Orange

These conventions apply to any variant with an orange (inverted) suit.

The Orange Finesse / The Orange Double Finesse

• A Finesse on orange cards causes blind-discards instead of blind-plays, in exactly the way you would expect.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • It is the first turn of the game and nothing is played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues orange to Cathy, touching an orange 2 on slot 2 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob sees that he has been promised an orange 1 on his Finesse Position. Normally, in a Finesse, he would blind-play his Finesse Position, but since he is promised an orange card, he drags his Finesse Position to the discard pile instead. It is the orange 1 and it successfully plays on the stacks.
  • Cathy knows that she has the orange 2 to match.

• This concept works identically for a Double Finesse.
• For example, in a 4-player game:
  • It is the first turn of the game and nothing is played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues orange to Donald, touching an orange 3 on slot 2 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob drags his Finesse Position to the discard pile. It is orange 1 and it successfully plays on the stacks.
  • Cathy drags her Finesse Position to the discard pile. It is orange 2 and it successfully plays on the stacks.
  • Donald knows that he has the orange 3 to match.

The Orange Layered Finesse

• An Orange Finesse can also be Layered, as long as there are non-orange Trash cards that lead to the promised card.
• For example, in a 4-player game:
  • All the 2's are played on the stacks.
  • Cathy has a red 1 on slot 1 and an orange 3 on slot 2.
  • Alice clues orange to Donald, touching an orange 4 on slot 3 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob sees that Cathy can fulfil the Finesse and does something unrelated.
  • Cathy drags her slot 1 to the discard pile, thinking it is the orange 3. Instead, it is the red 1, and successfully discards.
  • Cathy now knows that the orange 3 is inside of a Orange Layered Finesse. She marks her slot 2 as the orange 3.
  • On her next turn, she drags her slot 2 to the discard pile. It is an orange 3 and successfully plays on the stacks.

The Non-Orange Rank Play Clue Assumption

• By default, Play Clues with rank are assumed to be non-orange cards.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • It is the first turn of the game and nothing is played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues number 1 to Bob, touching three 1's as a Play Clue.
  • Bob knows that if he simply plays all of the 1's, he has a chance to discard an orange 1, which could be bad because then the team would lose their only visible copy. However, Bob also knows that rank play clues are assumed to be non-orange cards, so he does not have to worry about it.
  • Bob drags all of his 1's to the stacks in the normal order.

• This convention is turned off when the only playable suit left is the orange suit.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • All the 1's are played on the stacks except for the orange 1.
  • Alice clues number 1 to Bob, touching a 1 on slot 1 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob assumes that it is the orange 1 and drags it to the discard pile. It is an orange 1 and it successfully plays on the stacks.

• Additionally, rank Play Clues to orange cards are assumed over Self-Finesses, which should follow from Occam's Razor.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • Orange 1 is played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues number 2 to Bob, touching a 2 on slot 1 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob knows that this is either a direct Play Clue on an orange 2, or a Self-Finesse on e.g. red 1 into red 2. However, Bob knows that the Non-Orange Rank Play Clue Assumption is turned off when orange is the only possibility.
  • Bob drags his 2 to the discard pile. It is an orange 2 and it successfully plays on the stacks.

The Orange Color Play Clue Assumption

• By default, Play Clues with orange color are assumed to be orange cards.
• For example, in a 3-player game of "Rainbow & Orange (5 Suits)":
  • It is the first turn of the game and nothing is played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues orange to Bob, touching a card on slot 1 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob knows that the two playable orange cards are rainbow 1 and orange 1. That puts him in a potential dilemma, because guessing wrong will cause him to discard a card he intended to play.
  • However, Bob also knows that orange color play clues are assumed to be orange cards, which means that he can be confident that he has the orange 1 exactly.
  • Bob drags his orange card to the discard pile. It is orange 1 and it successfully plays on the stacks.

The Orange Fix Clue

• When an orange card is on chop, it must be indicated with a clue in order to prevent a strike.
  • The exception is when the card would "accidentally" play via discarding, which is covered in the next section. But this will rarely be the case.
• An orange 2 on chop must be fixed/saved with a 2 Save, as per normal.
• An orange 5 must be fixed/saved with a 5 Save, as per normal.
• An orange 3 and orange 4 must be fixed/saved with an orange color clue.
• Trash orange cards must also be fixed with an orange color clue.
• Thus, the note on a chop card after an Orange Fix Clue would be:
  • o3, o4 if there are no orange cards played.
  • o3, o4, trash if there are one or more orange cards played.

Orange Fix Clues in The Early Game

• For the purposes of The Early Game, Orange Fix Clues are considered to be "required" in the same way that saving a 5 on chop would be required.

The Orange Accidental Blind-Play

• When a playable orange card is on chop, you should not indicate it with a clue. This is because the player will naturally discard it, which will cause it to "accidentally" play.

The Orange Gentleman's Discard

• When an orange card is Gentleman's Discarded, instead of promising that the matching card is on Finesse Position, it is instead promised to be on chop.
• Similar to The Orange Layered Finesse, the Orange Gentleman's Discard can also be Layered if the promised card is behind non-orange trash cards. (Unlike a normal Layered Finesse, the layering would go in the opposite order, similar to a Layered Elimination Finesse.)

The Orange Baton Discard

• When an orange card is Baton Discarded, instead of promising that the matching card is on Finesse Position, it is instead promised to be on chop.
• This promised card should then be Chop Moved.

The Orange Blaze Discard (Unchanged)

• When an orange card is Blaze Discarded, there are no special rules like there are with Gentleman's Discard and Baton Discard. In other words, if Bob sees the matching orange card on Second Finesse Position, he should blind-play his Second Finesse Position.

The Hollow Bluff

• Because all orange cards have to be clued when they get to chop, you can think of them as being like "land mines". Thus, if you can remove the land mine early, it is usually good to do so.
• One way to do this is to get them to blind-play by using a Bluff (which will cause them to be discarded). However, since no cards are actually being blind-played, the Bluff is "hollow".
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • All the 1's are played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues red to Cathy, touching a red 3 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob knows that this must be a Finesse, so he drags his Finesse Position to the stacks, trying to play a red 2. Instead, he discards an orange 1.
  • Cathy knows that since Bob tried to play his Finesse Position, she must have the one-away-from-playable red card, the red 3.

• If the card discarded from a Hollow Bluff is not trash, them all players should write Elimination Notes for the other copy.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • The setup is identical to the previous example, but instead of Bob dragging an orange 1 to the stacks, it is an orange 3.
  • Like the previous example, Cathy knows that her red card is red 3. Furthermore, Cathy knows that someone must have the other copy of the orange 3. Cathy does not see the orange 3 in anyone else's hand, so she marks her non-red cards as possible orange 3's.

• Since Hollow Bluffs are useful to get rid of the "land mines", they should never cause a Chop Move.

The Hollow [Whatever]

• Similar to how it is possible to get an orange card to blind-discard as a Hollow Bluff, you can also get an orange card to blind-discard as a Hollow Unknown Trash Discharge, a Hollow Chop Move Ignition, and so on.

The Citrus Bluff

• First, see the section on the Hollow Bluff.
• Because of Bob's Truth Principle, you cannot normally use an orange card as a Bluff target, since the reacting player would blind-discard instead of blind-play.
• However, you can use an orange card as a Bluff target if the card on Finesse Position is trash. This is similar to how a Hollow Bluff works, but inverted.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • All the 1's are played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues orange to Cathy, touching an orange 3 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob knows that this must be a Finesse, so he drags his Finesse Position to the discard pile, trying to play an orange 2. Instead, he discards a red 1.
  • Cathy knows that since Bob tried to discard his Finesse Position, she must have the one-away-from-playable orange card, the orange 3.

• You can also perform a Citrus Bluff on a non-trash card. Similar to a Hollow Bluff, this should cause all players to write Elimination Notes for the other copy.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • The setup is identical to the previous example, but instead of Bob dragging a red 1 to the discard pile, it is a red 3.
  • Like the previous example, Cathy knows that her orange card is orange 3. Furthermore, Cathy knows that someone must have the other copy of the red 3. Cathy does not see the red 3 in anyone else's hand, so she marks her non-orange cards as possible red 3's.

The Insolent Bluff

• Normally, if Alice clues an orange 3 with a number 3 Play Clue, then Bob would think he has the orange 1 and the orange 2 as a Double Finesse (because of Bob's Truth Principle).
• However, we agree that number 3 clues to a two-away-from-playable orange 3 call for a Known Bluff on a non-orange card. (In other words, we agree to turn off Bob's Truth Principle for this specific type of clue.)
• For example, in a 3-player game of "Orange (5 Suits)":
  • Only red 1 is played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues number 3 to Cathy, touching an orange 3 on slot 2 as a Play Clue.
  • Normally, Bob would think that this is an orange Double Finesse. However, he also knows that because the Insolent Bluff convention exists, so he should treat it as a Known Bluff instead.
  • Bob drags his Finesse Position to the stacks. It is a yellow 1 and successfully plays.
  • Cathy knows that:
    • If Alice's clue was a normal Bluff, she would have a red 3.
    • If Alice's clue was a Insolent Bluff, she would have the orange 3.
    • If Alice's clue was a 3 Bluff, she would have the any other 3.
  • Thus, Cathy knows that her 3 can be any suit.

Ejections & Discharges & Charms on Orange Cards

• Orange cards can be used as targets for Ejections and Discharges and Charms. However, the blind-playing player should always assume their card is non-orange.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • It is the first turn of the game and nothing is played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues orange to Cathy, touching an orange 5 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob knows that this is a 5 Color Ejection. But should he drag his Second Finesse Position to the stacks or the discard pile?
  • Bob knows that Ejections & Discharges & Charms on orange cards call for blind-plays, so Bob drags his Second Finesse Position to the stacks. It is a red 1 and successfully plays.
  • Cathy marks her orange card as exactly orange 5.

Complicated Moves on Orange Cards are Necessary

• If a complicated move gets an orange card blind-discarded / blind-played / touched, then it is considered to be necessary.
  • This is because if the orange card got to chop, a clue would have to be "wasted" to prevent it from bombing.

Elimination with Orange Cards

• The Elimination Blind Play Riding Deduction does not apply when the Elimination Notes are on an immediately playable orange card. This is because the team's plan might be to cause an Orange Accidental Blind-Play.

The Orange Trash Discharge

• In rare cases, it is possible to misrepresent an orange trash card as a non-orange trash card. Since playing from Finesse Position and Second Finesse Position would not resolve the misrepresentation, we agree to play Third Finesse Position instead.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • All the 1s are played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues number 1 to Cathy, touching an orange 1 on slot 4.
  • Bob sees that from Cathy's perspective, this will look like a Trash Chop Move:
    • If Bob does nothing, Cathy will go on to discard the orange 1, causing a misplay.
    • If Bob blind-plays his Finesse Position, Cathy will think a Chop Move Ignition is happening and will misplay her slot 5 card.
    • If Bob blind-plays his Second Finesse Position, Cathy will think a Bad Chop Move Ejection is happening, and she will still go on to discard the orange 1, causing a misplay.
    • Thus, Bob blind-plays his Third Finesse Position. It is a red 2 and successfully plays.
    • Cathy marks her card as orange 1, since that is the only way that this type of clue would cause a Discharge.

• If an Orange Trash Discharge touches two or more trash cards, then only the focus is promised to be an orange card. The leftmost trash card is considered to be focused, since that is the card that would be discarded first.

The Orange Fix Clue Bluff

• Normally, the Orange Accidental Blind-Play happens when a playable orange card is on someone's chop. In other words, it would be pointless to indicate a playable orange card on chop with a clue.
• However, what if a player intentionally performs an Orange Fix Clue on a playable orange card on chop? That would misrepresent the identity of the card, requiring that the next player react in some way to prove what is really happening. We agree that players should treat this as a Known Bluff.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • It is the first turn of the game and nothing is played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues orange to Cathy, touching an orange 1 on slot 5 (chop).
  • Bob sees that from Cathy's perspective, this will look like an Orange Fix Clue, and Cathy will mark the card as o3, o4. Thus, it requires Bob to react in some way to prove that it is really an orange 1.
  • Bob drags his Finesse Position to the stacks as a Known Bluff. It is a red 1 and successfully plays.
  • Cathy updates her note from o3, o4 to o1, since that is the only reason that Bob would have blind-played his Finesse Position in this situation.