The Bridge Column

One of the first “rules” that we learn about bridge is “eight ever, nine never.” This refers to the correct play by declarer when missing the queen of a suit. When you have a combined eight cards in the suit, you should finesse for the queen. With a combined nine cards, play for the drop. These are the percentage plays. The percentages, however, can change as we learn more about the hand. Sometimes we must break the rule.

East won the opening diamond lead with the king. Reading partner’s lead correctly, East continued by cashing the ace of diamonds and the ace of hearts before leading a third diamond. South ruffed with the ace of spades, cashed the king of spades, and paused to consider his next play in the trump suit.

This was an analogous situation to the “rule.” Due to the high ruff by declarer, the jack had become the equivalent of the queen. The “rule” says to play for the drop, but we have substantial extra information here. We know eight of East’s original cards — six diamonds, one heart, and one spade, leaving five unknown cards. We know that West started with two diamonds, two hearts, and one spade. West, therefore, had eight unknown cards.

At this point, any missing card was likely to be in the West hand by a ratio of eight to five. This changed slightly when West followed to the second spade, but not enough for declarer to play for the drop. South correctly finessed against the jack and landed his game contract. Nicely done!