Short Suit First

On her first pitch the giver will almost always throw her shortest suit of the remaining three suits. The idea behind this is to give the taker more pitches quickly.

	taker		giver
$\spadesuit$	A J 5		Q
$\heartsuit$	7 6		A K Q J
$\diamondsuit$	5 4 3		6
$\clubsuit$	7 6		J 7 5 3
	fig. 11

	taker		giver
1	$\spadesuit$A		$\spadesuit$Q
2	$\spadesuit$J		...

At this point in the hand giver should pitch the $\diamondsuit$6. Even though the six is not as much of a threat as the high hearts, it is the shortest suit. When taker sees the $\diamondsuit$6 he knows that all of his diamonds are safe to play. If instead The giver had played $\heartsuit$A at trick two and continued by pitching $\heartsuit$K at trick three we end up stuck at the following position

	taker		giver
$\spadesuit$	-		-
$\heartsuit$	7 6		Q J
$\diamondsuit$	5 4 3		6
$\clubsuit$	7 6		J 7 5 3
	fig. 12

which is impossible to win.

In the above deal we would have pitched the singleton diamond at trick two no matter which diamond it was even if it was a singleton two.

The only time that it hurts to pitch a singleton deuce is when the taker is void in that suit. It does not happen very often that partner has a void in a suit that you have a singleton in (only about 2% of the time). If partner has only a singleton in the suit then you have not wasted any pitches, because when taker plays his singleton you will now pitch something else. When taker has two or more in the suit you come out ahead. After you pitch your short suit taker knows where to go for more pitches.