Bridge - The Scotsman 11/08/2012

Saturday’s puzzle...

The Moysian 4-3 trump fit was named after the great US player Alphonse “Sonny” Moyse. Most players prefer an eight-card trump fit, but there are times when 3NT has five fast losers, and the four of a major is the only possible game. How is your Moysian technique?

West’s 1H was forcing for one round, so East had to rebid something. She chose to show her limited support for partner’s major rather than rebid her five-card minor. West thought his hearts were good enough to jump to game, but dummy’s support was rather disappointing. North led the three of diamonds, third highest of partner’s suit. South won the queen and shifted to the queen of spades. How would you plan the play?

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You have five club tricks, two spades and the ace-king-queen of trumps, ten tricks in all. However, the contract is in danger if trumps follow the odds and break 4-2. If you play three rounds of trumps all will be well if hearts break 3-3, but not so well if a defender with four trumps can ruff the third club; in that case he will cash two more diamonds for one down. How about conceding a second diamond, planning to ruff your third diamond in dummy? The defenders can counter that by playing a second spade to establish a spade to cash instead of a diamond.

Can you think of anything else?

You want to draw all the trumps so that you can cash your club winners, but you need to keep a trump in dummy to take care of your third diamond. No problem really, you can retain trump control by ducking an early round. Play ace of hearts, then a low heart. If they play diamonds, ruff the third round in dummy and cross to the jack of clubs to draw the remaining trumps. If they continue spades you can simply draw trumps and cash your clubs.

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