge Books for Advanced Players: Expert-Level Theory and Deep Dives

You’ve won your club championship. You place regularly at sectionals. You understand why you make the plays you make, not just what the books told you to do.

Now you want to get better. Not just solid. Actually good.

These books are hard. They assume you know the fundamentals cold. They don’t explain basic concepts. They challenge your assumptions and make you rethink everything you thought you understood about bridge.

What Makes You “Advanced”?

You should be completely comfortable with:

• Two-over-one or Precision systems
• All standard conventions and their applications
• Complex card play (strip-squeeze, throw-ins, endplays)
• Accurate hand counting and inference
• Competitive bidding decisions at high levels

If you’re still working on those, stick with intermediate books for now. These books won’t help—they’ll just confuse you.

1. Bridge: Squeezes Made Simple by Hugh Kelsey

Kelsey’s classic work on squeeze play. Don’t let the title fool you—squeezes are never truly simple, but this book makes them understandable.

Kelsey breaks down every type of squeeze: simple, double, triple, guard, criss-cross. More importantly, he teaches you to recognize squeeze positions before they develop, so you can rectify the count and prepare the squeeze while you still have time.

The examples are elegant. Each hand demonstrates exactly one concept, stripped of unnecessary complications. You learn the pattern, then you learn to spot it at the table.

Work through this with a deck of cards. Play out every example. You need the muscle memory, not just the theory.

2. I Fought the Law of Total Tricks by Larry Cohen

Cohen wrote the book that popularized the Law of Total Tricks. Then he wrote this one explaining when the Law doesn’t work.

This is critical for advanced competitive bidding. The Law gives you a starting point, but real decisions require adjustments for hand quality, fit, vulnerability, and opponent strength. Cohen walks through hundreds of examples showing when to trust the Law and when to override it.

The statistical analysis is thorough without being dry. Cohen shows actual results from thousands of hands, not theoretical constructs.

If you make competitive decisions by rote (8 trumps = 2-level, 9 trumps = 3-level), this book will make you sharper.

3. The Useful Void by Alan Sontag

Sontag on bidding theory. This book covers advanced hand evaluation, slam bidding, and the role of controls vs. high cards.

The key concept: distribution matters more than high cards in competitive and slam auctions. Sontag shows you how to evaluate shortness, how to recognize when honors are working or wasting, and when to push for thin games or slams.

The writing is dense. Sontag doesn’t waste words. Some chapters you’ll need to read three times before the concepts click.

The chapter on void-showing splinters alone justifies buying this book.

4. Play Bridge with Mike Lawrence by Mike Lawrence

Lawrence’s masterwork on card play. Not tips and tricks—deep analysis of how to construct a line of play based on the auction, the opening lead, and the probabilities.

Each chapter presents a hand. Lawrence walks through his thought process: what the bidding told him, what the opening lead revealed, what lines are available, which line offers the best chance.

You see expert-level planning in real time. Not just “finesse the queen” but “if the finesse works, I still need the clubs 3-3 or a squeeze, so let me test clubs first to get more information.”

Play out every hand before reading Lawrence’s analysis. Compare your line to his. When they differ, figure out why.

5. Why You Lose at Bridge by S.J. Simon

This book is 70+ years old. It’s still relevant.

Simon’s thesis: most players lose not from lack of knowledge but from poor judgment, overconfidence, and predictable patterns. The defensive chapters are particularly brutal. You’ll recognize yourself in the errors.

The writing is witty and sharp. Simon doesn’t coddle you. He assumes you’re smart enough to understand what you’re doing wrong.

Read this when you’re in a losing streak and can’t figure out why. Simon will tell you exactly why.

6. Championship Bridge Series (all volumes) by Hugh Kelsey and Terence Reese

Five volumes covering defense, card reading, hand evaluation, deception, and safety plays. Each book is 100-150 pages of pure expertise.

Kelsey and Reese were two of the greatest bridge minds in history. These books distill their understanding into practical lessons.

The defense volume is the masterpiece. It teaches you to read declarer’s hand from the auction and play, then use that information to defeat contracts that look unbeatable.

Don’t rush these. One chapter per week, worked through thoroughly, will do more for your game than reading them all quickly.

7. Roman Keycard Blackwood by Eddie Kantar

RKC is standard now, but most players use it poorly. Kantar’s book teaches you to use it properly.

The advanced chapters cover complex situations: RKC after interference, queen-ask followups, king-ask continuations, and slam decisions when the information isn’t perfect.

The section on void-showing responses is essential. So is the chapter on when not to use RKC (spoiler: more often than you think).

If you’ve ever reached a hopeless slam or stayed out of a cold one because of RKC confusion, read this book.

8. Winning Bridge Intangibles by Ron Klinger

Advanced bridge isn’t just technical. It’s psychological, strategic, and tactical.

Klinger covers table presence, reading opponents, partnership trust, handling pressure, and maintaining focus. These are the skills that separate good players from champions.

The chapter on tempo and hesitations is gold. You’ll learn what inferences are safe to draw and which ones will get you in ethical trouble.

The section on partnership agreements for ambiguous situations will prevent disasters. When partner makes a surprising bid, what should you assume? This book gives you the framework.

9. The Bridge Technique Series by David Bird and Marc Smith

Seven volumes: Planning in Notrump, Planning in Suit Contracts, Deception, Reading the Cards, Entry Management, Safety Plays, and Eliminating Losers.

Each book is 150 pages of hands showing one specific technique. The format is consistent: problem hand, your attempt, expert analysis.

These aren’t collections of exotic plays. They’re systematic training in recognizing patterns and choosing the right technical approach.

Start with Planning in Suit Contracts and Entry Management. Those are immediately applicable. The others can wait until you’ve mastered those.

10. The Best of Bridge World Magazine (various compilations)

The Bridge World has been publishing expert analysis for 90+ years. The compilation books collect the best articles on bidding theory, play problems, defense challenges, and system discussions.

This is bridge at the highest level. Contributors include Rodwell, Meckstroth, Rosenberg, Weinstein, and other world champions. The articles assume expert-level knowledge.

Some articles you’ll read and understand immediately. Some you’ll struggle with. Both are valuable. The struggles mean you’re learning something genuinely new.

Pick one article per session. Work through it carefully. Many articles include problems—actually solve them before reading the solutions.

How to Approach These Books

Advanced books require different reading than beginner or intermediate books.

First pass: Read straight through. Get the big picture. Don’t worry about understanding everything.

Second pass: Read with a deck of cards. Play out every example hand. Make sure you understand why the recommended play works and alternatives fail.

Third pass: Read the sections that confused you again. Some concepts only click after you’ve seen them at the table.

Between books, play in tougher games. Enter NABCs if you can. You need to face expert opponents to test what you’re learning.

Practice Methods

Reading isn’t enough at this level. You need deliberate practice:

Daily problems: Work through 2-3 advanced problems every morning. The Bridge World has online problem sets. So does Bridge Winners.

Hand reviews: After every tournament session, review every hand you played. What could you have done differently? What inferences did you miss?

System discussions: Spend time with your regular partner working through your system notes. Advanced bidding requires detailed agreements.

Self-critique: Keep a bridge journal. Log mistakes, not just results. Track patterns in your errors.

Books to Add After These

After you’ve mastered this list:

• Jeff Rubens - The Secrets of Winning Bridge and Expert Bridge Simplified
• Eric Rodwell - The Rodwell Files (if you didn’t read it at intermediate level)
• Kit Woolsey - Partnership Defense and Matchpoints
• Andrew Robson - Expert Competitive Bidding and Advanced Play at Bridge
• Marc Smith - Bridge Hands of the Twentieth Century

You’ll know when you’re ready for these. They’re a step above even the advanced books on this list.

The Reality Check

These books will make you better. They won’t make you expert.

Getting to expert requires thousands of hands against strong opponents, hundreds of hours studying with strong partners, and willingness to challenge your assumptions constantly.

Most advanced players plateau. They read the books, they play regularly, but they don’t improve much past a certain level. Why? Because they read passively instead of actively questioning their understanding.

Don’t just read what Kelsey says about squeezes. Work out why his approach is right. Don’t just memorize Sontag’s hand evaluation principles. Test them against hands you’ve played and see where they work and where they don’t.

Bridge at this level is a research project, not a textbook subject. These books are your lab manual.

The Expert Gap

After you work through these books and play another 500+ expert sessions, you’ll be very good. Top 5-10% of tournament players.

But you still won’t be expert. The gap from “very good” to “expert” is as large as the gap from beginner to very good. Maybe larger.

Expert players see things you don’t. They make inferences you miss. They count distributions you can’t track. They remember auctions from three rounds ago that affect their current lead.

Getting there requires something beyond books: pattern recognition developed over tens of thousands of hands, partnership synergy built over years, and talent you either have or don’t.

These books will take you as far as books can take you. The rest is on you.

Start reading.