The Adventures of Poor Frank, Part 9: Poor Frank's Turn to SmileIt was another exciting evening at the local duplicate club. Poor Frank and Lucky Archie were leading as usual, and the winner depended on the very last board.Dealer: South North South West North East Vulnerable: All ♠ KQJ3 1♠ Pass 2NT Pass ♥ AK7 3♠ Pass 4NT Pass ♦ AJ3 5♥ Pass 6♠ All pass. ♣ 862 West (Archie) East ♠ 84 ♠ 5 ♥ QJ1092 ♥ 843 ♦ 987 ♦ Q10654 ♣ K73 ♣ J1095 South (Poor Frank) ♠ A109762 ♥ 65 ♦ K2 ♣ AQ4In the auction, 2NT was a forcing raise in spades, 3♠ showed extra values (a six-card suit and two doubletons), and 5♥ showed two aces without the queen of spades. Lucky Archie led the queen of hearts, taken by dummy's ace. Declarer drew trumps in two rounds, then immediately cashed the king of hearts. Lucky Archie was not paying much attention to this and carelessly threw his two of hearts on this trick. Poor Frank came to hand with the king of diamonds and led a diamond to the ace, ignoring the finesse position. When dummy's jack was covered by East's queen, declarer was glad of his decision. He ruffed this trick, then crossed to one of dummy's high trumps. He led the seven of hearts, covered by East's eight, but Poor Frank had been counting and he knew Lucky Archie had to win this trick.He tossed his small club on this card as Archie triumphantly won his nine, smirking and saying, “You should be more careful, Frank.” But Poor Frank's rival now had to lead into declarer's club tenace or else present him with a ruff and a sluff. Poor Frank soon claimed his small slam, as well as first place in that evening's game. “Archie, you dolt,” East yelled across the table, “If you save your two of hearts and throw the nine, you can let me win the eight. I'll send a club through to beat the contract.” “That's a silly thought,” Archie replied, “A nine's a much better card than a two.” When Poor Frank heard Lucky Archie's logic, he knew it was his turn to smile.
The Adventures of Poor Frank: Fixed Again
Frank Benson was without a doubt one of the best bridge players at his local club. He could execute a double squeeze in his sleep, endplay both opponents at the same time, defend like the top goalie in the NHL. There was nothing wrong with his bidding either. Unfortunately, strange things always happened to him, and he seldom finished first as often as he should have. This had caused him to gain the nickname of “Poor Frank.” His greatest rival, a bridge player of modest – at best – ability was Ian Archibald, known in the club as “Lucky Archie.” The following hand is a good example of how Poor Frank frequently got fixed:
| ♠ KQ ♥ K94 ♦ Q1094 ♣ 8763 | 1♦ Pass 1NT Pass 2♠ Pass 3♦ Pass 3♥ Pass 6♦ All pass. None Vul | ||
| ♠ 108652 ♥ 62 ♦ J ♣ AJ1042 | ♠ 94 ♥ Q753 ♦ 6532 ♣ K95 | ||
| Dealer ♠ AJ73 ♥ AJ108 ♦ AK87 ♣ Q |
Poor Frank reached 6♦ on the sequence shown above on the right. East led the ♣A, then switched to a trump when he saw Poor Frank’s queen fall. Declarer won in hand and led a spade to the queen. He ruffed a club high and returned to dummy via the ♠K. He then ruffed another club high. Poor Frank led his last diamond to dummy and ran trumps, sluffing two hearts while picking up East’s remaining trumps. He cashed the ♥K, then led a heart to his high hand of the ♥A and the ace and jack of spades. The good bidding and nice dummy reversal made it appear that Poor Frank would win that evening’s laurels. Unfortunately, when Lucky Archie was declarer, he lived up to his name.
In a bidding sequence too gruesome to appear in print, Lucky Archie arrived in a 6NT contract when he held the South cards. West led the ♣J, and East, thinking that Archie held the ♣A and ♣Q for his bid, signaled encouragement with the nine. Lucky Archie won his singleton queen. When he later played East for the ♥Q, he came to a total of 13 tricks. This allowed Archie to beat Frank by one point and finish first that evening.
Poor Frank was not consoled by all the local bridge buffs who told him he deserved to finish first. Instead he wondered just exactly what he had to do to beat his rival.