When an Ambiguous Finesse occurs, the first player will not play into the Finesse, and do something unrelated. At that point, it is usually clear that another player on the team also has the connecting card. Normally, that other player should then immediately blind-play, resolving the Ambiguous Finesse as fast as possible.
However, in some specific situations, the second person cannot blind-play the card, or else a misplay would occur. In these situations, the second person has to also not play into the Finesse. This "passes" the blind-play back to the first person again.
For example, in a 4-player game:
Blue 1 is played on the stacks.
Alice clues blue to Donald, touching a blue 4 as a Play Clue.
Bob sees that Cathy has the blue 2 on her Finesse Position. From his position, this must be a Double Finesse, with Cathy blind-playing the blue 2, and Bob blind-playing the blue 3 from his own Finesse Position. Bob discards.
Cathy sees that Bob has the blue 2 on his Finesse Position and the blue 3 on his Second Finesse Position.
Cathy also knows that the only reason that Bob would discard is if Cathy also had the blue 2 on her Finesse Position. Thus, Bob expects her to blind-play on this turn, and this is an Ambiguous Finesse.
Normally, Cathy would blind-play the blue 2 herself. However, in this situation, if she blind-plays the blue 2, then Bob would go on to misplay the other blue 2, thinking that it is blue 3.
Thus, Cathy must pretend like the Finesse is not on her after all, and force Bob to be the one to blind-play first. Cathy discards her chop card, passing the Finesse back to Bob.
Donald and Alice discard.
Bob knows that Cathy was supposed to blind-play the blue 2, but she didn't. He must also have the blue 2. Furthermore, he must also have the blue 3, as that would be an excellent reason for Cathy to pass the Finesse back to him. Bob will now blind-play blue 2 and blue 3.
As a side note, you may be wondering why in the previous example Cathy does not blind-discard her blue 2 from her Finesse Position instead of discarding her chop. This is because it is possible that Cathy does not have the blue 2 on her Finesse Position and instead has some other unrelated playable card as a Layered Finesse. Thus, Cathy must play it safe and discard her chop.
Potential Priority Duplication & The Certain Priority Finesse (or Priority Certain Finesse)
Normally, players can perform any particular type of Finesse either by giving a clue or by playing a card without Priority. For example, it is possible to both do a Layered Finesse (by giving a clue) and a Layered Priority Finesse (by playing a card).
One exception to this rule is the Certain Finesse. When a player perform a Certain Finesse, it calls for a Certain Discard. However, when a player uses Priority to promise a card that could potentially be in their own hand, this should not induce a Certain Discard. The other players in this situation should just ignore the Priority and instead discard their chop card. (Doing it this way is much safer because it allow potential Layered Finesses as well as some slack for mistakes.)
This section outlines a specific and rare edge-case for Certain Finesses.
We agree that Bluffs take precedence over Certain Finesses. This means that a Certain Finesse cannot normally be performed from Bluff Seat.
Certain Finessescan be performed from Bluff Seat if it is strictly impossible to be a Bluff. In other words, this means that it is illegal for a player to perform a Clandestine Finesse on the very next player that targets a potentially duplicated card and the other player can rule out the possibility of a Bluff.
For example, in a 3-player game:
All of the 2's & blue 3 is played on the stacks. Green 3 is in the discard pile.
Alice has an unknown 3 in her hand that happens to be the red 3.
Alice clues number 4 to Cathy, touching a red 4 as a Play Clue.
Bob knows that Alice could be trying to perform a Finesse on a red 3. Normally, he would blind-discard his Finesse Position card as a Certain Discard in order to pass this card back to Alice.
However, Bob also knows that this might be a Bluff. But wait - his Finesse Position card has negative blue on it. So anything that he blind-plays here would have to be a 3. Thus, this cannot be a Bluff, since a 3 would connect to 4 and look like a Finesse.
The only other possibility that Bob has to worry about is a Clandestine Finesse. For example, he could be blind-playing a green 3 and then a red 3 after that. If he blind-discarded, that could "kill" the green stack, since the other copy of green 3 is already discarded.
However, Bob also knows that you are not allowed to perform a Clandestine Finesse from Bluff Seat that could duplicate a card in your hand. Thus, he can discount both the possibility of a Bluffand the possibility of a Clandestine Finesse.
Bob performs a Certain Discard on his Finesse Position card and it is the red 3, successfully passing it back to Alice.
If someone performs a Certain Discard and you have two or more clued cards that could be the target, then you are not promised the order, only that you have the card clued somewhere in your hand. (This part works in the exact same way as a more-ordinary Sarcastic Discard.)
Sometimes, a player will initiate a Layered Finesse on a card that is behind a one-away-from-playable card. Normally, this would be quite bad, as the player would blind-play the one-away-from-playable card, and it would misplay.
However, since the Finesse target is considered unplayable from the rest of the team, they can be tricked into blind-playing the exact card that makes the one-away card actually playable. This "patches" the Layered Finesse problem, and now the layer can be fully unwrapped without issues.
For example, in a 5-player game:
All of the 1's are played on the stacks.
Alice clues red to Emily, which is a Play Clue on a red 4.
Donald has a blue 3 on his Finesse Position, followed by a red 2 and a red 3.
Bob discards. (We will return to Bob at the end.)
Cathy sees that she must have the red 2 and red 3 on her Finesse Position, because even though Donald has the red 2 and the red 3, they are behind an unplayable card (blue 3).
Cathy tries to blind-play red 2 and it is instead a blue 2.
Donald knew that Alice's clue was Finessing him, since no-one else on the team has any red cards. So, he gasps in surprise when Cathy blind-plays for seemingly no reason.
However, Donald knows that he should trust Alice and he should trust Cathy, so he continues to assume that he has the red 2.
Donald tries to blind-play red 2 and it is instead the blue 3. Donald now knows that this is a Patch Finesse.
Emily sees the playable red 2 and red 3 in Donald's hand, so she also knows that this was a Patch Finesse. The red card in her hand is either red 3 or red 4.
We skipped over Bob - why did he discard? Normally, Bob should think the same thing as Cathy - that he has both the red 2 and the red 3. However, Bob can look ahead and see that a Patch Finesse could occur, so since everything will work perfectly if he does nothing, then he should do nothing. It is also possible that Bob happens to have the red 2 and the red 3, so he should try to blind-play those on the next round if no-one else attempts to blind-play anything.
Legal Patch Finesses are always hidden, meaning that from the person who is blind-playing a card to "patch" will never know that it is a Patch Finesse until after they blind-play.
In other words, if Alice performs a legal Patch Finesse, then no-one else on the team has to even know that the Patch Finesse convention exists - everything will just work out properly because everyone will just blind-play cards like any other ordinary Layered Finesse.
The exception is when it comes time for the patched player to begin blind-playing. In this situation, the patched player might be "spooked" from the blind-play of the patcher, because they will not understand why the blind-play happened. In this situation, players need to have full trust and not be spooked when another person on the team successfully blind-plays a card in an unexpected way.
Building on the Patch Finesse, it is theoretically possible for a Patch Finesse to require two separate players to patch at the same time.
However, we expressly forbid this because it is too confusing. Players should never consider the possibility of a Patch Finesse with two Patch Components.
Clandestine Finesses are when a color or rank clue "connects" to the card from a blind-play, but the clue receiver must wait for additional connecting playable cards to blind-play. Another way of saying this is that Clandestine Finesses have a Misplay Component; if the blind-player does not continue to blind-play cards, then the clue receiver will go on to misplay the clued card.
A similar situation can also happen when a rank clue "connects" the card from a blind-play, but the clue receiver sees non-connecting rank cards in the blind-player's hand that are currently playable.
If the clue receiver waits for these non-connecting cards to blind-play, and they do blind-play, then it means that the original clue was on a different suit than it first appeared. This is called a Surreptitious Self-Finesse in order to disambiguate it from a more ordinary Clandestine Finesse.
Surreptitious Finesses have a Misplay Component in almost the exact same way that Clandestine Finesses do, but they just involve non-connecting rank cards.
Generally speaking, this means that when a rank clue initiates a Finesse, the clue receiver must always allow for the possibility that subsequent non-connecting rank cards in the blind-player's hand (that are of a lower rank than the clue) can possibly be caught up in the Finesse.
For example, in a 3-player game:
Red 1 is played on the stacks.
Alice clues number 3 to Cathy, which touches one 3.
Bob blind-plays red 2.
Cathy knows that red 2 "connects" to number 3, so she knows that she probably has red 3.
However, Cathy also sees that before Bob blind-played the red 2, he had a blue 1 in the slot right after it.
Thus, it is possible for Cathy's 3 to actually be blue 3. If it is, Bob will blind-play the blue 1 and Cathy will know that she has blue 2 on her Finesse Position.
So, Cathy discards (instead of potentially playing the red 3 on this turn) to allow for the possibility of a Surreptitious Finesse.
Examples of a Surreptitious Finesse can be found here.
Priority Finesses are considered "free", since they do not cost a clue to perform. Thus, it is extremely rare that a player would decline to perform one if it was possible to do so.
If a player declines to perform a Priority Finesse, and there is nothing else special going on, then they must be trying to communicate something extra.
They are instead calling for a Priority Finesse on the card that had Priority. This is called an Inverted Priority Finesse because it gets a blind-play from playing a card with Priority (as opposed to getting a blind-play from playing a card without Priority).
After a Inverted Priority Finesse occurs, the presence of a normal Priority Finesse is now known to everyone on the team. Thus, the normal Priority Finesse is preserved and should be played into on the next go-around of the table.
For example, in a 3-player game:
Alice has a choice between playing a red 1 and a blue 2. Both cards are fully known, and no-one else has any clued cards, so the red 1 has Priority.
Alice plays the red 1.
Bob sees that if Alice had played the blue 2, she could have performed a Priority Finesse on Cathy's slot 1 card, the blue 3.
Bob knows that there was no reason for Alice to decline the Priority Finesse, so this must be an Inverted Priority Finesse. Bob blind-plays his slot 1 card, and it is the red 2.
Cathy knows that the red 1 had Priority, so playing it should not have caused Bob to blind-play anything. Thus, Cathy knows that this must be an Inverted Priority Finesse, and she knows that she has a blue 3 on her slot 1. Cathy discards.
Alice plays blue 2.
Bob discards.
Cathy blind-plays blue 3.
Note that Inverted Priority Finessewill only work if the players are in a certain order. Otherwise, the player holding the declined priority card can Play Clue the other card, which would destroy the information channel. This means that in most of cases, players should just go with the safer and less complicated option - the normal Priority Finesse.
Lie Principle states all that Fibs must resolve immediately. An untruth that does not resolve immediately is a Lie.
Normally, Lies are expressly illegal. However, some players will occasionally break the rules for the purposes of getting a Finesse. We call such moves Finesses with a Lie Component.
Typically, when players Lie out of Bluff Seat, the game quickly falls apart; subsequent clues will have different meanings to different players and everyone will become "desynchronized". This typically leads to a loss.
With that said, it is sometimes possible to construct safe lines that contain a Lie Component. There is usually deep levels of nuance involved in these lines, so this kind of thing is only recommended for advanced and expert players.
The previously mentioned Out-of-Order Finesse is a specific example of a Finesse with a Lie Component. One key attribute of the Out-of-Order Finesse is that the player who receives the Fix Clue knows that all of the related cards are playable, or it would not have been worth the risk (and the confusion) to perform a line with a Lie Component in the first place.
This concept can be generalized to all Finesses that have a Lie Component. After a player receives a Fix Clue in such a situation, they should assume that the Finesse is "still on". So, depending on the situation, they should either know that the initial card that was clued is playable (like in an Out-of-Order Finesse) or continue to blind-play cards to fulfill the initial Finesse (if the card clued with a Fix Clue seems to be unrelated).
Note that since we want to minimize Lying as much as possible, Finesses with a Lie Component have the lowest possible precedence. For example, this means that you can give a Delayed Play Clue to a player who is still blind-playing cards without it looking like a Fix Clue.
Importantly, Finesses with a Lie Component are only allowed if there is not an alternative line that would "get" the same number of cards without any lies. Thus, if you are looking to do a Finesse with a Lie Component, make sure you carefully consider the efficiency of all of the possible alternatives.
The 5's Chop Move is typically used to save a 5 and a critical non-5 at the same time. This is very efficient, because it saves both cards with one clue instead of having to spend two clues.
So, when a player has this strategy available, but instead declines to do it and clues the critical card on chop directly (without touching any other cards), then this is quite strange.
In this situation, the player must be trying to communicate something extra. Similar to an Occupied Finesse, the player is trying to signal that this seemingly innocent Save Clue is actually a Play Clue instead. Someone on the team must have the cards to make this critical card playable.
In some situations, the blind-player may have to defer playing into the Finesse and instead give a 5 Save to the player with the (now) unsafe chop. If they do, then this is not a problem - the clue receiver can retroactively determine that a Declined 5's Finesse has occurred and should not stomp on the Finesse.
The Rank Choice Save Finesse / The Rank Choice Save Bluff
When saving a card, players have to choose carefully between using a color clue or a rank clue. However, in some rare situations, it makes absolutely no difference which clue is used:
Both color and rank would only touch the specific card.
Both color and rank would communicate the exact identity of the specific card.
Both color and rank would not give any useful negative information to the other cards in the hand.
In these situations, the player giving the clue has a completely free choice between rank and color. We agree that by default, players should use color to save the card.
If players instead use a rank clue to save the card, this communicates a Rank Choice Save Finesse.
In the same way, it is also possible to perform a Rank Choice Save Bluff.