"Eight Ever, Nine Never"
"Eight Ever, Nine Never" is an adage for handling 8- and 9-card suit combinations missing the queen. Holding an 8-card combination like this, it is mathematically better to finesse for the queen (50%):
| | Dummy | | |
|  AJT9 | |
| West | | East |
| ??? | | ??? |
| Declarer | |
| K872 | |
However, when holding a 9-card combination, it's better to cash the ace and king and hope he queen drops. This is a 52% favorite to pick up the queen, as opposed to 50% for a
simple finesse.
| | Dummy | | |
| AK987 | |
| West | | East |
| ??? | | ??? |
| Declarer | |
| JT52 | |
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