Who was Ely Culbertson? Did he deserve the idolising veneration our parents and grandparents had for him? These are the questions Jules van Ogtrop tries to answer in this four-part series about the famous American bridge player and bridge promotor. Van Ogtrop bases his account on the records of the 300-deal match played by Culbertson and his wife Josephine, and their respective partners Theodore Lightner and Michael Gottlieb, against a strong British team in 1933.

The declarer play and defense of Culbertson c.s. were of an acceptable level, though never brilliant. Squeezes were extremely rare, and usually the result of a defensive error, and were often overlooked by Culbertson, as analysis was not his strong point.
 

W/both	A K  8 7  10 6  Q J 10 2  J 9 8			Josephine (North) led the Q against Morris' 2NT, and she was allowed to hold the trick. Next came four spade tricks and Morris elected to blank his A. Now, Josephine switched to a small diamond which, perforce, was won with the ace, as Gottlieb sacrificed his king. Morris, who had discarded two clubs from dummy while retaining the diamonds, now ran his hearts causing Josephine to get squeezed in the minors. This she could have prevented by leading J, allowing Gottlieb te keep the K, the diamond guard. Culbertson hadn't noticed this, or at least, he offered no comment.
10 9 2  A Q J 9  A 5 3  A 10 3		Q 5  K 8 7  9 8 4  K 8 6 4 2
-	J 6 4 3  5 4 3 2  K 7 6  Q 7

W/both	J  A Q 10 3 2  9 5 4  Q 9 7 3			WEST    Culbertson  -Pass    2    Pass	NORTH  Beasley  Pass  Pass  Pass	EAST  Lightner  1  2	SOUTH  Mathieson  Pass  Pass
8 7 4  8 7 4  A K 8 7 6 3  5		A K Q 9 6 3  9 6 3  -  A J 6 2
-	10 5 2  K J  Q J 10 2  K 10 8 4

Culbertson's own declarer play left something to be desired:
 

S/both	J 4 2  10  Q J 10 8 4 3  Q 6 2			Following a 1-opening by Domville (South), Culbertson (West) had ended up in 4, although 4 would have been easier. Domville cashed his top clubs and switched to his singleton diamond. Culbertson cashed the A and noticed the 10 drop, which should have put him on the right track. He next established dummy spades by ruffing once, and played the K. Despite his name, Domville proved not to be that 'dumb' after all, because he refused to ruff. [In Dutch, 'dom' = stupid, dumb - ed.]
10 6  A K 9 4 2  A K 7 2  8 3		A K 9 8 5 3  Q 7 6  9 6  7 5
-	Q 7  J 8 5 3  5  A K J 10 9 4

Can you imagine that, at the time, the grapevine whispers said that Josephine was a better player than her husband? The following deals do not confirm this view, however.
 

E/neither	8  K 10 8 7 6 4  A 9 8 7 5 2  -			WEST    Morris  -    Pass    Pass    Pass    Double    Pass	NORTH  Josephine  -  2  3  5  Redouble	EAST  Tabbush  Pass  Pass  Pass  Pass  Pass	SOUTH  Gottlieb  1  3  4NT  5  Pass
K 6 4 3  Q J 9 2  K 3  6 4 3		9 7 5  -  Q J 10 6 4  A 10 9 7 2
-	A Q J 10 2  A 5 3  -  K Q J 8 5

E/neither	-  A K Q J 10 7 5  A J 8 7 6  8			Josephine (North) and Gottlieb had reached 6 against Morris (West) and Tabbush, who led the Q. Josephine ducked and ruffed the J continuation. The only thing we know is that she, like Beasley at the other table, went one down, while Culbertson didn't consider it important to explain how that could have happened. Perhaps she tried to ruff a diamond, even though that couldn't be the percentage line. It's much better to run the hearts, putting the opponents under great pressure. That leaves dummy with AK, K4 and K. Then over to the K, and on the lead of the second high spade West has to blank his Q as he has to keep the A. If East had started with Q-doubleton, that too would have become apparent.
7 4 3  9 2  Q 10 9 5  A 9 6 5		Q 9 5 2  8 3  3 2  Q J 10 4 3
-	A K J 10 8 6  6 4  K 4  K 7 2

Our conclusion must be that a moderately talented comtemporary pair would not perform below the level of the champions of those days as far as declarer play and defense are concerned. It would have wiped the floor with Culbertson c.s. in the bidding, even after disregarding the effects of pre-emptive action, which was a rarity then. It would have been satisfying if, in doing so, they could have taken revenge for the inferiority complex Culbertson has given our ancestors.*

You may wonder to what extent he has developed further after 1933. His distaste for notrump openings lessened somewhat, but for the rest he remained quite rigid. Even as late as the fifties, he didn't use Stayman, and he considered Blackwood inferior because it only asked, and did not promise anything.

Nevertheless, he deserves our great admiration, despite his being knocked off his pedestal in this series. His promotional talents have resulted in increasing the world-wide popularity of  tournament bridge, on a scale that has never been matched by anyone else. Without his activities, the status of bridge might not have grown beyond that of canasta. Which is why he deserves our eternal gratitude.

*For example: 'Variable card evaluation requires mental processes of such complexity, that further study was necessary in order to find a simple and clear method of exposition of this subject, which, even to the expert, remains a mystery that takes places in his subconcious mind.'
'There can be no doubt that variable card evaluation is the most important principle ever discovered in bridge.'
'Until now, and only after years of trial and error, some (relatively few) experts have succeeded in clearly stating the train of processes that take place in their minds.'
'Variable card evaluation is the quintessence - one might say the philosophy - of bridge for every expert.'
What did the maestro mean by 'variable card evaluation'? Nothing more or less than, when evaluating one's hand during the auction, one has to take into account how well (or badly) the two hand of the partnership fit.
 
Biographical sketch

Ely Culbertson was born in 1891 in Romania, the son of a Russian mother, and American father who worked as mining engineer in the Caucasian oilfields. The family returned to the United States after his highschool days, but his academic career didn't flourish, neither at home (Yale, Cornell), nor abroad (Sorbonne, and political science at the university of Geneva) . Nevertheless, he had become quite erudite through self-education, particularly in linguistics: he was fluent in Russian, English, French, German, Czech, Spanish and Italian. In addition, he could read Slavonic, Polish, Swedish and Danish/Norwegian, and also the classical languages Greek and Latin. After the eastern European family possessions were lost as a result of the 1917 Russian revolution, Culbertson made his living playing cards, at first in Paris and other European cities, and later in the U.S., following his return in 1921. Two years later he married Josephine Murphy, one of the best known New York bridge teachers, and with whom he formed a successful (auction-)bridge partnership.

With the advent of present-day bridge - from 1926 - the Culbertsons gradually managed to overshadow the established authorities (Work, Whitehead, Lenz, etc.) through their articles, lessons, lectures, bridge magazine (The Bridge World, 1929), syndicated newspaper columns, and above all, the 'Culbertson system' through his books (Blue Book, 1930; Red Book, 1933; Gold Book, 1936), which attained the status of 'bridge-bibles'. Famous, too, were the matches between his team against those of his compatriots (Lenz, 1931-32; Sims, 1935) or the English (1933 and 1934), all of which were won by the Culbertson team. Showman Culbertson made sure these events received the greatest possible amount of publicity, not in the last place as a result of his extravagant  lifestyle (five residences, a private brand of cigarettes - at seven dollars a pack, a substantial daily wage in those days -, invariably caviar with his tea, and special trips to Italy for the purpose of purchasing neckties), and eccentric behaviour towards opponents. In the match against Sims, after Culbertson had thought for 15 minutes as declarer, Sims finally asked in exasperation: "What the devil are you thinking about, professor?" Culbertson's reply:  "I'm trying to determine whether I will be going two or three down."

His system left a lot to be desired by today's standards - which also says a lot about the methods of his opponents - but his contributions to the game of bridge are very substantial, nonetheless: bonuses for games and partscores, the effect of distribution on hand evaluation, the limited notrump bid, the concept one-over-one forcing, bidding a four-card suit, the strong two, the ace-showing 4NT, asking bids, grand slam force, the jump bid and principle of new-suit-forcing (which he later rejected again). He also devised the vulnerability markings on the duplicate board.

In 1938, as the war was approaching, he lost interest in bridge and devoted his energies to promoting world peace. Culbertson and Josephine (who was eight years younger than her husband) had two children, Joyce and Bruce (affectionally nicknamed Jump Bid). They divorced in 1937 but maintained their business relationship. He died in 1955 of a combination of a cold and emphysema (probably related to his cigarettes). Josephine died a year later, of a stroke.