Leveling Up

Judith Weiner graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in math and physics. She had the awesome opportunity to work in the original Friendship Seven space program and the development of the first Airline Reservation System. After several decades hiatus to raise her family, she resumed her interest in serious bridge learning and play.

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.

Adam Kaplan is a member of the USA1 Open team that recently won the USBF trials 4-handed and will be representing the US this summer in the Bermuda Bowl. He has won two U26 World Junior Teams Championships, and has numerous additional medals in Juniors. In open events, he won the 2025 Gold Coast Teams, as well as the 2023 Gold Coast Pairs, and the 2024 European Winter Games Final B. He also stars in the documentary Double Dummy (https://doubledummymovie.com/).  
He learned bridge at age 5 and played regularly throughout his teenage years while homeschooled before taking a 5-year hiatus from the game while finishing college at Stanford and starting to work. He returned to the game in Fall 2022, and now plays semi-professionally while maintaining an active career as a trader.

Nabil Edgtton is a member of the Australian national team and regularly attends NABCs. His team was second in last year’s Reisinger. Other impressive finishes include second in the world pairs, second in the world transnationals, and second in the World Bridge Tour final.

Nabil has compiled an amazing document that he calls the Mental Edge. It documents all the research he has done about ways to improve focus and performance. He has been kind enough to share it with all of us. You can access it here.

Marty Fleisher is a world champion and was recently elected to the ACBL Hall of Fame. He was the 2013 ACBL Player of the Year, awarded to the player earning the most platinum masterpoints during the year. He took over 20 years off of bridge at the beginning of his career. Since coming back, he has amassed one of the most impressive records in bridge over the last three decades.

Marguerite Levin is a Boston-area clarinetist who performs as an orchestral and chamber musician. In addition, she has had a distinguished teaching career with former students holding noted teaching and playing positions in U.S. orchestras and military bands. She was Principal Clarinetist with the Baltimore Opera Orchestra for over 10 years, a member of the United States Navy Band/Washington, D.C. and performed extensively with the Wolf Trap Opera Orchestra. Regarding her 2011 Weill Recital Hall concert, a writer for The Clarinet stated: "...technically flawless and performs with profound expression." Dr. Levin received her DMA in performance from the University of Maryland in 2006. She and her husband, David, are avid bridge players and both currently hold a Ruby Life Master status in the American Contract Bridge League.

Brad Moss is a father, a husband, and a world champion. He grew up around bridge champions and developed an early love for the game. He won the Rosenblum Teams with Fred Gitelman in 2010 and the Bermuda Bowl with Joe Grue in 2017.

Samantha Punch is Professor of Sociology at the University of Stirling, UK. She leads the research project - Bridge: A MindSport for All (BAMSA). In the study Bridging Minds Sam interviewed 60 world class and top players from the USA and Europe about the non-technical aspects of the game.

Based on this research, her book Bridge at the Top: Behind the Screens includes interviews with players such as Meckstroth, Rodwell, Hamman, Rosenberg, Grue, Zia, and Levin. The more recent book, The Art of Becoming a Top Bridge Player, covers various topics from the interviews, such as mistakes, emotions, partnership dynamics, pressure, and how to ‘level up.’

Sam won the Lazard Sportsmanship Award for being part of Team Scotland who kick-started a boycott at the European Qualifiers event in 2021. She has played for Scotland every year since 2008, either on the women’s, mixed, and/or open team.

Norman Beck is a gambler. He has worked for Bob Hamman at SCA Promotions for 33 years. Before that, he was a police officer, an insurance adjuster, a security guard, a bartender, a bouncer, a writer, a “psychic,” and a magician. Norman learned bridge in 1977 and was playing duplicate within 2 weeks. He used to hitchhike to tournaments and do a magic show to make money for food. He has played with some of the legends of the game, including Hamman, Meckstroth, Rodwell, Sontag, Goldman, Bramley.

I was introduced to Norman by Ribs LaMothe, who spoke highly of him as a teacher and mentor. After talking with him for a couple of minutes at the NABC in Memphis, I knew he would make for a great interview for the podcast.

I encourage you to watch Norman’s Ted Talk. It’s the best one I’ve seen.

David Weiss is an emeritus psychology professor specializing in judgment and decision making who has published two books and over 70 academic articles. His most recent research is about objectively assessing expertise when there is no scoreboard. David has written extensively about bridge, publishing two books and over 60 articles in The Bridge World.
Good professor that he is, David brought some slides with him, so I encourage you to watch this one rather than listen if you can.