[fyrish]

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You play small to the King, losing to the Ace. When you play small towards the Queen, LHO plays low. Should you finesse now?

Also, if like me you don't know, how should you work it out at the table?

[vuroth]

In isolation, 12 empty spaces vs 11?

[gwnn]

you can either play

1. low to king, low to queen, independent on whether RHO won the Ace or not.
2. low to T, low to 9.

3. low to king low to T

is much inferior to both these plays.

edit: yes this refers to an 8 card fit.

here it's just

Jxx A vs. xx AJ and a specifit 2-2 break is always more likely than a 3-1 break.

as to the initial low to K, it wins vs low to T when LHO has
Ax
Axx

and loses when LHO has
Jxx (since we are not finessing on 2nd round)

so it's best to play low to K low to Q.

[Jlall]

It is slightly better to play for the drop as xx AJ is more likely than Jxx A (any specific 2-2 break is always more likely than a specific 3-1 break). However, there is often enough other information about the hand to swing it the other way.

[vuroth]

Jlall, on Jan 27 2010, 09:56 AM, said:

It is slightly better to play for the drop as xx AJ is more likely than Jxx A (any specific 2-2 break is always more likely than a specific 3-1 break). However, there is often enough other information about the hand to swing it the other way.

For example, if you have a bad split in a side suit, or if someone bid/overcalled/weak 2'd indicating a bad split in a side suit.

[CSGibson]

fyrish, on Jan 27 2010, 06:07 AM, said:

Also, if like me you don't know, how should you work it out at the table?

If you have nothing else to go on, I would go with "8 ever 9 never" for the cases where you are missing one honor (ie, not a restricted choice situation). That is generally the percentage play in a vacuum, and it saves you some headaches having to work it out all of the time