September 2006 - 7

Letters to the Editor

appreciated her help.
We, of course, cheered for Shawn
and her team through the rest of the
tournament and were delighted when
they won.
PAT COSGROVE
Waukesha WI

cases, a 4-0 spade break requires a
dummy reversal, and in order to preserve vital entry to dummy, in both
cases, it is necessary to take a ruff in
hand at trick two.
ALAN BATTERMAN
Monsey NY

George's world

A tribute

To the Editor:
For many years George Jacobs
and Claude Vogel have regaled us
at parties, over drinks and at dinner
with stories of their escapades, so it
was very entertaining to read about
George's adventures with Claude
once again (July, page 21).
Now that I know George will be
sharing more stories, I look forward
to reading about the time Claude hid
George's Double cards. Also, George
is correct - Claude is everyone's
favorite partner!
JOY SCHER
Delray Beach FL

To the Editor:
A toast to Ralph Cohen: Loving
husband. Dear father. Doting
grandfather. Caring brother. Scholar.
Historian. Mentor. My best friend
- for 70 years.
BUD MARSH
Scottsdale AZ

Fan of George
To the Editor:
I could not wait to read George
Jacobs' debut article in your July
issue. Duplicate bridge is so often
looked upon as too serious and cutthroat that you don't associate humor
with the game. George, on the other
hand, is funny and a world-class player. I am sure Claude thinks George
is funny, too, or they would not have
been partners for so long.
While George and Claude exhibit
very different personalities, they are
both great ambassadors for bridge.
Kudos to your magazine for starting a
series that is fun to read and one that I
am sure I will learn something from.
JOHANNA STRONG
Winfield IL

Abbot, meet Eddie
To the Editor:
If the Abbot had read the second
problem in Test Your Play in June
(page 58), he would have made the
contract in July (page 59). The two
columns are virtually identical. Both
feature a grand slam in spades. In
both cases, the contract is a claimer
if spades do not break 4-0, in both
September 2006

Emphasize wins
To the Editor:
For me, the question is not whether
the 20- or 30-point victory point table
is the most fair. I believe win-loss
records should prevail and that VPs
should be used only to break ties for
overall awards among teams with
identical win-loss records. If victory
points were used in baseball, the current world champion Chicago White
Sox would not have even made the
playoffs because of an inferior VP record when compared to the Cleveland
Indians. I know of no other sport that
substitutes another form of scoring
for won-lost records.
Using victory point scoring in
events where all teams play duplicated
boards is a lot different from typical
regional or sectional Swiss teams
where boards are not duplicated.
VERN MYERS
Tacoma WA

Asterisk issues
To the Editor:
Three cheers for Ray Evans (July,
page 8) for speaking out on the
removal of Life Master stars in the
In Memoriam column. By adopting
this policy, you are reducing all to
a common denominator by denying
achievements previously earned by
the deceased.
Perhaps you should remove all
masterpoints and other signs of accomplishment to accommodate those
who keep whining about what they

see as unfairness in distribution of
MPs in certain events (knockouts)
and alleged cheating online.
There is one thing that may be
noted about your policy: Karl Marx
would have approved.
ELIZABETH R. BAECHER
Mount Kisco NY

New list
To the Editor:
It was with great encouragement
that I read the CEO's message in July
(page 9). Indeed, the health and future
of bridge depend on new and young
players, so why not print the names
of new ACBL members in each issue
of the Bridge Bulletin? Forget that
nonsense about identifying dead Life
Masters with an asterisk. The very act
of printing their names seems only to
reinforce the stereotype that bridge is
an old, tired, dying game.
NATHANIEL NORMAN
New York NY
The ACBL does publish a list of
new members - on the web site. Visit
www.acbl.org and check out Member
Achievements at the bottom of the
home page. Adding a list of that size
to the Bridge Bulletin each month
would take up an enormous amount
of space.

Singleton aces
To the Editor:
In April (page 8), a reader reports a
deal in which both North and South
hold two singleton aces, and says that
no one at the table could remember
seeing a deal in which there were four
singleton aces. The number of deals it
would take to produce one with four
singleton aces is a 22-digit number,
but still is only .0000173% of the
number of all deals. Thus, someone
playing four times a week would 
Letters to the editor are welcome
by regular mail, e-mail editor@acbl.
org or fax 901-398-7754. Brevity is
considered a virtue, as is subject
matter with relevance to a majority
of ACBL members. Unsigned letters
are not considered for publication,
so please include your name and
hometown. Letters may be edited.
All letters will receive a response.

7
http://www.acbl.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2006
