Author Topic: To Moysian or not to Moysian, that is the question...  (Read 3986 times)

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Offline OliverC

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To Moysian or not to Moysian, that is the question...
« on: June 19, 2017, 03:38:50 PM »
I spend a fair amount of time trying to stop you guys from being so afraid of playing in Moysian fits. It's true, however, that they are not always the right answer. Take this hand that Brian Meadows and I played (as EW) today against a decent Precision pair - Matt Smith (sophrosyne) and John Schiffeler (JohnWmS) - who might be interested in switching to OCP.

All Vulnerable, Dealer North (positions changed for ease of reference)
You are South and hold
 !S Q
 !H A1043
 !D K752
 !C A842

Partner opens 1 !D and the bidding proceeds
1 !D - 1 !H
2 !D - 3 !D
3 !H - ??

I think it's clear here that 3 !H is a forward-going move by Partner with only 3-card Hearts. If they had 4-card Hearts, they'd be agreeing Hearts immediately with 2 !H rather than showing the Diamonds (however good they are), so the initial question here is whether you bid 4 !H and accept the probable Moysian fit, or 5 !D and go for the known 9+ card fit.

At the table John bid 4 !H , mistakenly thinking Matt might still have 4-card support, but a strong Diamond suit. Brian led the 10 !C and Dummy went down with

10 !C led

North
 !S J98
 !H K87
 !D AQJ1096
 !C 6

South
 !S Q
 !H A1043
 !D K752
 !C A842

Easy to see that you've missed the best contract of 5 !D , which is absolutely solid, losing just a Spade and a Heart.

How do you plan the play in 4 !H , however? I suspect John panicked a little when he saw only 3-card !H support and proceeded to try to cross-ruff the Black suits, interrupted only by one round of trumps when Brian got in with the A !S . By trick 7, therefore, Declarer had won 6 tricks and still had a Diamond and the Ace of trumps to come, but that was all he could manage (and so was -2).

Cross-ruffing is sometimes the answer, but when you have a long suit you can run, especially a 10-card fit, it's much better to (1) draw trumps and then run your suit, or (2) partially draw trumps and then use your long suit as trumps in order to retain trump control. The absolute last thing you want to do is to start ruffing early before you're in a position to continue.

Option (2) doesn't really work here, because you're going to lose a Spade, 2 Hearts and two Clubs, because if you take 2 rounds of Hearts and then play on Diamonds, Opps will still have 1 Heart left when Dummy runs of Hearts and is no longer to ruff your Club losers. Better on this hand to hope for 3-3 Hearts (or perhaps even !H Hx with West) and to duck a Heart at trick 2, This leaves a small Heart in Dummy to cope with a Club continuation, and you can ruff a second Spade in hand if Opps switch to Spades. Now as the cards lie Opps are powerless, because you can mop up the remaining Hearts and run all of the Diamonds.

The EW cards:
West                   East

 !S A107               !S K65432
 !H Q96                 !H J52
 !D 43                   !D 8
 !C KJ1073           !C Q95


If you have a 10-card fit in a side-suit a cross-ruff is almost always doomed to failure, because, as here, you're inevitably going to run out of things to ruff and by this point you've completely lost any semblance of trump control.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2017, 04:17:04 PM by OliverC »
Oliver

Offline FeaxSA

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Re: To Moysian or not to Moysian, that is the question...
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2017, 05:55:52 PM »
Hi Oliver
here 3 !D is forcing (with Leb route.........) if p has a hand  invitational then 2NT - 3 !C - 3D........ correct ?

Offline OliverC

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Re: To Moysian or not to Moysian, that is the question...
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2017, 09:23:46 PM »
3 !D is not forcing, because over 2 !D we're not in a Lebensohl situation (ie: 2NT is natural and invitational to 3NT, not Lebensohl).
Oliver

Offline lute57

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Re: To Moysian or not to Moysian, that is the question...
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2017, 02:54:39 AM »
Thanks Oliver very instructive. Also thanks on explaining Ash's squeeze question.

Offline FeaxSA

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Re: To Moysian or not to Moysian, that is the question...
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2017, 11:40:32 PM »
Ths Oliver
since 3 !D not forcing then with 11 hcp ........is wised to go forward ? or to stop? ..........more likely to stop...... because  !S!C may be wide open........

Offline OliverC

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Re: To Moysian or not to Moysian, that is the question...
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2017, 12:48:11 AM »
This wasn't bid by a Pair playing OCP, just regular Precision, The point isn't really about the bidding, more about the play if you get to 4 !H.
Oliver