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Great post Peter, and thank you for your kindness.
Paul Soloway
#22
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 2,351
- Joined: 2006-March-21
- Location:North Carolina
Posted 2007-November-20, 06:01
This was in my inbox this morning, I thought I would pass it along:
Published: Saturday, November 17, 2007
Mill Creek man won renown as 'Babe Ruth of Bridge'
Paul Soloway was so good, people paid to play with him
By Kaitlin Manry, Herald Writer
MILL CREEK -- Paul Soloway was cremated with a deck of world championship bridge cards in his right hand.
His ashes will eternally rest in two of his coveted Vanderbilt bridge trophies.
Considered the best bridge player in North America for nearly two decades, Soloway lived a fairly anonymous life in a pleasant Mill Creek cul-de-sac. In the bridge world, however, he was a giant -- known to everyone and admired by many.
"You could call him the Babe Ruth of bridge," said Brent Manley, editor of the Bridge Bulletin. "Babe Ruth had the home run record for a long, long time and he was kind of a larger than life character. Paul was the same way. Everyone knew his face. He won so many things."
Since 1991, Soloway had been the top-ranked bridge player in North America by the American Contract Bridge League. When he died in Seattle on Nov. 5, he had 65,511.92 masterpoints, the system used to rank players. He was more than 6,000 points ahead of the second placed player. Many players spend their whole lives trying to rack up the 300 points needed to be considered a "life master."
Soloway, 66, won five Bermuda Bowl world-team titles, the Olympics of bridge. He played with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and traveled around the world playing the game he loved professionally. Soloway was so good, people paid him to play with them.
Bridge was Soloway's oxygen, according to his wife of 30 years, Pam Pruitt.
"If he couldn't play bridge, he didn't want to live," she said tearfully. "It was everything. It doesn't mean that I wasn't important, but I was secondary."
In recent years, as his health deteriorated from diabetes, heart problems and related illnesses, Soloway played through pain. He began competing to win his fourth world championship 28 days after undergoing open heart surgery. In order to play in a national tournament in Cincinnati while undergoing treatment for a serious infection, every day he checked himself in and out of a nearby hospital.
"Paul would spend two-thirds of the day in the hospital and a third of the day at the bridge table," said his longtime partner Bob Hamman of Dallas . "We just glued him back together and sent him into battle. That's the way he was. He was a guy who only knew one way to play and that was all out."
Soloway spent his final month in a Seattle hospital, dealing with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which is a drug-resistant staph infection; kidney trouble; and, eventually, a heart attack. Doctors amputated both his feet and a finger and stuck a tube down his throat to help him eat, but Soloway expected to get better and be back at the bridge table soon. His last phone call was to Hamman to let him know that he planned to play at a national tournament in November with their team. Since he couldn't keep his body upright, he planned to play in a wheelchair with straps holding him to the chair, Pruitt said.
Propped up in a hospital bed, he played bridge on a laptop computer. Too weak to press the keys, Soloway directed his wife to push them for him. Toward the end, as he drifted in and out of consciousness, he mumbled about bridge.
Throughout his illnesses, bridge was what kept him going, said Pruitt, 55, a stock trader and former Mill Creek mayor. For the last year and a half, as he flew around the world playing bridge, she went with him. At night, she'd connect him to a portable dialysis machine and help him through his medical regimen.
Regardless of how poorly he felt, when it was time to play, he'd get on his red scooter and lose himself in the game.
"He was like a fish being released into water," Pruitt said. "He was back in his world."
Soloway grew up in Beverly Hills and learned bridge from his parents. While studying business at San Fernando Valley State College, he frequently skipped class to play bridge. After six months at a "real job," he quit and traveled the country playing bridge, hustling in bowling alleys and betting on sports games, Pruitt said.
In 1962, he joined the American Contract Bridge League. Fascinated by the numbers and puzzles of the game, he quickly earned his first masterpoints. For the rest of his life, he carried the card noting those first points in his wallet. He'd sometimes show it to beginners to inspire them and prove that everyone starts on the bottom.
"The No. 1 thing that distinguished him from a lot of people who were really great was that he was very approachable and very much a regular guy -- as opposed to how isolated some of the great players were," said Bill Hagen of Seattle, who played with Soloway in the '80s. "He would respond to a question from a great player or one of the people who approached him at a tournament equally. He was just a good guy."
Soloway met Pruitt at a bridge tournament in Eugene , Ore. , in 1977. They married a short time later and he moved to Mill Creek to join her.
After playing a few times in the shadow of her husband, Pruitt quit bridge, but never stopped admiring her husband's skill and passion for the game.
They never had children, but Soloway loved his dogs, naming several after bridge terms.
In addition to Pruitt, he is survived by his sister Alison Greenberg of Los Angeles . Soloway's family requests that donations in his memory be made to the peritoneal unit of the Northwest Kidney Center in Seattle .
Soloway didn't want a memorial service, but he didn't rule out a celebration of life, Pruitt said. She scheduled the event to coincide with the North American Bridge Championships on Nov. 24 in San Francisco .
"The bridge world has lost something," Manley said. "There just won't be anybody like him. There's never been another Babe Ruth since he quit playing and died. There won't be another Paul Soloway."
Published: Saturday, November 17, 2007
Mill Creek man won renown as 'Babe Ruth of Bridge'
Paul Soloway was so good, people paid to play with him
By Kaitlin Manry, Herald Writer
MILL CREEK -- Paul Soloway was cremated with a deck of world championship bridge cards in his right hand.
His ashes will eternally rest in two of his coveted Vanderbilt bridge trophies.
Considered the best bridge player in North America for nearly two decades, Soloway lived a fairly anonymous life in a pleasant Mill Creek cul-de-sac. In the bridge world, however, he was a giant -- known to everyone and admired by many.
"You could call him the Babe Ruth of bridge," said Brent Manley, editor of the Bridge Bulletin. "Babe Ruth had the home run record for a long, long time and he was kind of a larger than life character. Paul was the same way. Everyone knew his face. He won so many things."
Since 1991, Soloway had been the top-ranked bridge player in North America by the American Contract Bridge League. When he died in Seattle on Nov. 5, he had 65,511.92 masterpoints, the system used to rank players. He was more than 6,000 points ahead of the second placed player. Many players spend their whole lives trying to rack up the 300 points needed to be considered a "life master."
Soloway, 66, won five Bermuda Bowl world-team titles, the Olympics of bridge. He played with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and traveled around the world playing the game he loved professionally. Soloway was so good, people paid him to play with them.
Bridge was Soloway's oxygen, according to his wife of 30 years, Pam Pruitt.
"If he couldn't play bridge, he didn't want to live," she said tearfully. "It was everything. It doesn't mean that I wasn't important, but I was secondary."
In recent years, as his health deteriorated from diabetes, heart problems and related illnesses, Soloway played through pain. He began competing to win his fourth world championship 28 days after undergoing open heart surgery. In order to play in a national tournament in Cincinnati while undergoing treatment for a serious infection, every day he checked himself in and out of a nearby hospital.
"Paul would spend two-thirds of the day in the hospital and a third of the day at the bridge table," said his longtime partner Bob Hamman of Dallas . "We just glued him back together and sent him into battle. That's the way he was. He was a guy who only knew one way to play and that was all out."
Soloway spent his final month in a Seattle hospital, dealing with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which is a drug-resistant staph infection; kidney trouble; and, eventually, a heart attack. Doctors amputated both his feet and a finger and stuck a tube down his throat to help him eat, but Soloway expected to get better and be back at the bridge table soon. His last phone call was to Hamman to let him know that he planned to play at a national tournament in November with their team. Since he couldn't keep his body upright, he planned to play in a wheelchair with straps holding him to the chair, Pruitt said.
Propped up in a hospital bed, he played bridge on a laptop computer. Too weak to press the keys, Soloway directed his wife to push them for him. Toward the end, as he drifted in and out of consciousness, he mumbled about bridge.
Throughout his illnesses, bridge was what kept him going, said Pruitt, 55, a stock trader and former Mill Creek mayor. For the last year and a half, as he flew around the world playing bridge, she went with him. At night, she'd connect him to a portable dialysis machine and help him through his medical regimen.
Regardless of how poorly he felt, when it was time to play, he'd get on his red scooter and lose himself in the game.
"He was like a fish being released into water," Pruitt said. "He was back in his world."
Soloway grew up in Beverly Hills and learned bridge from his parents. While studying business at San Fernando Valley State College, he frequently skipped class to play bridge. After six months at a "real job," he quit and traveled the country playing bridge, hustling in bowling alleys and betting on sports games, Pruitt said.
In 1962, he joined the American Contract Bridge League. Fascinated by the numbers and puzzles of the game, he quickly earned his first masterpoints. For the rest of his life, he carried the card noting those first points in his wallet. He'd sometimes show it to beginners to inspire them and prove that everyone starts on the bottom.
"The No. 1 thing that distinguished him from a lot of people who were really great was that he was very approachable and very much a regular guy -- as opposed to how isolated some of the great players were," said Bill Hagen of Seattle, who played with Soloway in the '80s. "He would respond to a question from a great player or one of the people who approached him at a tournament equally. He was just a good guy."
Soloway met Pruitt at a bridge tournament in Eugene , Ore. , in 1977. They married a short time later and he moved to Mill Creek to join her.
After playing a few times in the shadow of her husband, Pruitt quit bridge, but never stopped admiring her husband's skill and passion for the game.
They never had children, but Soloway loved his dogs, naming several after bridge terms.
In addition to Pruitt, he is survived by his sister Alison Greenberg of Los Angeles . Soloway's family requests that donations in his memory be made to the peritoneal unit of the Northwest Kidney Center in Seattle .
Soloway didn't want a memorial service, but he didn't rule out a celebration of life, Pruitt said. She scheduled the event to coincide with the North American Bridge Championships on Nov. 24 in San Francisco .
"The bridge world has lost something," Manley said. "There just won't be anybody like him. There's never been another Babe Ruth since he quit playing and died. There won't be another Paul Soloway."
Is the word "pass" not in your vocabulary?
So many experts, not enough X cards.
So many experts, not enough X cards.
#23 Guest_Jlall_*
Posted 2007-November-20, 06:18
Wow, great article, his deep love for bridge is really inspiring and really comes through in the article. Pretty amazing.
#24
- Group: Full Members
- Posts: 499
- Joined: 2007-February-03
Posted 2007-November-20, 08:17
bid_em_up, on Nov 20 2007, 07:01 AM, said:
This was in my inbox this morning, I thought I would pass it along:
Published: Saturday, November 17, 2007
Mill Creek man won renown as 'Babe Ruth of Bridge'
Paul Soloway was so good, people paid to play with him
By Kaitlin Manry, Herald Writer
Published: Saturday, November 17, 2007
Mill Creek man won renown as 'Babe Ruth of Bridge'
Paul Soloway was so good, people paid to play with him
By Kaitlin Manry, Herald Writer
I saw the actual newspaper (Everett Herald is a daily paper, but overshadowed by the Seattle dailies).
That story ran on the front page!
You must know the rules well - so that you may break them wisely!
#25
- Group: Members
- Posts: 22
- Joined: 2004-May-18
- Location:center of France
Posted 2007-November-27, 02:47
modestly of mine : a true man, a big player. end of an fantastik epopee (in french sry for my bad english) of Dallas Aces. a big emotion. bye Paul !h!h
#26
- Group: Full Members
- Posts: 272
- Joined: 2003-July-16
- Gender:Male
Posted 2008-January-16, 19:50
The San Francisco NABC - Fall 2007 Daily Bulletin (#4) for November 26 is a tribute issue to Paul Soloway.
http://www.acbl.org/...ent-results.php
http://www.acbl.org/...ent-results.php
Peter . . . . AKQ . . . . K = 3 points = 1 trick
"Of course wishes everybody to win and play as good as possible, but it is a hobby and a game, not war." 42 (BBO Forums)
"If a man speaks in the forest and there are no women around to hear is he still wrong?" anon
"Politics: an inadequate substitute for bridge." John Maynard Keynes
"This is how Europe works, it dithers, it delays, it makes cowardly small steps towards the truth and at some point that which it has admonished as impossible it embraces as inevitable." Athens University economist Yanis Varoufakis
"Krypt3ia @ Craig, dude, don't even get me started on you. You have posted so far two articles that I and others have found patently clueless. So please, step away from the keyboard before you hurt yourself." Comment on infosecisland.com
"Doing is the real hard part" Emma Coats (formerly from Pixar)
"I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again." Oscar Wilde
"Assessment, far more than religion, has become the opiate of the people" Patricia Broadfoot, Uni of Gloucestershire, UK
"Of course wishes everybody to win and play as good as possible, but it is a hobby and a game, not war." 42 (BBO Forums)
"If a man speaks in the forest and there are no women around to hear is he still wrong?" anon
"Politics: an inadequate substitute for bridge." John Maynard Keynes
"This is how Europe works, it dithers, it delays, it makes cowardly small steps towards the truth and at some point that which it has admonished as impossible it embraces as inevitable." Athens University economist Yanis Varoufakis
"Krypt3ia @ Craig, dude, don't even get me started on you. You have posted so far two articles that I and others have found patently clueless. So please, step away from the keyboard before you hurt yourself." Comment on infosecisland.com
"Doing is the real hard part" Emma Coats (formerly from Pixar)
"I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again." Oscar Wilde
"Assessment, far more than religion, has become the opiate of the people" Patricia Broadfoot, Uni of Gloucestershire, UK
#27
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 1,341
- Joined: 2004-July-02
- Location:Millburn, New Jersey
- Interests:Rowing. Wargaming. Military history.
Posted 2008-January-17, 07:01
How do I find it? I clicked on the link and see the ACBL website. But where is this Bulletin?
#28
- Group: Full Members
- Posts: 58
- Joined: 2005-October-18
- Gender:Male
- Location:Finland
Posted 2008-January-17, 07:03