5 weeks to winning bridge

[Hanoi5]

This is a very old book which dealt with teaching bridge to beginners from recognizing the cards to a 60's bidding system (featuring strong twos) and playing/defense lessons from the finesse to a squeeze.

 

The bidding part I never really checked, but the play part was great. I learned several plays from it and consider it an excellent book.

 

I'm not the only person of this opinion. I've seen comments praising this book and thought it could be great help for newbies and even intermidiates.

 

This book has been out of print for a long time. I have some copies. I could scan it and send it to people interested. Is this anti-copyright?

[blackshoe]

Probably. "Out of print" does not mean "in the public domain". OTOH, I don't know who would hold the copyright, since the author is long dead.

 

Five Weeks is a classic. I first learned the game from it in college. It occurs to me some enterprising bridge writer could update it for the 21st Century. That would be very cool, especially if he did as good a job as Sheinwold did originally. Me, I'm not that good, or that enterprising. B-)

 

Addendum: Just checked Amazon. 81 used copies for sale, 2 new. Looks like it was last reprinted in the 1990s.

Edited June 26, 2011 by blackshoe

[mycroft]

I really like Five Weeks - above everything else, what it teaches is "how to think bridge".

 

after Five Weeks, a new player will play like a decent novice, think like an intermediate,...and bid like a 90-year-old rubber player.

And therefore, won't be able to get a partner. I'm willing to play with them, but I've played 4-card majors before - and in the last 30 years, too.

 

Yes, it would be nice if we could upgrade the bidding. It would take a *lot* of rewriting, though, to retain the "here's how to think, given this as a base." and it's much harder than saying "bid longest suit, 4+ as you can, but you might have to bid a 3-card club suit if your 4-card suit is really weak" to get that deep into 5cM theory with a five-weeks-level player.