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Rainbow

These conventions apply to any variant with a rainbow (touched by all colors) or dual-color suit.

Saving Rainbow Cards​

  • If a rainbow 2 has not yet been discarded, then it must be 2 Saved in the same way that normal 2's are.
  • If a rainbow 2, a rainbow 3, or a rainbow 4 are critical, then they can be saved with any color, or the respective rank.
  • Thus, as soon as a rainbow 2, a rainbow 3, or a rainbow 4 become critical, any color clue to a chop card will probably just look like a Save Clue on a critical card.

Free Choice​

  • Free Choice is defined as when a player has two or more options to clue a card and all of the options would only touch the same card(s).
  • For example, in a no variant game:
    • Bob's hand is, from newest to oldest: red 1, blue 4, blue 4, yellow 4, yellow 4
    • If Alice wants to give a Play Clue to the red 1, Alice is said to have a Free Choice between red and number 1, since both of those clue types would only touch the red 1.
  • Since rainbow cards are touched by any color, players will often have a Free Choice on how to clue a rainbow card.
  • For example, in a rainbow game with 6 suits:
    • Bob hand is, from newest to oldest: rainbow 1, blue 4, yellow 4, green 4, yellow 4
    • If Alice wants to give a Play Clue to the rainbow 1, Alice is said to have a Free Choice between red, purple, and number 1, since all of those clue types would only touch the rainbow 1.

The Free Choice Finesse​

  • When performing a Prompt on a rainbow card, if the cluer chooses a color that only touches rainbow cards and they have a Free Choice to choose the color that matches the color on the clued rainbow card, then they should always choose the color that matches.
  • For example, in a rainbow game with 6 suits:
    • All of the 1's are played on the stacks.
    • Bob has a clued rainbow 2 in his hand. It is clued with only red. He does not know the identity of the card.
    • Cathy has no clued cards in her hand. Cathy hand is, from newest to oldest: rainbow 3, blue 1, yellow 1, green 1, yellow 1
    • If Alice gives a Play Clue to the rainbow 3, it would Prompt the rainbow 2 in Bob's hand.
    • Alice needs to decide on what clue to give. She does not want to give blue, yellow, or green, since that would cause a Bad Touch on the 1's that are already played.
    • That leaves red, purple, and number 3. Since all of these clues would only touch the rainbow 3, Alice is said to have a Free Choice between those clue types.
    • So, the following things are true:
      1. Alice is doing a Prompt by giving a clue that will only touch rainbow cards
      2. Alice has red available as a Free Choice between two or more clue types
      3. Bob's rainbow 2 is clued red
    • Thus, Alice must choose red if she wants to prompt the rainbow 2.
  • If a player in this situation chooses not choose to match the color, then they must be trying to communicate something extra. This signifies that it is actually a Finesse instead of a Prompt.
  • For example, in a 3-player game:
    • It is the first turn and nothing is played on the stacks.
    • Alice clues Bob red, which touches a red 1 in slot 1 and a red 3 in slot 2.
    • Bob plays red 1 from slot 1. He draws a rainbow 1, which is now in his slot 1.
    • Cathy discards.
    • Alice notices that Bob has a rainbow 1 in Finesse Position. And Cathy has a rainbow 2 in her hand.
    • Since Prompts take precedence over Finesses, if Alice clues the rainbow 2 with red, then Bob will misplay the red 3 as rainbow 1. This is a problem.
    • However, Cathy has no red cards, no blue cards, and no other rainbow cards in her hand. Thus, if Alice wants to clue the rainbow 2 with a color, Alice has a Free Choice between cluing red and cluing blue.
    • Alice clues blue to Cathy, which only touches the rainbow 2.
    • Bob knows that since Alice had a Free Choice and did not color-match with red, he should play his slot 1 instead of his slot 2.

The Free Choice Bluff​

  • It is possible to use the Free Choice convention to communicate to a teammate that you want a Finesse instead of a Prompt in order to get them to play an unrelated playable card from their Finesse Position.
  • Like a normal Bluff, after a Free Choice Bluff, the player who blind-played does not necessarily have the "connecting" card in their hand.