“The queen is over the jack in the minors and under the jack in the majors.”
Example:
Dummy has A J 10 9.
Declarer has K 4 3 2.
Suit is a major (♥️ or ♠️): play for the queen to be on declarer’s left, i.e. “under the jack”. Cash the king then lead toward dummy and finesse the jack.
Suit is a minor (♣️ or ♦️): play for the queen to be on declarer’s right, i.e. “over the jack”. Lead small to the ace then return the jack for a finesse.
If I had said this proposition, bridge players would have dismissed it as rubbish talk. But when the greatest matchpoint player of all time says it, we should investigate further. I see no logical explanation for this rule so let’s look for empirical evidence. By “empirical evidence” I mean to look at a large sample of bridge hands and see if there is statistically significant agreement with Barry’s queen rule. What do you think?
