- William S. Root
William S. (Bill) Root (December 12, 1923, Miami,
Florida – March 18, 2002, Boca Raton,Florida ) was a professional American bridge player. He represented the United States twelve times in international competition, including theBermuda Bowl in 1967. He was also the author of several bridge books.The jettison play
One of the most famous hands in his books is a 7 No Trump hand which requires very advanced jettison play. High cards often get in the declarer's way, that is they block the effective play of the hand. A solution to these blocking problems is to throw away high cards. This unblocking coup is known as the "jettison play".
Win the opening lead of SpadesJ with the ace, dropping the king of spades. Cash the queen of spades, and jettison the ace of hearts from hand. Now cash the top hearts in dummy and jettison the top three clubs from hand! You can now run the clubs to discard diamond losers.
Bridge accomplishments
Honors
* ACBL Hall of Fame 1997
Wins
*
North American Bridge Championships (14)
** Vanderbilt (4) 1968, 1983, 1986, 1995
**Spingold (3) 1961, 1966, 1967
** Chicago (now Reisinger) (1) 1957
**Reisinger (5) 1967, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1990
** Men's Pairs (1) 1953Runner-ups
*
Bermuda Bowl (1) 1967
* World Open Team Olympiad (1) 1968
*North American Bridge Championships (9)
**Spingold (3) 1963, 1974, 1978
**Reisinger (1) 1966
**Grand National Teams (1) 1992
** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1963
** North American Men's Swiss Teams (1) 1984
** Life Master Pairs (1) 1995
** Open Pairs (1) 1966
* United States Bridge Championships (4)
** Open Team Trials (3) 1984, 1987, 1992
** Open Pair Trials (1) 1967Bibliography
*"The ABCs of Bridge" (1998)
*"Commonsense Bidding" (1986)
*"How to Defend a Bridge Hand" (1995)
*"How to Play a Bridge Hand" (1990)
*"Modern Bridge Conventions", with Richard Pavlicek (1981)External links
* [http://www.acbl.org/about/hall-of-fame/biography.php?id=59 ACBL Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.worldbridge.org/people/person.asp?qryid=15498 World Bridge Federation profile]
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