Bridge

Martin Hoffman is a true bridge genius. A Holocaust survivor, he is nearing ninety but his wonderful flair remains undimmed. On our featured deal, it seems incredible that he turned two diamond losers and two trump losers into three, but he did.

Dealer North North-south Vulnerable West led ♣ 2 and Hoffman won ♣ Q. The simple line is to bang down ♥ AK, preparing to concede one heart and two diamonds should hearts split 3-2. Reading clubs to be 4-4 – assuming West’s ♣ 2 to be his fourth highest – Hoffman felt safe to delay drawing trumps for a while. He cashed ♣ AK, discarding two diamonds then trumped ♣ 3 with ♥ 3. He now decided to delay trumps a while longer, testing spades, knowing that he could always revert to cashing ♥ AK if spades appeared to be breaking poorly.

Our hero cashed ♠ A, crossed to ♠ K, cashed ♠ Q discarding a third diamond, and, judging West to have the fourth spade, led dummy’s ♠ 4. East discarded and Hoffman ruffed with ♥ 4. He then led ♦ 2.

West won ♦ K and was left with just his four trumps. He exited with ♥ Q but Hoffman ran it to his ♥ K and led his remaining diamond. West ruffed with ♥ 2 then had to lead from ♥ J9. Declarer ran ♥ 9 to his ♥ 10 and won the last trick with dummy’s ♥ A, beating West’s ♥ J. Game made – Houdini stuff. ANDREW ROBSON