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.

James Holzhauer is a Diamond Life Master. In 2019 he won 32 consecutive games on Jeopardy and recorded the 12 highest single-game scores in the show's history. He has also starred as one of the resident trivia experts on the ABC show The Chase. He lives in Las Vegas.