Import 9F35 Main
Deceptive Shift
by Charles Goren and Omar SharifImport 9F35 Main |
| by Charles Goren and Omar Sharif |
The semifinal of the Spingold Team Championship, played last month in Salt Lake City, saw one of the most remarkable comebacks in bridge history. A team captained by Jim Mahaffey overcame a deficit of 65 IMPs in the final quarter to defeat a team of East Coast internationalists.
The following deal helped the East Coast squad build their early lead. At one table they played a comfortable four-spade contract and made an overtrick when the defense did not find a heart lead. At the other table the Mahaffey squad reached three notrump on the auction shown. North’s two hearts was a transfer to spades, and three clubs showed a distributional, game-going hand, possibly with slam interest. South held the wrong hand and signed off in three notrump.
| South deals |  K Q J 8 7 | West | North | East | South | |
| Both vul |  8 6 | 1 NT | ||||
 2 | Pass | 2 1 | Pass | 2
| ||
 K 10 8 5 3 | Pass | 3 | Pass | 3 NT | ||
| 10 9 4 |  | A 5 2 | Pass | Pass | Pass | |
| Q 5 4 2 | K 10 7 3
| |||||
| J 10 7 3 | A 9 6 | 1. Jacoby transfer | ||||
| J 7 | 9 4 2
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| 6 3
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| A J 9
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| Lead: 3 | K Q 8 5 4
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| 3 NT South | A Q 6 | |||||
West led his fourth-best diamond and East, Richard Pavlicek of Fort Lauderdale, won the ace. From the lead, Pavlicek knew that declarer started with five diamonds. Therefore, the best hope for the defense lay in the heart suit, and a shift was urgent.
Most defenders would shift to a low heart; declarer would insert the nine (better to hope East has the ten than both king-queen) losing to West’s queen, and the spade ace would be the only other trick for the defense. Pavlicek, however, shifted to the king of hearts!
Not surprisingly, declarer assumed Pavlicek was leading from a king-queen combination and ducked. He expected to win the jack on the continuation, but West won and returned the suit to force out the ace. Altogether the defense collected three hearts and two aces for down one.
Note that declarer should have won the first heart (if West held the spade ace there is no problem) but as the cards lie would face the same guess when East won the spade ace — and we think he would have gone wrong!
| Import 9F35 Main | | Top Deceptive Shift |
© 1988 Charles Goren and Omar Sharif