'you Opened With That Kind Of Rubbish?'

The process of selecting the six-man team that will represent North America in the World Bridge Championships is called the Trials, and a trial of ability, resolution and temperament is what it proved to be last week in Pittsburgh.

It took 10 days of play, involving 462 hands, before the Trials were completed and the North American team chosen, the coveted places going to the pairs who had finished first, second, and third out of the 16 that had qualified for the finals. By playing brilliantly toward the end, when the combination of pressure and fatigue was taking its toll, the Canadians, Eric Murray and Sammy Kehela, finished first, followed by Edgar Kaplan and Norman Kay, and Alvin Roth and William Root, who now will make up the rest of the North American team.

In the best of times, bridge masters are not known for their private serenity of soul nor their public exhibitions of tact, a fact noted by The Bridge World magazine prior to the Trials when it published a form chart on the 16 teams. "Temper Temper," the chart said beside the names of Ira Rubin and Curtis Smith. Rubin is a computer programmer whose bidding system is more than a computer could digest. When things began going badly Smith showed what he thought of his partner's system by reading a detective story during the bidding and play. Of Tobias Stone and Ivan Erdos the warning was: "The shorter the fuse the longer the odds." The fuse all but blew when Stone, a man known to make more than an occasional wager on football games, played Saturday afternoon with a transistor radio at his elbow. Neither of these teams survived the cutting of the field to 10 pairs for the final rounds, though Stone and Erdos missed by barely a field goal, finishing 11th.

Through much of the final round first place was held by Roth and Root, but in the very last session they found themselves playing against Murray and Kehela, and they took such a beating that it appeared for a moment they might be knocked out of the top three completely. It was, therefore, ironic, as well as indicative of the large variations in bidding systems and play at championship events, that earlier Murray had approached Roth—an apostle of ultraconservative opening bids—to discuss a hand which had given him trouble.

Murray explained his holding was:

[Ace of Spades]
[Queen of Spades]
[9 of Spades]
[3 of Spades]

[10 of Hearts]
[8 of Hearts]
[7 of Hearts]
[3 of Hearts]

[Ace of Diamonds]
[Jack of Diamonds]
[8 of Diamonds]
[6 of Diamonds]

[4 of Clubs]

"What do you open?" he asked Roth. "You can't open," said Roth. "Well," said Murray, "I opened a heart." Roth winced. "Then Sammy said two diamonds," continued Murray. "Don't tell me you bid two spades on that rubbish," said Roth. "No, I didn't think my hand was that good," said Murray. "I said three diamonds. Sammy tried four clubs and I almost cue bid my spade ace, but instead I said four diamonds, and we played it at five diamonds." Roth looked even more unsettled. Here are all four hands: