Caution Pays Off

The most successful bridge players are neither the relentlessly bold nor the incorrigibly careful, but those who know, through a fine combination of card sense, experience and clear thinking, when to be bold and when to be cautious. Old Pro Charles Goren, apostle of point-count bidding, has made many a bold thrust over the years, but in the American Contract Bridge League's yearly Life Masters Pair tournament at Bal Harbour, Fla. last week, he showed that caution some times pays off, too.

During their 19 years as professional partners, Charlie Goren, 57, and Helen Sobel, 48, have copped just about every top bridge trophy at one time or another. Back in 1942 they took the Life Masters cup, but it has eluded them ever since. Last week, despite a brisk start, they lagged in ninth place at the end of the third round (each round consists of 26 deals). On the fourth and final round, they encountered this deal (North-South vulnerable) :

NORTH 9 8 7 3 2 A Q 6 4 10 6 5 3

WEST (Goren) Q 10 K 10 A 8 2 A Q 10 6 4 3

EAST (Sobel)

J 7 3 2 K 9 7 4 J 9 8 7 2

SOUTH (DEALER) A K J 6 5 4 9 8 5 Q J K 5

The bidding went:

South 1 pass double pass

West 2 pass pass pass

North 2 4 5

East 3 5 pass

Coming after Goren's pass, Mrs. Sobel's five-club bid was bold, though it might possibly have been made (finesse South's king of clubs, discard West's losing dia mond on the jack of hearts). The payoff decision was Goren's final pass. At most other tables, West doubled the five-spade bid -- naturally enough, since West held 15 of the deck's 40 high-card points (according to the Goren system of counting four for an ace, three for a king, two for a queen, one for a jack). But Goren, on the safe-side assumption that either North or South was void in clubs ("I had a strong suspicion my ace of clubs would not live."), refrained from doubling. Upshot: South made five spades, finessing West's king of hearts and discarding a heart on North's ten of diamonds.

In tournaments, a pair's score on each deal depends on how the partnership fares in comparison with rival pairs playing identical hands at the other tables. On this particular deal, because Goren refrained from doubling, Goren-Sobel gained an extra eleven match points. Those eleven were decisive; Goren-Sobel took the gold cup by the final tooth-skin margin of six points. Said Goren, summing up the triumph: "We played precision bridge--being neither reckless nor timid."

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