Howard's materials are in the following formats:

Pdf		This is a standard Adobe pdf document that can be viewed in most browsers and by using the Adobe Pdf Reader software. Click here to download the Adobe Reader.
Movies		These are interactive bridge presentations, with quizzes and practice hands. Those movies with a View link can be viewed using any web browser. Those movies with a Download link can be viewed using the Bridge Base Online Windows version. Click here to download.

The following material is available on this site:

Tutorials	Tutorials
	Example Hands
	Watson Play of the Hand Tutorials
Lesson Series	Everything You Wanted to Know About Your Favorite Conventions
	Declarer Play Lessons
	Fundamentals of Constructive Bidding
	Basic Defense Lessons
	Slam Bidding Lesson Series
	2 Over 1 Lesson Series
	Weak NT Lesson Series
Bergen Store	Signup for Online Audio Visual Lesson
	Purchase Secrets to Winning Bridge Booklets
	Purchase Books on Slam Bidding
	Purchase Books on Declarer Play
Other	Mentoring Session Notes
	Hondo's Email List Signup
	Bridge Puzzles
Links	Larry Cohen's Web Site
	Bridge Winners Web Site
	Bridge Forum Web Site

Ava and I run a monthly informal supervised play group. One year, I prepared a series of tutorials on various bridge topics, including bidding, play, and defense. As you will see if you download any of them, I tend to favor teaching general principles rather than specific rules. Ava calls my approach "Big Picture Bridge". You might want to download these first to see if you like my approach.

	Declarer Play Techniques for One Suit
	Declarer Play for No Trump Contracts
	Declarer Play for Suit Contracts
	Opening Leads
	The Versatile Double
	Competitive Bidding    Tutorial    Movie By Kia: View    Download
	Slam Bidding
	4th Suit Forcing (Movie By Kia)    View    Download
	Bergen Raises (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	DONT (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Two Suited Overcalls (Unusual NT and Michaels) (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Negative Doubles (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Lebensohl (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	New Minor Forcing (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Inverted Minors (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Restricted Choice (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Raises in Competition (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	A Comprehensive Review of Weak-2 Opening Bids (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Dummy Reversals (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Gerber,Blackwood, Quantitative 4NT (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Quick Tricks (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Losing Trick Count (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Reopening Double (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Bergen Hand Evaluation (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Balancing (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Rule of 20 (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Support Doubles (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Responsive Doubles (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Takeout Doubles Part 1 (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Takeout Doubles Part 2 (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Takeout Doubles Part 3 (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Takeout Doubles Part 4 (BBO Movie by Kia)    View    Download
	Zip File With All Tutorials

I sometimes predealt two hands for use with our supervised play group, and wrote up an analysis. These were used to demonstrate the lessons from the tutorials. These hands were from actual deals I played at our local duplicate club. Below are several of the writeups, including a brief description of the topics that were demonstrated.

	Set 1 - Basic End Play, Slam Bidding and Play
	Set 2 - Defensive Techniques
	Set 3 - Ogust, Visualization, Reverses, Restricted Choice
	Set 4 - Slam Bidding, Managing Entries, Maximizing Your Chances
	Set 5 - Defensive Planning, Sacrificing
	Zip File with All Hands

The best and most comprehensive book on bridge card play is The Play of the Hand by Louis Watson. I read it early in my bridge career, and it really helped propel me to a much higher level of skill. Although it was written in 1934 (and updated in 1958), the principles it teaches are still very relevant to modern bridge.

The biggest difference between the mediocre and expert bridge player is the play of the cards. If you read Watson, you will learn all of the important fundamentals about card play, and greatly improve your skill. Even if you never pull off a squeeze or end play, if you practice the fundamentals of card play taught by Watson, you will be a winner at bridge.

Thanks to Kia, my movie producer, I am able to offer you the material from Watson as BBO movies. Each movie is one or two chapters from Watson. I will be adding new chapters as Kia creates them.

Part 1 - Fundamentals of Play

Part 2 - Advanced Play and Expert Techniques

I taught a series of monthly lessons on declarer play based on Marty Bergen's two excellent books on the subject. As a special service for my students, I have made arrangments with Marty Bergen to allow you to order these books from my web site. As part of this offer, Marty has agreed to autograph each book with a personal message of your choice, provide you with a free copy of his softcover book Bergen's Best Bridge Quizzes. and provide free shipping to US customers. Click here to order the books.

Topic	Book Chapters	Movies
Squeezes	Chaper 16 (original)	View    Download
End Plays	Chapter 5 (original) Chapter 8 (sequel)	View    Download
Counting Winners in Suit Contracts	Chapter 11 (original) Chapter 13 (sequel)	View    Download
Drawing Trumps	Chapter 9 (original) Chapter 1 (sequel)	View    Download
Managing Entries	Chapter 14 (original) Chapter 5 (sequel)	View    Download
Finesses	Chapters 3,4 (original) Chapter 6,7 (sequel)	View    Download
Counting Defenders	Howard's Tutorial Chaper 2 (original)	View    Download

I put together a 5 lesson series on the Fundamentals of Constructive Bidding (bidding when the opponents do not interfere).

The purpose of these lessons is for students to learn the concepts behind constructive bidding. I have found that, although many students understand the (often complicated) rules about bidding, they do not understand the reasoning behind these rules. By learning the fundamentals rather than just the rules, a student will be able to more intuitively and comfortably bid, without being confused by the many (sometimes conflicting) rules that may or may not apply. Note that these lessons will not teach any particular system. It will simply teach the fundamentals upon which most bidding systems are built. A student should therefore be able to more comfortably play any of the popular systems.

I wrote a pdf tutorial for each lesson.. Kia has also put together a movie that will allow students to practice the tutorial material. There are links below to download both the Tutorials and the Movies.

Here is the lesson schedule.

Topic	Tutorial	Movie
Introduction to Constructive Bidding	Tutorial	View    Download
Auctions Starting with 1NT	Tutorial	View    Download   Chat Log
Auctions Starting with 1 of a Major (Part 1)	Tutorial	View    Download
Auctions Starting with 1 of a Major (Part 2)	Tutorial	View    Download   Chat Log
Auctions Starting with 1 of a Minor	Tutorial	View    Download   Chat Log

I have developed a series of lessons on Basic Defensive Techniques. This is an 8 week series that will occur periodically in the BIL as part of the Bridge 101 lesson series. Below are the topics I cover, and a set of tutorials and movies for each topic.

Topic
Opening Leads	Tutorial	View    Download
Defensive Carding	Tutorial	View    Download
Defensive Signals	Tutorial	View    Download
Counting	Tutorial	View    Download
Example Hands 1		View    Download
Example Hands 2		View    Download
Example Hands 3		View    Download
Example Hands 4		View    Download

I offered a 4 week series of lessons on slam bidding. The material for the lessons came from Marty Bergen's excellent new book on slam bidding, Slam Bidding Made Easier I was one of the editors of the book, and I highly recommend it.

As a service for my students, I have made special arrangements with Marty Bergen to sell the book online from my web site. If you buy it from me, Marty will personally autograph it for you with a personal message of your choosing. Additionally, you will receive a discount if you buy both the book and the workbook. Finally, shipping in the US is free. If you are planning to buy the book anyway, I would appreciate it if you would buy it from me, as I do get a commission for each book sold through my site. For additional details, click here.

Kia made a BBO movie of each of my lessons. Besides the material I presented, he also offered his own interpretation of the material as well as a very large number of practice hands. If you read the book and go through all of Kia's movies, I will guarantee that your overall bidding will greatly improve, not just your slam bidding. Here is a summary of the lesson topics and the corresponding book chapters and movies:

Topic	Book Chapters	Movie
Starting Points (prior to the auction)	Chapters 1-4	View    Download
Dummy Points Declarer (Bergen) Points	Chapters 5-7	View    Download
Control Bids Blackwood	Chapters 8, 16, 17	View    Download
Splinters Jacoby 2NT 5NT Pick A Slam	Chapters 9, 14, 15	View    Download

The 2 Over 1 System is preferred by most experts. Fortunately, it is very similar to Standard American, with only a few relatvely small modifications, so it should be easy for most players to learn.

Click on the links below to download the associated tutorials.

	Part 1 - Game Forcing Auctions
	Part 2 - Auctions Not Forcing to Game
	2 Over 1 Tutorial Movie By Kia    View    Download

Since the vast majority of players open 1NT with 15-17, that is what I usually teach. However, Ava and I have always played the weak NT. We feel it gives us a significant bidding advantage.

Playing the weak NT is not simply a matter of changing your 1NT opening range from 15-17 HCP to 12-14 HCP. It represents a significant systemic change, with different implications for many auctions. I have prepared a series of 3 lessons to explain the weak NT system.

	Part 1 - Auctions Starting with the Weak NT
	Part 2 - Auctions When Opener Holds a Strong NT
	Part 3 - When The Opponents Interfere
	Zip File With All 3 Parts

During my mentoring sessions, I play with 3 of my students, commenting on whatever hands happen to come up. One of my students, Kia (bbo nickname nome), produces a BBO bridge movie consisting of the hands annotated with my comments. This involves a great deal of effort, and Kia has generously agreed to share his work by allowing me to post the movies on my web site.

May 2013
May 2013 Movie B View    Download Support Double Bidding 5 over 5 is usually not a good idea, especially when we are vul and they are not A case of Fourth Suit Forcing Whenever you have a 3 card honor sequence, that is a strong lead Bidding after a Michaels overcall You should try and count out the critical suits on defense	May 2013 Movie A View    Download Kickback in place of Blackwood Bergen Hand Evaluation revisited Pay attention to the bidding and gain good information Again the bidding can give you great information
April 2013
April 2013 Movie D View    Download Sandy's exuberance is forgiven If you don't show support immediately, you can't have 4-card support The teacher is toast The teacher is supreme	April 2013 Movie C View    Download A difficult takeout double Don't bid your hand twice Intuition sometimes is better than science On misfit hands, stay as low as you can A good board for bidding DONT	April 2013 Movie B View    Download Treating overcall of partner's 2C opener How to make a small slam the sure way Do you know who the Queen is sleeping with? Learning how to respond to Partner's Weak-2 bids Help Partner in defense	April 2013 Movie A View    Download Short note on Michaels Unblocking is an important declarer play technique With a weak hand, it is usually better to play in the weak hand's long suit When making declarer ruff might help the defense It is almost always preferable to bid 3N than 5 of a minor
March 2013
March 2013 Movie E View    Download Bidding over 1N overcall It is rarely right to bid 5 over 5 when you are vulnerable, unless you are pretty sure you are making it The guidelines for bidding over a weak-2 - quick and to the point When you have < 6 points and no fit, pass like a shot You do not need finesse when opponents give you gift A new suit after 1N rebid is not forcing - that is an exception	March 2013 Movie D View    Download Michaels Cuebid Consider your holding in opponent's suit before reopening double After 1C-P-1N-P-P stretch to compete Leading a high spot card denies an honor IMPs vs MPs	March 2013 Movie C View    Download In NT, you are trying to set up the low cards in your long suit. Rule of 20 has been the King in 2013. Good bidding, good declaring, and good defense. You almost never bid 5 over 5 when you have a doubleton or higher. A weak jump shift by responder is not forcing. Components of Starting Points	March 2013 Movie B View    Download If you think 3N has plays, bid it rather than 5 of a minor. Lots of Does and Don'ts You should be reluctant to bid 5 unless you have shortness in the opponents suit A good way to count out your long suits is to keep track of how many the opponents have left For opening lead against NT, I am a big believer in 4th from longest and strongest unbid suit When to Sacrifice	March 2013 Movie A View    Download "The pre-empt makes it very difficult for the opponents to make proper bid." He is mortal after all. Read all about it here. If you are short in pard's suit, pass ASAP. When deciding whether or not to stretch, decide based on risk/reward. Signal correctly and let your partner in on your secrets :)-not ALL of course! Doubles of 4 level bids are "card showing." Rule of 9
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