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2021 ABTA BOOK OF THE YEAR & Technology AWARDS

The American Bridge Teachers’ Association (ABTA) has announced winners in its 40th annual Book of the Year contest, which recognizes excellence in instructional books for bridge players of all levels.

In the beginner/novice category, the winner of the 2021 ABTA Shirley Silverman Book of the Year Award was Larry Teaches Modern Bidding, Volumes 1, 2 & 3 (Bridge with Larry Cohen) by Larry Cohen. The latest in the “Larry Teaches” series, these three manuals focus on the basics of opening bids, responses, first rebids and competitive auctions.

Runner-up in the beginner/novice category was Building Bridges (Student manual & facilitator guide) by Jeanne Wamack.

The winner in the intermediate category was Barbara’s Bridge Tips (Master Point Press) by Barbara Seagram. Winner of multiple ABTA awards, Seagram offers concise, practical advice and examples designed to help players advance their games.

Runners-up in the intermediate category were Coming Back to Bridge (Master Point Press) by Paul Goldfinger and Winning at Matchpoints (Master Point Press) by Bill Treble.

Winner in the advanced category was Two-over-One Game Force: The Final Word (Trafford Publishing) by Neil Timm. This 630-page volume is a detailed discussion of the popular 2-over-1 bidding system, complete with recommended conventions and many new ideas.

Runners-up in the advanced category were Masterpiece Deals (HNB Publishing) by Augie Boehm and Useful Probability for Bridge Players (Masterpoint Press)by Julian Laderman.

Winner in the technology category was Shark Bridge Teacher’s Console, a full-featured online teaching tool from Milen Milkovski. Runner-up was Tricky Bridge by Scott Hoffer.

ABTA Award Committee members were Sam Marks, Henry Meguid, Brenda Montague, Jeff Schuett and Karen Walker (chair).

ABTA is now accepting submissions for its 2022 awards, which will be announced next July. Authors or publishers wishing to enter new works in any of the above categories can get more information by emailing the Awards Committee chair, Karen Walker at bookoftheyear@abtahome.com

The submission deadline is May 1, 2022.

Online Bridge Lessons Are Here to Stay!

No travel, no dressing up for students, no room or board setups for us—there are definite advantages. But we need to make online lessons as effective as classroom lessons.

Sign up now for one of ACBL’s How To Engage Online Students Workshops to see and master tactics for teaching bridge online most effectively The workshops are fast paced and fun with zero lecture. In fact, it’s one of the most worthwhile workshops I’ve ever attended.

The next workshops start February 8, March 8 and March 20. See details at https://www.acbl.org/teach/become-a-teacher/#online

A video workflow for preparing Shark Bridge lessons

Thanks to Morris Jones (Mojo) for sharing this excellent video demonstrating how to prepare an online lesson using partial hands prepared in Bridge Composer and uploaded to Shark Bridge.

Click to view video