Eight Ever, Nine Never

Before reading this post make sure you know what a finesse is. Click here if you don't.

Grab a deck of cards and play along.

"Eight Ever, Nine Never" is a catchy slogan that people in bridge use to remember whether or not to finesse an opponent for a missing Queen.

Let's look at this holding.

Dummy:
♠AJT62

Declarer:
♠K943

I have nine cards in the ♠ suit and I am missing the Q♠. I don't want to lose any tricks in this suit. What is my best way of doing this?

I order to figure out the best way I should probably go over all my options.

Option 1:

I assume that my LHO has the Q♠.

	Dummy ♠AJT62
LHO ♠Q??		RHO ♠???
	Declarer ♠K943

I start by playing the K♠ from my hand and then playing a low ♠ towards Dummy's J♠.

Option 2:

I assume that my RHO has the Q♠.

	Dummy ♠AJT62
LHO ♠???		RHO ♠Q??
	Declarer ♠K943

I start by playing the A♠ from Dummy and then playing a low ♠ towards my 9♠.

Option 3:

I assume that either opponent has the doubleton Q♠. That means they only have 2 cards in the ♠ suit and one of them is the Q♠.

	Dummy ♠AJT62
LHO ♠Q? or ♠??		RHO ♠?? or ♠Q?
	Declarer ♠K943

It doesn't really matter how I play the suit here. I can start by playing the A♠ from Dummy and then playing a low ♠ towards my K♠ or I can play the K♠ and then a low ♠ towards my A♠.

Hmmm. It's quite a bit easier to decide what to do if you only have one choice. I have three choices. Which is best?

This is where the "Eight Ever, Nine Never" rule helps me remember. Basically this says if I have EIGHT cards in the suit I should EVER (or always) finesse for the Queen. If I have NINE cards in the suit I should NEVER finesse for the Queen. By not finessing that means I play out my high cards and hope the missing Queen drops underneath one of them.

So in this example:
Dummy:
♠AJT62

Declarer:
♠K943

I play the A♠ and K♠ and hope that the Q♠ drops underneath one of them. I don't even care which one because I am pretty easy going when opponents drop their high cards underneath mine.

How about another example?

What is the best way to avoid any losers in this suit?

Dummy:
♠AJ62

Declarer:
♠K943

Again I need to find the Q♠. This time I don't have as many choices.

Option 1

I can assume my LHO has the Q♠.

	Dummy ♠AJ62
LHO ♠Q??		RHO ♠??
	Declarer ♠K943

With this holding I will play the K♠ first and then a low ♠ towards my J♠ in Dummy.

Option 2:

	Dummy ♠AJ62
LHO ♠Q? or ???		RHO ♠??? or Q?
	Declarer ♠K943

Play the A♠ and the K♠ and hope the Q♠ drops underneath one of them.

Before I had an Option that my RHO has the Q♠. That would not help me here unless it is a doubleton Q and I am already taking that one into account.

So what is the best way for me to play this suit?

Remember "Eight Ever, Nine Never"?

Here I have EIGHT cards in the suit. That means it is best for me to always finesse for the Queen. I assume the holding is Option 1.

So in this example:

Dummy:
♠AJ62

Declarer:
♠K943

I play the K♠ and a low ♠ towards the J♠ in Dummy. I hope my LHO has three ♠ to the Q♠.

Question: Does this always work? Will my finesses always win?
Answer: No. That would make life too easy and predictable. Where's the fun in that? It is just your BEST percentage play.

Question: Should I always do this?
Answer: No, of course not. Again that would be too easy. There are quite a few factors to take into account. Sometimes it is safe to let in one opponent but not the other. Then you might finesse the Queen into them. Maybe one opponent bid and you think they should have the Queen to justify their bidding. Sometimes one opponent does something to let you know they have quite a few cards in another suit which means they are probably short in your suit. Maybe you can't finesse because the suit might block. These kinds of complex thinking are probably for a little later on in your bridge career. For this stage always using "Eight Ever, Nine Never" is probably the best way to go.

Test your knowledge:

I strongly urge you to grab a deck of cards and play along when you do these examples. It will really help you learn and a few of these are quite tricky. If you try to play them out you might change your original answer to a better one.

Will you or will you not finesse for the Queen in these examples?

First state if you will finesse for the Queen or play for the Queen to drop under your high cards. Then say what card you will play first and then what card you will play second.

Example 1

Dummy:
♠KJ82

Declarer:
♠A943



Example 2

Dummy:
♠AKJ82

Declarer:
♠T943



Example 3

Dummy:
♠AJ8762

Declarer:
♠K43



Example 4

Dummy:
♠AJ862

Declarer:
♠K43



Example 5

Dummy:
♠JT862

Declarer:
♠AK43



Example 6

Dummy:
♠AJ86

Declarer:
♠K43



Example 7

Dummy:
♠JT862

Declarer:
♠AK743



Example 8

Dummy:
♠AJ8

Declarer:
♠K43



Example 9

Dummy:
♠AJ82

Declarer:
♠KT43



Example 10

Dummy:
♠JT7652

Declarer:
♠AK3



Example 11

Dummy:
♠KJ8

Declarer:
♠A43



Example 12

Dummy:
♠AKJ82

Declarer:
♠743



Example 13

Dummy:
♠97842

Declarer:
♠AKJ63



Example 14

Dummy:
♠JT94

Declarer:
♠AK63



Example 15

Dummy:
♠J542

Declarer:
♠AK63

More Finessing

Before reading this post make sure you know what a finesse is. Click here if you don't.

More on finessing:

Dummy
A43

Declarer:
QJT

Here Declarer has 2 tricks no matter what in this suit -- the Ace and eventually the Queen.

What happens if Declarer wants 3 tricks in this suit? Remember the finesse? They might also get an extra trick if the King is in a favourable location for Declarer.

Where does the King need to be?

The King needs to be on Declarer's left hand side.

Go grab a deck of cards and play along!

	Dummy A43
LHO K52		RHO 986
	Declarer QJT

Even with the King in the proper location Declarer still has to play well. They need to be in their hand (not Dummy) in order to take three tricks.

While in their hand they play the Queen. If LHO plays low (which they probably will) Declarer can now play low from Dummy. This will win the trick since RHO does not have the King which is the only card that can beat the Queen. Now Declarer can do this again with the Jack. If LHO plays the King on Declarer's Queen that is not a problem. Dummy can play the Ace and the Jack and the Ten in Declarer's hand are good.

What happens if Declarer plays the suit from Dummy?

You can see that no matter what card Declarer plays from Dummy the King will win a trick. If Declarer plays the Ace to start with, LHO can play their 2 and the King will win on the next trick. If Dummy plays the 4 to start with LHO will win the King right away.

What happens if the cards are laid out like this:

	Dummy A43
LHO 986		RHO K52
	Declarer QJT

In this situation there is no way to get more than 2 tricks. There is nothing you can do so it can't hurt to play the Queen and then low from Dummy. If it wins -- great! If it loses you still get two tricks and you were never going to get 3.

Examples to test your knowledge:

Grab a deck of cards and play along. Figure out the answer then play it out in real life to see if it works.

On this example you are missing the Queen. You can place her wherever you want. You are on lead and can lead a card from Dummy or from your hand. What is the best way to get three tricks from this holding?

Dummy:
AK2

Declarer:
JT9

How do you play this combination for THREE tricks.



On this example you are missing the King as well as 5 low cards in the suit. You can place those cards wherever you want. You are on lead and can lead a card from Dummy or from your hand. What is the best way to get four tricks from this holding? Once in Dummy there is no way back to your hand.

Dummy:
AQJ2

Declarer:
T98

How do you play this combination for FOUR tricks.

Declarer Play -- Try the Finesse?

Read the High Card from the Short Side and the Finesse posts first if you haven't already.

The bidding was: My partner (who is now Dummy) opened the bidding 1♦. My RHO overcalled 1♠. I chose to respond 1NT. My LHO passed and my partner bid 3♦. (3♦ here should show about 16-18 HCP and 6♦.) My RHO passed and I bid 3NT which ended the auction.

Contract 3NT. Opening lead 7♠.

Dummy
♠98
♥AQ5
♦AQJT93
♣A9

Declarer
♠A32
♥J74
♦K7
♣J8763

In NT we count our winners. We look at each of the suits and determine how many tricks we can take in that suit immediately.

♠1 winner
♥1 winner
♦6 winners
♣1 winner

This adds up to 9 winners. I am in 3NT. No problems there. Any way to get more winners? How about a ♥ finesse? I could try to play the J♥ from my hand towards the AQ♥ in Dummy. If LHO has the K♥ I will get an extra trick.

Any problems with that? Seems like an easy way to make an overtrick.

So I win my A♠ and play the J♥. My LHO plays small and I play small. My RHO wins the K♥ and starts playing ♠ after ♠ after ♠. They ended up with 6 tricks and I am down in my contract. Which is a little confusing considering I had 9 tricks at the beginning. What went wrong?

Well once I won the A♠ I need to recognize the fact that I am in BIG trouble with the ♠ suit. If the opponents get in (either one!) they will take ALL their ♠ winners. So I CAN'T let them in. Luckily I have 9 tricks right away so I can make my contract. In this case I do NOT want to finesse the ♥. It's just not worth taking a chance of going down in my contract in order to make one extra trick.

So back to the beginning. I will win the A♠ and now take my 9 tricks right away. I will remember to play the high cards from the short side of the suit in ♦. So I will play the K♦ from my hand first. Then I'll play the 7♦ towards all the ♦ in Dummy. Then take my 2 other Aces. 3NT bid and made.

Declarer Play Choices -- Is the Finesse your Best Choice?

Before reading this post make sure you understand what a finesse is (click here) and also how to throw losers on winners (click here).

It really helps to understand how to play a hand if you actually play it out. Grab a deck of cards and play along rather than just reading about it. See if you can figure out how to make this contract on your own first.

The contract is 6♥. The opening lead is the 8♦.

Dummy
♠AQ5
♥Q865
♦A53
♣K83

Declarer
♠JT
♥AKJ94
♦KQJ6
♣QJ

What do we do first? We count our losers in a trump contract. How do we do that?

First we take one hand and only one hand. We will look at Declarer's hand since it has more trump in it. Then we look at how many tricks we will lose in each of the suits. Then we figure out how we could get rid of any possible losers.

♠1 loser -- In our hand we have the JT. We have 2 losers at the most but the Ace in Dummy will take care of one of our losers. That still leaves 1 loser.
♥0 losers. We shouldn't lose a trump trick.
♦0 losers. We have the Ace in Dummy to take care of the 6♦.
♣1 loser We will have to lose to the Ace in this suit.

♠1
♥0
♦0
♣1

In this contract we have 2 potential losers.

How are we going to get rid of at least 1 of those losers?

Well we could get rid of our ♠ loser by taking a ♠ finesse. If we play the J♠ out of our hand and then play low (if our LHO plays low) we will win the trick if LHO has the K♠. That's about a 50-50 chance of not losing a trick. That's one way of not going down in our contract. Take out trump, lose to the A♣ and try the ♠ finesse. If our LHO holds the K♠ we will make the contract.

On the other hand, if our RHO holds the K♠ we will go down in our contract. Sadness.

Sometimes the finesse is the only way to make our contract and we are stuck with a 50-50 shot. But sometimes there are better ways to make our contract that we don't see right away. Here there is a guaranteed way to make this contract. Can you see how?

We can throw the ♠ loser on a winner! That is a 100% guaranteed way to make the contract.

To throw losers away on winners there needs to be unequal length in the suit. Here there is unequal length in the ♣ suit and also unequal length in the ♦ suit. Which suit do you throw away your losing ♠ on?

It has to be the ♣. You can throw away a losing ♠ on the ♦ suit but unfortunately it is the losing ♠ from Dummy. You are not interested in throwing away a loser in Dummy. You need to throw away the ♠ loser in your hand. For that you need a suit longer in Dummy than in your hand. The ♣ suit is the only one that works.

So our plan is to win the ♦ and take out trump. At this point I don't really care where I win the ♦ so I will win it in Dummy. (That little thoughtless action may come back to haunt me later!) Now we come down to this:

♠AQ5
♥
♦53
♣K83

Declarer
♠JT
♥A
♦KQJ
♣QJ

Notice how there was a really bad trump break. One opponent held FOUR of the little suckers! That's okay though. I didn't panic. There was no need for me to keep any trump in Dummy so I took out all their trump ending in my hand. What next?

Now I need to knock out the opponents Ace of ♣. I play the Q♣ (high cards from the short side) and my LHO opponent wins the A♣ and then plays a low ♠. So now I have this:

♠AQ5
♥
♦53
♣K8

Declarer
♠JT
♥A
♦KQJ
♣J

I win my A♠ and then play a low ♣ to the J♣ in my hand. We have this position left:

♠Q5
♥
♦53
♣K

Declarer
♠J
♥A
♦KQJ
♣

So now I am in my hand. My K♣ is all set for me to throw away my losing ♠ on it. BUT I am in my hand. My winner is in Dummy. How do I get back to Dummy?

Well the answer is I can't. I messed up. What I would give to turn back the clock and win the opening lead in my hand with the K♦. That way I would still have the A♦ in Dummy for an entry.

Let's try that again. On the opening lead I will play a low ♦ from Dummy and win the ♦ in my hand. Then I'll take out trump and lose to the A♣. The opponents will return a ♠ and I can win my A♠ and play a low ♣ to my hand. Now I have this position left:

♠Q5
♥
♦A5
♣K

Declarer
♠J
♥A
♦QJ6
♣

Perfect! Now I can play a low ♦ to the A♦ in Dummy. Play the K♣ and throw away my losing ♠. Now the QJ♦ and the trump in my hand are all winners! Contract made!

That was a tough one. Quite a bit to think about there. You also notice how easy it is to mess that one up? Play the wrong ♦ at trick 1 and you can easily go down in that one.

How should you know to retain the A♦ in Dummy for 7 or 8 tricks later in the future? You shouldn't really. That's pretty advanced thinking. But at trick one you should think to yourself. "Hmmmm. It doesn't seem like it's all that important where I win the first trick. I don't need to be in Dummy to take any sort of finesse right away. So since it really doesn't matter where I win the first trick let's think. If I win the trick in Dummy I have NO MORE Dummy entries in the ♦ suit. So if I play a ♦ I will be forced to win in my hand no matter what. Zero options. However, if I win the ♦ trick in my hand I will still have 2 more entries in my hand to win a ♦. This means that later on in the hand if I play a ♦ I can choose whether or not to win it in Dummy or whether or not to win it in my hand. Choices are good. So win the ♦ in your hand because it is better to keep communication with BOTH hands in a suit. That way you don't have to figure out what you are going to play 7 or 8 tricks later. 7 or 8 tricks later you can decide and you will still have choices about where to win.

The Finesse

What is a finesse?

Finessing is a card play technique that allows you to win tricks with lower ranking cards if the higher ranking cards that will normally win are placed appropriately.

Let's see this in action.

Dummy
AK

Declarer:
32

Here Declarer has 2 tricks no matter what in this suit -- the Ace and the King.

Now let's say Declarer is missing the King but has the Queen instead:

Dummy
AQ

Declarer:
32

Here Declarer has at least 1 trick in this suit -- the Ace. They might also get an extra trick if the King is in a favourable location for Declarer.

Where does the King need to be?

The King needs to be on Declarer's left hand side.

Go grab a deck of cards and play along!

	Dummy AQ
LHO K5		RHO 64
	Declarer 32

Even with the King in the proper location Declarer still has to play well. They need to be in their hand (not Dummy) in order to take two tricks.

When in their hand they play the 2 towards the AQ in Dummy. If LHO plays low (which they probably will) Declarer can now insert the Queen. This will win the trick since RHO does not have the King which is the only card that can beat the Queen. Now Declarer has scored 2 tricks with this holding.

What happens if Declarer plays the suit from Dummy?

You can see that no matter what card Declarer plays from Dummy the King will win a trick. If Declarer plays the Ace to start with, LHO can play their 5 and the King will win on the next trick. If Declarer plays the Queen to start with LHO will win the King right away.

What happens if the cards are laid out like this:

	Dummy AQ
LHO 53		RHO K5
	Declarer 32

In this situation there is no way to get more than 1 trick. There is nothing you can do so it can't hurt to play a low card towards Dummy's Q. If it wins -- great! If it loses you still get one trick and you were never going to get 2.

Examples to test your knowledge

Grab a deck of cards and play along. Figure out the answer then play it out in real life to see if it works.

On this example you are missing the Ace and also the Queen, Jack and Ten. You can place those cards wherever you want. You are on lead and can lead a card from Dummy or from your hand. What is the best way to get one trick from this holding?

Dummy:
K2

Declarer:
43

How do you play this combination for ONE trick.



On this example you are missing the King as well as 5 low cards in the suit. You can place those cards wherever you want. You are on lead and can lead a card from Dummy or from your hand. What is the best way to get three tricks from this holding? You have only three cards left in each of your hands so once in Dummy there is no way back to your hand.

Dummy:
AQT

Declarer:
J73

How do you play this combination for THREE tricks.



On this example you are missing the Queen as well as 5 low cards in the suit. You can place those cards wherever you want. You are on lead and can lead a card from Dummy or from your hand. What is the best way to get four tricks from this holding? You have only three cards left in your hand so once in Dummy there is no way back to your hand.

Dummy:
AKJ3

Declarer:
T98

How do you play this combination for FOUR tricks.