Discards and other signals

When you are unable to follow suit and either cannot or will not trump in, you must perforce throw away a card. This is commonly called a discard.

While discards can be used to pass messages, and indeed that is the point of this section, you must above all select a discard that will not damage your hand. If you hold K 8 2, for example, do not discard the 2 simply because it is the smallest card in your hand. If you do so you will limit the flexibility you have in playing your king. This is even more obvious if your holding is just K 2. To throw the 2 here would be ridiculous. Sometimes, an apparently worthless suit must be kept to avoid giving dummy or declarer a cheap trick. If you hold, eg 7 4 3 2 and dummy has A K Q 5, you will save a trick in this suit provided you keep all four cards. It is perhaps less obvious but just as important that even though you cannot see declarer's hand, if she has bid a suit, the same argument above would apply. You must keep all four cards.

Note that it is only the first discard that we have to pay attention to. Any further discards are neutral and pass no message.

So what can we tell partner by our first discard? That we have an interest in a particular suit, usually because we hold an honour in that suit, ideally the ace or the king. This is not a command to partner to lead this suit ; it may or may not be sensible to do so ; it depends on a number of factors. It is merely one piece of information that partner can take on board in sorting out the jigsaw that is your hand.

How do we impart that message? There are a number of discard methods available. Most people swear by their own; some don't bother with any. Some say that declarer will use the information as much as partner. Maybe, but partner is blindfolded and declarer isn't. I'm sure of two things--that you should have a system and that it should have the capacity to pass a neutral or negative message ie you must be able to say 'I have nothing to say'.

I am only going to recommend one system that seems to be prevalent in East Anglia. It is called Dodds and I don't know why---presumably after its originator whose life-history and location are uncertain.

To express an interest in a suit, you discard an 'even' card in that suit ie 2, 4, 6 etc. The discard of an 'odd' card in a suit shows an interest in the other suit of the same colour ie the 3 of hearts would point to diamonds, the 5 of clubs would point to spades etc. This is where the neutral or negative discard comes in. Suppose that hearts are trumps and I discard the 3 of diamonds on the third round of hearts. I'm saying that I have an interest in hearts. Well, that's daft as I don't have any hearts. So what does it mean?  Either I've got nothing to tell you or I can't tell you what I would like to. This is the negative or neutral discard. An example will clarify.

Spades are trumps and you have to discard on the third round.

• The 4 or 6 of hearts would indicate an interest in hearts: true.
• The 5 of hearts would indicate an interest in diamonds: true.
• The 4 or 6 of diamonds would show an interest in diamonds: true.
• The 5 of diamonds would show an interest in hearts: true.
• The 5 or 7 of clubs is saying 'I have an interest in spades' which is effectively saying 'I have nothing to say'. This is not true here since your partner would probably like to know about one of your aces.
• The 6 of clubs would show an interest in clubs: untrue.

You don't normally have as much choice as this! Your preference will depend on the state of play, dummy etc. If you think partner is disinterested or asleep, there is no law against being deceptive in your discard. One of the nicest defences I can remember was when my partner told me he had the king of clubs: strange since I could see it in my hand! But declarer believed him---to his cost.

Occasionally you will find yourself unable to pass the message you wish as you do not have the right card. The weaker your hand, the more likely it is that partner will be misled since she will be scrutinising your first discard very carefully. Don't worry. Most of the time you will find you have a card to pass the message you are looking for.

I've only got one other topic to deal with under the general heading of signalling. Move onto that when you are ready. It's called McKenney.