The hand that stumped Martin Hoffman

Rubber bridge, ca. 1972 – weak opponents, the bidding:
North
♠A8xx
♥109x
♦10x
♣Q8xx
South
♠KJ9
♥AKQxxx
♦–
♣A7xx
South
1♥
4♥
West
1♠
no
North
2♥
no
East
3♣
no
A top diamond was led, and the dummy‘s diamond shortness was a bit of a surprise. What is going on here? One of the opponents had at least six diamonds but bid some other suit instead. Since East apparently had bid a five card suit, I placed him with only (!) five diamonds. Therefore the cards seem to be
North
♠A8xx
♥109x
♦10x
♣Q8xx
West
♠Q10xxxx
♥x
♦AKxxxx
♣–
4♥ by South
lead: ♦Ace
East
♠–
♥Jxx
♦QJxxx
♣KJ109x
South
♠KJ9
♥AKQxxx
♦–
♣A7xx
and the hand is double dummy at trick one.

Frustrating! There must be a way to make it, but after a reasonable amount of thought I hadn‘t seen it so I started pulling cards. I figured I‘d lead out some trumps and grind them into dust. Well, I said they were weak opponents, but they didn‘t have any trouble beating me on this one. Down 1.

Two days later, having run over the hand repeatedly in my mind, finally I saw how to make it. Arriving at the club I espied Martin Hoffman, mentor and dummy player extraordinaire.

"Martin, I‘ve got a hand for you," I said, and scribbled down the hand on a scrap of paper. "Diamond Ace lead. How do you play it?"

"I discard!" Martin replied, slyly, instantaneously, and apparently lightheartedly. "C‘mon," I complained, "they cross-ruff and you are down."

Martin then gave it his serious attention. His brow furrowed and he thought. A second passed, then another, and another. I had never known Martin to hesitate for so long.1 After four seconds he finally spoke:

"I ruff, and lay down the ace of hearts. Who shows out?"

"They both follow."

"Oh well then!" Martin said, and gave the answer that had taken me days to find.

Link to answers



note 1 (added in 2018) Bob Rowland‘s entertaining essay about his bridge career includes a drole anecdote about Martin in the same spirit.
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