Joel Wooldridge became the ACBL’s youngest life master at age 11; this record has since been shattered and is currently held by Andrew Chen, who made Life Master at 8 years old. Joel was a fixture on the US junior teams, winning the junior world championships three times. He was the King of Bridge—awarded to an outstanding senior in high school—in 1997, which was the year he won his first NABC+ title, the Lebhar IMP Pairs in 1997, playing with Tom Carmichael.
Since then, he has won 12 more NABC+ events, most recently the Platinum Pairs in 2024 with Kent Mignocchi. He also won the Platinum Pairs, the most difficult and prestigious pair event in the ACBL, in 2011, playing with John Hurd.
If you want to hear more from Joel, check him out on the Sorry, Partner podcast.
I’ve included the video here, or you can watch it on YouTube. You can also listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Some of the highlights:
Some of Joel’s favorite books (4:40)
How posture helped him remember the cards (6:45)
Joel’s system notes with partner David Grainger (13:45)
The effects of diet and exercise (16:10)
The biggest mistake intermediates make: counting (20:45)
The type of mistake Joel makes most often (26:00)
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