OMG, there's a Buffalo guy on the cover of the latest
issue of the Bridge Bulletin – Joel Wooldridge, smiling and looking good with
his salt and pepper beard. What put him there? He's the 2025 Player of the
Year, second time he's had the honor. He took home 705.87 Platinum Points. When
he won the first time in 2011, he had 666.67.
Joel got 405 of those platinum points by finishing
first in three top-end tournaments. A second in the North American pairs
brought in 75 more. The rest he collected at nine other tournaments.
Joel comes from bridge royalty here in Buffalo. His
father and mother, Powhatan and Jill, were top players locally before they
moved away in 2016. His father, whose mother’s brother was world chess champion
Jose Capablanca, was an associate professor of nursing and a research
methodologist at the University at Buffalo. Joel himself left town sometime in
the 2000s and now lives in New York City. The Bridge Bulletin article includes
three examples of his bidding prowess, but no mention of his hometown.
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