Best Bridge Books for Beginners: Start Your Bridge Journey Right
You’ve learned the basics. You know a trick from a finesse, you can count to 13, and you’ve played a few hands. Now you want to get serious. But walk into any bridge club’s library and you’ll find hundreds of books, most written decades ago, many contradicting each other.
Where do you start?
Here are the 10 books that will take you from beginner to competent club player. I’ve put them in order, so you’re not learning advanced play before you know how to bid, or studying complicated conventions before you understand why to use them.
1. 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know by Barbara Seagram and Marc Smith
Start here. Not with a play book, not with a bidding theory tome, but with this.
Why? Because you need to speak the same language as your partner. This book covers Stayman, Jacoby transfers, Blackwood, and the other conventions you’ll encounter at every table. Each chapter explains what the convention does, when to use it, and common mistakes.
The examples are clear. The quizzes at the end of each chapter actually help. You’ll reference this book for years.
Read this first. Before anything else.
2. The Complete Book of Bridge by Pete Lusby
This is your foundation. Lusby covers everything: opening bids, responses, rebids, scoring, card play, defense. It’s comprehensive without being overwhelming.
The strength here is organization. You’re not jumping around between topics. You learn in a logical sequence, building each concept on the last one.
Some parts get dense. That’s fine. You don’t need to master every page on the first read. Get through it once, play some bridge, then come back to the chapters that confused you.
3. 25 Bridge Myths That Need to Be Destroyed by Barbara Seagram and David Bird
Now that you know the rules, let’s fix the bad habits you’ve already picked up.
“Always cover an honor with an honor.” Wrong. “Eight ever, nine never.” Wrong. “Never underlead an ace against a suit contract.” Also wrong.
Bridge is full of rules-of-thumb that don’t actually work. This book explains why. You’ll learn when to break the “rules” you just learned, which is exactly what you need at this stage.
Short, punchy chapters. Read two or three at a time.
4. Declarer Play at Bridge: A Quizbook by Barbara Seagram and David Bird
You’ve got the bidding basics down. Now you need to make your contracts.
This isn’t a textbook. It’s 100 problems, each showing you a specific play technique: finesses, safety plays, suit establishment, entries. You see the problem, try to solve it, then read the explanation.
You’ll get most of them wrong at first. That’s the point. Each wrong answer teaches you something you didn’t know you needed to learn.
Work through 5-10 problems at a time. Any more and they blur together.
5. Defense at Bridge: A Quizbook by Barbara Seagram and David Bird
Same format, but now you’re defending. This is harder than declarer play because you can’t see your partner’s hand.
The book covers opening leads, second-hand play, third-hand play, signals, and when to return partner’s suit (spoiler: not always). Each problem shows all four hands after you’ve made your decision, so you learn why your choice worked or didn’t.
Defense separates club players from good club players. This book is where that separation starts.
6. Bidding at Bridge: A Quizbook by Barbara Seagram and David Bird
You’re seeing a pattern with Seagram and Bird. They write clear books that don’t waste time.
This one covers common bidding situations: what to do after partner opens, how to show your strength, when to pass, when to compete. The problems progress from simple to genuinely tricky.
The explanations show you why wrong answers are wrong, not just what the right answer is. That’s rare in bridge books and incredibly useful.
7. Watson’s Classic Book on the Play of the Hand by Louis Watson
Now we get serious about card play.
This book is old. First published in 1934. But it’s still the clearest explanation of planning the play, counting winners and losers, and developing tricks. Watson writes like he’s sitting across the table from you, walking through hands one trick at a time.
The examples are all problem-solution format. You see the contract, you see dummy, you try to make a plan. Then Watson shows you the right play and explains why other approaches fail.
Start with Part 1 (notrump play) and Part 2 (trump contracts). You can skip the more advanced sections until later.
8. Introduction to Card Play by Barbara Seagram and Marc Smith
After Watson’s thorough treatment, this book reinforces the basics with modern examples and clearer language.
It covers the same ground—planning, counting, establishing suits—but with contemporary bidding methods and scoring. Use this as a companion to Watson, not a replacement. Watson teaches you why. Seagram and Smith show you how with today’s methods.
The practice hands at the end are worth the price alone.
9. Better Bridge for the Advancing Player by Audrey Grant
Grant is famous for her teaching method. This book assumes you’ve played 50-100 hands and need to move from “I know the rules” to “I know what I’m doing.”
It covers competitive bidding, when to double, how to use two-over-one, and better opening leads. Each chapter has practice deals you can lay out with a real deck and play through.
The sections on when to bid and when to pass are gold. You’ll stop overbidding once you read this.
10. 25 More Bridge Conventions You Should Know by Barbara Seagram and Marc Smith
You’ve mastered the first 25 conventions. Now learn the next 25.
Negative doubles, splinter bids, Jacoby 2NT, fourth-suit forcing, Lebensohl. These aren’t exotic treatments. They’re standard methods you’ll need once you play beyond basic kitchen bridge.
Same format as the first book: clear explanations, good examples, useful quizzes. Keep both books on your shelf. You’ll reference them constantly.
How to Read These Books
Don’t read them all at once. You’ll burn out and remember nothing.
Here’s a better approach:
Month 1-2: Read books 1 and 2. Master the basics. Play bridge every week if possible.
Month 3-4: Work through books 3, 4, and 5. Focus on card play and defense. You’ll lose fewer contracts you should make.
Month 5-6: Read books 6 and 7. Your bidding will get sharper. Your card play will get more confident.
Month 7-8: Books 8 and 9. Reinforce what you’ve learned and add competitive bidding skills.
Month 9+: Book 10. Add more conventions as you’re ready for them.
Between books, play. A lot. Nothing in these books will stick without table time.
What About Other Books?
You’ll see Goren’s Bridge Complete recommended. Skip it. It’s outdated and teaches methods nobody uses anymore.
The Bridge World suggests starting with Mike Lawrence’s books. They’re excellent, but too advanced for true beginners. Save them for after you finish this list.
Some teachers recommend starting with Eddie Kantar’s books. Kantar is great, but his beginner books assume you already know more than absolute beginners actually know.
These 10 books will take you from “I just learned bridge” to “I’m competitive at the club level.” That’s 12-18 months of reading and playing. After that, you’ll know exactly which areas need work and which advanced books to read next.
The Real Secret
Books teach you the theory. Tables teach you the game.
Read one chapter, play five sessions. You’ll learn faster than reading five chapters and playing once. Bridge isn’t golf. You can’t learn it alone in your garage. You need partners, opponents, mistakes, and the occasional disaster hand.
These books will prevent many disasters. But not all of them. And that’s fine. The disasters are where the real learning happens.
Now buy that first book and start reading. Your future partners will thank you.