The Eight

When evaluating hands most people first use the good ol' Milton Works or 4321 point count. Regardless of whether you then count losers, controls, distribution points or Zars, you probably work out the HCP first. I doubt that very often an 8 is considered to be a crucial card in hand evaluation but occasionally the humble 8 can be the difference between success and failure... but first you have to play like Deep Finesse.
The following hand came up in a pairs event recently where some youthful players partnered some ancient specimens such as myself. I, West, ended up declarer in 4S after an auction that went something like 1S (2H) 2S (/) 4S.

	9 5 K Q J T 3 K Q T 2 J 9
A Q J 8 4 2 A 9 8 7 A 8 2		K T 7 6 4 2 A 6 4 3 Q 5 4
	3 8 7 6 5 J 9 5 K T 7 6 3

I went down one when the King of clubs was offside but spent a while playing the hand and couldn't help the nagging feeling that I might have done better. Deep Finesse later confirmed my suspicions that 4S is not  dependant on the grievous misdefences that occurred at many tables.

There are lots of ways the play could go but in the end they all come down to the same thing: if South ever attacks clubs you're home, if North attacks clubs you cover with the Queen then cover the King with the Ace, if neither ever lead clubs you lead the Queen off the dummy and cover Souths King. However you get there you're aiming for this end position having drawn trumps and ruffed two diamonds in hand:

	- Q J T - 9
A Q 9 - 8 2		7 6 4 - 5
	- - T 7 6

Whether you exit a heart or a small club is irrelevant, North is end played, continuing hearts allows a rough and discard and the club suit is blocked by that 8 you would have never considered valuable.