Complimentary Issue of Better Bridge Magazine March / April 2020 | Page 16

BRIDGE MAXIMS: TRUTH o R FANTASY?
BY DAVID LINDOP
"E ight E ver ,
N ine N ever "
P art 1 - E ight E ver
When first learning to play, we
encounter many maxims designed to
help us get started, such as “Get the
kiddies off the street” – draw trumps
quickly to avoid having our winners
ruffed. As we gain experience, we
learn such guidelines don’t always
work. How are we to know when to
apply the advice and when to ignore
it? This series looks at some popular
maxims and when they apply … and
when they don’t.
In Part 1 of this series, we take a look
at the first half of the popular maxim:
Eight ever, nine never.
“Eight ever, nine never” is a guideline
used when we are missing the queen
in a suit but hold the ace, king, and
jack between the combined hands.
We have a choice of playing the ace
and king, hoping the missing queen
will fall, or finessing the jack, hoping
the queen is favorably placed.
The guideline suggests with eight,
or fewer, cards in the combined
hands we should try the finesse
– “ever.” With nine, or more,
combined cards, we should play the
ace and king and not try the finesse
– “never.” This article looks at the
validity of the “eight ever” half of
this maxim.
Let’s look at an example of applying
“eight ever” in a full deal.
Suppose we reach 4♥ with no adverse
bidding and West leads the ♠K:
WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH
1NT
Pass
2♣
Pass
2♥
Pass
4♥
All Pass
♠ 8 7 3
♥ A J 6 4
♦ 7 4
♣ K Q 9 2
from this combination with no
information from the auction and
the play so far:
Dummy
♦ A J 3
Declarer
♦ K 4
We can start by playing the ♦K, just
in case the singleton ♦Q appears.
We then lead the ♦4 and, if a
low diamond appears, we should
finesse dummy’s ♦J. The finesse
has a 50% chance of success. Since
we are missing eight diamonds,
playing the ♦A would only work
when East specifically started with
a doubleton ♦Q. It would lose
when East started with any other
doubleton, or any three low cards,
any four low cards, or any five low
cards! Playing the ♦A would have
only about a 3% chance of success.
As the number of combined cards
increases, the odds of a doubleton
queen improve, but they remain
less than 50% when we have eight
or fewer combined cards.
Incidentally, for the maxim to apply,
the jack must be accompanied by
either the ace, or the king, or both.
Consider this layout:
T he T ruth
Dummy
♣ A K 3 2
Certainly, we can see when we have
Declarer
fewer than eight cards, the odds are
♣ J 6 5 4
clearly in favor of taking the finesse
when we have no other option. Here, “eight ever” doesn’t apply. If
Suppose we have to get three tricks we need all four tricks from this
14
suit, our only realistic hope is to play
the ♣A and ♣K and hope the ♣Q
falls.
A udrey G rant ’ s B etter B ridge | M arch -A pril 2020
LEAD
♠K
4♥
n
w
e
s
♠ J 5 4
♥ K 7 5 3
♦ A K 8 3
♣ A 7
West wins the ♠K, continues with
the ♠Q, and leads a third spade to
East’s ♠A. East shifts to a diamond.
We have lost three tricks and can’t
afford to lose any more, so we win the
♦A. We play the ♥K and only low
hearts appear. We lead a low heart
toward dummy, and West follows
with another low heart.
Here, we should go with the odds
and follow the maxim by finessing
dummy’s ♥J. If West started with
three hearts including the ♥Q, we
make the contract. If not, we go down
… but we gave it our best try.
T he F antasy
While “eight ever” is a good maxim,
it is only a guideline. We must always
take into consideration the entire deal
and any information we may have
from the auction or the play.
Suppose we reach 3NT and West
leads the ♥Q.
WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH
1NT
Pass
3NT All Pass