Dropping
Step 4 of 4
Nine cards, and the answer changes
Nine cards between the hands now, and only the queen missing. The old rhyme says eight ever, nine never: with eight cards, finesse for the queen; with nine, play for her to drop.
It's a counting argument. With eight cards you are missing five, and the queen is too often guarded by two small ones for the drop to work. With nine you are missing four, and they split two-two, or the queen is singleton, slightly more often than a finesse would win.
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