WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU'VE NO DISCARD?
Konrad Lorenz, an Austrian zoologist, ethologist and ornithologist who was a Nobel Prize winner, said, "It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young."
Discarding at the bridge table can add years to your life, especially when facing a predicament like East's in this deal. What should he do?
South is in three notrump. West cashes his four club tricks, dummy pitching a spade on the fourth. But what should East discard at tricks three and four?
Assuming a raise of one no-trump to two no-trump would have been invita- tional, not a minor-suit transfer, North's sequence shows about nine points with a four-card heart suit. South, with a maximum 17, has no hesitation in bidding game.
South has eight top tricks: two spades, three hearts and three diamonds. His best chance is a 3-3 diamond fit, but we can see that they are 4-2. However, maybe East will not discard correctly.
East seems to be squeezed in three suits. He needs to remember to keep equal length with the dummy. East must discard two spades and hope that his partner can hold the suit. Note that if East discards either a heart or a diamond, declarer gets four tricks in that suit and nine in all.