Schleifer was born in Brooklyn, New York City, one of five children born to Jewish emigrant parents Jacob Schleifer and Anna Frankel, born in Romania or the Russian Empire.[4][5] He was a strong chess player as a teenager. He contracted tuberculosis as a law student at Columbia University, whence he quit school and moved to Denver for his health. He moved to Los Angeles a few years later, and won two Southern California Chess Championships before he switched to bridge. For most of his life, he earned a living at the bridge table, primarily by playing rubber bridge for money stakes at clubs.[3] According to Eddie Kantar, who judged him "America's greatest bridge player" in 1972, Schleifer did have many clients at duplicate bridge, or tournament play, and could have become rich if he had not been a heavy loser betting on the horse races.[3]
