Fast discards Larry Hammick larry@hammick.com 2002.02.18 Contents ;Basics ;Positional control of the loser suit ;Loser-on-loser to avoid a trump promotion ;Accelerated discard ;Coup d'agonie ;Semi-fast discards ;Fast discard opposite winners ;Basics There can be several reasons to discard a loser in a side suit on a winner in another side suit. If the purpose is to gain ruffing control of the "loser" suit, it is called a "fast discard". KQxx xxx xx xxxx Ax xx KQTx Jxx Jxxx xxxx Qxx KJxx JTxxx Axx AKQ Ax West leads a heart against 4S. Declarer wins and runs three diamonds, throwing a heart, before driving out the trump ace. If he were to attack trumps first, the defence would take the ace and cash two hearts, and would later make a club. In that example the heart discard gave rise to an eventual trick for declarer, in the form of a heart ruff. A fast discard may be necessary even if it does not establish a trick, e.g. when declarer discards from the long trump hand: KQx xxx AKQ Qxxx Ax x KQTx Jxx xxxx xxxx Axx KJxxx JTxxxxx Axx Jx x West leads HK against 4S, establishing 4 top tricks for the defence. But declarer runs 3 diamonds, throwing a club or a heart, and then attacks trumps, getting his ten tricks first. You need to assume that the defender cannot ruff in until (at least) the trick on which you take your _last necessary discard_. KQxx Kx AQTxx xx Axxxx Ax Kx AJxx Against 6S West leads a club to the Q and ace. You begin with a trump to the Q; if both follow, you will pull trumps and work on diamonds, expecting at least 5S+2H+4D+1C. But East shows out on the first round of trumps. You must now hope that West has at least four diamonds, so that you can get rid of all your clubs before he ruffs in. It costs nothing to pull two more trumps first. Now, as you are placing West with four or more diamonds, the odds favour cashing DK and then finessing the T. You are risking two down instead of one down whether you finesse or not. Notice that a 3-3 diamond division is of no use to you. ;Positional control of the loser suit Quite often the defence can take tricks in the loser suit only if a specific opponent can get in to lead it: either the declarer has a positional stopper such as Kx, or a defender is out of the suit. With positional control of the loser suit, declarer may need to be choosy about the development of the winner suit. KQxxx Jxx xxx AQ A9872 AQ AJx Jxx Against 4S West leads a diamond to East's Q and South's A. Declarer has no ready tricks on which to throw a diamond, but he can develop such a trick without letting East in too soon. On the ace of trumps, suppose West shows out. Since he will need entries to dummy's hearts, declarer continues with the 7 of trumps to the Q, and throws the 8 under the K, retaining his deuce. A heart finesse comes next. If it loses, West can do no damage in diamonds. If West leads a club, declarer must go up with the ace, cash HA, reenter dummy in trumps, and throw a diamond on HJ. ;Loser-on-loser to avoid a trump promotion The title of this section is a bit ponderous, but the technique it refers to is a basic one. Qx xxx AKQx Qxxx AT9 x KQT9 Jxx xxx Jxxx Axx KTxxx KJxxxxx Axx xx J West leads a heart against 4S, and declarer runs DAKQ to throw a loser. If he now drives out SA, West will cash one side trick and then put his partner in to lead the last diamond, generating a second trump trick for the defence. After DAKQ, declarer should lead the last diamond himself and discard another loser; that manoeuvre is equally necessary if the defence cashes a club at trick 1 and then attacks hearts. In that deal, the loser-on-loser eliminated the winner suit from all four hands. It may be enough (and still necessary) to eliminate it only from declarer's two hands: Qxxx xxx AKx AQx AT9 x KQT9 Jx xx QJTxxxx xxxx Kxx KJxxx Axx x JTxx Again HK is led against 4S. Declarer wins and runs DAKx, throwing two hearts. East can lead another diamond, but dummy's trump queen is in play and the trump promotion fails. ;Accelerated discard There are many situations in which declarer can afford to lose a trick but cannot afford to lose a tempo in the process. Occasionally that is true in developing a fast discard: Kxxx x xxx KJxxx QTx J KQxx AJxxxx Qxxx JTx xx QTx Axxxx xx AKx Axx Against 4S, West leads HK. East overtakes and shifts to DJ. Declarer wins with the ace and cashes SKA, East showing out on the second round. Suppose declarer takes a club finesse and it loses. The defence will drive out declarer's remaining diamond control, ruff the third round of clubs, and cash a diamond, leaving dummy with two useless club winners. After KA of trumps, declarer should play out CAK, which ensures the contract whenever clubs are 3-2 (or the Q is singleton or East is void). For suppose East wins the third club from Qxx and leads a diamond to South's K. Declarer gets to dummy by ruffing a heart, and cashes a club, throwing his third diamond. The defence may ruff this club, but that is their third and last trick. Why the difference between these two lines? Here is how I think of it: The defence has, or may have, 2 club "stoppers": CQ and their high trump. Declarer needs only one discard on the clubs, which will come on the fourth round. Therefore he should not allow the defence to make both its stoppers on the first three rounds. If, in the above hand, declarer's clubs were KJxxx ATx so that he could finesse in either direction, it would still be better to start with AK and another. Here is another, somewhat different, "accelerated discard": ATxx Axx xx KJxx KQxxx xxx AQ Axx West leads HQ against 4S. Fearing that East will overtake and shift to a diamond, you win trick one with the ace. You pull trumps in (say) two rounds. Suppose you take CA and a club finesse, losing to the Q. East will shift to a diamond, either immediately or after one or two hearts. This will force you to guess whether to play for clubs 3-3 or to finesse in diamonds. The proper play, after drawing trumps, is CK, CA, and a club toward the J. Now you get both chances (clubs 3-3 and the heart finesse) plus the chance of CQx with East. ;Coup d'agonie When declarer takes a fast discard, he usually doesn't mind if a defender ruffs that trick with a master trump. The distinctive "coup d'agonie" is a fast discard on which _either_ defender can ruff, but not profitably, for the trump suit is distributed something like: 1) Txxx 2) Jxxxx 3) Kxxx AK Qxx A Kx Qx AT Jxxx Qxxxx Jxxxx In (1) or (2), if the short defender ruffs, it is with a trump winner; if the long, it causes a collision of honours. In a case like (3), any erosion of either defender's trump holding allows declarer to pull trumps with one fewer loser. Jxxxx xx xxx KQJ A Kx KQxxx Jxxx xxx xxx xxxx Axxx Qxxxx Ax AKQJ xx Against 4 spades West leads a heart to declarer's ace. South seems to have a heart and a club to lose, plus AK of trumps. But when he runs four diamonds, discarding a heart, neither opponent can ruff except at the cost of a trump trick. Axxxx Ax J9xx xx KJTxx xx KQxx JTxxx Kx Ax xx JTxx Q xx QTxxx AKQxx West leads a heart against 5D. South wins and plays AKQ of clubs, but West ruffs the third. Declarer overruffs in dummy, takes SA and a spade ruff, ruffs another club and another spade, then leads the established club, throwing a heart. The defence takes only two tricks. xxxx W N E S AKQJ 1D Dbl 2D P Ax P Dbl P 2S Kxx End AK Qxx xxx xxx JT9x Qxxx AQxx JT9 Jxxx xxx Kxx xxx West leads DJ to South's K. South leads a club and North's K holds. He cashes DA and runs four hearts, discarding a club. With both opponents to play, the position is: xxxx -- -- xx AK Qxx -- -- T9 Qx AQx JT Jxxx -- x x Declarer has two more tricks, for eight in all. Kxxx xx xxx QJx Qx AT 9xx KQJTxx xxx xxx Kxxxx xx J9xxx Ax AKQJ Ax After passing on the first round, East has overcalled with a 2H. Against 4S West leads the H9 and South wins. East should have SA or CK for his bid, but not both. So there is little point in leading a spade to the K, for if West has the ace, the club finesse will be on. Instead, declarer tries AKQ of diamonds, and when those survive, he leads the J, pitching a heart. When the club finesse later fails, declarer knows how to play the trumps. On rare occasions a suitable trump layout does not exist at trick one, but can be brought about by declarer. Ax KQx Tx J98xxx This is the trump suit. Declarer leads the J, forcing West to cover, and wins with dummy's ace. The position is now equivalent to: x Ax K QJxxx and neither defender can profitably ruff a long card. ;Semi-fast discards In the preceeding hands, declarer needed discards before he could pull trumps from either defender. When he can pull some trumps, leaving one defender with a trump winner (usually bare), he may still need what we call semi-fast discards. KQ76 Qx AQTxx xx A5432 AK Kx AJxx West leads CK against 6S. Declarer wins and leads a trump to the Q. If both followed he could claim, but East shows out. Declarer now needs to discard three clubs from his hand before West can make his trump. Hoping that West has DJxxx, declarer takes DK, finesses DT, and pitches three clubs on the remaining diamonds. West can ruff the fifth diamond, but only at the cost of his trump trick. If West, rather than East, had shown out on the first trump, declarer would have to play East for four diamonds and therefore West for Jx. In either case he is risking two down instead of one down. ;Fast discard opposite winners A fast discard usually serves to acquire ruffing control of a suit where the defence has high cards. In fancier cases, it can acquire _overruffing_ control opposite your own high cards. 987x Q AKxx KJxx QJTxx KJx QJx Ax West leads DT against 4S. A diamond ruff would be the defenders' fourth trick. Not much can be done if an opponent is singtleton in diamonds, so suppose one of them is doubleton. You could try the club finesse for a diamond discard from hand, but a better chance is to discard two diamonds from dummy. You win the opening trick with dummy's K and concede HQ to the ace. You win the next diamond in hand and discard dummy's DAx on your HKJ. You are now ready to work on trumps. If South's diamonds were just xxx instead of QJx, the play would be similar, but South would need to use CA to get to his HKJ. The fast discards would be more like the normal variety: discarding away from the enemy's winners. Again, using hearts to discard twice from dummy would be better play than the club finesse, to discard once from hand.