Hanabi Strategies &

Conventions
For the Hyphen-ated group

Written by: Zamiel

All document updates are listed in the

#announcements channel on Discord:
https://discord.gg/FADvkJp
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Introduction & Purpose

● Hanabi is a fantastic cooperative game of logic and reasoning. Our group, started
by Hyphen-ated, gets online games going regularly. Everything doesn’t always go
perfectly, but we strive to constantly improve. Naturally, we have also built up a
set of conventions that we all agree upon at the beginning of the game so that it
is easier to understand what everyone else is doing.

● The purpose of this document is:

○ To explain the nine “first principles” to a beginner.

Briefing a beginner on every possible strategy would quickly become

overwhelming. it is much easier to just describe some guiding principles
that everyone agrees upon. Once these are known, a beginner should be
able to use logic and reason to derive (most of) the resulting strategy that
their teammate is intending.

○ To serve as a reference for intermediate and expert players.

Based on the guiding principles, we have come up with many different

strategies. It is helpful to give specific names to each strategy to aid in
both discussion and comprehension. If you know the general way we play
but don’t know about a specific kind of move, then you can look it up in
this document.

● This document was rewritten/reorganized in December 2016 to have a more

coherent layout and all of the latest conventions that we have made. We added a
ninth first principle in April 2017.

● We generally only play games with 3-5 players, since 2-player games can be quite
boring. Thus, this document doesn’t really apply to 2-player games; separate
conventions are probably necessary for optimized play in that game type .
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Table of Contents
This document is split up into different sections so that you can better digest it. You
probably should not read the entire document at once; use it as a reference as you
continue to improve at the game.
1) Quick Links
2) First Principles
3) Beginner Strategies (Level 1)
4) Intermediate Strategies (Level 2)
5) Advanced Strategies (Level 3)
6) Expert Strategies (Level 4)
7) Variant-Specific Strategies
8) Rarely Used Intermediate/Advanced Strategies (Level 2/3)
9) Rarely Used Expert Strategies (Level 4)
10) Non-Formalized Proposals
11) Convention Attribution

Quick Links
● This document assumes that you are ALREADY familiar with the basic rules of
Hanabi. If you need to brush up on them, see this Pastebin from Tricky:
http://pastebin.com/6brGz2J4

● The best place to play Hanabi online is at:

http://hanabi.live/

● Find other people to play with and discuss strategy with on the Discord server:
https://discord.gg/FADvkJp
(Discord is a voice and text chat application that you can run in a browser.)
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First-Principles (for Beginners)

While there are some weird strategies that could throw you for a loop if you have never
seen them before, mostly everything should follow from these guiding principles. You
don’t have to memorize all of these all at once; just read them once so that you can start
to get familiar with them.

#1 - Chop Principle
● The “chop” is the right-most unclued (and unknown) card.

● When a player needs to discard and has no known safe discards, they discard the
chop card.

#2 - Good Touch Principle

● A safe discard is defined as:

○ a copy of a card that has already been played

○ a copy of a card that already has a clue on it

● Safe discards should NOT be clued (unless there's an important reason to).

● Players should generally assume that any clued card in their hand will be
eventually be played.

#3 - Save Principle
● Cards that meet the following criteria need to be saved:

○ only one copy remains (e.g. 5s or unplayed cards in the trash)

○ it is currently playable and not visible elsewhere in players' hands

○ it is a 2 and not visible elsewhere in players' hands

(this is the 2 Saves convention)
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● When a card that needs to be saved is at immediate risk of being discarded, it

must be indicated with a save clue.

● A player receiving a clue should give precedence to a “save” clue interpretation

over a “play” clue interpretation.

#4 - Minimum Clue Value Principle

● A given clue must either:

○ indicate sufficient information for one or more previously unclued cards to

be played

○ prevent the possible discard of a card that needs to be saved

#5 - Play Order Principle

● When a play clue touches multiple cards, if it includes the chop, it's focused on
the chop. Otherwise it's focused on the newest of the freshly-introduced cards.
The non-focused cards may or may not be playable.

(This principle is also known as the “chop focus” convention.)

#6 - Left-Most Playable Principle

● When a player is expected to play a card (or know a card is playable) in a
situation not covered by the Play Order Principle, the card to be played is the left-
most of the various cards that are most likely to be it.

#7 - Information Lock Principle

● What is indicated by a clue is determined by the known information at the time
the clue is given. Subsequent clues may build upon that information, but do not
override it unless a direct conflict is evident.
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#8 - Good Lie Principle

● When a play clue is given, it's a message that says the card is playable.
Sometimes this message can be a lie, in order to usefully manipulate other
players.

● Valid lies must not allow for the possibility of any misinformed player to give a
conflicting clue or misplay. In simpler terms, this means that good lies almost
always reveal themselves on the very next turn.

#9 - High Value Principle

● The highest value clue is expected. If a clue is given, it should be interpreted to
be the highest value move available to that player.

● In other words, you can draw many important conclusions from the the fact that
a player did not do some other (potentially higher-value) move.

Appendix A: Basic Clue Logic:

Following from these principles, this is a basic logic flowchart that describes the
general interpretation of a clue:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/140016142600241152/26646729010131763
2/Hanabi_Clue_Flowchart.png
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Beginner Strategies
(Level 1)
#1 - The Early Game
● The Early Game is defined as the period of time before someone discards for the
first time. When they do, they initiate the Mid-Game. The goal of the Early Game is
to extend it for as long as reasonably possible.

● In the Early Game, you MUST “extinguish” all of the available Play Clues and Save
Clues on the board before discarding.

● This ALSO includes cluing all of the non-chop 5s with number 5 (see Saving 5’s
off Chop below). This is special, because you can’t normally do this during the
Mid-Game.

#2 - When to Discard
● In general (not just in the Early Game), discarding is a last resort. If you have
known playable cards in your hand, you are expected to play them before
discarding. Furthermore, if there are good play clues to give, you are expected to
make them before discarding.

● Thus, if there are more urgent things at hand, you can defer saving important
cards on someone else’s chop if you see they have playable cards or even a good
play clue to give.

#3 - Cluing 1s
● If you need to clue a single 1, it is better to do it with a color clue than a number
clue. This is because it allows them to potentially clue other 1s on the board.
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● If one or more 1s in your hand are clued, you should assume that they are ALL
playable. (This ONLY applies to 1s, and follows from Good Touch Principle.)

● Playing 1s at the beginning of the game is a special case - you should always
play your 1s from oldest to newest.

#4 - Saving 5s on Chop
● Always save a 5 with a number clue instead of a color clue. Otherwise, it will look
like a Play Clue or a Save Clue on a critical card.

#5 - Saving 5s off Chop

● As mentioned above, cluing 5’s off-chop with a number 5 clue is mandatory in the
Early Game.

○ The exception to this is if there is an off-chop 5 in the hand of the player

that came immediately before you (because they gave you permission to
discard). In this situation, you can clue it if you want to.

● In the Mid-Game and beyond, saving 5s off chop is only permitted in specific
“stall” situations, when someone is afraid of discarding.

#6 - Saving 2s on Chop
● Similar to saving 5s, always save a 2 with a number clue instead of a color clue.

○ You can violate Good Touch Principle and duplicate a 2 in the situation
where a color clue would look like a playable card and cause a misplay.

#7 - Delayed Play Clues

● When you receive a clue that doesn’t look like a save clue, it is probably a play
clue. However, it does NOT necessarily mean that YOU can play that card
immediately. Look around the board for other ALREADY CLUED cards that might
be related to the card that you are considering playing and then wait for them to
be played.
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● For example, if Alice was clued about a bunch of 1s and then Bob is then clued
about a 2, he should WAIT for Alice to play all of her 1s first BEFORE playing the
2.

● In other words, treat all Play Clues as Delayed Play Clues.

#8 - Fix Clues
● Normally, EVERY clue that is given is either a Save Clue or a Play Clue. One small
exception to this is a Fix Clue, which is attempting to “fix” an impending misplay.
(This is also referred to as a Stop Clue.)

● Fix clues are often needed when a duplicate card is touched. (For example, when
a red 2 is clued in Player A’s hand, and someone touches red 2 in Player B’s
hand.) Cards are not normally duplicated (which follows from Good Touch
Principle), but sometimes someone makes a mistake, or a sequence of particular
cards makes duplicating necessary.

● In such a situation, because of Good Touch Principle, one of the players with the
duplicate cards may misplay it since they will assume the identity of the card to
be something else. Thus, it is the team’s responsibility to fix the problem and
intervene before this happens.

● A clue cannot be a Play Clue and a Fix Clue at the same time. If you receive a Fix
Clue and it touches other ancillary cards, none of them are necessarily playable;
the primary point of the clue is to fix the impending misplay.

● Usually a fix clue will “fill in” the card to explicitly make it known that the card is
unplayable or duplicated. However, it is also possible to perform a fix clue just by
cluing the card again.

○ For example, Alice clues Bob number 1 and it highlights three 1s.

○ Bob successfully plays two 1s.

○ Before Bob can play the 3rd 1, Alice clues Bob number 1 again, and it re-
highlights the remaining one.
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○ Now it is Bob’s turn. Since he was going to play the 1 already without Alice
doing anything, the clue must have some other meaning. Thus, it is a fix
clue: the remaining 1 is bad, and Bob can safely discard it.
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Intermediate Strategies
(Level 2)
#1 - Prompts
● If someone gives a play clue to a card that is currently unplayable, then they
could be telling YOU to play a card that is already clued in your hand (a card that
has a clue but before now, you weren’t exactly sure as to what it was). This is
called a prompt because it is “prompting” you to play your card that you
otherwise would have held onto for a while longer.

● For example, if there are only 2’s on the played piles and a red 4 is clued in
someone else’s newest slot, then it clearly isn’t a save clue. So it must be a play
clue. But where is the 3? It must be your unknown red card, so you can safely
play it.

● If you have two or more clued cards in your hand and the prompt could apply to
either of them, play the left-most. (This follows from Left-Most Playable
Principle.)

#2 - Finesses
● If someone gives a play clue to a card that is currently unplayable, then they
could be telling YOU to play a card. Normally, this would indicate a prompt. But,
what if you have no clued cards in your hand or no clued cards that apply to the
situation? They can’t possibly be prompting you, so what are they doing? This is
called a finesse - in this situation, you should blindly play your left-most unclued
card. Then, the other player will play the card that was directly clued. This way,
your team will have gotten 2 plays with only 1 clue, which is very efficient.

● The position that a player’s left-most unclued card is in is called Finesse Position.
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● For example, on the first turn of a 3 player game:

○ Alice clues Cathy red, which highlights her red 2.

○ Next, it is Bob’s turn. Bob sees that, with this weird red clue, Cathy has just
been signaled that she has the red 1. Oh no! Cathy is going to misplay that
on the next turn! What could Alice have been thinking! Oh wait - something
must be in Bob’s hand to make that red 2 playable. This must be the
finesse convention, so he blindly plays his left-most card and it is the red
1.

○ Next, Cathy plays her red 2.

● Prompts take priority over finesses! Do not blindly play your left-most card if the
situation can apply to any of the clued cards in your hand.

#3 - Reverse Finesses
● In a normal Finesse, you would give a clue to a person AFTER the person blindly
playing the card. If you give a Finesse clue to someone BEFORE the blind-play
occurs, it is called a Reverse Finesse. This is more complicated than a normal
Finesse and is harder to see.

● Since Reverse Finesses exist as a strategy, before playing ANYTHING that you
aren’t 100% sure about, you should always check out everyone’s Finesse Position
card (the left-most unclued card). If the card in this slot “matches” the card that
you were just clued, then you should DEFER playing it for at least one go-around.

● If the player whom you suspected the Reverse Finesse was directed towards
blind-plays their card, then it means that the card that was clued originally is the
next card in the chain and you can play it on your next turn.

● Or, if the player whom you suspected the Reverse Finesse was directed towards
did NOT blind-play, then you can safely play yours.
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#4 - Order of Playing Two or More Playable Cards

● If you have a two cards in your hand that are playable right now, you have a
decision on which to play first. PRIORITIZE the cards that have a follow-up card
in someone else’s hand.

● For example, in a game with red 1 and blue 1 already played:

○ Alice has red 2 and blue 2 in her hand and she knows that both are
playable right now.

○ The red 3 is in Bob’s hand (and happens to be tagged with a number clue).
Alice does not see the blue 3 at all. So, Alice plays the red 2 first.

○ Bob sees that this decision was made, so he should KNOW that the 3 in
his hand is not blue.

#5 - 1’s Chop Move

● Sometimes, a player will have two criticals cards in a row on chop that will
require two separate clues to save. In this situation, the two preceding players
should realize that this is happening and both issue clues before it rotates
around to that player. However, sometimes it falls to only one player to somehow
save TWO cards.

● One tool to solve the problem is to make a number clue to a card that is NOT the
chop. This generally only works if the card is a 1 or a 5.

● If the card clued is a 1 AND all of the 1s have already been played, the player
should think: “Why was I clued a 1 when all of the 1s are already on the board?
Oh, the cards behind the 1 must be critical, so I should try to give a decent clue if
possible, or discard the 1.”

● After the chop move clue, the player should consider ALL of the cards to the right
of the 1 like they have been touched with an “invisible” clue and therefore never
discard them. (Thus, if you clued a 1 on someone’s newest slot, it would chop
move the entire rest of the hand.)
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● Once a card has been chop moved and is no longer in danger of being discarded,
it is treated as an already-clued card with regards to new clues given to that
hand.

#6 - 5’s Chop Move

● See the 1’s Chop Move section above for an explanation on what a Chop Move is.

● It is also possible to chop move with a number 5 clue. The player receiving the
clue would think something along the lines of: “Why was I clued a 5 EARLY? It
isn’t even on my chop yet! This must mean my card to the right of the 5 is
important, so I should try to give a decent clue if possible, or discard the card to
the LEFT of the 5.”

● 5’s Chop Moves are different from 1’s Chop Moves in that you can ONLY chop
move ONE card with it. Thus, if you clue a 5 and it is TWO (or more) slots away
from the chop, then it is to be assumed to be a play clue on the 5.

● When you get clued a 5, the 5’s Chop Move interpretation ALWAYS takes
precedence over a play clue interpretation.

#7 - The Scream Discard Chop Move

(Deliberately Discarding Instead of Playing)
● The Chop Move outlined above is a tool to save multiple cards with one clue.
However, sometimes you may not have a clue at all. One way to solve this
situation is with a special kind of discard.

● Typically, discarding is a last resort. So, if you have a known playable card in your
hand, you can send a powerful signal to your partner by discarding. This is called
a Scream Discard. Since your partner expected you to play the card, it is like
screaming at them to let them know that things are very bad.

● The player being “screamed at” should permanently move their chop by one
position.
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● Furthermore, the player being “screamed at” is not allowed to discard on this
turn. They must make some clue. Clues in this situation are treated the same as
a Double Discard Situation (see Avoiding Double Discards below).

● Players are only allowed to Scream Discard for cards that are playable or critical.
(You are not allowed to Scream Discard for a card that is one away from being
playable.)

● Scream Discards do NOT apply when a player has a "blind" card to play in their
hand AND the blind card could exist in your hand. This is a special exception that
you have to remember. When this happens, you will usually want to blind play
your finesse position card, since this sequence of events indicates either an
Ambiguous Finesse or a Pass Bluff.

#8 - Avoiding Double Discards

● If the player before you just discarded a card (say the red 4), and you don’t see
that card in anyone else’s hand, there is a possibility that you could have that
same card on your chop. In this example, if you discarded, both red 4s could be
lost and your team would not be able to get a perfect score. This is called double
discarding.

● Since double discarding can “lose” the game, you should make any decent clue if
you can to avoid it. Even a low-value clue might be better than discarding. After a
go-around, you can safely discard - if your chop was indeed the same card, it
would have been given a save clue by your teammates.

● If, to avoid a double discard, the clue that you are considering is so low value that
it will cause a fair amount of confusion to your teammates, then it is probably
better to just risk it and double discard. Sometimes, you really don’t have any
clues to give, and that’s okay. However, the following “bad” clues are always
allowed in double discard situations:

○ Tempo clues

○ Cluing off-chop 5s

○ Saving 2s on chop that are present in another player’s hand

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○ Filling in extra info on ambiguously saved cards that are still not playable

● The plus side of this strategy is that, because players should not generally double
discard, you do not need to be overly worried about the same card being on two
simultaneous chops.

● Generally speaking, a weird or super low-value clue can communicate an

advanced strategy like a finesse. However, always pay attention to see the
situation that the clue-giver is in. From their perspective, are they giving the clue
to avoid a double discard? If so, then you should not read too closely into their
clue.

#9 - Fully Clued Hands (Locked Hands)

● Generally speaking, it is a bad situation when someone’s hand gets fully clued.
This is also known as being “locked”, and it should be avoided if possible.
However, sometimes it cannot be helped, like if the player draws three 5s in a
row.

● A person with a fully clued hand may give a low value clue because they are not
sure that they can play anything (and they can’t discard because their hand is
fully clued). Do NOT read too closely into any clues given during this state.

● If your team is out of clues and someone’s hand is fully clued, then you HAVE to
discard to generate a clue for them. Similarly, if there is only 1 clue left, you
cannot steal it from them.

● If the fully clued player has a playable card but they do not know that they can
play it yet, one interesting way to signal this information is to deliberately not
discard or to steal the last clue, which will leave them at 0 clues. For example,
from the perspective of the fully clued player: “Darn, why would Bob steal the last
clue like that? Now I have to discard one of these critical clued cards! Hold on - it
must mean that the my unknown 2 is actually playable!”

● Explicitly, while in a locked hand, a player can do the following “bad” clues that
are also allowed while in double discard situations:

○ Tempo clues
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○ Cluing off-chop 5s

○ Saving 2s on chop that are present in another player’s hand

○ Filling in extra info on ambiguously saved cards that are still not playable

● Beyond this, they can also give additional bad clues that are not allowed in
double discard situations:

○ Saving any card on chop

#10 - Clues Given While at 8 Clues

● At the beginning of the game, you start with 8 clues. This section only applies to
situations where you climb to 8 clues in the middle of the game.

● Generally speaking, a weird or low-value clue can communicate an advanced

strategy like a finesse. However, when there are 8 clues in the bank, it is not
possible to discard - the game forces you to play a card or make a clue. But, if
you don’t know if any of the cards in your hand are playable, you HAVE to give a
clue.

● For this reason, do NOT read too closely into any clues given during this state - it
might just be a garbage clue because the player had no other choice.

● Explicitly, while at 8 clues, a player can do the following “bad” clues that are also
allowed while in double discard situations:

○ Tempo clues

○ Cluing off-chop 5s

○ Saving 2s on chop that are present in another player’s hand

○ Filling in extra info on ambiguously saved cards that are still not playable

● Beyond this, they can also give the additional bad clues that are allowed in the
“fully clued hands” situation:

○ Saving any card on chop

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● And beyond this, they can also give additional bad clues that are not allowed in
the either two situations:

○ Saving any card on chop or off chop

(all clues are saves, unless it was just drawn)

#11 - Tempo Clues

● This is the name given to clues that do not meet Minimum Clue Value Principle.
They get a card played right now that already had a clue on it.

● Tempo clues are only done in the following special circumstances:

1) When the cards are “out of order” (meaning that it is impossible for a
“prompt” to get the cards played; this also applies to chop moved cards)

2) When the clue giver is “locked”

3) When the clue giver has been signaled by another player that they have an
unsafe discard

4) When the clue giver is in a “double discard” situation

5) When the clue receiver is “locked”

6) When the clue receiver is receiving a tempo clue on a card that unlocks
someone else’s hand

7) When there are 8 clues in the bank (a forced clue)

8) When there are 7 clues in the bank (since discarding would take the team
to 8 clues, which is generally bad)

9) When in “end-game” or the team is behind pace (specifically, when score +

deck is 30 or below in rainbow games or 25 and below in normal games)

10) When the game has been going so well that further clue efficiency is no
longer required to win the game

11) When the tempo clue gets 2 or more cards played.

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● Tempo clues that are done outside of these special circumstances are a different
convention called Tempo Clue Chop Moves, which are detailed further on in this
document.
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Advanced Strategies
(Level 3)
#1 - Bluffs
● When you see a good playable card in someone’s newest slot, you will often want
to get the efficiency of a finesse. However, the proper “connecting” card may just
not be on the board. One alternate strategy that you can do is to indicate to them
that they have a different card than what they really have in their first slot with a
finesse clue to someone else. This forces them to blind-play their newest card to
avoid a misplay. Next, the player who received the finesse clue knows that since
the last person “randomly” blind-played their newest card, it was a bluff and they
can’t actually play the clued card. However, they should know exactly what card it
is (or have a specific narrow set of possibilities), so the sequence still gets the
efficiency of a normal finesse.

● For example, on the first turn of a 3 player game:

○ Alice clues Cathy red, which highlights her red 2.

○ Next, it is Bob’s turn. Bob sees that, with this weird red clue, Cathy has just
been signaled that he has the red 1. Oh no! Cathy is going to misplay that
next turn! What could Alice have been thinking! Oh wait - something must
be in Bob’s hand to make that red 2 playable. It must be the red 1 in his
newest slot, so he blind-plays it. However, it isn’t the red 1, it was the green
1! Now Bob knows that he has been bluffed by Alice.
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○ Next, Cathy sees that Bob just played his unclued green 1 immediately
after this red clue, so she knows that she must have the red 2. Cathy holds
on to the red 2 for later and discards.

● Except in rare circumstances, bluffing is only permissible when you are the
person directly before the player who is blind-playing a card. This is called being
in “bluff position”. Do not bluff unless you are in bluff position!

#2 - Double/Triple Prompts
● Sometimes, someone can give a prompt clue that is prompting TWO (or more)
cards with one clue, which is pretty efficient.

● For example, say that a red 1 is played on the pile, you have 2 clued red cards in
your hand, and no-one else has any red cards in any of their hands. Then,
someone draws a red 4 and it is immediately clued as red. How can the red 4 be
playable? Well, the only way is that if you have the red 2 and the red 3. So, you
would play these from left to right during your next two turns.

#3 - Double/Triple/Quadruple Finesses
● In a 4 player game, it is possible to get two different people to blind-play their
cards in a row if you give a clue to a card that is two-away from being playable.
This is very efficient, as it is a 3-for-1 clue.

● Similarly, it is possible to get one person to blind-play 2 cards in a row. In this

situation, since they see that the clue can’t apply to anyone else’s hands, they will
assume that the finesse clue is talking about their two newest unclued cards and
they will play from left to right.

● In general, remember that players will always assume Prompts over Finesses.
Thus, is it possible to do a clue that prompts a card from a player’s hand and
THEN gets them to blind-play their Finesse Position card on the next turn (or vice-
versa, depending on the negative information on the card and the situation).
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#4 - Ambiguous Finesses
● Sometimes, the person who is supposed to blind play a card into a Finesse is
ambiguous. For example, on the first turn of a 4 player game, Player 1 clues
player 4 about a Red 2. Both player 2 and player 3 have red 1 on their Finesse
Position.

● In this situation, player 2 would think it is a Reverse Finesse directed at player 3,

and discard. Next, player 3 might think that player 2 made a mistake and
“missed” the Finesse, discarding himself.

● Here, player 3 is actually the one making the mistake. It follows from High-Value
Principle that you should never assume that your teammates are making a
mistake. If player 2 is discarding, then it means that player 3 also has the exact
same copy of the card, and player 3 should immediately blind play.

○ It is also possible that player 2 is performing a special move called a

Hesitation Blind Play, which is covered further on in the document.

#5 - Positional Discards
(Indicating a Play with a Discard)
● On the final go-around of the game, if you have no clues left or playable cards but
you need to indicate to a player which card to play, you can discard the slot in
your hand that matches the slot in their hand that they are supposed to play.

#6 - The Sarcastic Discard

● Occasionally, through a mistake (or complicated situation), the same card will be
clued in two different people’s hands. Generally, this is to be avoided, but
sometimes it happens. Handling this can be tricky.

● Generally, the FIRST person who 100% realizes that they have the duplicate card
should discard it (as opposed to playing it or holding on to it). This is called a
Sarcastic Discard, and it communicates to the other player that they 100% have
the discarded card.
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● “Why did Bob just discard the red 3 that he JUST got a play clue on? That makes
no sense. Wait - it must be because he realized that the red 3 was ALSO clued in
someone else’s hand. I must have the red 3!”

#7 - Trash Chop Moves

● The 1s Chop Move is listed above as an intermediate strategy, but in truth it is
just a specific form of the more general Trash Chop Move, in which you clue a
card that is known trash in order to tell someone that their chop is unsafe.

● This move is most commonly done with a number 1 clue because it is likely that
in the middle of a game, all of the 1s will be already played. But it could also be
done with a number two 2 clue if all the 2s are already played or accounted for.
Or, it could be done with a yellow clue if all of the yellow cards are already played
or accounted for. And so forth.

#8 - Tempo Clue Chop Moves

● Tempo clues are defined as clues that touch no new cards. Their purpose is to
get 1 or more cards played that already have clues on them.

● In general, tempo clues do not follow from Minimum Clue Value Principle (first
principle #4), which states that a clue must get at least 1 new card played or save
at least 1 new card from being discarded.

● Thus, a tempo clue with no other purpose MUST save at least 1 new card, and
the player should “chop move” their chop card to the next slot.

● Tempo clue chop moves do NOT apply in the special situations where natural
tempo clues are allowed. See the “Tempo Clues” section earlier in the document
for an explicit listing of these situations.

#9 - Early Fix Clue Chop Moves

● As noted in the Fix Clues section, a Fix Clue is required before a misplay occurs
on duplicated cards. But in a good number of situations, the misplay will not
 24

occur until the end of the game, because there is always one extra card (that is
not currently playable) that it could be.

● Thus, it if other urgent things are at hand, you can usually defer giving some fix
clues for a long time and hope that through ancillary information and the context
of the game, the player will “naturally” figure out that the card is duplicated.

● So if a Fix Clue is given early to you, it can be strange. You were happily
discarding, and now all of a sudden you are being fixed on a card that was just
sitting in your hand and was not in danger of being misplayed.

● This usually means that your chop suddenly became important, so the Fix Clue
was given early to give you a good discard and keep you occupied. Thus, you
should permanently chop move one card.

#10 - Misplay Chop Moves

● Sometimes, a desirable card is on the next person’s chop and it is not directly
cluable. In this situation, players can cleverly use the various kinds of chop
moves in order to save the card (e.g. 1’s Chop Move, 5’s Chop Move, Tempo Clue
Chop Move, Fix Clue Chop Move).

● However, none of these chop moves may be available to perform. In such a

situation, you can revert to the final type of chop move - the Misplay Chop Move.
This is done by intentionally touching a card in the next person’s hand that
signifies that it is currently playable. The next person will misplay, and then they
will know that every card to the right of the misplayed card is valuable and is now
permanently chop moved.

#11 - 3 Bluffs
● Typically, the player who receives a clue that causes a Bluff blind play knows that
the card that was clued is one away from being playable.

● Our group plays with an artificial 3 Bluffs convention. This means that in addition
to being one away from being playable, the touched card can be ANY 3 that will
be useful in the future.
 25

● The priority of 3 Bluffs can be confusing, so here are some examples that cover
the four most common situations:

○ Color mismatch:
On the first turn of the game, Alice clues Cathy a Red 3 with red. Bob blind
plays Blue 1. Cathy knows that it is either a Red 2 or a Red 3.

○ Number 3 with suit mismatch:

On the first turn of the game, Alice clues Cathy a Red 3 with number 3. Bob
blind plays Blue 1. Cathy knows nothing about the card, besides that it is a
3 (since it has a number 3 clue on it).

○ Color match:
On the first turn of the game, Alice clues Cathy a Red 3 with red. Bob blind
plays Red 1. Cathy sees that Bob had both Red 1 and Red 2 on Finesse
Position at the time the clue was given, so she knows that she has either
Red 2 or Red 3. Bob is promised a Red 2, since if he does not blind play a
card, Cathy will go on to misplay the Red 3 as Red 2.

○ Number 3 with suit match:

On the first turn of the game, Alice clues Cathy a Red 3 with number 3. Bob
blind plays Red 1. Cathy knows nothing about the card, besides that it is a
3 (since it has a number 3 clue on it). Even though Red 1 and Red 3 are the
same suit, Bob is not promised a Red 2, because if he does nothing, Cathy
will not go on to misplay the Red 3.

#12 - Critical 4 Bluffs

● Building on the 3 Bluffs convention, it is ALSO possible for a card that initiates a
Bluff to be a copy of any of the 4s that are currently in the trash.

#13 - The Elimination Blind Play

● Normally, your teammates would never let you discard anything important. So
when you discard some playable card (or a needed 2) AND your teammates were
not busy AND you don't see that card in anyone else's hand, you should write a
 26

note on all of your other remaining cards that they could be that card. These are
called "elimination notes".

● Thus, when you get a follow-up clue, you will know exactly what card it is.

● In other situations, your teammates will choose to NOT to give any follow-up
clues. After a few more discards, you should know exactly what card it is and be
able to blind play it.

#13b - The Elimination Blind Play Riding Deduction

● If there are only 2 cards left in your hand with elimination notes on them AND the
players before you let your chop card ride AND the players before you weren't
busy, then the playable card cannot be on your chop.

● This means you can "jump ahead" and immediately blind play the newest of the 2
cards with the note.

#14 - Weak Prompts

● If a teammate performs the Prompt convention on you and you have multiple
cards in your hand that match the connecting card, normally you would be
promised that the left-most (newest) is playable.

● However, if the card that initiated the prompt was ON CHOP when it was touched
and it was in danger of being discarded, the left-most rule no longer applies,
since your teammate had to take drastic measures to prevent the discard of that
card.

● So instead, you are promised that you have the connecting card somewhere in
your hand, but it could be any of the cards, and not strictly the left-most.
 27

Expert Strategies
(Level 4)
#1 - Hidden Finesses
● Sometimes, you want to finesse someone with a clued card already in their hand.
However, if you try to finesse them, they will assume it is a prompt and will
misplay their already clued card, so it doesn’t work out.

● However, what if the clued card actually is playable? That means you can still
make the finesse - they will play the prompted card, see that it wasn’t the card
you had intended, and then blind play their 2nd newest card on the next turn. This
is called a Hidden Finesse because the finesse was temporarily hidden by the
presence of another playable clued card.

● For example, say that:

○ Currently played on the board is a red 1 and a rainbow 2.

○ Alice has a rainbow 3 clued as red in her hand and no idea what it is. She
also has a red 2 on newest slot.

○ Bob’s red 3 is clued and now it is Alice’s turn. Alice sees this as a prompt
and plays her clued red card, which was just represented to be the red 2.
However, it was the rainbow 3!

○ Since it wasn’t the red 2, where could the red 2 be to make this clued red 3
playable? It must have been on Alice’s newest slot. On her next turn, she
blind-plays her 2nd slot card (it moved from 1st to 2nd slot since she drew
a card from playing the rainbow 3).
 28

#2 - Stacked Finesses
● If a player has already been finessed for a card in their finesse position, then their
finesse position moves right one slot. If someone else does ANOTHER finesse
on them, it is stacking a 2nd finesse on top of the first, and they are expected to
blind play the new finesse position.

● Because of the possibility of Layered Finesses (which is covered later on in the

document), you should blind play your cards in order from left to right (and not
jump ahead).

#3 - Layered Finesses
● Since we don’t allow lying outside of bluff position, it is possible to perform a
finesse on a card that is not in finesse position, as long as all of the cards leading
to it are playable. Essentially, the intended finesse blind play is layered behind
other playable cards.

● For example, at the beginning of the game, this is a 4-for-1 clue with full tempo:
 29

#4 - Clandestine Finesses
● Since we are allowed to lie in bluff position, doing a layered finesse in bluff
position can be problematic, since it will typically only get one card played
(instead of a big layered chain of cards).

● A form of Layered Finesse that gets around this restriction is called the
Clandestine Finesse, because it is similar to a Hidden Finesse. When this move is
performed, the player who is blind playing cards knows to keep playing because
they see that if they do nothing, the next player will go on to misplay.

● In the following example, in Zealousy’s hand, green 2 and green 3 are already
touched with a green clue. Thus, a number 3 clue to Zealousy will get both the
red 2 and the purple 2, because if Hyphen-ated does not continue to play the
purple 3, Zealousy will think he has red 3 and misplay it.

#5 - The Gentleman’s Discard

● The Sarcastic Discard is very similar to the Prompt convention, because it gets
someone to play a card that already had a clue on it. It is also possible to
intentionally discard a known card in order to get someone to blind play a card,
 30

similar to a Finesse. When this occurs, it is called a Gentleman Discard to signify

that the card played was completely blind as opposed to having a clue on it
already.

● “Why did Bob just discard the red 3 that he JUST got a play clue on? That makes
no sense. Wait - it must be because he realized that the red 3 was ALSO in
someone else’s hand. I don’t have any clued cards in my hand, so I must have the
red 3 in my Finesse Position.”

#5b - The Layered Gentleman’s Discard

● One great reason to want to do a Gentleman’s Discard is if the card you are
discarding is also behind playable cards. Doing this gets “free” value.

#6 - Free Choice Convention

● This convention only applies to Hanabi variants with a Rainbow suit (touched by
all color clues).

● When performing a prompt by touching a sole rainbow card, the player doing the
clue may have a free choice between multiple colors. In other words, there may
exist multiple colors that will ONLY touch the rainbow card.

● If a player has a free choice to choose the color that matches the intended
prompt target but instead deliberately chooses a different color, this signals that
it is a Finesse instead of a Prompt, and they should blind-play their newest.

#7 - The Trash Push

● From Good Touch Principle, we know that it is pointless to touch bad cards on
someone’s chop, because if we just do nothing, they will just discard them.

● Subsequently, if we touch trash on someone’s chop, it must have a meaning. By

doing this, it means that we want to “push” the card that is next to the known
trash onto the table.
 31

● Sometimes, a Trash Push is the only way to get a card played that is sitting
between two other annoying cards.

#8 - The Trash Bluff

● If a player clues trash in someone else’s hand for no reason, and they are in bluff
position, they are telling you to play your finesse position card.

● Sometimes, a Trash Bluff is the only way to get a card played that is sitting
behind some other annoying cards.

#9 - The Trash Finesse (strong form)

● If a player clues trash in someone else’s hand, they are implying that they see all
of the actual important matching cards.

○ Example: All the ones are played except for B1. Dune clues R1 as "1" in
Zamiel's newest. This causes Hyphen to play B1 from newest.

● Trash Finesses are slightly different than Trash Bluffs because they can be done
out of bluff position and they promise specific cards, rather than just any
playable card.

● It is possible to Double Trash Finesse. By touching a trash 2 with TWO 2’s

remaining, it means that you see BOTH the 2s, so this can cause two people to
blind play their newest card (or one person to blind play twice).

#9b - The Trash Finesse (weak form)

● This is when a "bad" card is touched ancillary and is not the focus of the clue.
This still causes a finesse if the player intended to blind play can see that the
cluer had some other obvious way to "get" the focus of the clue without touching
the trash card.
 32

#10 - Dupe Finesse / Dupe Discard

● Player A performs a Finesse by touching a card in player B’s hand that could
potentially be already clued in their own hand.

● The blind play occurs, and then player B knows that they have the next card in the
chain.

○ If the card is a duplicate, player B will Sarcastic Discard it.

○ If the card is not a duplicate, player B will play it as normal.

● This move is powerful because it allows you to "fish" for information:

○ In the best case, you get a "true" finesse (a 2-for-1 or better).

○ In the worst case, you get a 1-for-1 and full knowledge on a clued card in
your own hand that was previously a mystery.

#11 - Certain Finesse / Certain Discard

● This is the similar to the Dupe Finesse above, but instead of potentially duping
the touched card, the blind card is potentially duplicated. Thus, the blind-playing
player will blind-discard their Finesse Position card if it is a duplicate.

● You are ONLY allowed to do a Certain Discard if you know you have not been
bluffed. (Generally, this means that Certain Finesses can’t be performed from
bluff position.)

● This convention takes priority over the Layered Finesse. Thus, it is impossible to
perform a Layered Finesse on a card that could be in your own hand.
 33

Variant-Specific Strategies
#1 - Black Saves
● In the “Black One-of-Each” and “Wild & Crazy” variant, any black clue to a card on
chop should be treated as a save clue on a black card (since all black cards are
critical).

● However, the black 2 and the black 5 MUST be saved with a number 2 clue or a
number 5 clue, respectively. The exception to this is if the black clue touched two
or more cards.

● Subsequently, if a black clue is used to touch a single black 2 or a single black 5,

then it implies a Finesse.

#2 - Negative Prompts
● This convention ONLY applies when playing the “Dual-color Suits” variant.

● In this variant, since negative color information conveys just as much information
as positive color information, you should include that when deciding which card
to play into a prompt.

● For example, if you have a red card in slot 1 with no negative clues, and a red
card in slot 2 with negative yellow, then normally you would play left-most if a
Magenta card was prompted. But with this convention you would play slot 2.

#3 - Crazy 3s and Crazy 4s Save

● This convention ONLY applies when playing the “Wild and Crazy” variant.

● If it is possible that you have a black 3 on your chop and it is touched with a 3’s
number clue, then you are to treat that as a save on a black 3 first and foremost.
This is called a Crazy 3 Save.
 34

● The same rule applies if you could have a black 4 on your chop and it gets
touched with a 4’s number clue.
 35

Rarely Used
Intermediate/Advanced
Strategies (Level 2/3)
#1 - Cluing Off-Chop 2s
● During the beginning of the game, it is very dangerous to discard. It is
permissible in this situation to use a 2 number clue to save a 2 that is not on
chop, but only if the other players can see that you had no other choice to avoid
discarding.

#2 - Double Cluing the Same Cards

● If you are clued the exact same thing twice before it gets to be your turn, it
means that you can play ALL of the cards that the clue applies to, but in the
opposite order than normal (right-to-left, since you would normally play cards
from left-to-right).

○ If one of the cards includes the chop card, it means to play all of the cards
from 2nd oldest to newest, and then the chop last.

● If you are re-clued about a bunch of cards after you have already taken a turn, it
means that you can play ALL of the cards from left-to-right.

#3 - Chop Transfer
● Sometimes, cards are accidently chop moved through a mistake or through a
complicated situation. In these kinds of situations, it is pointless to waste a clue
 36

to “undo” the chop move; you can just continue to allow them to discard
normally. That is, until they get something good on chop.

● Only then will the team bother cluing the chop directly to convey that it is useless.
And then, the player receiving the clue will know that the card they were about to
discard is important, and permanently chop move that card, and discard the now
known useless card.

● Thus, this is nearly the same thing as a Early Fix Clue Chop Move, but when the
Fix Clue is given to a card that was already chop moved (and had no positive
clues on it already).

#4 - Blind Playing Chop

● Sometimes, due to a mistake, you can see that the next player after you is going
to misplay a critical card. Additionally, there may be no “fix” clue that you can
give that will remedy the situation.

● If you can’t give a clue, then you can signal your teammate by blind-playing a
card. The safest card to blind play is your chop, so by doing this it signals the
other player to stop whatever they are about to do.

#5 - Whisper Discard Chop Move

● Occasionally, a player will have known trash in their hand. They are always
expected to discard the known trash first before discarding their right-most
unclued card.

● Thus, if a player instead discards their right-most unclued card instead of known
trash, it must be a signal that something is wrong, exactly like a Scream Discard.
This is more subtle than a Scream Discard though, so it is called a Whisper
Discard.

● Whisper Discards are to be treated identically to Scream Discards. In short, this

means that they 1) cause a chop move and 2) force a clue to be given on the next
turn.
 37

#6 - Crazy 8s Save
● Being at 8 clues is considered bad, since there might not be anything to do, and a
player will have to waste a clue. Thus, players typically avoid discarding to send
the team to 8 clues if they can avoid it.

● However, a player might DELIBERATELY take the team to 8 clues for a special
reason. As stated earlier in this document, one property of being at 8 clues is that
since a player is forced to make a clue, they are allowed to save ANY card on
someone’s chop. Thus, your teammate can take advantage of this and save a
juicy useful one-away card that is about to be discarded.

● This kind of save is called a Crazy 8s Save, because it is “abusing” the 8 clue
situation to save a card that would otherwise be impossible to touch without
causing a misplay.

#7 - Sacrifice Discard
● It is generally undesirable for a player to have a “fully locked” hand, but
sometimes it happens. And sometimes, one card in the locked hand is useful in
the future, but not critical (meaning there is another copy of the card in someone
else’s hand or still in the deck).

● Normally, you are never supposed to discard cards that have clues on them, as if
you do, it implies a Sarcastic Discard or a Gentleman’s Discard. However, in this
situation, the player who is locked can choose to “sacrifice” one of the cards in
their hand that is non-critical. And in this situation, it does NOT imply a Sarcastic
Discard or a Gentleman’s Discard.
 38

Rarely Used Expert

Strategies (Level 4)
#1 - The Elimination Finesse
● Normally, if a player is finessed, they are supposed to play their finesse position
card. However, if the player has two or more elimination notes in their hand for
the specific finessed card, they know that it cannot be on finesse position.

● In this situation, the player is expected to play the OLDEST of the cards with the
elimination notes on them.

#2 - Patch Finesses
● If a player performs a Layered Finesse through a card that is one-away from
being playable, it is possible to see that an impending misplay will occur.

● This is a signal to you that you need to “patch” the problem, so you have the
matching card in your finesse position to make the one-away card actually
playable.

● In general, you must give preference to a patch interpretation. Thus, you might
need to hold off before playing a card for a while to see if a patch blind-play
occurs.

#3 - Reverse Bluffs / Out-of-Position Bluffs (bad)

● Similar to a Reverse Finesse, it is possible to perform a Reverse Bluff. However,
we outlaw bluffing any player who is not immediately after you (as per Good Lie
Principle).
 39

○ Why this policy? It is not possible to play with both Layered Finesses and
Reverse Bluffs at the same time, and Layered Finesses are much better.

● However, you can break the Bluff Position rule in rare situations where the player
that is being passed over cannot actually act on their state of misinformation.
For example,

○ they are at 0 clues (and won’t blind play anything)

○ they have negative information on their entire hand

● Since valid Reverse Bluffs are so rare, it is important to remember that a valid
Reverse Bluff is distinct from a Layered Finesse, and that blind playing should
stop after the first blind play. (This is a common mistake.)

#4 - The Double Half Bluff

● Sometimes, you see that two players in a row have cards on their newest slot
that are playable. However, they are unrelated, so you can’t get them both played
with a double finesse. This is where the double half bluff comes in - it is very
similar to a double finesse. In this situation, by performing a normal double
finesse clue, you can get the first one played like a normal finesse, and the 2nd
card like a bluff.

● For example, on the first turn of a 4 player game:

○ A red 3 is clued in Cathy’s hand with red color clue.

○ Alice goes next and assumes that it is a double self-finesse - she has the
red 1 and red 2 in the two newest slots. Thus, she blind-plays her left-most
and it is red 1.

○ Next, Bob sees that Alice does NOT have red 2 in her next newest slot, so
he must have the red 2, so he blind-plays his left-most card. However, it is
NOT the red 2, but the blue 1. Bob now knows he was bluffed.

○ Alice sees Bob blind play “for no reason”, so she knows that she must not
have the red 2 and it must have been a double half bluff.
 40

○ Finally, Cathy sees this sequence of events occur. Since Alice and Bob
blind-played, she must have the red 3.

● Normally, you are only allowed to bluff while in bluff position. But Double Half
Bluffs do not violate Good Lie Principle, and thus they are allowed.

#5 - Double Bluffs
● Similar to a Double Half Bluff, it is also possible to get 2 cards played in a row
that are completely unrelated.

● For example:

○ Yellow 1 and 2 are currently played in the middle.

○ Player 1 clues a yellow 5 in player 4’s hand with a yellow color play clue.

○ Player 2 thinks he has yellow 3 and yellow 4. They blind-play their finesse
position card, but it is actually a blue 1.

○ Player 3 sees that player 2 blind-played because of the yellow clue.

However, since the yellow 5 is two away instead of 1 away, it must mean
that it is a double bluff instead of a single bluff, so player 3 blind plays slot
1 and it is red 1.

○ Player 4 knows that this yellow card must be yellow 5 because it caused 2
blind plays.

● Normally, you are only allowed to bluff while in bluff position. But Double Bluffs
do not violate Good Lie Principle, and thus they are allowed.

#6 - Triple Bluffs / The Triple Two-Thirds Bluff

● Following from the Double Bluff convention, it is possible to perform a Triple
Bluff. For example, on the first turn of the game:
 41

● In this screenshot, if Zealousy blind played a red 2 from newest, then it would be
a Triple Two-Thirds Bluff instead of a Triple Bluff.

#7 - Good Touch Bluff

● In some rare circumstances, a bluff can occur that can look like a finesse. For
example, if the red 2 is played on the red stack and the blue 2 is played on the
blue stack, a number 4 clue that touches a blue 4 can cause a red 3 to blind play.
However, here the unknown 4 would look like red 4, so this would not typically be
done, as it would cause an impending misplay.

● However, from the perspective of a player who has just seen the above scenario
unfold, there must be something else going on. This actually implies that the real
red 4 is already clued in someone else’s hand. An impending misplay will NOT
occur because of Good Touch Principle; it would be pointless to duplicate red 4,
so the mystery 4 in their hand must be some other one-away 4.

#8 - The Trash Push Prompt/Finesse

● If you see that a player trash pushes an unplayable one-away card, it is a signal to
you that you have the connecting card.
 42

● If possible, you should allow for the possibility of a Reverse Trash Push
Prompt/Finesse. Whether this is the correct thing to do or not is contextual on the
pacing of the game and historical game state.

#9 - The Lost Tempo Priority Finesse

● When a player has a choice between two playable cards to play, they almost
always choose the card that leads towards someone else’s hand. So, when a
player does not do this, it is very strange.

● In this situation, if you see a player choose not to play a card in this way AND it
deliberately loses tempo, they are playing towards a card on your finesse
position.

● Note that for this to work, the player choosing priority must have full knowledge
of the two cards that they are prioritizing.

#10 - The Hesitation Blind Play

● If you see that someone gets a play clue on a card and they discard instead of
playing it, this would normally be a Scream Discard. However, sometimes you
know from the context of the game that your chop has to be safe.

● In such a situation, the only reason that they would discard is that they are
allowing for the possibility of a Reverse Finesse, and that you have a playable
card on your newest that “matches” the card that they got the play clue on. Thus,
you may want to blind play your newest.

● If there is no intermediary players in between the blind player and the player who
received the play clue, great care must be taken to not blind play anything that
implies a Double Finesse with a “self” component on the player who received the
play clue. Thus, the player blind playing must evaluate what would happen for all
6 cards that he could be blind playing.

○ For example, if a 4 number clue causes a hesitation blind play of a red 2

and then the person who received the 4 clue comes immediately
afterwards, they will misplay their finesse position card as a red 3.
 43

#11 - Pass Bluffs

● It is possible for a Hesitation Blind Play to occur without anyone intending it to
happen. However, if a player intentionally tries to make a Hesitation Blind Play
occur, it is called a Pass Bluff.

● In other words, after a Finesse occurs that is directed at you, you will know that
your Finesse Position card is playable. If the next immediate player also has an
unrelated playable card on their Finesse Position, you can pretend like the Finesse
wasn’t directed at you. This will cause them to think that the Finesse was
directed at them, and you will get the unrelated card played for free.

● Unlike a Layered Finesse, they should not continue to play to find the finesse card
because:

○ You fulfill the real finesse on the next go around.

○ They can see that they were in bluff position.

● Pass Bluffs rely on other contextual information to be present in order to work, so

the circumstances in which you can do them are narrow.

#12 - The Hesitation Chop Move

● Remember that as a special exception, Scream Discards do NOT apply when a
player has a "blind" card to play in their hand AND the blind card can exist in your
hand.

● Thus, when this occurs, you will usually want to blind play your finesse position
card, since this sequence of events indicates either an Ambiguous Finesse or a
Pass Bluff.

● When you blind play a card in this situation and it misplays, it means that the
unusual discard really was a Scream Discard after all, so you should treat it like a
normal Scream Discard and permanently chop move.

● This is called a Hesitation Chop Move for short, since it was triggered by a (failed)
Hesitation Blind Play.
 44

#13 - Dupe Bluffs

● This is where you perform a Bluff such that the card that is blind played is already
touched in someone else’s hand AND the player who has the other copy has full
knowledge of the card.

● You wouldn’t normally do this since it is only a 1-for-1 instead of a 2-for-1.

However, it can be useful if you want to touch a card that you wouldn’t otherwise
be able to, like a 1-away card. Alternatively, you may strongly want to give
ancillary information to some other card.

#14 - Negative Blind Play

● Given enough negative clues on a card (and potentially some ancillary
information based on the history of the game), it is possible to narrow down the
identity of an unclued card in your hand to possibilities that only include playable
cards that are not already touched in someone else's hand.

● In this situation, you are expected to blind play the card.

#15 - Elimination Bluffs / Elimination Layered

Finesses
● It is possible to lie to a player who has Elimination Notes on their hand and
pretend like you are performing an Elimination Finesse on them, causing them to
play their oldest card as per the convention. This can cause an unrelated playable
card to play.

● If the player who performed the clue was in Bluff Position, then it is to be treated
like a Bluff. (However, in most cases, at this point there will only be one
remaining card with an Elimination Note on it, so it won’t matter.)

● If the player who performed the clue was not in Bluff Position, then the blind-
playing person is expected to keep playing until they find the intended card. This
is similar to how a Layered Finesse works, but it is inverted such that they play
cards from oldest to newest.
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#16 - Promise Bluffs

● Typically, we are only allowed to Bluff with cards that are 1-away (normal Bluff) or
a 3 (3 Bluff) or a critical 4 (Critical 4 Bluff). However, Bluffs can also be performed
with cards that are 2 away if the true intermediary card exists on someone’s
Finesse Position. Doing such a move is essentially like doing a Bluff and a
Finesse at the same time, with one component of each. This is called a Promise
Bluff, because it promises the true card in addition to being a Bluff.

● For example, in the following screenshot, the P4 was saved with a 4 clue
originally and is known P4. Then, it is colored in with purples. Cak199164 plays
M2 thinking that he is playing P2. And it also promises to MeGotsThis that he
has P3 on Finesse Position:

● Promise Bluffs take priority over Double Bluffs; Zamiel assumes that it is a
Promise Bluff since he sees the true connecting card. So, since Zamiel does not
blind play his finesse position card, MeGotsThis can know it was a Promise Bluff
instead of a Double Bluff. (And also because Zamiel’s Finesse position card is
junk.)

○ As the receiver of the clue that initiates a Promise Bluff, it may be

ambiguous as to what exactly the connecting card is, if it exists. As long
 46

as there is at least one candidate on someone’s Finesse Position, then you

have to assume a Promise Bluff over a Double Bluff.

● Promise Bluffs also take priority over Layered Finesses. This isn’t normally an
issue, since it is rare to actually to perform a Layered Finesse from Bluff Position,
but it is worth mentioning.

Non-Formalized Proposals
These are moves that are proposed by certain members of the group. However, they
have not yet reached a consensus that they are good enough to play with by default.

Crazy Saves

Black Convention expansion

Top Hat Clue - When you give a clue that touches a card that can be discarded as a
Layered Gentlemans Discard.

Unlocking Clue

Rebellious Discard

Clue Focus Shift

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Convention Attribution

2 Saves
Invented by Hyphen-ated and Duneaught

Chop Focus
Invented by Zamiel and Hyphen-ated

Layered Finesse
Invented by Antizoubilamka

Clandestine Finesse
Invented by Antizoubilamka

Patch Finesse
Invented by Zamiel

3 Bluff
Invented by Hyphen-ated
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Double Bluff / Double Half Bluff

Invented by Hyphen-ated

Triple Bluff / Triple Two-Thirds Bluff

Invented by Zamiel

Playing 1s from Right to Left

Invented by Duneaught

The 8 First Principles

Formalized by Duneaught

Gentleman's Discard
Invented by Duneaught

Double Gentleman's Discard

Invented by Duneaught

Layered Gentleman's Discard

Invented by Duneaught

Tempo Clue Chop Moves

Invented by Zamiel

Elimination Blind Play

Invented by Aridolomo with some revisions by the rest of the group
(Aridolomo no longer plays with us)

Immediate Double Clue

Invented by Duneaught

Elimination Finesse
Invented by Zamiel and Ahming

Elimination Blind Play Riding Deduction

Invented by Duneaught

Free Choice Convention

Invented by Hyphen-ated
 49

Trash Push
Invented by Duneaught

Trash Bluff / Trash Finesse

Invented by Duneaught

Double Trash Finesse

Invented by Duneaught

Trash Push Finesse

Invented by Duneaught

Hesitation Blind Play

Invented by Zamiel

Lost Tempo Priority Finesse

Invented by Libster

Dupe Bluff
Invented by Duneaught

Promise Bluff
Invented by Instantiation / Mathgeek

Certain Finesse
Invented by Zamiel

The Crazy 8s Save

Invented by Hyphen-ated

Negative Prompts
Invented by Zamiel and Libster

Weak Prompts
Invented by Hyphen-ated

Scream Discard Chop Move

Invented by 910dan and Zamiel

Fix Clue Chop Move

Invented by Zamiel
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Critical 4 Bluff
Invented by Libster

Chop Transfer
Invented by Duneaught

Whisper Discard Chop Move

Invented by Zamiel

Good Touch Bluff

Invented by postmans

Elimination Bluffs / Elimination Layered Finesse

Invented by Zamiel