On this deal from the Chicago Nationals I was South and my son Rich was North. When Rich opened 1 , the textbook response with my hand is 1 NT; but I did not like bidding notrump with two small hearts. My hand was too weak for 2 , so I decided to improvise with 1 . Bang, zoom, 4 by Rich — a splinter bid showing a singleton or void in hearts and a strong spade raise — so I was obliged to play it in 4 .
West began with the Q and I concentrated on setting up my club suit. I cashed the A — or so I hoped — and West ruffed. Ouch! Everyone at the table thought I had lost my mind not to draw trumps, but it was necessary to postpone that. The heart return was ruffed in dummy, and I persisted with clubs. When the smoke cleared I made 10 tricks, losing just three club tricks. The club ruff didn’t really cost because West’s fourth trump would come into a trick anyway once dummy is forced to ruff a heart.
The Moysian trump fit (named as a tribute to the late Alphonse Moyse Jr., who wrote extensively in favor of 4-3 trump fits as editor of The Bridge World magazine) turned out to be a great result. Observe that 3 NT is doomed with the obvious heart lead — probably down two when declarer tries the diamond finesse as his only chance. My premonition about those two baby hearts certainly proved right. Or I suppose one could equally well claim we got lucky this time.
© 1998 Richard Pavlicek
by Richard Pavlicek by Richard Pavlicek