[2] Simon dedicated the book to the memory of Richard Lederer, his friend and fellow bridge expert.

"Portrait" (Simon's title for his preface to his book) exemplifies his style of writing: You are the ordinary club player.

[1]: 7  Simon claims to address the latter alone, but that is not entirely true: for example, Chapters II and III include sound technical advice on cardplay.

Chapter XI is concerned with the effect which good and bad runs of cards might have on a professional money bridge player's confidence and skill.

In Chapter XII, Simon brings together, and completes, his quartet of fictional bridge players for: In this, the concluding part of Why You Lose at Bridge, Simon describes and analyses a rubber played by his four fictional players: Mr Smug, the Unlucky Expert, Mrs Guggenheim, and Futile Willie.

Every hand exhibits various kinds and degrees of ineptitude; except that in the final one, the Unlucky Expert skilfully executes a dummy reversal and squeeze once played at the table by Jack Marx.

Simon then rapidly demonstrates how an "ordinary, sound, common-sense player"[1]: 152  would have won a 9-, 12-, 14- or 20-point rubber.

[2]: 1, 44, 86  Their bidding and play are both believable and ineffective; except that the Unlucky Expert does exhibit his card-playing skill, including one brilliancy.

As before, each deal and auction is shown in full, with Simon's comments; followed by a narrative description of the play and its aftermath; and finally a brief analysis of the result.