No Positive Clues
These conventions apply to the following variants:
- Extremely Ambiguous (with color clues only)
- Color Blind (with color clues only)
- Number Blind (with number clues only)
- Totally Blind
- Cow & Pig
- Duck
Special Move Summary
- If a clue is focusing a critical card on chop, then it is probably a Save Clue, as mentioned in the "Basic Conventions" section above.
- If a clue is focusing a card that is not on chop, then it is a Play Clue, and the following table applies:
Type of Clue | Interpretation |
---|---|
Any clue focusing a one-away card | A Finesse, a Transparent Bluff, or a Transparent Double Bluff |
Any clue focusing a two-or-more-away 5 | An Ejection |
Any clue focusing a two-or-more-away 3 | A Discharge |
Any clue focusing a two-or-more-away 4 | A Charm |
- For more specific information, see each section below.
The Transparent Bluff
- Normally, you cannot perform a Bluff in variants without any positive information. This is because the blind-play will always look like it "connects" to the clue target.
- However, the one exception to this is if a 5 blind-plays. Then, the clue receiver can know that it is a Bluff (because there is no card that connects to a 5).
- In this situation, the clue receiver would mark their touched card as a one-away-from-playable card.
The Transparent Double Bluff
- Normally, you cannot perform a Bluff in variants without any positive information. This is because the blind-play will always look like it "connects" to the clue target.
- However, it is possible to perform a Double Bluff by cluing any one-away-from-playable card and getting two non-connected cards to play.
- For example, in a 4-player game of the Duck variant:
- It is the first turn and nothing is played on the stacks.
- Alice clues red to Donald, touching a red 2 as a Play Clue.
- Bob tries to blind-play red 1 from his Finesse Position, but he instead blind-plays the blue 1.
- Cathy sees that Donald will go on to misplay the red 2 as the blue 2. Thus, this must be a Double Bluff, so Cathy blind-plays her Finesse Position card. It is a green 1 and it successfully plays.
- Donald knows that he cannot have the blue 2, or else Cathy would not have done anything special. Donald's card can be any one-away-from-playable card in the game.
- Double Half-Bluffs are explicitly outlawed. In other words, the first blind-play from a Double Bluff must be completely unrelated to the card that was clued. (This is so that the clue-receiver will have more specific information.)
5 Ejection
- 5 Color Ejection is turned on in variants without any positive information, just like it is in any other variant.
- Additionally, players can also perform 5 Number Ejection and it will generally work in the exact same way.
- Thus, players should keep in mind that clues that cause Ejection might have been either a color clue or a number clue.
3 Discharge
- Unknown Trash Discharge is turned off in variants without any positive information.
- Instead, 3 Discharge is turned on. In other words, a Play Clue focusing a two-or-more-away-from-playable 3 is a signal for the next player to play their Third Finesse Position.
- Similar to 5 Ejection, 3 Discharge can be initiated with either a color clue or a number clue.
- When all the 3's have been played or accounted for, Unknown Trash Discharge is turned back on.
4 Charm
- Charm is defined as a move that makes a player play their Fourth Finesse Position.
- A Play Clue focusing a two-or-more-away-from-playable 4 is a signal for the next player to play their Fourth Finesse Position.
- Similar to 5 Ejection, 4 Charm can be initiated with either a color clue or a number clue.