Joe was born in 1999 in Essex. His parents’ first date was a rubber bridge session; on their first board they bid 6 clubs and made 7. Although neither one of them ever played bridge competitively, they showed Joe the basics of the game at age 10 and he quickly formed an extremely unnatural level of attachment to the game, something that continues to this day.
He taught himself bidding by reading Charles Goren’s Bridge Complete (The “New” 5 card majors edition) and cardplay from a book by Flint and North at an age when he should have been making friends.