BridgeHands

Moysian Fit - Referring to declarer's 4-3 trump split named after Alphonse Moyse Jr., who (in certain situations) strongly advocated opening 4 card majors and raises with 3 card support.

Playing a 4-3 Moysian  trump fit is often challenging since one opponent often has as many (64%) or more trump (16%) than the declarer.  The declarer's dilemma is how many rounds of trump to play - playing more than 1 round of trump usually commits the declarer to a given line of play, hoping opponents' trump split relatively evenly.  The two primary strategies when playing a Moysian fit are:

Control playing strategy - hands easier to identify losers, maintaining overall control; holding the Ace of trump may be imperative to control the timing of trump removal (adjusting the number of trump rounds to play based on real-time data).  As expected, the control strategy is usually best at game and slam levels.

Scramble trick-taking strategy - hands easier to identify winners (quick tricks) including pitching losers on Dummy and cross-ruffing, strategies often used in part score contracts.

While these strategies are often sound, here's a notable exception:

	5 4 3 A J 10 A 3 2 A K J 3 2
	Contract: 4H Declarer: South
	2 K Q 3 2 8 7 6 5 4 Q 10

Declarer can win 4 Hearts, 1 Diamond, and up to 5 Clubs.  However, if an opponents' Heart holding breaks 5-1 (15% chance), the contract fails.   While a control approach appears best, consider a safe alternative here: Ruff 2 Spades, win 3 Hearts, 1 Diamond, and 4 Clubs; it's better to try for at least one normal split (4-2 Clubs).

With many 4-3 Moysian fits, it's often wise to explore establishing a side suit in the face of losing trump control - even with hands as shown above.  Obviously, the contract level is a primary factor in determining the ideal strategy.

Generally, the declarer should strive to:

Maintain a stopper (control) in the short suit, sometimes requiring a holdup

Maintaining enough trumps on the longer trump side to avoid losing control of the short suit (opponents' pumping/dinging trump)

Pitching losers (loser on loser) from long trump hand to maintain trump parity with opponents'

Avoid drawing trump without first or second round trump controls

For a detailed discussion, see Bridge World articles February-April, 1967 by Jeff Rubens