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I like to read, so most of my advice is book related. I learned by reading "Bridge for Dummies" by Eddie Kantar. I think it's terrific.


Other books that I've found valuable:

• Bid Better Play Better by Dorthy Hayden Truscott
  
• Introduction to Declarer's Play by Eddie Kantar
  
• Eddie Kantar Teaches Modern Bridge Defense by Eddie Kantar (more advanced)
  
• How to Read your Opponents' Cards by Mike Lawrence (more advanced)
  
• Standard Bidding with SAYC by Ellen Pomer and Ned Downey
  
• 2/1 Game Force by Audrey Grant and Eric Rodwell (once you have the basics of Std American down I highly recommend learning 2/1. It's almost the same and a big improvement, IMO).
  
• 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know by Barbara Seagram and Marc Smith. (don't go crazy here. Stayman, Jacoby, weak 2, RKC Blackwood, and negative doubles will take you pretty far.)
  
  The best way to learn is to find someone who is patient and better than you and play with them. If you play on BBO there's somethign called the Beginner's & Intermediates club. It costs $45 / year. The most valuable portion of it is that they will set you up with a mentor. I play 1x a week with a very patient, very skilled woman who gives me a lot of feedback.
  

Peter Hollands runs a good channel. A lot of education in bridge comes from discussion; you won't even realize what you're missing until someone points something out, you have a "wow" moment, and now you have another book you need to buy. Or something.

One thing I find mildly annoying about Peter Hollands' channel is that a handful of his inferences come from "because I know my opponent is a skilled player, if he had X card, he would have switched to a spade here". This is the time where he loses me, because I've seen enough silly plays from opponents that I have seriously concerns about using those kinds of stepping stones unless I'm in a strong field.

To answer your original question though, bridge has a lot of different kinds of skills and you sometimes need to address them independently.

Bidding problems are one avenue (though really, you should take 100+ from a book or other single source, not splashes of 5 in the newspaper).

Squeeze plays are one thing that I struggle with, but having them presented in a book doesn't always help; because real life problems are not so conveniently labelled.

One book I have enjoyed is Kantar's Take All Your Chances at Bridge, which specializes in probability analysis. On each (single-dummy) problem there is a fairly obvious solution with a 25-50% probability of success, but the puzzle is to find the best improvement. Maybe you can improve it to 75%, maybe 100%, but there's always some refinement available. This is a useful skill to apply in the wild as well.

Wow you guys have eagle eyes!
Bridge with the Blue Team is possibly one of the greatest bridge books ever and I've read it at least 100 times, and Inside the Bermuda Bowl is fascinating. Great choices!
Blue Team on Amazon is $8 cheapest used plus $3.99 shipping, for $12 total. I'll do it for $9 total. Note that my version is actually the original print version, no longer in print.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0297864564/ref=tmm_pap_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=1467415375&sr=8-2

Inside the Bermuda Bowl is also out of print and rare. Cheapest on Amazon is $39.95 used plus $3.99 shipping:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0006RI6XA/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1467415500&sr=8-1

I won't follow the 75% rule on this one! Let's call it $25 including shipping (about 57% of Amazon price).

PM me for payment/address details.

Thanks for your response. I'm more interested in finding a coherent system with well thought out mechanics than in learning 2/1 specifically or bolting heaps of stuff on to it. My basic issue is that when you say "Basic 2/1", the interpretation of what is and is not "Basic 2/1" will vary from country to country and through time. I'm looking for a comprehensive description of a system.

For instance, I've just stumbled across this book: https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Bridge-Bidding-21st-Century/dp/1587760495

Which seems like a good place to start.

I do very much agree with your statement that bridge is not about system, and this is by no means where most of my effort is focused, in fact, looking for a coherent system is my attempt to stop faffing about with stuff and concentrate more on competitive judgement and defensive play - the areas where I know I have a lot of room to improve.

I would recommend: Watson's Classic Book on The Play of the Hand at Bridge

This book is great on the basic tactics. It is perfect for reading in small chunks (was great for my bus commutes). It may seem wordy, but the authors are careful to be extremely precise.

https://www.amazon.com/Watsons-Classic-Book-Play-Bridge/dp/0064632091

/u/Benjogias lists the most important tactics, and his comment is worth a few readings, as so many good ideas are put into one post.

Some things I used several years ago. I make no claim that they are "that one" resource.

http://home.comcast.net/~kwbridge/

http://home.comcast.net/~kwbridge/basics.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Commonsense-Bidding-Complete-Methods-Standard/dp/0517884305/

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Bridge-Conventions-William-Root/dp/0517884291/

Play for free online at bridgebase.com. Best to play with someone you know. Otherwise prepare to get yelled at by random partners for not knowing what you're doing.

Find a bridge club with beginner lessons or at least a good Non-Life Master game. https://web3.acbl.org/findalist/club

Where are you from?