January 20th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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I first met Jim Linhart some time in the early to mid ‘60’s at a regional in Asbury Park. He told me when he entered college he had considered that he had the potential to be one of the best big men in California college basketball. I think he went to St Marys and found when playing UCLA that he didn’t. I think he met his wife, June, when she was a stewardess on one of his flights. As a his regular job he was as a social worker in New York City.
We were friendly but not good friends. For a while June had to keep their marriage concealed to retain her job. Later she could reveal it. I think she worked for United Airlines which meant either of them he could fly free on United and get discounts on other airlines. Once Jim wanted to fly to a tournament in Miami. Unfortunately, United didn’t fly there directly To get there free he had to fly to Caracas, Venezuela and fly from Caracas to Miami, which he did.
In January, 1971 both Jim and I went to tournament in Swan Lake in the Catskills, Jim’s mother in law had a big house near there so he arranged for us to sleep in it as well as as Paul and Abby Heitner. Jim and I shared a ground floor bedroom and Paul and Abby were above us. Paul must have been up to about 450 pounds at that time. Jim and I could hear their bed over us creaking over us, and we didn’t know how strong the ceiling was.
Luckily, it held. On the way to the team game, Jim asked me who my team was. I told him lt was Seymour Liebowitz, who was my regular sponsor, Mike Becker, Mike’s boss and his boss’ girlfriend. Jim told me who was on his team and said, “At least my team has a chance to win. Yours doesn’t.”
Of course, mine won. I don’t know how how well Jim’s team did.
Later In 1971 I drove from Philadelphia to play in the Canadian Nationals in Toronto. Jim was there. Neither he nor I had dates for the Mens so we played in it as partners and won. As I was leaving the tournament Jim offered to drive with me if I gave him a ride to his house on the east side of New York City. As it wasn’t too out of the way for me I accepted his offer. Since I had a VW Beetle at the time, I thought it might be too uncomfortable for him, but he had no problem. I was able to sleep for a while in his place until I set off for Philadelphia on my own.
In his bridge column Alan Truscott once wrote that the New York Knicks, the city’s National Basketball Association team was not the tallest team in the city . The bridge team of Jim Linhart (6′ 10″) , Harry Stappenback (7′ 0), dick Budd ( 6″ and Paul Heitner (at least 6′) was taller.
January 18th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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If you know your opponents are in a bad contract because of a mixup, don’t double unless you know it is your hand. If it is not your hand +250 figures to be the best result you can achieve long as you doubt you cannot defeat any contract they may run to. Defeating a freeely bid slam figures to get you almost all the matchpoints anyway. There is an old story about Internationalists Bob Jordan and Art Robinson when they were in their prime. They had agreed upon hearts. Jordan bid Blackwood and Robinson replied five diamonds. Jordan thought for a long time and decided they couldn’t make a slam so he passed! His RHO asked him, “Do you know what contract you are in? Jordan said, “Yes, five hearts.” The opponent said, “Well, you’re not. You’re in five diamonds and I double five diamonds!” Jordan had been worried that his partner had useless strength in diamonds. Assured now that he didn’t, Jordan bid six hearts which was doubled and made. His opponent turned to him and said, So that’s how you win all your tournaments!”
January 14th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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Walt’s fortunes in love may have been worse than many of his results in bridge until he won Kathie’s hand many years later. When I met him in college he claimed to be engaged. Supposedly, he and his fiancé had actually once run away to Maryland intending to wed but had not gone through with it when they got there, and after that had lost contact.
Several years later they had happened to meet accidentally and started dating again. Since Walt was at loose ends at the time, her father, who owned a restaurant in Atlantic City, hired Walt as its manager. By this time Walt was playing bridge. In June there was a regional there. Walt played in an afternoon session, and married the girl after the first session and resumed play in the evening without telling his partner , Don Smolen, what had done.
Walt happily finished playing in the tournament and went back to work. However, three days later his wife asked if she could see her mother for a day to tell her personally about the marriage. Walt agreed. That was the last he saw of his wife. Her parents, angered at the way Walt had wed their only daughter, had the marriage annulled. Of course, her father no longer wanted Walt to be his restaurant’s manager. By marrying the boss’s daughter Walt lost his job!
Undeterred, Walt found another love when he moved to Washington. Her name was Carolyn Gillis. Walt knew her because she was teaching in the area and occasionally babysat for the Parkers. Unfortunately, she moved to Providence, Rhode Island. Walt piled up a near fortune in telephone bills as he talked to her for hours virtually every night. On many weekends he drove to Providence to be with her. He was even talking about marriage plans. It happened that there was a regional in Long Island, New York at that time. Walt already had a date to play in it with a partner of his, Bill Daly. As Bill lived in Boston and Providence was more or less on the way to Long Island for him, so Walt, not relishing driving the extra three hundred miles to pick up Carolyn and drive her back, thought of having Bill give her a ride to and from the tournament site. Walt gave careful instructions so Bill could find her house and so they would know each other.
Bill successfully found Carolyn and took her to the tournament. Walt and Bill played together as had been planned. When Walt asked Carolyn how she had liked Bill, she indicated he seemed like a nice guy. Walt continued calling Carolyn as much as he could , and everything seemed fine. About a few weeks after the tournament Walt was talking to her one night, and she said, “Oh by the way, Bill and I are getting married in two weeks.” Never one to hold a grudge, Walt offered to be the best man at the wedding.
January 11th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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When playing in a matchpoint pairs tournament in which you regard your partnership weaker than most don’t be too afraid to take a chance in the bidding especially in disruptingyour opponents’ constructive bidding. If you regard your pair the class of the field, or close to it, take less chances and try to reach the same contract as the field. Your superior defense and dummy play alone should get you most of the matchpoints. For instance, getting to two spades and making four for +170 may give you ten out of twelve. 12 matchpoints If the opponents happen to defend very well or you don’t guess a queen, only making three you may get a seven or eight . If you bid and make the game you will get an eleven or twelve12, but if you go down you will get zero 0 or one. Some time in the late sixties I played with Philadelphia expert Reuben Alexander somewhere in the northeast. Pennsylvania It think it was in the Poconos or Scranton. Either area always had a very weak field. Reuben was good but his situation didn’t allow him to travel often. Instead of just playing straight Reuben did doing things such as opening his weaker minor preparing for a one no trump rebid. We killed ourselves so badly we wound up only about average even though we were by far the best pair in the event.
January 9th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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For those of you who aren’t sports fans, The Boston College fotball coach, Jeff Jagodinski, was under contract to the school, but recently interviewed for the position of the head coach with the National Football team, the Jets.
Boston College warned him if he had the interview the school would fire him. He did, and it did. What does this have to do with bridge? Nothing, but it reminded me of something.
In 1970 I played in the Spingold with John Solodar, Bob Lipsitz, Alan Sontag, and the partnership of Marv Rosenblatt and Art Waldmann. I had wanted Bill Landow instead of Art and Marv, but John insisted. I was already playing professionally, but I was pretty naive. It didn’t occur to me that Art might be paying John. I still am not certain of it now, but I have my suspicions. We defeated the Rosenkranz team, but later lost to the Aces.
In the Vanderbilt the next year I was to play with Lipsitz, Chuck Lamprey and Mike Moss. Bill Landow was to originally play with us, but his wife, Elaine, was to give birth about then, and he had to cancel. a We had to get Mike at the last minute. All of a sudden, John Gerber, the captain of the Rosenkranz team, approached me and asked me to play on his team. I felt committed and felt reluctant to dump a team I had formed. All the members of the team were friends of mine except Mike who objected to it.. They knew it was a big break for my reputation, paid well and urged me to do it so I joined Rosenkranz. The team I had left added Steve Labins who was Chuck’s regular partner. They lost their match to the old Precision team, which ultimately won the event, by an IMP.
January 7th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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Mrs Jane King lived in Missouri and showed why that state deserved its motto, The Show Me State . In 1973 Bob Goldman, the Wolffs and I played on a regional knock out team that she sponsored. We didn’t win, but she didn’t say anything about it., probably in deference to Bobby Wolff, with whom she had played.
Some years after that I have heard she sponsored a Swiss team made up by top bridge professionals including Orval Swander who was the best bridge player in Kansas City when I moved there. The team had a rocky first match. Orval apologized for having made a mistake.
Mrs King told Orval he was benched. The team did very well on the next two matches so Orval remained sidelined. The next match her team won, and lost only one IMP.
Mrs King asked, “Who lost the IMP? “One member of her team raised his hand. Mrs King said, “Alright, you’re out, and Orval is in.”
January 4th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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Before playing with a new partner or even someone with whom you have played make sure you both know what you are playing and how you treat various situations. A common example is whether you regard secondary jumps as forcing or nonforcing (1C – P- 1H – P -1S followed by responder’s bidding 3C, 2NT, 3H or 3S). Another is whether a jump raise of opener’s one of a major by responder is the same with no competition as it would be if there is a a minimum overcall overcall.
When Bob Goldman or Mike Lawrence and I played them all jump raises invitational except 2NT which we played forcing. I now commonly play them all as invitational. I play 1S – 2C -P- 3S as still invitational. Many play the jump raise in competition as preemptive, and a few would play it as forcing. I don’t like using negative doubles with a fit in opener’s suit because the opponents may preempt and force the opener to make a decision without knowing responder has support.
January 2nd, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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At the University of Pennsylvania I took a course in short stories taught by Tristam Coffin. To my knowledge he never played bridge. One day the class was discussing a work by Joseph Conrad. Professor Coffin said that there are two types of people who will never trust a stranger’s being proficient until that person has proved himself— sailors and bridge players. I don’t know about sailors, but that seems pretty accurate for bidge players. Has anybody else heard something similar?
December 31st, 2008 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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As declarer Walt invented the ‘Crab coup’. His contract was four spades. He was on the board having lost three tricks. Although he knew West was void in hearts, instead of merely calling for dummy’s trump and claiming, he called for for the ace of hearts and ruffed it with the ace of spades. The symmetry of ruffing one ace with another was too attractive for him to resist. By doing so he established a trump trick for West. To my knowledge this type of self uppercut has been executed successfully only once.
As he gained in experience in life and bridge, Walt formulated his three universal rules of life. They are:
1 There is no such thing as a good bridge player.
2 Everybody cheats
3. Cows don’t move.
The last I checked he was still convinced of the truth of the first two, but while we were driving by a pasture once one day there seemed to be a cow walking! Shocked, he shrieked “nooo!” And hid his face in his hands. He still refuses to admit he actually saw a cow that moved
Walt’s universal law of bridge is, ‘double and lead trumps.’ He showed his full confidence in this law when he doubled three diamonds’ without hesitation and led his trump stack–the singleton king of diamonds. He felt he was vindicated when it proved to be the only lead to hold declarer to four.
December 28th, 2008 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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The best time for trying out conventions unfamiliar to you or your partner is bidding computer generated hands or when you are playing for practice or socially. If you are playing in a tournament or for money never play a convention unless both members of the partnership you very well know it well and how to use it. Theoretically, Modified Super Roman Keycard Gerber may be the greatest convention ever, but if the a partnership has a disaster because one of its members forgets the two of you are using it, misuses it, or answers incorrectly, it may lead to a disaster while a simpler convention would serve in most cases and would avoid a mishap
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