ACES ON BRIDGE

“The greatest weakness of all weaknesses is to fear too much to appear weak.”

— Jacques-Benigne Bossuet One of the defense’s best tools against a Moysian (4-3) fit is the ruff-and-sluff, the goal being to weaken declarer’s trump holding.

Michael Whibley and Matthew Brown found just such a defense in today’s deal, nominated for an IBPA award, on their way to winning the Gold Coast Congress Teams in Australia.

Nick Jacob opened a weak no-trump as South. If his partner, Michael Ware, had raised to three no-trump, Jacob might have made it, perhaps being able to slip a diamond past West early in the play, but the Stayman route made it clear that North-South lacked a club stopper, so the Moysian fit was preferred.

Brown led a club, and Whibley played three rounds of the suit, hoping to create control problems for declarer. Jacob discarded a diamond from hand and ruffed in the dummy. He needed a diamond trick, so he continued with a diamond to the king. Brown won and played another club, continuing the good work to ensure defeat of the contract. If declarer ruffed in dummy, West would score a trump trick by force. If declarer ruffed in his hand, he would lose trump control.

Had East shifted at trick three, declarer could have succeeded by drawing two rounds of trumps and then playing on diamonds to deny East a third-round ruff. He would have had to do something similar on a non-club lead, which might not be so obvious since that line would fail against a 3-3 trump split. However, this does not detract from the quality of the defense found.

ANSWER: It is acceptable to bid one notrump here (especially when the minor can be short). It is certainly more attractive to overcall one no-trump with a shaky holding in an opponent’s minor than in a major. Even so, doubling to get both majors into play seems like a more sensible approach to me. After the double, you get to find out more about the opponents’ hands as well as your partner’s.