Word: culbertson
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...already known as a highly successful tournament player, Goren published his first book, Winning Bridge Made Easy. In it he prophetically deviated from the Culbertson system. For suit bids, Goren stuck pretty much to Culbertson's elaborate "honor trick" count, but for no-trump bidding he adopted Milton Work's method of evaluating a hand with a point count: four points for an ace, three for a king, two for a queen, one for a jack. Entranced by the point count's simplicity, Goren devoted numberless hours to expanding the idea into a general bidding method...
Beyond its tremendous advantage of simplicity, the Goren method was more reliable than Culbertson's. Ely's honor-trick count tended to undervalue kings, queens and jacks, overvalue the ace and the A-K combination. By bringing high-card valuation more into line with play-of-the-cards realities, Goren saved bridge players countless set contracts, especially at no trump. Another virtue of Goren's method was that it supplied a practical way of taking distribution into account: on suit bids (but not on no-trump) it adds one point for a doubleton, two for a singleton...
Flicker of Triumph. The day Winning Bridge Made Easy was published, Charles Goren gave up the practice of law. Soon after that, Ely Culbertson issued a public challenge to all comers, apparently never dreaming that Goren would risk his growing reputation against the master. But Charlie grabbed at the opportunity. Goren still treasures Culbertson's letter explaining that a sudden business trip to Europe made it necessary to call off the match. "Ely was using good judgment," says Goren, a faint but unmistakable flicker of triumph on his face...
Closing in on Culbertson, Goren replaced him as the Chicago Tribune syndicate's bridge columnist when Ely moved over to the Sun in 1944. A year later, sprightly Columnist Goren was appearing in more papers than Culbertson. Then, in 1951 Goren published his point-count bidding system in Contract Bridge Complete, and overwhelmed Culbertson with the decisiveness of a trump...
...Precision Bidders. In its terrific sales, Contract Bridge Complete brought the Goren system to expert and beginner alike, placed Charles Goren on the same shaky pedestal from which he had toppled Culbertson. Writer Goren had to maintain his position at the card table, and he did it with the help of Helen Sobel, his partner for 19 years. Goren calls Sobel, fourth-ranking player in total master points (4,198), "the greatest woman bridge player in history" - and few male experts would dispute that opinion...