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The Precision Bidders. In its terrific sales, Contract Bridge Complete brought the Goren system to expert and beginner alike, placed Charles Goren on the same shaky pedestal from which he had toppled Culbertson. Writer Goren had to maintain his position at the card table, and he did it with the help of Helen Sobel, his partner for 19 years. Goren calls Sobel, fourth-ranking player in total master points (4,198), "the greatest woman bridge player in history" — and few male experts would dispute that opinion.
Life Master Sobel, 48, whose shapely legs won her a job in the chorus line of a Broadway play in 1926, used to wear dark glasses at tournaments to help create a disarming dumb-blonde impression. Deceptively casual at the bridge table, she hums, giggles, makes unfathomable grimaces. Famed for her wariness of peeking opponents, she holds her cards close to her chest, occasionally reaches across the table to push Goren's cards back.
The bidding system that Goren and Sobel use in tournaments is the Goren system of his books, adjusted to the actual deal by hard thinking. A perfect example of Goren-Sobel precision bidding, at a U.S.-Ireland team match in Dublin last year:
NORTH (Sobel) 10 3 A Q J 7 6 3 8 7 2 A 8
WEST EAST 9 7 5 K 8 4 8 5 10 9 4 Q 9 6 5 4 K J 10 3 9 3 2 7 6 4 SOUTH (Goren) A Q J 6 2 K 2 A K Q J 10 5
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST 1 Pass 1 Pass 2 " 3 " 3 " 4 " 4 " 4 NT " 6 " 7 " Pass "
With North holding the trump suit and South the high-card strength, few partnerships would manage to arrive at a grand slam on this deal. The Irish partners playing the identical hands at the other table stopped at six hearts. With two biddable suits and rosy game prospects, Goren opened one club to give Sobel a chance to reply at the one level in case she held a weak hand. His second-round jump, displaying a good spade suit and extra high-card strength, committed the partnership to game, so Sobel could afford to say three hearts (rather than jump to four), permitting inexpensive exploration for slam possibilities. Goren signaled that his spades were rebiddable. Sobel's four clubs showed the ace, hinted that she was thinking of slam if Goren held enough power. Goren then displayed support for hearts, and Sobel put in a Blackwood call for aces.
Goren saw that with Sobel's club ace, the texture of his own club suit gave the combined hands extra strength that Blackwood signaling could not indicate. So instead of giving the five-heart response to show two aces, he jumped to six clubs. To Sobel, the Goren message was clear: I have the missing aces and the king of hearts, but I also have solid honors in clubs, so go ahead and bid seven if you've got the hearts. She went ahead and bid seven. With Goren's club tricks available for discarding two diamonds and a spade, taking all the tricks was a cinch.
Goren's six club bid was unorthodox but brilliant. It was just the sort of bid a bridge player can make with a partner like Helen Sobel—if the player himself happens to be Charles Goren, king of the aces.