The Adventures of Poor Frank, Part XLV: Janet Fools Lucky Archie
By Ray Adams
frankandarchie@yahoo.com
Janet was quite excited the other night at the local duplicate club when she ran up to Poor Frank after the game to tell him the story behind the following hand:
“I was playing a six diamond contract, Frank darling,” Janet said as she drew a diagram of the North/South hands on a paper napkin. “My left hand opponent – who just happened to be Lucky Archie – led the queen of clubs. I won my ace and what do you think I did next?”
“I’ll bet you stripped the hand and led a trump. Lucky Archie won his singleton ace and had to lead a spade or give you a ruff and a sluff. That’s how I would have played it,” Poor Frank said.
“You would have gone down, sweetheart,” Janet said, smiling sweetly. “On this hand, Lucky Archie held ace doubleton in diamonds.”
“So how did you play it?”
“I led the jack of diamonds at trick two, looking like a lady taking the diamond finesse. Lucky Archie fell for it! He thought I was searching for the queen and he ducked. Now I stripped the hand. I led a club to the king and ruffed a club. I cashed the king and ace of hearts and trumped a heart in dummy. Then I ruffed dummy’s last club. When I led a trump, Lucky Archie had to win his ace and the rest is history.”
Poor Frank loved seeing Janet so excited and happy. The joy she took in small bridge triumphs had filled his life with a delight he had never known before.
“Yes, I see it,” Frank said. “Archie had to lead a spade or a heart and either way you had your twelfth trick. Well done!”
“Thanks, sweetie,” Janet said. “You would have loved hearing what East had to say to Lucky Archie about his defense.
The two of them had a nice laugh as Janet described this scene.
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