[jmc]

Marty Bergen and larry Cohen were an incredibly succesful early partnership. They won the Cavendish in 84 and 89. They won the Blue ribbon Pairs in 83 and 88. They won the Lifemaster Pairs in 83 came in 2nd in 86. 4th in the Bermuda Bowl in 93. They were 2nd in the vanderbilt in 1990. In 85 and 91 they won the Reisinger. They won the Spingold in 84 and were 2nd in 83.

Now, they don't play together, though I have heard they are still good friends. Does anyone know why their partnership disolved? Why did Bergen largely disapear from the tournament scene? Do people see him at regionals etc. in Florida.

Does anyone know why Larry Cohen no longer plays the Cavendish? Info, rumors, and gossip appreciated.

jmc

[jdonn]

Lol, "where is Marty Bergen" gets posted here about once or twice a year. I wonder myself where Elvis is.

[whereagles]

I sometimes see Bergen in ACBL bulletins. He seems to be playing clients these days. I also heard bridge isn't his only activity.

Cohen is more active, and plays top guys regularly.

[pbleighton]

I read on rgb a while back that Cohen has said that the main reason they split is that Bergen was constantly coming up with new conventions he wanted to play, and that Cohen wanted to play a simple (by expert standards) bidding systems.

Peter

[glen]

jmc, on May 9 2007, 02:56 PM, said:

Does anyone know why Larry Cohen no longer plays the Cavendish?

Larry Cohen (Florida one, not Vegas) has said, when doing the commentary for previous Cavendish, that he considers the IMP pairs format somewhat of a lottery, and that he dislikes this format.

Edit: on May 12, Larry just said "got frustrated by the huge luck/randomness element."

[Winstonm]

I know neither personally, but from what I read here is the scoop. Bergen disliked the limitations placed on his weak two bids by the ACBL; Cohen was driven crazy by Bergen's constant tinkering and adjustment to system. The solution was a good-natured disolution of the partnership. Bergen is now free to pursue bridge-religion freedom while Cohen doesn't have to try to remember a new sequence every other day.

[Winstonm]

When Ms. Rand gets around to writing her sequel, Atlas Passed, the opening line will be: Who is Marty Bergen?

[glen]

Winstonm, on May 9 2007, 08:29 PM, said:

Who is Mary Bergen?

Mary? -> now there's a big system change -> the Switch idea was more than I knew

btw all my ex-partners who had to put up with a zillion system changes (let alone new systems) now get to look at the web site and say "thank goodness I don't have to play that silly bunch of stuff!" (goodness, silly, and stuff are subs for real words)

[Winstonm]

Quote

Mary? -> now there's a big system change -> the Switch idea was more than I knew

Yeah, well, there was this other minor point of contention....Marty/Mary is the guest next week on the New What's My Secret.

Corrected - thx for pointing out boo boo.

[pclayton]

officeglen, on May 9 2007, 05:33 PM, said:

Winstonm, on May 9 2007, 08:29 PM, said:

Who is Mary Bergen?

Mary? -> now there's a big system change -> the Switch idea was more than I knew

btw all my ex-partners who had to put up with a zillion system changes (let alone new systems) now get to look at the web site and say "thank goodness I don't have to play that silly bunch of stuff!" (goodness, silly, and stuff are subs for real words)

Mary will enter the Women's pairs with Paula.

My prediction is about 10% of the posters will understand this comment.

[Tola18]

pbleighton, on May 9 2007, 07:18 PM, said:

I read on rgb a while back that Cohen has said that the main reason they split is that Bergen was constantly coming up with new conventions he wanted to play, and that Cohen wanted to play a simple (by expert standards) bidding systems.

Peter

yes, quite. I did read somewhere a lenghy great article by Cohen about partnership. And there he explicitly explains this. His old partner Bergen loves complicated inventions. His new partner Berkowitz plays it simple. Him somewhere in between. But he DID choosed Berkowitz uncomplicated system, still being good friend with Bergen...

[the hog]

pclayton, on May 10 2007, 11:51 PM, said:

officeglen, on May 9 2007, 05:33 PM, said:

Winstonm, on May 9 2007, 08:29 PM, said:

Who is Mary Bergen?

Mary? -> now there's a big system change -> the Switch idea was more than I knew

btw all my ex-partners who had to put up with a zillion system changes (let alone new systems) now get to look at the web site and say "thank goodness I don't have to play that silly bunch of stuff!" (goodness, silly, and stuff are subs for real words)

Mary will enter the Women's pairs with Paula.

My prediction is about 10% of the posters will understand this comment.

Seeing that no one else has bitten - there was a BW article about Soloway waking up after a sex change operation. (S)he ended up playing with Jill Blanchard due to being shunned by the male expert community.