Meyer Schleifer (February 9, 1908 – June 15, 1994) was an American bridge player from Los Angeles, California.
Schleifer was born in Brooklyn, New York City, one of five children born to Jewish emigrant parents Jacob Schleifer and Anna Frankel, born in Romania or the Russian Empire. He was a strong chess player as a teenager. He contracted tuberculosis as a law student at Columbia University, whence he quit school and moved to Denver for his health. He moved to Los Angeles a few years later, and won two Southern California Chess Championships before he switched to bridge. For most of his life, he earned a living at the bridge table, primarily by playing rubber bridge for money stakes at clubs. According to Eddie Kantar, who judged him "America's greatest bridge player" in 1972, Schleifer did have many clients at duplicate bridge, or tournament play, and could have become rich if he had not been a heavy loser betting on the horse races.
Schleifer was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2000.
Bridge accomplishments
Honors
ACBL Hall of Fame, 2000
Wins
North American Bridge Championships (6) von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs (1) 1966 Hilliard Mixed Pairs (1) 1947 Barclay Trophy (1) 1947 Mitchell Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1957 Reisinger (1) 1959 Spingold (1) 1953
Runners-up
North American Bridge Championships
References
Further reading
"Is this man America's greatest bridge player?", Eddie Kantar, Popular Bridge, December 1972.
External links
– with photo portrait (WorldCat thumbnail image) of 6-man team, Los Angeles Bridge Club, 1960