The Adventures of Poor Frank, Part CXVI: Poor Frank’s Jest

The Adventures of Poor Frank, Part CXVI: Poor Frank’s Jest

By Ray Adams

frankandarchie@yahoo.com

Poor Frank was smarting from recent Lucky Archie victories when the following hand came up:

East opened one heart and Poor Frank was in a playful mood. He knew he was not strong enough

to overcall two clubs, but felt he could make a disruptive one level overcall of a spade. It was simply a jest on his part. Indeed, he even chuckled to himself as he flopped the one spade card on the table. His laugh soon turned to a grimace when his partner quickly put him in the spade game. Poor Frank felt like throwing up when he saw the dummy. He was playing in a 4-3 fit instead of the vastly superior 6-3 club fit. How had he ever duplicated the bad bidding of players like Lucky Archie?

West led the ace of hearts, ruffed by Poor Frank. He led a club to the ace and ruffed another heart. Next came a club to the king, ruffed by East. East exited a heart, and Poor Frank trumped with his ten. He then cashed his king of spades, felling East’s queen.

When declarer led another club, Lucky Archie ruffed and Poor Frank unblocked dummy’s queen. The Lucky One exited with a diamond, but Poor Frank was now in control. He won dummy’s ace, cashed the two top spades, sluffing his losing diamonds and claimed, winning the last three tricks with his high clubs.

Making 450 on this hand beat all other scores. Most pairs had gotten 150 or 400 for some number of clubs. As the local bridge buffs lined up to congratulate him, Poor Frank realized that his jest had worked and for once, he was enjoying the last laugh.