e is no need to worry over any such complicated systems
as strength or rotary discards. They are apt to confuse and produce
misunderstandings far more damaging than any possible benefit which
results when they work perfectly. The strength discard may compel the
playing of a card which, if its suit be established, will win a trick,
and the rotary is not always reliable, as the discarder may be void of
the "next suit," or unable to discard from it because it is composed of
high cards only or of necessary guards for single honors. The
"odd-and-even" discard, that is, 3, 5, 7, 9, showing strength, 2, 4, 6,
8, weakness, is very satisfactory when the hands are made to order, but
a certain proportion of hands fail to contain an odd card when the
discarder desires to announce strength, or an even one when he has
extreme weakness. The awkwardness, when using this system, of such a
holding as 3, 5, 7, is self-apparent.

All these plans or fads had their innings in Whist, where important
information had to be conveyed by the discard, but in Auction, they are
about as necessary as pitching a curve to a blind batsman.

The plain, simple, old-fashioned discard from weakness is all that is
used or required, provided it be understood that a signal in the
discard means a reversal of its ordinary inference. A signal by discard
(that is, for example, discarding first a 5, followed by a 2) is
generally a showing of strength in that suit, and a most pronounced
suggestion, if not an imperative command, that it be led at the first
opportunity. The only case in which it is not an evidence of strength
is when it shows a desire to ruff. The signal in the discard is most
serviceable when the Declarer is playing a long suit, and the partner
is in doubt which of the two remaining suits to keep guarded. In this
case it may not be a command to lead, but merely a wireless message
saying, "I have this suit stopped; you take care of the other."

A signal in a discard to show strength is only necessary when it is not
advisable to discard once from each of the other suits, which by
inference gives the same information, yet does not shorten the strong
suit.

Strength information can often be transmitted by the weakness discard,
just as quickly and more simply than by the now generally abandoned
strength discard. For example, the discard of the lowest card shows
weakness and negatives all possibility of a strength signal, but if the
first discard be as