ACES ON BRIDGE

“A livelier emerald twinkles into the grass, A purer sapphire melts into the sea.” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson

This performance was nominated for the International Bridge Press Association declarer play award last year. Ireland’s Hugh McGann, representing the Street team, handled the dummy beautifully in an online event, declaring seven spades.

After opening a 14-16 no-trump, Tom Hanlon knew that his hand, with the spade queen and red-suit honors, was pure gold for McGann, so Hanlon raised to the grand slam. Fredrik Nystrom led the diamond three, lowest from odd. At first blush, it seemed to McGann that he would need five red-suit winners to take care of his two losing clubs, so he ducked in dummy, taking the chance that Johan Upmark’s singleton was the king, and won with the jack in hand. After declarer led a spade to the queen, it was a bit of a shock when West discarded a diamond.

McGann led the spade nine next, holding the trick, followed by the club tops, getting a welcome piece of news when the queen dropped. Declarer then cashed the heart ace-king, discarding a club from hand, and ruffed a heart to reduce his trumps to parity with East. All that remained was to reenter dummy with the club jack and lead the 13th club, catching East in a trump coup. If East discarded, so would declarer, and he would only need to ruff the next plain-suit card with the spade 10. If East ruffed the fourth club instead, McGann would overruff and draw trumps, scoring the diamond ace to cross the finish line.

That brilliancy was worth 13 international match points against the six clubs bid and made in the other room.

ANSWER: Bid three diamonds.You could lose a heart fit, but preemptive bidding is about taking calculated risks.The benefit of striking the first blow is greater than the cost of losing hearts, especially since you might be outbid in spades anyway. Vulnerable, I would understand a pass, and in second seat it would be even more understandable.