Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...blank aces or let a whole strong suit go to do it. The dealer is not going to lead your strong suit after the trumps are out, but most likely the suit in which you have only one honor. Even three to the ten may stop a whole suit and save three or four tricks, and the number of tricks that are lost by unguarding queens and jacks will run up into the thousands in a year at any bridge club. Discard Strength Always. This is the best discard for the beginner, in fact for the general run of players. We are speaking now of the play against a declared trump, remember, and even if the make is a protective one in spades, it is best to assume that the dealer and his partner have the strong trump hands, and as six or seven tricks will certainly fall to the trumps, there is little or no hope of making anything but the best cards in your long suit, so that you can well afford to throw the small ones away. The discard from strength has the additional advantage that it tells your partner at once what your best protected suit is. Some players insist that if the eldest hand has led one suit and the dealer leads the trumps, there are only two suits to hear from, and if the discard is made from weakness in one of them, the other must be the strong suit, and that it is not necessary to waste any of your strong suit in the discard, just to show it. This sounds well, but it will not fit all cases. Suppose the dealer does not lead the trumps, but starts a suit, so as to get dummy in, and then dummy goes to trumps and you have to discard. How are you going to show that the suit which the dealer led is your suit? Even if your partner has gone over the make, you should still discard your strong suit. Your partner is strong in trumps, of course, but he must have a...
