Four Aces

In Manhattan's Ambassador Hotel, the pick of the top-notch U. S. contract bridge players assembled last week to play for the Vanderbilt Cup, blue ribbon U. S. championship for four-man teams. After 5 days of qualifying rounds and "knockout" elimination matches, the field of 28 teams narrowed down to two. Finalists were the defending champions, the Four Aces (Oswald Jacoby, David Burnstine, Howard Schenken, Merwin Maier and alternate Sherman Stearns), and a quartet of Donor Harold Vanderbilt's old teammates, headed by Baron Waldemar von Zedtwitz. At the end of the 72-deal final, the Four Aces won the Cup for the fourth time in the past five years. But they came close to losing when, on the next to the last deal, two members of the team went down 200 points on a vulnerable four-spade contract, cutting their final lead to only 230 points.

Like Ely Culbertson, P. Hal Sims, and most other famed contract experts, the Four Aces admit that they are the best bridge players, individually and collectively, in the world.

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