⚠ Work in progress ⚠ Contains logic

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Interpretation

In order to play cooperatively, we need to mark playable cards to get them to play at the correct time. To maximise cooperation, we need to be able to predict the possible moves of other players. The cost of being able to predict moves is to limit the number of moves

• If a card is playable, logically we assume it will be marked by a clue before it is discarded (unless there is another copy visible).

• With black powder: 1 bluffs are black powder1,with a black powder1clue, promise bluffs unless black powder1,with a black powder1clue, is known to Alice and the receiver.
• Context color bluff

Quiz: valid or invalid?

Extraction

It is possible to extract a card that is 'blocked' by an unplayable card using two clues.

1. Clue the target with colour.
2. Clue the target with number.

Since black powder can't be clued with colour, extraction is a little different:

1. Clue the target with number.
2. Clue the card to the left of the target with colour.

Why extraction works

1. Alice gives a white colour clue to indicate to Bob that she is giving a play clue to Cathy.
2. Bob has one job: don't let Cathy bomb. He sees that one of Cathy's marked white cards is playable, so he understands that he just has to help Cathy play the correct card:

• If the leftmost white card is playable, Bob does not need to do anything.
• If the leftmost white card is not playable, Bob needs to help with a follow-up fix clue.

Why colour before number?

• In each colour, only one card can be playable (two with avalanche), whereas there can be many playable cards of a certain number. So Alice singles out one colour to help Bob know her intention is for him to help Cathy play the correct card.
• A colour clue can mark a chop card without looking like a save.

How do I know it's not a finesse?

• The leftmost card may be 1-away-from-playable.

But if Bob can see that one of the cards Alice marked with colour is playable, he will prefer to give a fix clue and not blind play his finesse position.

• As Bob, consider the choice of clue:
  • if Alice wanted to finesse 2b with a playable 1m in front, why skip players to give specifically a blue clue (why not another colour or number?
  • if Alice wanted to finesse 4k with a playable 4r in front, why skip players to give specficially a 4 clue (why not red)?

The everlasting exception: context

Context > convention and can cause an unconventional move!

Think carefully about:

1. timing (why now?),
2. negative clues (e.g. "not red"),
3. recently discarded cards,
4. unique cards,
5. tokens needed for saves or other plays

Examples

blue2b,with a blue2clue,multicolour1m,with a multicolour1clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,Cathy 🡲 multicolour1m,with a multicolour1clue,blue2b,with a blue2clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,Cathy 🡲

card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back5,with a 5clue,card back5,with a 5clue,Bob 🡲 yellow4y,with a yellow4clue,black powder4,with a black powder4clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,Cathy 🡲

card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back5,with a 5clue,card back5,with a 5clue,Bob 🡲 yellow4y,with a yellow4clue,black powder4,with a black powder4clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,Cathy 🡲

• Alice clues 4s to Cathy. How should Bob respond?

When is it chop focus?

Travis Hall » 16 December 2023, 01:12

When playing with high-level partners, I generally try to regard a number clue touching chop as chop-focussed unless there is a timeliness consideration.[…]when giving a finesse, we can’t wait for the discard of the chop. For example:

Played: white2w,with a white2clue, white3w,with a white3clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue, B 🡲 multicolour5m,with a multicolour5clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,white4w,with a white4clue,black powder4,with a black powder4clue, C 🡲

A clues 4 to C. Cluing white is blocked by multicolour5m,with a multicolour5clue,. Cluing 4 can’t wait, because B will probably discard and white3w,with a white3clue, will move out of finesse. C can note the finesse response and adjust their expectation to play the left 4.

And I try to consistently clue the same way.

I recognise that many masters will clue 2s non-chop-focussed in the early game. Frankly, I’m not a fan, as this forces me to guess who does this and who does not, but I will guess because my rate of error is lower that way. I understand the consideration that 2s are the most valuable cards, but I’m not sure the risks are worth it.

Whenever somebody touches my chop with a number clue and expects me to play from the left, and I misfire, my question is always “Well, if my cards were the opposite way around, how would you have clued them?” Of the few who will answer that question at all, the answer is usually, “I would clue <number>,” and they don’t understand that this makes it impossible for me to do anything other than guess.

Since we know we can extract a playable cards with colour + number clues, it follows that number clues that mark the chop card are interpreted as:

1. Unique save if the chop card can be unique
2. Double discard save if the player either side of the receiver has a non-unique card of the same number
3. Otherwise a left-focused play clue.

black powder1,with a black powder1clue,

• 1 clues that mark the chop card are interpreted as a black powder1,with a black powder1clue, save (unless the receiver already has a known play).

• If a player can see black powder1,with a black powder1clue,, it is logical to play all cards marked 1 from oldest to newest.

The oldest is the most valuable 1 because otherwise it could have been discarded before cluing 1.

Playing a chop card marked 1 can be played because:

1. black powder1,with a black powder1clue, is visible (and the player who can't see it is promised black powder1,with a black powder1clue,)
   • This player should then track the newest position that can be black powder1,with a black powder1clue,.
     • if this card reaches chop, it should not be saved with a direct clue.
     • if his card does receive a direct clue, it becomes a finesse.
2. a playable 1 was discarded
3. a playable 1 was not bluffed

The everlasting exception: context

Context > convention and can cause an unconventional move!

Think carefully about:

1. timing (why now?),
2. negative clues (e.g. "not red"),
3. recently discarded cards,
4. unique cards,
5. tokens needed for saves or other plays

Strategy

Back to basics

• In a 👤5players player game with ✋4cards in hand each and avalanche, there are up to 30 possible moves per player (excluding flamboyants).

e.g. if each hand has one avalanche multicolourm,with a multicolourclue, card.

• In one round of play that means up to 150 possible unique positions!
• That's a lot to think about. But amazingly our human brains can filter out the vast majority of those moves as not logical given a bit of agreement on clue, play and discard interpretations (conventions).

Hand management

When to skip players

(and how to irritate them ​)

DDA

Efficiency 8clue tokens

Bluffs

• Bluffs are powerful...
• Easiest way to mark nice cards

Maximizing bluff opportunities ​

• Once we realise the power of bluffs, it follows that we want to maximise the number of bluffing opportunities available to players.
• In any given situation, it is possible to work out Alice's optimal move given the information available to her.

• The basic idea is simple: look for the bluff opportunity that is furthest ahead.
• Everyone should be making moves that enable that bluff opportunity to be used, and then work backwards from that player for the next opportunity.

So from Alice's point of view, she will see if:

1. Donald can bluff Emily
2. Cathy can bluff Donald
3. Bob can bluff Cathy
4. Alice can bluff Bob

When to not save unique cards ​

• No matter how many tokens you have, whether it is 1clue tokens or 7clue tokens, you do not always have to spend a token to save a card. Some players might find this statement controversial.
• Each player must consider the likelihood of a certain move and assess if the risk-reward of all the possible moves.

#Back_to_basics We know that there are a lot of possible moves, and even more game states.

Examples of clear good/bad

Questionable examples

Context examples

When to Trash bluff

• When you first learn about trash bluffs, you need to practice it and that's fine.
• Once you are comfortable with how it works, you need to consider if you should use a trash bluff.

• Examples where it is clearly bad

Played: white1w,with a white1clue, blue1b,with a blue1clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue, Bob 🡲 white1w,with a white1clue,white1w,with a white1clue,blue2b,with a blue2clue,blue2b,with a blue2clue, Cathy 🡲

Reverses with number white3w,with a white3clue,

• Reverse finesses are often not great if the finessed card could instead be bluffed, however, it can be useful to mark a chop card as a reverse to ensure it is not discarded.

  e.g. Alice sees Bob has white2w,with a white2clue, on chop and Donald just drew white1w,with a white1clue,. Normally the best moves would be for Alice and Bob to discard so that Cathy can bluff Donald's white1w,with a white1clue,, but white2w,with a white2clue, is more valuable than any bluff target Alice can see, so she chooses to reverse with colour.

But what if reversing with colour would mark trash?

• If we can finesse with number, why can't we also reverse finesse with number?
• A reverse with number is usually harder to read than a reverse with colour, but they can be a lot more efficient than colour + multiple correction clues (to prevent future bombs).

Travis Hall gives a basic explanation of number reverses:

Similarly, we often avoid number reverses, because if there’s both an available reverse to any card of that number and an immediately playable card of that number, the clue receiver has to guess at the correct move, and this can easily go wrong. Even so, when circumstance narrows the possibilities enough, we can sometimes do a number reverse safely.

Multicolour reverses with colour multicolour3m,with a multicolour3clue,

Travis Hall explains it well:

We usually avoid reverse finesses in multicolour, because although multi does connect with any colour, if we reverse multis then responses to our most common play clues - colour clues to a playable card - just stop, all of them, if a playable multi is in someone’s blind finesse position. That can be very difficult to work around.

• Multicolour reverses with a single colour can work, the most common situation being where the clue giver and receiver can both see a playable card of the colour clued either marked or in the finesse position in someone else's hand.
• Such a reverse may also trigger a hesitation play.

When to GD

1. Plays extra cards for free from one or more hands.
2. Protect cards
3. Token is needed

GD without one of these benefits is usually of negative value:

• Limits the freedom to clue.
• Misleads the responder - the cards to the right of the copy is not trash.

Context

Using the last token 0clue tokens

Cause a valuable discard

• Marked in a hand
• Unmarked in a hand

Following player has a locked hand

• Cause a trash or duplicate discard e.g. black powder5,with a black powder5clue, from 5 save.
• Cause a play

Negatives white5w,with a white5clue,white4w,with a white4clue,

Write notes if necessary.

1. Keep track of your own negatives.
2. Keep rack of all negatives.

Play finesse position e.g. multicolour bluff where:

• a colour-marked card has a negative colour

Multicolour bluff target is clued with a single colour

• if it can be clued red, but another colour is chosen = finesse
• if it can't be clued red = prompt

Cluing

Marking fewer than possible cards e.g. marking a single 2 with colour instead of multiple 2s with number = duplicate 2 in your hand

no prompt

no save = non-unique

Trash bluffs

Stop trash bluffing 1s when 1k is not visible Would you trash bluff 5k when all 5s are not visible?

black powder1,with a black powder1clue, tracking

when you can know 1k certain

how you can play chop 1s when 1k is still in the deck

tricks to save on saving black powder1,with a black powder1clue,

• when 1k is known somewhere and other cards are all marked later
• when 1k is known somewhere and there are promised cards in the same hand

• apply this principal generally is tricky because it can become unclear what has triggered a blind-play

slot 3 blind plays

certain 1k

uncertain 2

Consider this situation:

• Alice clues Donald's blue5b,with a blue5clue,

card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue, Bob 🡲 blue1b,with a blue1clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue, Cathy 🡲 black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,blue5b,with a blue5clue,red5r,with a red5clue, Donald 🡲

• Bob sees blue1b,with a blue1clue, and correctly assumes he has blue2b,with a blue2clue,blue3b,with a blue3clue,blue4b,with a blue4clue, and mentally congratulates Alice on a great clue.
• So Bob saves red5r,with a red5clue,:

card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue, Bob 🡲 blue1b,with a blue1clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue, Cathy 🡲 black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,blue5b,with a blue5clue,red5r,with a red5clue, Donald 🡲

• Cathy discards.
• Donald discards.
• Alice discards.
• What should Bob do?

A) discard chopB) clue blue1b,with a blue1clue,C) play slot 1D) discard slot 1E) type "??" in chat

Passing back a finesse

• Normally we know that if we finesse a card and more than one player has a copy of the same finessed card, the first player will not play it because they see it in another hand, and the last player who does not see a future response must play the card.
• However sometimes we have a situation where it would be clearly a blunder to play.
• In the last example, Cathy's choice to discard instead of play for blue1b,with a blue1clue, was the correct choice given she saw all the connecting cards in Bob's hand. Note that if Cathy had a critical card on chop, this finesse would be a blunder.

What if there were only one connecting card behind blue1b,with a blue1clue,?

• Alice clues Donald's blue4b,with a blue4clue,

blue1b,with a blue1clue,blue3b,with a blue3clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue, Bob 🡲 blue1b,with a blue1clue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue, Cathy 🡲 black powder,with a black powderclue,black powder,with a black powderclue,white4w,with a white4clue,red5r,with a red5clue, Donald 🡲

• Bob sees blue1b,with a blue1clue, in Cathy's hand, so he saves red5r,with a red5clue,

Or Cathy has both connecting cards as well?

• Double pass back

The point is that so long as an important card is not in danger of being discarded, the situation should always resolve itself without any more clues given.

Endgame

See Hanabi conventions page 2

5 Flamboyants

See Hanabi conventions page 2