WHY
.....
WHY
.....
WHY
..... 

DO I

ALWAYS

FALL

FOUL

OF

SMART-

ARSED

DECLARERS ?

( Another tale of woe from Howard Bigot-Johnson )

This bloody game is causing me to develop a persecution complex big time. Why just the other day when I needed just a semi-decent score on the last very board to win the trophy of my dreams , I ended up with a rank bottom........courtesy of a declarer , who relied on his brilliance  , or unbelievable luck , to stumble upon the only way of bringing home the very popular 5D contract.

Looking at the full deal above , it seems that  most declarers will come to 3 losers ( 2H and 1C). After the queen of clubs opening lead , many of them obviously pinned their hopes on a 3-3 break in spades, ruffing the 3rd round ready to lob away two losers from clubs and/or hearts. But the 4-2 spade break scuppered their plans , inviting them to turn their attention to hearts.....hoping of course the Ace was with East. SInce there was no joy there... the score sheet was littered with 4D tick , or 5D-1.
However , at my table declarer took the opening club with dummy's Ace. Next , he played one cautious round of trumps , before playing the Ace/king of spades . At trick 5 a low spade was played from dummy, but then the bad break came to light. Ruffing with the jack he returned to dummy with a trump.  Now came the 4th spade on which declarer made the key play ( or hapless guess ) of discarding a club from hand . 
This meant I had been  well and truly end played with only hearts left in my hand. Forced to take the Ace of hearts , declarer had no difficulty whatsoever in wrapping up 11 winners, just losing the one spade and one heart .
So I ask myself....why is it that I get constantly thwarted, or should I say pulled up , just as I'm about to cross the finishing line ? Am I cursed ...or is it that God just doesn't like me ? Either way , coming second is like coming last....you're in amongst the losers , also-rans and wasters. And I don't like it one bit......