Bob is Lazy

Question

• It is the first turn of the game and nothing is played on the stacks.
• Alice clues number 2 to Cathy, touching Cathy's slot 1 and slot 4. (This is a Play Clue on Cathy's slot 1 card.)
• Bob has a red 1 on his Finesse Position, so Cathy knows that Bob might blind-play it, which would make Alice's clue a Finesse on red 1 into red 2.
• Instead, Bob clues number 1 to Alice, touching a green 1 on slot 1.
• What should Cathy do?

Solution

• Bob seemingly defers blind-playing and instead gives a 1-for-1 clue to a card that just as easily could have been gotten by Cathy.
• The Urgency Principle says that blind-plays should happen as soon as possible. Thus, Urgency Principle means that Bob was never Finessed in the first place.
• However, Alice's clue must be a Finesse of some kind, because Cathy's slot 1 card was indicated as being playable. Thus, it would be classified as an Ambiguous Self-Finesse on Cathy, which means that Cathy should blind-play her Finesse Position as any playable 1.
• Once Cathy successfully blind-plays her Finesse Position as a yellow 1, she knows that her previously unknown 2 that was the Finesse target must match and must be exactly yellow 2.