Oswald "Ozzie", "Jake" Jacoby (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 and a key innovator in the game, having helped popularize widely used bidding moves such as Jacoby transfers.
[6] Having an exceptional aptitude for mathematics, Jacoby could multiply three and four digit numbers in his head without benefit of paper.
Years later the analyst 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".
[full citation needed] Jacoby captained the North American and US teams that won the Bermuda Bowl in both 1970 and 1971.
Terminally ill,[1] his final tournament victory came in a major event at the ACBL North American Bridge Championships late in 1983, as a member of the team-of four champions for the Reisinger trophy with Edgar Kaplan, Norman Kay, Bill Root and Richard Pavlicek.
[10] Jacoby, Lenz, and Milton Work were named to its hall of fame by The Bridge World in 1965, which brought the number of members to six.
The Jacoby Rule, which states that in money play gammons and backgammons count only after the cube has been turned, is named after him.