Dear Dr. Robert:

You’re partnering Gee. He goes down in an ice cold game contract. After the hand he accuses you of overbidding. What’s the best reply?

–Angry in Angola

Dear Angie,

Apologize. You are clearly misanalyzing the hand, because if it were ice cold an expert would never go down. Therefore you must have overbid to put him there. I recommend the following books to correct your bidding deficiencies, in order of increasing importance: Develop Your Bidding Judgement, by Terrence Reese, Points Shmoints, by Marty Bergen and of course Bridge Is a Conversation, by Gerard Cohen. These groundbreaking works will help you form winning bidding fundamentals, and sharpen your decision making so you don’t embarrass Gee like that again. Remember, just because you’ve seen Gerard make a bid doesn’t mean that you can do it too, at least not until you develop his table presence and feel.