![]() |
![]() |
Moysian Madness
by Ted Muller

South to make 6
Opening Lead:
9
I discovered this tricky layout while developing a computer program. A number of pitfalls are available to both the offense and the defense.
Declarer wins the opening club lead with the ace as east plays the ten-spot,
then cashes the
A-K. If east keeps a high trump,
then the
K is cashed, discarding a small red card.
A club is ruffed and the
10 is led, covered by east
(although it doesn't matter). South's king wins, the last club is ruffed,
and hearts are finessed again. If east ducks, dummy wins and leads the
10, jack, queen.
If instead east covers the second heart, declarer wins, plays a third heart to dummy,
then leads the
10.
In hand with the
Q, south cashes any heart honor he
may still hold, then throws east in with a trump lead for an endplay in diamonds.
What fun!
Now let's go back. Suppose east discards his trump honors on the first
two leads! That changes everything. Declarer cashes the
A, discarding dummy's
3. East's best play
is to unblock a club honor, in which case declarer must now
lead the
Q!
East grabs the king and can do no better than to return a club.
Dummy ruffs and advances the
10. If that is
ducked, then the
10 is led,
covered and won by south. Declarer cashes the
A and draws the trumps with
dummy's
10. The
long diamond and another heart finesse brings declarer to twelve tricks.
Alternatively, if the
10
is covered, south wins and plays either a diamond or a spade to dummy for the first
heart finesse.
Traps:
2, declarer has fewer losing
options. For example, he can afford to discard from either red suit on
the second high club.Assuming that east unblocks the first club:
Q,
east even has the luxury of playing low! Alternatively, he could grab the
K and return any black
card.If declarer errantly discards a diamond at trick two: