Word: counted
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...midweek the Reds made their first serious effort to counter the new system, sent four fast torpedo boats out to intercept a pair of Nationalist LSTs. Before the Communist craft could reach their prey, Nationalist Sabre jets flashed down with cannon roaring and, by Taipei's count, sank three of the four. Angrily, the Communists hurled two waves of 16 MIGs apiece out to punish the Sabres. In the swirling dogfights that followed, four Nationalist pilots knocked down at least five MIGs, sent the rest hightailing home. The kills brought the Nationalist total to 17 MIGs in three weeks...
...small remaining doubt about whether Culbertson was the U.S.'s No. 1 bridge authority. He and his system reigned supreme from 1932 until the late 1940s, when he was pushed off the throne by a new man with a new system. The man: Charles Goren. His system: point-count bidding...
...Point Count. By the early 1930s, having switched to contract along with everybody else, Goren ghosted for ex-Mentor Milton Work's syndicated column. Work got about $20,000 a year out of the column, paid Goren $35 a week-a disparity that Goren still resents. A talented and proud writer with a flair for gently whimsical humor, Goren vividly recalls that Boss Work would invariably "edit out the brightness...
...already known as a highly successful tournament player, Goren published his first book, Winning Bridge Made Easy. In it he prophetically deviated from the Culbertson system. For suit bids, Goren stuck pretty much to Culbertson's elaborate "honor trick" count, but for no-trump bidding he adopted Milton Work's method of evaluating a hand with a point count: four points for an ace, three for a king, two for a queen, one for a jack. Entranced by the point count's simplicity, Goren devoted numberless hours to expanding the idea into a general bidding method...
Beyond its tremendous advantage of simplicity, the Goren method was more reliable than Culbertson's. Ely's honor-trick count tended to undervalue kings, queens and jacks, overvalue the ace and the A-K combination. By bringing high-card valuation more into line with play-of-the-cards realities, Goren saved bridge players countless set contracts, especially at no trump. Another virtue of Goren's method was that it supplied a practical way of taking distribution into account: on suit bids (but not on no-trump) it adds one point for a doubleton, two for a singleton...