Discarding

Skillful discarding passes useful information to Partner, preserves your good cards for future tricks, and avoids helping Declarer. Learn a few bridge guidelines that illustrate these plays.

Attitude discards are signals for partner

Discard a low card to tell Partner you have no interest in the suit discarded. Usually this means you have no high honors in the suit. Sometimes you may have a high honor, but you'd prefer that Partner play a different suit.

Discard a high card to say you do have a high honor, or that you'd like Partner to play the suit.

For example, holding ♠AQ962 – discard the ♠9 if you want Partner to lead spades, or the ♠2 if you want Partner to play something else.

example 1

Partner leads a small spade against your opponents' no-trump contract. When you are unable to beat Dummy's ♠T, Partner learns that you have no help in spades (no honors in spades).

Declarer then plays three rounds of clubs, giving you the chance to tell Partner something with a discard.

Which discard says you don't have much to contribute in hearts?

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Which discard says you have something good in diamonds?

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Which discard is better?

Usually the negative attitude card (low card = "no help") is better. On this hand, you want to preserve both your high cards and your four-card length in diamonds (hoping for a future diamond skater). That gives you the best chance of taking extra diamond tricks.

For example, if this is the layout of the diamond suit...

example 2

Two diamond leads from Partner will enable you to finesse twice and take four diamond tricks – three high cards and one skater.

But if you discard the ♦T as a signal, Declarer would have a diamond stopper, the ♦9. You would have only two high card winners, with no skater. That would reduce you to only two diamond tricks. Oops... wrong discard.

Is the negative attitude discard always better? No! High card discards are a stronger message to Partner than low card discards.

So if you can set the contract with only two diamond tricks (more likely at a trump contract than at notrump), the ♦T may be the better discard.

example 3

What would these discards mean?

♠8 ♥3 ♦8 ♣2

Protect your honors

Keep enough spot cards to follow suit when higher honors are played.

♣Q8743 – You will need two spot cards to follow suit when the ♣A and ♣K are played. Your ♣Q may then be a third round winner. So you can discard only two clubs safely.

♥K5 – You have no extra spot cards to discard. You will need your ♥5 to follow suit when the ♥A takes a trick. Your ♥K can then take the second heart trick.

♠AQ42 – The ♠Q is a third round winner, so you will need to keep one spot card to play when the ♠K is played. Only one discard is safe, unless you can see the ♠K in the dummy on your right. In that case, you are guaranteed a winning finesse and you can discard two small spades.

example 4

How many cards can you discard in each suit and still keep your honors protected?

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What about this suit: ♦T642? There are four diamonds higher than your ♦T, and you have only a four card suit. It might seem useless to save your diamond spot cards in a case like this.

But consider what happens if one of the outstanding honors is captured by a higher honor. They both get played on the same trick and your ♦T becomes the fourth round master – provided you don't discard any of your diamonds.

This is a very important bridge concept to learn. In fact, it can be surprising how small a card can be and still need protection by holding spot cards. For example...

example 5

If you discard a heart, you will lose four future heart tricks. The fourth round will be a skater in the dummy.

You can hold Declarer to three heart tricks if you keep all your hearts. Your ♥7 outranks Dummy's ♥6 and prevents the skater.

There is a phrase to help bridge beginners learn this concept...

example 6

This example has the same card layout as the previous example, but the hand on your right has become Declarer, so you won't see it in actual play.

You will have to visualize the possibility of Declarer holding four hearts and realize the importance of holding all your heart spot cards.

This leads us to another bridge guideline, though more difficult to follow in practice because Declarer's hand is closed.

example 7

How many spades can you safely discard?

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How many hearts can you safely discard?

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If this were a notrump contract, and you could get Partner to lead hearts twice, you would have hopes of winning a heart skater as well as your heart honors. In that case, you wouldn't want to discard any hearts at all.

How many diamonds can you safely discard?

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How many clubs can you safely discard?

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Making Choices

Unfortunately, you can rarely keep all of the spot cards you would like to keep. So you may not be able to protect against all possible developments in the play of the hand.

But there are clues that can help you figure out which discards are the best for any given deal.

Let's take another look at example hand 5 and consider various plays that imply different discards. I'll repeat the diagram for convenience...

example 7 repeated

What have we learned about Declarer's distribution?

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What have we learned about the missing high card points?

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Partner's opening lead is the ♦5. You win with your ♦A, and return the ♦9.

Suppose Partner has only four diamonds – all winners. What will you discard on the fourth round?

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To defeat the contract, Partner will have to win another trick and lead hearts a second time. You will allow Dummy's honor to win the first lead. But the second heart lead will trap Dummy's other honor in your ♥A – ♥J finesse.

Now let's look again at the original position, and consider your eventual discard if Declarer wins the second trick when you return the ♦9.

He then leads to Dummy's ♥Q. You like this switch to hearts. One more heart lead and you can take three heart tricks. Without hesitating, you duck, allowing the ♥Q to win. Too bad Partner doesn't know you like what's going on in hearts.

Next, Declarer leads Dummy's ♣Q and takes a finesse, losing to Partner's ♣K. Good! Partner has the lead. Now, if we can just get him to lead hearts...

Partner cashes two more diamonds. What discard will you make on the last diamond?

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Let's try another bridge hand where your discard helps Partner learn what to lead.

example 8

Partner leads the ♣K against a 4♥ contract.

Declarer wins with the ♣A, pulls two rounds of trump, and exits with a club.

Partner takes her club winners and has to decide which king to lead away from. If she guesses wrong, Declarer makes the contract.

But it's NOT a guess. How can you help Partner make the right decision?

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Partner will trust your carding and lead a small diamond, hoping for the best. The diamond lead works well, and the defense wins two clubs, a diamond, and a spade to set the contract.

Don't help declarer

example 9

Declarer doesn't want to lose a trick to the ♣Q. He cashes the ♣K and leads toward the Dummy.

If you have the queen, he should finesse. And if Partner has the queen, he should play the ♣A and the queen will drop. He has a 50-50 guess.

Now suppose you've discarded one of your seemingly worthless clubs. You would then show out on the second round of clubs, and Declarer will make the 100% play of going up with Dummy's ♣A, dropping Partner's ♣Q.

Avoid discards that would tell Declarer how an important suit divides.

example 10

Declarer can finesse in either direction for the missing ♥Q.

If he guesses who holds the ♥Q, he will make four heart tricks.

Now suppose you've discarded a small heart. Declarer knows you wouldn't unguard the ♥Q, so your discard tells him that you don't have it. He'll finesse Partner for it.

Avoid discards that would tell Declarer the location of a missing honor.

The problem with defense...

Little Bear says, "I don't know when to follow one guideline, and when to follow a different one."

Yes, Little Bear, many of our guidelines for discards seem to contradict one another. For example, is it OK to discard from a small doubleton because you have no honors to protect, or do you have to hold those cards to avoid helping Declarer? Can you discard to tell Partner you have no interest in a suit, or must you save that suit to keep parity?

Such decisions about which is more important on the hand you are holding can only be made when you understand each of the questions you are wondering about. I can't tell you what will be most important on the next deal you see, but I hope our discussions have helped you to think about the right issues.

No player gets these decisions right every time, but with experience you'll get them right more and more often.

One final word... Be aware that things change during the play. For example, you might decide you have to keep parity with Dummy, but after a few tricks have been played you realize something else is more important, so you discard that suit. The faster you make these reevaluations, the better your defense will become.

This is the last article in the Bridge Defense folder. If you haven't already read the previous articles in this folder, I recommend doing so now. Otherwise you can move on to Declarer Play or Bidding or the most basic folder, How To Win Tricks.