{"id":1058,"date":"2020-11-23T21:56:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T21:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/?page_id=1058"},"modified":"2022-04-23T13:17:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-23T12:17:49","slug":"basic-discard-syst","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/learning-resources-root\/basic-discard-syst\/","title":{"rendered":"Basic Discard Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\r\n\tBasic Discard Systems <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \t <\/div>\r\n\t \r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t
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Discard systems allow you to communicate more information about your hand to partner when playing defence. They can make all the difference between a successful defence strategy and a failing one.<\/p>\n

Discard systems are so called because they make use of the cards which you are throwing away. For example if partner leads the top card in a suit then you can use the cards you play to tell them if you like that suit or not.\u00a0 If they lead a suit that you are out of then you can even tell them which of the other suits you prefer!<\/p>\n

Discard signals should be sent the first time you play a card in a suit, or the first time you discard a different suit.<\/p>\n

Attitude\/HELD<\/h2>\n

Attitude is the most basic defence system. Basically if you like a suit then you play a high card. If you don’t like a suit then you play a low card. High for aye, low for no.<\/p>\n

Liking a suit usually involves having some top honours, but if you are defending against a trump contract it may also indicate a shortage with a chance to trump.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at some examples to make this clearer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On this hand South is playing in 4 hearts. West leads the Ace of diamonds. This signals that they also have the king (see the guide on opening leads<\/a>).<\/p>\n

East has a doubleton diamond. With partner showing the king they know that they have a chance to trump on the 3rd round. They should therefor encourage partner in diamonds. Playing the 9 says ‘carry on playing this suit partner’.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This allows partner to cash the king of diamonds….<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

…and lead a small diamond for trumping.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On this hand South is again playing in 4 hearts. West leads the king of diamonds, indicating the queen also. This time East has has no interest in diamonds and should play the 2 to show this.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This time North is playing in 3NT. East has a nice diamond run and so should lead the ace as the top of the sequence. West plays small to discourage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

East continues to cash their king of diamonds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now when East leads the queen of diamonds, West can indicate that they would like a club lead by discarding a large club.<\/p>\n

Reverse Attitude<\/h2>\n

Reverse attitude is very similar, but you use a low card to show that you like a suit and a high one to say that you don’t. Low for like, High for hate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The advantage of this is that you do not need to use up big cards in a suit you like, something which may lead to a loss of tricks, especially in a NT contract.<\/p> <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

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Basic Discard Systems Discard systems allow you to communicate more information about your hand to partner when playing defence. They can make all the difference between a successful defence strategy and a failing one. Discard systems are so called because they make use of the cards which you are throwing away. For example if partnerContinue reading →<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":361,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"builder_content":"Basic Discard Systems\n

Discard systems allow you to communicate more information about your hand to partner when playing defence. They can make all the difference between a successful defence strategy and a failing one.<\/p>

Discard systems are so called because they make use of the cards which you are throwing away. For example if partner leads the top card in a suit then you can use the cards you play to tell them if you like that suit or not.\u00a0 If they lead a suit that you are out of then you can even tell them which of the other suits you prefer!<\/p>

Discard signals should be sent the first time you play a card in a suit, or the first time you discard a different suit.<\/p>

Attitude\/HELD<\/h2>

Attitude is the most basic defence system. Basically if you like a suit then you play a high card. If you don't like a suit then you play a low card. High for aye, low for no.<\/p>

Liking a suit usually involves having some top honours, but if you are defending against a trump contract it may also indicate a shortage with a chance to trump.<\/p>

Let's look at some examples to make this clearer.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

On this hand South is playing in 4 hearts. West leads the Ace of diamonds. This signals that they also have the king (see the guide on opening leads<\/a>).<\/p>

East has a doubleton diamond. With partner showing the king they know that they have a chance to trump on the 3rd round. They should therefor encourage partner in diamonds. Playing the 9 says 'carry on playing this suit partner'.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

This allows partner to cash the king of diamonds....<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

...and lead a small diamond for trumping.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

On this hand South is again playing in 4 hearts. West leads the king of diamonds, indicating the queen also. This time East has has no interest in diamonds and should play the 2 to show this.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

This time North is playing in 3NT. East has a nice diamond run and so should lead the ace as the top of the sequence. West plays small to discourage.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

East continues to cash their king of diamonds.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

Now when East leads the queen of diamonds, West can indicate that they would like a club lead by discarding a large club.<\/p>

Reverse Attitude<\/h2>

Reverse attitude is very similar, but you use a low card to show that you like a suit and a high one to say that you don't. Low for like, High for hate.\u00a0<\/p>

The advantage of this is that you do not need to use up big cards in a suit you like, something which may lead to a loss of tricks, especially in a NT contract.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1058"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2110,"href":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1058\/revisions\/2110"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pontybridge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}