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Robert S. (Bobby) Wolff (born October 14, 1932, San Antonio, Texas [1] ) is an American bridge player, writer, and administrator. He is the only person to win world championships in five different categories. He is a graduate of Trinity University. [1]
Wolff was an original member of the Dallas Aces team, which was formed in 1968 to compete against the Italian Blue Team which was dominant at the time. The Aces were successful and won their first world championship in 1970. Wolff has won 11 world championships, over 30 North American championships, and was the president of World Bridge Federation (WBF) 1992–1994, and served as president of American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) 1987. He is the author of a tell-all on bridge chronicling 60 years on the scene, entitled The Lone Wolff, published by Master Point Press. His column, The Aces on Bridge has been appearing daily for over 32 years, is syndicated by United Feature Syndicate in more than 130 newspapers worldwide and is available online two weeks in arrears.
Wolff lived in Dallas at the time of his induction into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 1995. [2]
Oswald "Ozzie", "Jake" Jacoby 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. He also excelled at, and wrote about, other games including backgammon, gin rummy, canasta, and poker. He was from Brooklyn, New York. He was the uncle of activist and author Susan Jacoby.
Robert David "Bob" Hamman is an American professional bridge player, among the greatest players of all time. He is from Dallas, Texas.
Jeffrey John (Jeff) Meckstroth is an American professional contract bridge player. He is a multiple world champion, winning the Bermuda Bowl on USA teams five times. He is one of only ten players who have won the so-called triple crown of bridge: the Bermuda Bowl, the World Open Pairs and the World Team Olympiad. As of May 16, 2016, he was the fifth-ranking World Grand Master. For decades Meckstroth has been in a regular partnership with Eric Rodwell and together, nicknamed "Meckwell", they are one of the most successful bridge partnerships of all time. They are well known for playing an aggressive and very detailed system that derived from Precision Club.
Norman Kay was an American bridge player. He partnered Sidney Silodor until Silodor's death in 1963. With Edgar Kaplan, Kay formed one of the most successful and longest-lasting partnerships in organized bridge. It spanned more than 40 years, and ended with Kaplan's death in 1997. He was from Narberth, Pennsylvania.
Howard Schenken was an American bridge player, writer, and long-time syndicated bridge columnist. He was from New York City. He won three Bermuda Bowl titles, and set several North American records. Most remarkably he won the Life Master Pairs five times, the Spingold twelve, and the Vanderbilt Trophy ten times; the LM Pairs and Vanderbilt records that still stand today.
Kit Woolsey is an American bridge and backgammon player. He was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2005.
William Eisenberg is an American bridge and backgammon professional. In bridge, Eisenberg has won five Bermuda Bowl world team titles and he won the backgammon world title in 1975. Eisenberg is World Bridge Federation (WBF) and American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Grand Life Master. He lived in Boca Raton, Florida, as of 1994 and 1998.
Edwin Bruce (Eddie) Kantar is an American bridge player, winner of two open world championships for national teams, and prolific writer of bridge books and columns. Kantar is from Santa Monica, California.
Larry Neil Cohen is an American bridge player, writer and teacher. He is best known as an advocate for the "Law of Total Tricks" as a guide in the bidding. He has won 25 North American Bridge Championships (NABC) events including the Vanderbilt, two Spingolds, two Reisingers, three Life Master Pairs, and four Blue Ribbon Pairs, and he is a two-time winner of the Cavendish Invitational Pairs cash prize tournament.
Alvin Leon "Al" Roth was an American bridge player, considered one of the greatest of all time, and "the premier bidding theorist of his bridge generation". He wrote several books on the game, and invented various bidding conventions that have become commonplace, including five-card majors, negative doubles, forcing notrump, and the unusual notrump. Roth was considered a fascinating theorist but was described by one partner, Richard "Dick" Freeman, as "very tough to sit opposite—unless you were so thick-skinned that no insult was severe enough to hurt, or you were willing to make extreme sacrifices to get on a winning side."
Robert "Bobby", "Bob" Goldman was an American bridge player, teacher and writer. He won three Bermuda Bowls, Olympiad Mixed Teams 1972, and 20 North American Bridge Championships. He authored books on bridge, most notably Aces Scientific and Winners and Losers at the Bridge Table, and conventions including Kickback, Exclusion Blackwood and Super Gerber (Redwood). He was from Highland Village, Texas.
The Jacoby Open Swiss Teams national bridge championship is held at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC).
William S. Root was an American professional bridge player, teacher, and writer. He was from Boca Raton, Florida.
Paul Soloway was a world champion American bridge player. He won the Bermuda Bowl world team championship five times and won 30 North American Bridge Championships "national"-level events.
Robert J. (Bobby) Levin is an American professional bridge player, from Aventura, Florida. He was the youngest winner of the Bermuda Bowl world championship for national teams from 1981 until 2015, when 19-year old Michal Klukowski of Poland succeeded him. Levin is also a five-time winner of the Cavendish Invitational Pairs, the world's leading contest for cash prizes, with his regular partner Steve Weinstein. As of June 2013, Levin ranks number 20 among Open World Grand Masters and his wife Jill ranks number 21 among Women World Grand Masters.
Marshall Lauren Miles was an American bridge player, teacher and writer.
Alan M. Sontag is an American professional bridge player. He won six world championships, including two Bermuda Bowl wins. Sontag is also known for his book The Bridge Bum, a book "on everybody's list of the top ten bridge books ever written."
Mike Becker was born in 1943 and is an American bridge player and official. Becker is from Boca Raton, Florida. He is a son of B. Jay Becker.
George Nicholas Rapée was an American bridge player. From 1942 to 1980 he was the most successful player in the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) in its three most important teams-of-four tournaments, the Vanderbilt, Spingold, and Reisinger. He played on the American teams that won the first three Bermuda Bowls, 1950 to 1953.
Victor Mitchell was an American bridge player.