"It Makes No Difference"

When 25 of the nation's top-notch contract bridge teams sat down in Manhattan's Shelton Hotel last week to fight for the most prized team-of-four trophy in their sport, the Vanderbilt Cup, favorites to win were the famed Four Aces and a team led by Yachtsman Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, the cup donor. The Four Aces had won this annual event four times; Vanderbilt's team had won once, been runner-up to the Aces twice. Ace Oswald Jacoby was so confident that in the first round he bet $100 to $10 against his opponents, a team that had barely qualified, was soundly beaten for his overconfidence. So Yachtsman Vanderbilt seemed to have clear sailing.

Near the end of the semifinal round occurred an incident characteristic of tournament bridge, which is played with fierce attention to technicalities like a small boys' baseball game. In a nip-&-tuck match, A. Mitchell Barnes of the Vanderbilt team, playing a five-heart doubled contract, led a heart from dummy, pondered whether to finesse. Impatient with Mr. Barnes's slow play, Opponent Robert McPherran said: "It makes no difference." Mr. Barnes thereupon deduced that Mr. McPherran had two hearts instead of three, eventually went down 500 points instead of 300. Mr. Barnes protested that he had been misled, got a referee to award him 200 points. His team finished the match 120 points ahead. Thereupon began a series of protests and counterprotests that rocked the tournament and culminated next day in a conference of five of contract's highest authorities to decide the dispute. After an hour-and-a-half session, during which it was established that Mr. McPherran had erred in speaking but Mr. Barnes had no business believing him, the committee voted three-to-two in Mr. McPherran's favor. Exhausted by its emotional ordeal, Mr. McPherran's team was defeated in the final round by a team captained by fat, easygoing, oldtime Expert Harry B. Raffel.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.