February 2015 - 36

Find the Lady
You (South) and dummy hold the following in the heart suit:
♥AJ87
♥ K 10 6 5
How do you find the queen? First of
all you should remember the saying
"Eight ever, nine never" and plan to
take a finesse rather than play for the
drop. The only decision is choosing
which way to finesse; cash the ♥K and
finesse the jack, or cross to the ♥A and
play East for the queen.
Should you always take a finesse? No.
EENN is a fine maxim, but sometimes
it should be overruled. There are deals
where you should be combining your
chances; playing against the odds for
the drop in one suit, such as the heart
suit shown here, and then, if the ♥Q
hasn't appeared in two rounds, taking
a finesse in another suit. But assuming
you are going to take a finesse, should
you play East or West for the queen?
The great Eddie Kantar says, "Hungry players finesse toward the kitchen,
romantic players finesse toward the
bedroom and practical players finesse
toward the bathroom," but I don't think
he is being serious. Fortunately I have
found lots of other bits of advice to
help you.
You could invoke Bentley's Law:
cashing a top honor and finessing
through the person you like less. That
way, you won't feel so bad if the finesse
loses. All things being equal, this strategy is the least harmful to your emotional well-being.
Alternatively, you could follow
the Norwegian rule and play for the
defender with the longer nose to hold
the queen. I got this independently
from two Norwegians, one a world
champion, so it is definitely worth
considering.

36 Bridge Bulletin February 2015

BY SIMON COCHEMÉ

Some think it is best to play for the
queen to be sitting over the jack, but
that is an old rubber bridge adage followed by old rubber bridge addicts, and
it doesn't apply in duplicate. In rubber
bridge, the cards are played together in
the middle of the table and the queen
might well have been put on top of the
jack. Imperfect shuffling means there
is a good chance that she is still there
the next time cards are dealt. If you
don't believe me, get out a pack of cards
and do a little experiment.
In India they have a saying that the
queen and the 9 of a suit will be in the
same hand, so you should wait until the
♥9 appears and play for that hand to
hold the queen. As a statement of statistical fact it is dubious. As a strategy,
it is unlikely to work, especially against
someone who knows it to be a favorite
superstition of yours. If you were to
start by playing low towards dummy,
then you would feel obliged to take an
immediate finesse if West played the
♥9, and he will be happy to falsecard
with ♥9 x, ♥9 x x or ♥9 x x x.
I found this one on the Internet:
Have a look at the eyes of the king of
the suit in question and play for him
to be looking at the queen. In this
example, with hearts as the key suit,
you should play West for the missing
queen. Why? Because the ♥K, ♦K and
♣K all look to their right (your left);
the ♠K looks to his left. With no other
clues it's as good a strategy as any.
But don't just rely on what I say
about who looks where; you will have
to double-check when you play bridge
abroad. The dastardly French kings all
look the opposite way; no doubt something to do with Napoleon insisting
that the French shouldn't do anything
the same way as the English - they
drive on the right, for example, they use
kilometres instead of miles, and they

don't have small side-plates on which
to put their bread.
Top American player Barry Crane
had a rule which said that the queen
would sit over the jack in a minor suit,
and under the jack in a major suit. He
would have played West for the queen.
One third of the Belgians I polled
said he always played for the queen to
be on his left. "And if it isn't," he told
me, "I am sitting in the wrong seat."
So which of those seven strategies
should you adopt to locate the missing
♥Q? (I know, you would rather have
one technique that really works, and
not have to pick from a menu of dubious alternatives. Alas, life is not like
that, and neither is bridge.)
The answer is none, at least not until
you have recalled the bidding and analyzed the play to date. If East opened
a weak two-bid, then, in the absence
of other information, the Theory of
Empty Spaces makes West a strong
favorite to hold the missing queen. On
the other hand, if West failed to open
the bidding and has already shown up
with 10 points, he is unlikely to hold
the ♥Q.
If you do have to resort to one of
these seven strategies, then my advice
is to ignore the Indian saying and pick
one of the others - and remember its
origins. That way, if the finesse fails,
you will be able to recover some kudos
by saying something such as, "I thought
I'd try the Norwegian method," or
"Sorry, Crane's Rule
didn't work this
time."
Simon Cochemé
of London UK is a
frequent Bridge
Bulletin contributor.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2015