Evening star., 1937-01-03

other system
1886 Tournament Record.
AMERICAN BRIDGE LEAGUE
EVENTS.
\ r ASTERS' team Of four. Spin.
M gold Cup (also emblematit
vl of world championship since
4 L Europeans did not challenge
this year)-Won by the Four Aces.
Masters pairs. Won Zedtwitz Cup
Won by David Burnstine and Oswald
Jacoby.
Individual masters-Won by Wal
demar Won zedtwitz.
OTHER A. B. L. EVENTS.
Challenge team of four-Won by
Louis Haddad, Philip Steiner, Lewis
Bernard, M. S. Reilly and Alvin
Landy.
Mems pairs-Won by Fred Kaplan
and DR.. Richard H. Ecker.
Open pairs-Won by Walter Jacobs
and Ralph Kemper.
Open team of four-Won by Mrs
j. A. Faulkner, Mrs. w. NJ. Anderson
D. G. Farquharson and r. B. Shear
down.
AMERICAN WHIST LEAGUE.
Team of four-Won by Oswald
Jacoby, Merwin D. Maier, Edward
Hymes, jr., and Louis Haddad.
Pairs-Won by Robert F. Rubel and
Miss .Allyne Paris.
UNITED STATES BRIDGE.
Team of four-Won by A. Mitchell
Barnes. Mrs Josephine Culbertson,
Sam Fry, jr., and Waldemar Won
zedtwitz.
Pairs-Won by David Burnstine and
Oswald Jacoby.
VANDERBILT CUP.
Won by Fred Kaplan, Philip Abram-
sohn, Harry Fishbein and Irving
Epstein.
IN CHANGING over the tourna-
ment record for 1886 the first
thing that would strike the eye OF a
reader Is the number of unfamiliar
names. And yet, the old-timers seem
to have held their own pretty well.
For instance, in team-of-four events
the Four Aces did manage to win the
most important one, the Spingold Cup.
And two members of our team (Os-
valid Jacoby and Merwin D. Maier)
joined with Edward Hymes, jr., and
Louis j. Haddad to win the American
Whist League team-of-four cham
pionship.
In the pair event Jacoby and Burn
stine won both the masters pair Of
the American Bridge League and the
open pairs Of the United States
Bridge Association, while this years
winner of the individual champion
ship was Waldemar Won Zedtwitz, for
years one of the country's best-known
bridge players.
Many Of our readers will wonder
II this emergence of new names also
implies that there will be new sys-
TENS in the near future. To this we
can answer emphatically no. For in
stance. let us take the New York team
OF Fred Kaplan, Philip Abramsohn,
Harry Fishbein and Irving Epstein,
who, In addition to winning this years
Vanderbilt Cup thereby baking the
Four Aces attempt to hold that title
for the third successive year,. also
won the Eastern and Atlantic cham
pionships. Mr.. Kaplan also won the
mems pairs with Dr. Richard H. Ecker.
Except for Mr.. Abramsohn, who was
on the team that won the Wander
bilt Cup in 1888, these players are
all comparatively new to tournament
play. But In their bidding they fol-
low the Four Aces system with prac-
tically no variations whatsoever.
IN THE course Of the year a con-
siderable decline was noted in the
use of artificial conventions in slam
bidding. These conventions, which
usually show aces in wholesale guam
titles, tend to complicate rather than
simplify slam bidding. Their chief
drawback is the fact that they often
cause q partnership to arrive at q
dangerous contract such as five Of q
major suit. Having assembled to these
lofty heights, the partners may then
uGClQC AO oldLIl 10 HOocAO1C, WV
now the slightest bad division In
trumps or possibly q losing finesse
may cause the defeat of the contract.
In the common-sense tactics used
by the -Four Aces, and generally
adopted by all good players. artificial
conventions are taboo. Slam invita-
tiors are made early so that partners
may make up their minds whether to
continue to slam or to stop at a
safe game contract. Slams in the
modern manner are arrived at in one
Of several ways: % Direct slam bid
ding. One partner adds his playing
tricks to the number that his partners
bidding has indicated and decides
whether or not the hand will produce
u tricks. The -Four Aces point count