THE DISCARD AGAINST A DECLARED TRUMP
The great majority of Bridge players use the strength discard against a trump declaration, and there is little doubt that this is sound. It is imperative that you protect honours in the weaker suits, for rarely will your long suit be brought in against the dealer.
The claim made by those who use the weak discard against a trump make is that it permits them to throw away a short suit, and thus eventually to establish a “ruff.” When a player is discarding from strength, this “ruff” can be obtained with equal facility by the proper use of the reverse discard.
Without a doubt the weak discard should be used on a spade declaration that has been doubled either by you or your partner. In this case, trump strength is probably with you, not against you. The same argument cannot be used, however, on a doubled heart, diamond, or club, whereas spades may have been declared from weakness, the other declarations indicate trump strength.
THE DISCARD AT “NO-TRUMP”
The writer has placed himself on record as being in favour of the strength discard, and since doing so has seen nothing that would tend to change his views on this subject.
A theory of good play may be so unfortunately worded as to convey a mistaken impression, and it is amusing to hear the various methods of discarding discussed by players of little experience; not long since, a hand was published to illustrate the loss of one trick by discarding strength, when an ace is first lost by bad play, and the discard so palpably wrong as to insult the partner’s intelligence.
To those who have not taken the time to analyse hands thoroughly, the discard of a card that may possibly make, naturally seems the waste of a trick; but consider how seldom a suit, not led originally, is brought in against a “no-trump” make; remember that you do not expect to win on the adversary’s make, but only hope to minimise your loss, and that often in trying to save all the cards of your long suit, honours in the weaker suits are unguarded which, if properly protected, would have won tricks.
An objection that is raised to discarding from weakness at “no-trumps” is that one discard does not positively show your strong suit. In many hands, to be sure, your partner can obtain the information from the cards in dummy, but at times, when one suit has been led and another discarded, your partner is left in doubt as to the suit to lead, and a wrong guess may result in serious loss.
Again, the discard from weakness may betray your partner’s hand, by giving information that will enable the dealer to finesse successfully. The dealer is more likely to have strength in your weak, than in your strong suit.