Word: expert
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Battle of the Century." Dismayed by Culbertson's lucrative preeminence, a dozen less publicized experts headed by aging Sidney Lenz banded together to publish an "Official System." Culbertson publicly laid down a challenge: he would bet $10,000 to $1,000 that, in a match of 150 rubbers, he and his wife Josephine, using the Culbertson system, would beat Lenz and any partner, using the Official System. Under Culbertson's relentless public needling, Lenz reluctantly accepted the challenge, chose as his partner hefty Oswald Jacoby, later famed as an expert on canasta and poker as well as bridge...
...laughed at. "It was like putting a knife through me," he says, "and I took an oath that I was never going to sit down at a card table until I knew how to play bridge." Goren returned to Philadelphia, bought a copy of Expert Milton Work's book on auction bridge, and studied it daily for nearly eight months. "If they had destroyed the plates of that book," he says, "I could have reconstructed it from memory...
...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. "It took me about 15 years," he says, "and I had some very expert help." Most valuable helper: Toronto Insurance Executive William M. Anderson, a bridge buff and mathematician...
...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...
...judgment of top bridge players, are Howard Schenken and Alvin Roth, both of whom have missed master point opportunities by staying away from many tournaments. New Yorker Schenken, 54, was already renowned in the bridge world back in the early 1930s, has steadily maintained a reputation among the experts as one of the very greatest players, though he stands only twelfth in master points (2,919) and makes his living as a travel agent instead of a fulltime bridge pro. A recent recruit to Charles Goren's team, Schenken is a highly deceptive player, masks his imaginative boldness with...