Hanabi - what would you play?

[pikiou]

Let's assume you're fluent in finesse and bluff. People call you the Lawyer.
Everyone at your 4-player table is skilled and focused. You need that with the multicolor variant.
So far the situation is standard: a few played cards, 4 clue tokens available, nothing very important to give a clue about, no mistakes. Yet.
Then something happens.


A) The player before you received a 2 clue on two cards. He played the first earlier, but has no information about the other. Yet he discards the other 2 and it was playable! You don't see the other 2 of that color. What do you do?

A') Same as A) but the discarded card is the twin of an already played 2. What do you do?

B) The player before you was just told about a playable yellow 3 and he knows exactly what it is. He gives a 5 clue to the player after you on a yellow 5 in the middle of his hand. It's obvious to you and the following player that the 5 card isn't playable. What do you do?

C) The player before you just received a 2 clue on a card in the middle of his hand. It's playable, but at his turn he clues the player after you about an unimportant playable card. What do you do?

D) The player before you discards his rightmost card, a white 4 that can't be played yet. Unlike in previous scenarios, there only is one clue token available and the only person to clue what to play already has something to play. What do you do?

E) There are 3 cards left in the deck and 14 cards should be played to get a perfect score. Panicking, the player before you starts to discard left and play right. What would Chuck Norris do?


I'm asking because I'm too certain about the answer and I'd really like some help about other interpretations of what the smartass player before you is doing.
Thanks ><

[KeithLangley]

A) he can tell he does not need to save a 2. Ergo, he can see every needed 2. Further, his discard at this point is intended to trigger a play. Since I can't see the mate to his discarded 2, I must have it. I play any clued "2", or any color-clued card whose "1" is played, or my leftmost.
A') he has identified his 2 as not needed. He can see every needed 2, and knows that his is surplus. His discard may simply be a known safe discard. I play as normal, not reading anything into it, but if there are needed 2s that I can't see, I note that they must be somewhere in my hand.
B) Look for the y4. If I don't see it in finessable position, I note where it must be in my hand, and play as normal until he drops the 3.
C) To him, that playable card was not unimportant. There could be many reasons for that. His action has not necessarily told me anything about my hand.
D) Discard my rightmost. If the only cluable person already has a play, I should be putting a chip on the table.
E)Chuck Norris is a washed up hack.

[pwahs]

First, I should say that my interpretation of the other player's action depends on whether I am playing here on BGA or not, because there are some conventions here with finesse and bluff that are not grounded in logic, but in what people teach the newcomers. To be specific, the basic version of a Finesse only works if the player who gets the clue must think that his card is immediatly playable, and the player before can only prevent the bomb by playing something that makes this card playable. A 2-clue on the first move is only seen as Finesse by convention.

A and A') They are the same, the discarding player sees all other 2s in somebody else hand, so everybody can do the counting on which they have. I dont think it is necessarily ment as a trigger to play, but that depends on how many 2s are left, i.e. how much information is generated by the discard. Thus, I would just note that a bunch of 2s are somewhere in my hand, and not necessarily play the leftmost.

B) Here on BGA, I would see a finessed y4 in my hand, because everybody here interpretes weird clues as finesse, because everybody only gives weird clues as finesse, because everybody interpretes weird clues as finesse. With other people there are other possible reasons that depend on the situation. Maybe it is a safe clue? My oldest and his oldest may be same, say, g4, and I also have a r5 next to it, so some weird clue has to be given to save both fives and at least one 4.
Or another plausible situation: The clue giver wants that I discard instead of giving the 5 hint myself (which I might want to do just because there are enough clues, and maybe the card next to the 5 will also need saving), because I have two copies of a playable card in my hand, or I have a stupid multicolor 1 on chop that is in the way of some color clue.

In any case, I would discard, and the card that appears will help me tell the difference between these scenarios.

C) Discard, thats what he wanted me to do by taking my clue.

D) Well, discard, obviously. With 7 clues instead of 1 in a 2-player game, I might want to give a hint, because I could have the w4 on chop, but with only one clue, it is too costly just to avoid the risk. Also, it was the other players' job to watch out for such cases.

[pikiou]

Your interpretations helped a lot, thank you both!

A and B) seem worth the saved clue so I'll continue to do it.
A' and C) are too dubious. C is even risky so I'll stop doing it.
D) I will trust players more about the absence of preventive save clues. That'll be my homework for today ^^