Fluffy, on 2013-December-02, 17:00, said:
I failed this one, but perhaps I shouldn't, with 5 clubs RHO might had pitched one before spade, its a feble argument, but at least something, I got 600 only after losing to doubleton queen. Another argument is that lols are getting 630 (or as the cards lie 660 or 690)
This is a recurrent theme....the first pitch when an opp is running a suit is almost invariably from a 5+ suit if discarder has one. Manfield wrote a great article (it may have been a series) in the BW many years ago, called, iirc, the idle fifth.
My experience is that it is almost hard-wired into the non-expert and even to the lazy expert to make this first discard from length. Yet much of the time, we can see, as defenders, that we have several pitches to make. Subject to the need to give signals to partner (bearing in mind that a good declarer is looking for these signals as well) we should be randomizing the order of suit pitches.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
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