I disagree there. Your argument hinges on first cue 2 as the 'cautionary' clue.Stroom wrote: ↑07 February 2022, 20:50 If your partner has 1-2-5-5-2 and you have a useless hand (or you have all 1s of the same color on chop so the other player is waiting for you to discard) - what do you do?
5 first - makes it seem like the rest is useless - a 2 is lost.
1 first - the other player plays a 1. Now you either use 2 and hope that the other player won't discard or use 5 and the other player thinks he can discard and the other card is the same card as you need to save it the next turn.
2 first - as it makes sense to save 2s in 2p, you can give 2 first and the other player can be cautious - using a clue on you as well. Then you use 1 to make the partner play and then a 5 and all cards are saved.
You could come up with several different cases like this. 1B-2Y-4R-5B-4R
1-2 order will probably make the player discard 4R and then you can't save one of the cards.
1-5-4 will make you lose 2Y.
2-1-5 will ask the other player NOT to discard right away as you might need to save more cards. So he clues something back, plays 1 then discards 4R and then you can clue 4 as your 4th clue, saving all essential cards.
Any other clue combination does not really make the other player NOT discard in case you have a useless hand.
If you have established 2 first as a caution clue, it can help you kickstart the flow of the game faster. It helps you both use 2-3 clues to mark everything that is useful for the next 4-5 turns and the following discards are relatively safer.
Building on top of that:
2 first then 1 is a usual play.
2 first then 5 can mean "please discard - you have a duplicate on chop".
2 first then marking nothing can also mean that you want the opponent to discard for whatever reason.
5 first can also mean that the chop is useless for now.
1 first can mean that you want the player to play, probably the rest is not immediately important (you can mark the 5s later when the 1s are played).
1 first then 2 can mean play left 2 next. This will speed up the game and you don't have to use a color clue on the 2 later, saving clues as well.
1 first then 5 can mean you might want to save more cards after the next discard. Or you want to pre-save 5 and when you discard later and the chop in the partner's hand happens to be what you just discarded, you can save that chop without losing the 5.
There are so many common patterns that happen in 2p games that you want to prepare for and prevent. Over hundreds of games you'll start seeing that some preventative moves will help out in the long run - conserving clues (don't need to give every clue ASAP when you think you can mark multiple cards at a time later) and preventing double discard situations from happening
So... If you need to save 3 different numbered cards, using 2 first offers you one grace turn where the other player does not suddenly discard the chop card that is important in the long run. You can not really do it with 1-5-2 or 5-1-2 order.
One could argue for first cue 5 as the 'cautionary' clue OR the first chop cue as the 'cautionary' clue. Either of these 'conventions' are logical and widely used too (the former more than the later). Cueing 5 first (if caution is indicated) also have the benefit of should player decide to discard their chop, only a non-unique card will be discarded.