Alfred Sheinwold
and Eddie Kantar at ACBL Hall-of-Fame
induction in Philadelphia
February 29, 1996
All About Eddie Kantar
Member of the Bridge Hall of Fame
National & World Champion
Teacher, Writer
Eddie Kantar's bridge wisdom combined with his wit makes reading his popular books
a learning experience (at any level) as well as a true pleasure.
He is one of the best known bridge writers in the world. He has written some 25
bridge books, some available in CD-Rom form, and is also a regular contributor to
the ACBL Bulletin, Bridge World, Bridge Today, and OKbridge.
A two-time World Champion, Eddie is highly regarded as a player, and he competes regularly
on the National level. He is known as one of bridge's great ambassadors.
Eddie learned to play bridge at 11 and by the time he was 17 he was teaching
professionally — and still is! He often took his bridge books to junior
and senior high school, hiding them beneath his textbooks. One of his instructors
was so impressed with his "study" habits that he mentioned it in class, causing
Eddie to sweat bullets fearing the teacher would come a little closer and see "Reese
on Play" superimposed over the history book he was supposed to be studying.
At the high school level many of the girls who had boyfriends in college found out that Eddie played
bridge and begged him to teach them the game. He did, with high hopes in mind, but the minute they
thought they knew how to play, he never heard from them again. At the University of Minnesota
where he studied foreign languages (now he can enjoy bridge books written in French and Italian), he
taught bridge and sold football souvenirs to pay his tuition.
As a player Eddie gained stature by winning two World Championships, a dozen National
Championships, and countless Regional and Sectional titles. His North American
titles include the Spingold and Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, the Reisinger Board-a-Match
Teams and the Grand National Teams. Eddie is a Grand Master in the World Bridge Federation
rankings and an ACBL Grand Life Master with more than 10,000 master points.
Today Eddie is best known as a writer and many of his books are considered classics. Some
of his books have been translated into eight languages, including Bridge for Dummies,
which has been translated into two languages thus far. He has won the American Bridge
Teacher's Association award for Best Book of the Year 4 times.
Eddie does his writing in California, lectures on bridge cruises, and takes groups
twice a year for one week all inclusive bridge holidays to beautiful hotels on the
Mexican Riviera. He also teaches occasionally in the Los Angeles area as well
as lectures several times a year in various resort areas in the U.S. and Canada.
When not writing about bridge, Eddie can be found at Venice Beach playing paddle tennis,
an offshoot of tennis, a sport in which he has also garnered several trophies. Since
many of the paddle tennis players are also bridge players, often a bridge game is
formed there as well!
By the way, Eddie is the only person ever to have played in a World Bridge Championship
and
a World Table Tennis Championship. (He had more success in the Bridge World Championship). Eddie
was inducted into the Bridge Hall of Fame in 1996, the same year he was inducted into the Minnesota
State Table Tennis Hall of Fame.
ACBL Hall of Fame
interview with bridge great, Eddie Kantar
