Oswald Jacoby

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Oswald (Ozzie, Jake) Jacoby /ˈdʒækəbi/ (December 8, 1902 – June 27, 1984)[1] was an American contract bridge player and author, considered one of the greatest bridge players of all time. He also excelled at, and wrote about, other games including backgammon, gin rummy, and poker.

Born in Brooklyn, he was taught to play whist at the age of six and played his first bridge at ten.[1] During World War I, he joined the army at 15 by lying about his age but spent most of his time there playing poker. Dropping out of Columbia University as a math major[1] to become an actuary, he became the youngest person ever to pass the examination of the Society of Actuaries at the age of 21. Having an exceptional aptitude for mathematics, Jacoby could multiply three and four digit numbers in his head without benefit of paper.[2] During World War II and the Korean War, he applied these abilities to counterintelligence and cryptanalysis being referred to as a human computer;[1] later, he lectured on probability at M.I.T. and wrote books on mathematics. However, his passion, his lifelong focus, was games, especially bridge.

Bridge career

By the end of the twenties, Jacoby had achieved fame as a player at both auction and contract bridge, further gaining international recognition when chosen by Sidney Lenz to be his partner in the famous Culbertson Match of 1931. During the match, Jacoby's more aggressive bidding style confused Lenz and after Lenz' criticism over a defensive play, Jacoby withdrew. Terence Reese wrote "That the Culbertsons did not win more easily...was due to the fact that Jacoby was a player of quite different class from any of the others".[3] Jacoby subsequently solidified his position as the most successful tournament player in the thirties[1] as a member of the famous "Four Horsemen" from 1931 to 1933 and the "Four Aces", from 1933 to 1941, dominating tournament play.[4]

He pionereed many bidding ideas, including the Jacoby transfer and Jacoby 2NT bids. Throughout his career, he also worked as a bridge columnist; a prolific writer, he wrote over 10,000 newspaper articles on bridge, and his many books include not only bridge but volumes on poker, gin rummy, canasta, and the mathematics of card games and gambling, which he played at high stakes.[2] He also released a record titled How to Win at Championship Bridge.

Jacoby captained the North American and US teams that won the Bermuda Bowl in both 1970 and 1971. During a long playing career, he won tournaments with many partners including his son, James Jacoby, as well as his wife of over 50 years, Mary Zita Jacoby. Terminally ill,[1] his final victory was as a member of the team-of four champions for the Reisinger trophy with teammates Edgar Kaplan, Norman Kay, Bill Root and Richard Pavlicek at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championships (NABC) in 1983 - the same year, he was awarded the prestigious Charles H. Goren Award. He died at his Dallas home June 27, 1984.

Bridge accomplishments

Honors

  • ACBL Hall of Fame 1965
  • ACBL Honorary Member of the Year 1967
  • Honorary World Bridge Federation Grand Master

Awards

  • Charles H. Goren Award for Personality of the Year by the International Bridge Press Association, 1983
  • McKenney Trophy 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963
  • Herman Trophy 1960

Wins

Runners-up

Other games

A poker player and author on the subject, Jacoby was convicted of a gambling charge in 1944 while in the navy but acquitted of a charge of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.[5] Although he did not pursue a career in competitive chess and did not write on the game, he was nevertheless a strong player. When in college, Jacoby beat US chess champion Frank Marshall, and in 1963, in a rapid-transit game, he played a draw with Tigran Petrosian, the then world champion.[1]

Jacoby was also an expert backgammon player, and in 1972 he was crowned World Backgammon Champion. In 1970, he wrote The Backgammon Book with John R. Crawford, which is considered the first book to deal with backgammon from an analytical viewpoint. The Jacoby Rule, which states that gammons and backgammons count only after the cube has been turned, is named after him.[6]

Publications

Bridge

  • Famous hands of the Culbertson-Lenz match, 1932
  • Watson on the play of the hand at contract bridge, 1934. Foreword by Oswald Jacoby.
  • The four aces system of contract bridge, 1935
  • Five-suit bridge, 1938
  • What's new in bridge, 1954
  • Hear how to play winning bridge, 1960
  • The complete book of duplicate bridge, 1965
  • Win at bridge with Jacoby & son, 1966
  • Jacoby transfer bids, 1981
  • Major suit raises, 1981
  • Improve Your Bridge With Oswald Jacoby: 125 Bridge Hands from the Master, 1983, ISBN 0-07-032238-4
  • Win at bridge with Oswald Jacoby : America's winningest bridge champion, 1963
  • Win at bridge with Jacoby modern, 1973

Poker

  • Poker, 1940
  • Oswald Jacoby on Poker ... Revised edition, 1948
  • Winning poker, 1949
  • Oswald Jacoby on Poker, 1981, ISBN 978-0-385-17590-6

Backgammom

  • The Backgammon Book (with John R. Crawford), 1970, ISBN 670-14409-6

Rummy

  • Laws of Oklahoma, 1946
  • Oswald Jacoby on Oklahoma, the wild, wild rummy game, 1948
  • How to Win at Gin Rummy, 1978
  • Oswald Jacoby on Gin Rummy, etc., 1947

Canasta

  • Oswald Jacoby's Complete Canasta, 1950
  • How to win at canasta, 1951

Other card games

  • The book of card game rules and strategies, 1989
  • The fireside book of cards, 1957
  • Oswald Jacoby on Gambling, 1963,
  • New Recreations with Magic Squares (with William H. Benson), 1976
  • Jacoby on card games, 1986
  • Magic cubes : new recreations, 1981

Mathematics

  • Intriguing Mathematical Problems (with William H. Benson), 1996
  • How to figure the odds', 1947
  • Mathematics for pleasure, 1962

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Jacoby, James (1987). Jacoby on Bridge. New York: Pharos Books. pp. Preface. ISBN 0-88687-305-3. LCCN 87-60160. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wolff, Bobby (2008). The Lone Wolff. Toronto: Master Point Press. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-1-897106-37-2. 
  3. ↑ Reese, Terence, The bridge battle of the century. British Bridge World, August 1963, pages 38-43. The rest of the match was described in subsequent issues.
  4. ↑ Francis, Henry G., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Francis, Dorthy A., Editor, Sixth Edition (2001). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (6th ed.). Memphis, TN: American Contract Bridge League. p. 165. ISBN 0-943855-44-6. OCLC 49606900. 
  5. ↑ Jacoby's Court Martial - The Trial by Myron L. Gordon
  6. ↑ The "Jacoby Rule"

External links

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