WITHG: Is 2+2 TRYING to discourage casual players from buying it?

[NickMPK]

I just received Winning in Tough Games from Amazon, and the contents of the book look great.

However, the physical appearance of the book sincerely makes me wonder whether 2+2 actually wants to sell any copies of this book in a B&M store.

A few things I noticed:

- The cover is IMHO perhaps the ugliest yet.

- I didn't know it was possible, but the paper seems to be even thicker than usual (maybe just because the book is quite long). It really interferes with readability. It is difficult to open the book without creasing the spine (something a browser in the store will try to avoid), and almost impossible to keep the book open with one hand.

- The garish cover design runs onto the spine of the book, making the title very hard to read if the book is on a bookshelf. If I were browsing for poker books from a yard away, I would have no idea what this book was about.

The last thing is what really mystifies me. The other two are judgment calls I suppose, but I cannot understand how anyone could let a book be printed with a clearly unreadable title on the spine. What is going on here?