Steve Weinstein (born 1964) is an American professional bridge and poker player. He is known best as the youngest winner of the ACBL Life Master Pairs at the time that he achieved it, and the most frequent winner of the Cavendish Invitational Pairs, the world's leading contest for cash prizes. , the World Bridge Federation shows Weinstein at number 22 in the Open World Grand Masters rankings. His highest ranking was 16th, in October 2011.
Life Weinstein was born in New York state in 1964. In 1981, at the age of 17, he became the youngest winner of any North American Bridge Championship, the ACBL's annual Life Master Pairs, playing with his stepfather Fred Stewart.
Weinstein and Liz Davis have been together since 1986, married since 1993. They live in Andes, New York.
Weinstein worked on Wall Street until 2002 when he became a full-time professional bridge and poker player. He played poker as 'Thorladen' and mentored others. "I take top young bridge players and I train them to be top poker players", he told Online Poker in 2007. One of them was Gavin Wolpert; in 2010 Wolpert and another player created Bridge Winners, an online news and networking site for bridge players, which Weinstein immediately joined.
Bridge career Ten years after the Life Master Pairs championship, Stewart–Weinstein were one-third of a team (USA2) that represented the U.S. in the world championship for national teams, the 1991 Bermuda Bowl, where they reached the quarterfinal. They won the Cavendish Pairs in 1993 and again in 1996.
Weinstein's regular partner for more than a decade is Bobby Levin, who may still be known best as the youngest winner of a world teams championship, the 1981 Bermuda Bowl. When forming their partnership, they spent a week with Marty Bergen in Florida to put together their system.
Levin–Weinstein have won the Cavendish Pairs five times from 1999. In the WBF World Championships Open Pairs they finished 11th in 2002, second in 2006, and first in 2010.
They were one-third of USA1 in the 2011 Bermuda Bowl, where they finished fourth."USBF Trials Bracket Posted". Bridge Winners. May 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-11. Beginning mid-2012 they joined Nick Nickell's team. The professional teams hired by Nickell had won four of the preceding nine biennial Bermuda Bowls, from 1995. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
Bridge accomplishments
Awards ACBL King of Bridge, 1982 ACBL Player of the Year, 1995
Wins World Bridge Championships (2)
Rosenblum Cup 2022 World Open Pairs 2010
European Open Bridge Championships (1) Mixed Teams (1) 2003
Other notable wins: Pan American Open Teams (1) 1992 Sunday Times–Macallan Invitational Pairs (1) 1993
North American Bridge Championships Vanderbilt (4) 2009, 2011, 2014, 2017 Reisinger (1) 1984 Open Board-a-Match Teams (2) 1995, 2006 Jacoby Open Swiss Teams (3) 1992, 2005, 2006 Roth Open Swiss Teams (1) 2010 Blue Ribbon Pairs (1) 1987, 2013 Life Master Pairs (2) 1981, 2001 Open Pairs II (1) 1995 IMP Pairs (1) 2003 Norman Kay Platinum Pairs (1) 2018 United States Bridge Championships Open Team Trials (3) 2010, 2014, 2017 Other notable wins: Buffett Cup (2) 2006, 2010 Cavendish Invitational Teams (3) 1999, 2005, 2008 Cavendish Invitational Pairs (7) 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2010
Runners-up
World Open Pairs (1) 2006 North American Bridge Championships (12) Vanderbilt (4) 2000, 2010, 2018, 2019 Grand National Teams (1) 1991 Open Swiss Teams (1) 2008 Blue Ribbon Pairs (3) 1994, 2000, 2004 Life Master Open Pairs (1) 2002 Open Pairs II (1) 1999 Von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs (1) 2022 Other notable 2nd places: Cavendish Invitational Teams (3) 2000, 2006, 2009 Cavendish Invitational Pairs (3) 1986, 1998, 2011
Notes
References
External links
Card Player profile Hendon Mob profile WPT profile