Pick the IBPA Book of the Year Contest – Closed

The Contest is Closed: Congratulations go to Fantunes Revealed by Bill Jacobs for winning the 2013 IBPA Book of the Year Award! 

The Contest

Guess who will win this year’s IBPA award before they are announced. The first three entries with the correct pick will win a copy of the ebook* or a $15 Gift certificate for ebooksbridge.com.
*We can only provide a copy of the Master Point Press Nominees.

The Perks

All those who enter will get a 5$ off coupon for ebooksbridge.com.

The Details

Contest is open from now until Noon EST Sunday September 22, 2013.

How to Enter

Comment here on bridgeblogging.com or email me at  lisa@masterpointpress.com. I will confirm your entry and the winners on Tuesday September 24th, 2013 after the Book of the Year is announced.

The Nominees

Winning Suit Contract Leads by David Bird and Taf Anthias (Master Point Press)
COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF OPENING LEADS
Winning Notrump Leads was a ground-breaking and very well-received book that used the power of computers to determine which opening leads work best against a variety of auctions at notrump. Using enhanced software, the authors now turn their attention to suit contracts. They generate millions of random deals, retaining those that match the chosen auction, for example 1S-2S-4S. By playing these deals automatically against each of the 13 possible opening leads from a given hand, they are able to discover which lead is most likely to beat the contract (also the best lead at matchpoint pairs). The authors provide insightful commentary to each result, answering timeless questions such as:
* When should I lead a trump?
* When is a doubleton a good opening lead?
* Should I lead differently against a partscore?
* Should I make an aggressive or a passive lead?
* Should I lead an ace against a small slam?
* Which leads work best against a grand slam?
By using the number-crunching computer power available nowadays, there is no longer any need to rely on general opening-lead guidelines passed down by our ancestors. We think you will be surprised by many of the discoveries made during this investigation!

Fantunes Revealed by Bill Jacobs (Master Point Press)
Not since the introduction of Precision has a new bidding system created such an immediate impact as Fantunes, the unique methods of Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes, the world’s number one ranked pair. The Italians have several world championship wins to their name, and their system has played a major role in that success.
This book delves into the system, explaining how it works and, just as importantly, why it works. Two words best describe Fantunes: natural and fun. This is the definitive text for those who would like to try an innovative and proven new bidding system.

Duplicate Bridge Schedules, History and Mathematics by Ian McKinnon (Master Point Press)
The Bridge Movements Encyclopedia
Duplicate Bridge Schedules, History and Mathematics is an essential book for tournament directors as well as bridge players curious about the history of the game of duplicate bridge. This comprehensive volume supplies you with all the movements ever thought of and many hundreds of new ones. Included for each movement are the variations, modifications, origins, authors and history of its development. Each movement is then assessed for its measure of quality, called calibre.
The author presents a brand new event type, the Scissor movement -— run like any Howell movement. In this type of event the players play as pairs as usual, but also have their teammates as another pair, never meeting each other. This allows the event to be scored both as teams and pairs, producing a winning team and a winning pair.
Duplicate bridge players will find the history of their favorite game most intriguing. The book delves into the lives of well-known figures such as John T. Mitchell and Edwin C. Howell. When did they live, what did they contribute to bridge, and what were the politics of their time? In addition, many lesser-known historical figures are examined for their contributions to the development of duplicate movements.
For the mathematically inclined there are plenty of interesting oddities. The mathematics of balance of movements, giving the measure of quality, is thoroughly discussed. The controversial debate over movement quality, along with its history, is presented through the ideas and opinions of players and mathematicians.
For the companion Jeanie – Bridge Movement Wizard used to make this book visit Jeanie on eBooksBridge.com

Diamonds Are the Hog’s Best Friend by Victor Mollo (Master Point Press)
Just about every bridge player over forty has read Victor Mollo’s Bridge in the Menagerie, a book that is on any list of the all-time top ten on the game. Towards the end of his life, Mollo continued to write stories about the same well-loved characters (the Hideous Hog, the Rueful Rabbit, Oscar the Owl, and the rest), but they appeared in various magazines around the world, and if you weren’t a subscriber, you didn’t get to read them.
This is the second MPP collection of these lost Menagerie gems, collected for the first time in book form (following The Hog Takes to Precision in 2011). Victor Mollo is everyone’s favorite bridge humorist, and a genuinely new book from him will be greeted as something to be treasured.
Illustrations by bridge cartoonist Bill Buttle add to the fun.

Bridge Philosopher 3 by James S. Kauder (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
He’s back! That old curmudgeon, the Bridge Philosopher, is back for a third try at explaining the art of dummy play. He claims that he is losing his memory, but he hasn’t lost his ability to reason or to analyze a bridge hand in an instant. And, as usual, he has cogent (often biting) comments to make about the sad state of affairs in the world at large: the rising cost of living; unfunded Social Security liabilities; dysfunctional political parties. He unashamedly (in fact, somewhat proudly) admits to personal weaknesses of one sort or another: diet; neatness; relationship issues; and all around dissatisfaction with the world. Learn a little; laugh a lot. He isn’t the only one who isn’t getting any younger.

Good Luck!