Table Stakes

Estes Kefauver, onetime TV terror of gamblers, last week blandly weighed the odds, liked them, and plunked down the biggest bet of his 1956 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Unlimbering his molasses monotone, the Tennessee Senator announced that he will tackle Adlai Stevenson in the March 20 Minnesota primary, a race that Minnesota's Democratic Party leaders had handicapped solidly for Adlai.

Kefauver, whose decision climaxed a triumphant threeday, 800-mile stump of Wisconsin, figured he had everything to gain and Stevenson everything to lose. A Stevenson defeat, with nearly every top Minnesota Democrat backing him, could be his Waterloo. Even a fairly strong showing by Estes would tarnish Adlai's luster.

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