|
♠A8xx ♥109x ♦10x ♣Q8xx | ||
♠Q10xxxx ♥x ♦AKxxxx ♣ | 4♥ by
South lead: ♦Ace | ♠ ♥Jxx ♦QJxxx ♣KJ109x |
♠KJ9 ♥AKQxxx ♦ ♣A7xx |
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.