Refusing to play the winning card in the first and second rounds of a suit—commonly called holding up—is, in fact, a species of underplay. For example:—1. Trumps are led by the player to your left; the third player wins with the ace, and returns the suit through your hand. If you are left with king and one or more small ones, you should play a small one, unless the circumstances of the hand are such that you deem it advantageous to stop the trump lead. The original trump leader, not knowing but that the king is in your partner's hand, will probably finesse, and your partner thus has a chance of making the third best trump, even though unguarded. If your partner has neither second nor third best trump, no harm is done, as you will then probably make but one trick in the suit, however you play. 2. Again, ten tricks are played, and each player is left with three cards of a suit not opened. If the second player puts on the queen (from which it may be inferred that he holds the king also), the third hand should not cover with the ace. For, by winning the trick, he must lead up to king guarded; but, by passing it, he leaves the lead with the second player, and takes the best chance of making two tricks. 3. One more example will suffice: A has the last trump, and ace, ten, and three small cards of a suit not led. The adversary now leads the king, and follows with the queen of that suit. A should pass them both; by so doing he will probably make three tricks in the suit if the cards are equally divided.
DISCARDING.
When you cannot follow suit, you should
11. DISCARD FROM YOUR WEAKEST SUIT.
You weaken a suit by discarding from it, and lessen the number of long cards you might otherwise establish and bring in (i.e., make tricks with if trumps are out, and you obtain the lead after the establishment of your suit). On the other hand, you do but little harm by throwing from a suit in which you are already weak. Your partner should understand that your first or original discard is from your weakest suit, just as he understands that your original lead is from your strongest suit.
But, as in the case of leads, you are sometimes obliged to lead from a weak suit, or to make a forced lead, so sometimes you have to make a forced discard. Forced discards require much more careful consideration than they generally receive.
It is clear that if the opponents declare great strength in trumps (by leading trumps or asking for them, as will be fully explained in Section 13), that your chance of bringing in a suit is practically nil. You should therefore, in such cases, abandon the tactics you would otherwise adopt, and play to guard your weaker suits, by discarding from your best protected suit, which is generally your longest suit. You must, in fact, play a defensive game.
If this system of discarding is comprehended by the two players who are partners, it follows, as a matter of course, that when trumps are not declared against you, your partner will assume you are weak in the suit you first discard; but, when trumps are declared against you, he will give you credit for strength in the suit from which you originally throw away. This is most important, as it affects his subsequent leads. In the first case, he will refrain from leading the suit from which you have discarded; in the second, he will, unless he has a very strong suit of his own, select for his lead the suit in which you have shown strength by your discard.
It is commonly said, "Discard from your strong suit when the adversary leads or calls for trumps." But this is a very imperfect and misleading aphorism. If you have no indications from the play, and are obliged to discard to an adverse trump lead or call, you should discard from your best protected suit. But, if you have, or if the fall of the cards shows that your partner has, sufficient strength in trumps to outlast the adversary, the discard should be from the weak suit. Thus: Y, second player, calls for trumps (see p. [125]), and B, third player, also calls. The discards of A and Z should be from their weak suits. For though, on the one hand, great strength in trumps is declared against them, on the other hand great strength is also declared with them. Again: Z deals and turns up nine of clubs. A (the original leader) leads a small club; Y follows suit; B puts on ace; Z plays king. This shows that Z has a sequence of queen, knave, ten, nine of trumps; and therefore that, though A has led a trump, he has anything but the command of the suit. B returns the trump; Z wins; Y has no more trumps. His discard should be from his weakest suit. The following case is less easy:—The adversary (A) leads a tierce major in trumps, eleven trumps come out, and your partner (Y) must have knave of trumps to save the game. You now credit your partner with the command of trumps, though the adversary has led them; and if either you (Y) or your partner (Z) has to discard, the discard should be from the weakest suit (see Hand XII.) Similar remarks apply if a strengthening trump is led by an adversary from weak trumps and good cards in plain suits.