The natural: Bobby Levin now at a high point in his life
NABC Orlando 98 Daily Bulletin n° 10 Page 7 The way Bobby Levin sees it, providence made him a bridge player, and he may be right. Consider some of the evidence. As a boy of 12, he found himself in Southampton on Long Island one summer with weather so bad he couldn’t go outside. His mother was interested in bridge and bought him a book. They started learning together. “It was like nature made me learn bridge,” Levin says. At the age of 13, he won the first tournament event he ever entered -- the Men’s Pairs in a tough field at a New York sectional. Ten years later, he became the youngest player ever to win a world championship -- the 1981 Bermuda Bowl. “He is just a natural,” says Jeff Wolfson, with whom Levin won the Life Master Open Pairs at the 1994 Summer NABC in San Diego. At 41, Levin is at a high point in his life. He and wife Jill -- “the woman of my dreams” -- will celebrate their first wedding anniversary in January. A recently formed partnership with Steve Weinstein has rekindled Levin’s hunger to be the best, and he feels content in the bosom of a host of family members who live nearby in the Orlando area. Now somewhat of a philosopher, Levin says he can appreciate the good times so much because he can remember the low points, “and I’ve had lots of them.” There have been 1-IMP losses in major events, a grand slam disaster in the world championships in Chile and the time in the Bermuda Bowl he went down in a cold slam that he could have claimed at trick one. Not long ago, Levin felt like sharing some of those character-building moments with a fellow player. At a regional in Daytona, one of Levin’s opponents failed to take the setting trick against him, costing the opponent the event, which Levin won. “He turned white,” Levin recalls, “and it looked as if he wanted to kill himself.” Levin knew just how he felt, so after the game, Levin took the fellow to the hotel bar and bought him a drink. “I told him about some of the things that I’ve been through,” Levin says. “He hugged me after we talked because it made him feel better.” Levin’s mother, Sheila Kleeman, remembers when her son -- she calls him Robert -- took an interest in bridge. “He was most curious,” she remembers, “and very aggressive about my teaching him what I had learned. He was relentless.” It wasn’t long after Levin learned the rudiments that he and his mother were going to a bridge club in New York frequented by Abe Goldstein, well known in New York bridge circles at the time. Goldstein quickly noticed Levin’s potential and took the youngster under his wing. One day, Goldstein confided that for 20 years he had been playing in a sectional event named after him. All his partners were experts and Goldstein was at or near the bottom each year. With a twinkle in his eye, Goldstein told Levin, “Maybe if I play with an idiot like you I’ll do better.” “Better” turned out to be first place. “It was like God was watching me,” Levin recalls. “I played incredibly well for a bad player.” For two years after that, Levin won nothing and played miserably. Still, the victory in his first tournament was enough to get him hooked. Levin recalls that the allure of bridge in those early days was the process of going from Long Island into New York to play and meeting lots of different people. Then again, he recalls, “the more I did it the more I enjoyed the competitive aspects of bridge.” Hungry for bridge knowledge, Levin would go home after each session and study the hands. Luckily, Levin remembers, “I had a talent to see what happened and learn from my mistakes. I did see the light at times.” Despite his enthusiasm, Levin never harbored a thought of great achievements in bridge, such as world

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