进阶20 - Priority（优先级）

• 这个进阶引入了「Priority」（优先级），需要玩家时刻注意其他玩家打牌的顺序。
• 这可能需要一点时间才能融会贯通，因为「Priority」的启动标志非常容易漏掉。
• 请确保你在尝试把「Priority」加入对局中前已经基本掌握了前面的所有进阶。（我们推荐至少要有 250-300 局对局经验。）

特殊操作

The Priority Prompt & The Priority Finesse

• 一般来说，玩家某一时刻只会有一张牌要打。这种情况下，除非有什么特别好的提示可以给，否则没什么需要思考的 - 他们只需要打自己那张牌就好了。
• 但如果一名玩家有两张或更多的牌可以打呢？他们应该先打哪张牌呢？
• 如果一张牌还没有完全明了（比如一张可以打出但未知颜色的 2），那玩家也许想要先打那张牌，好搞清楚它究竟是什么。正常情况下，如果玩家打出一张未知的卡牌，不会启动什么特殊的操作。
• 换句话说，如果一名玩家打出了明牌，那就可以启动一些特殊的操作，因为他们很清楚自己在做什么。我们规定可以打的牌应该按照一定的顺序打出。我们将这成为「Priority」（优先级）。规定的「Priority」如下：

优先级	牌的类型	理由	能否做别的事情
1	需要盲打的牌	告诉其他玩家这是「Finesse」或「Bluff」是非常重要的。	❌
2	能够连上其他玩家手中提示过的牌的牌	否则，队伍会损失「Tempo」。	✅
3	能够连上自己手中提示过的牌的牌	一名玩家“持有”多张同花色的牌要打并不好。	✅
4	所有的 5	打出 5 会给队伍一个免费的提示。	✅
5	数字更低的牌	低数字的牌更应该先打出。	✅
6	仍有未知信息的卡牌	获得自己手牌的信息是很有价值的。	✅
7	最左端的牌	最左端的牌更有可能是好的牌。	✅

• 如果一名玩家打出一张明牌，并且这张牌不具有「Priority」，那么这名玩家肯定是想传递额外的信息。
• 基于他打出了什么牌，如果你手中提示过的牌有能够“承上”的牌，这就是一个告诉你可以立刻打出的信号，这被称为「Priority Prompt」。（与寻常的「Prompt」类似，除了寻常的「Prompt」用提示启动，而现在是用打牌的顺序启动的。）
• 比如说，在一局三人游戏中：
  • Alice 有一张提示过并已经明了的可打的红 1，和一张提示过并已经明了的可打的蓝 2。Bob 的手上有两张提示过的 3。
  • Alice 打出了蓝 2。
  • 轮到 Bob 的回合。Bob 知道正常情况下 Alice 应该会选择打数字更小的牌 - 红 1（除非这是张盲打的牌，或者连上其他玩家的手牌，或者是张 5）。Alice 并没有打有「Priority」的那张牌。
  • Bob 没有看见 Cathy 手里有蓝 3。这肯定是一个「Priority Prompt」。Bob 打出了左边的那张 3，这是一张蓝 3。

• 与寻常的「Prompt」类似，如果「Priority Prompt」指向了两张或更多提示过的牌，那你应该打最左边的。
• 与寻常的「Prompt」类似，如果「Priority Prompt」让你打出了最左边的牌且它并不是那张过渡牌，那你应该继续打出提示过的牌，直到你找到为止。
• 或者说，如果你手上没有牌可以接上他们打的牌，那你应该认为这是个「Priority Finesse」，打出自己「Finesse Position」上的牌。
• 比如说，在一局三人游戏中：
  • Alice 手中有一张提示过的明牌红 1 和一张明牌蓝 2（都可以打出）。
  • Alice 打出了蓝 2。
  • 轮到 Bob 的回合。Bob 知道通常情况下，当你有两张牌可以选择打出时，你应该打数字最低的那张（除非这是张盲打牌，或其他优先级更高的操作）。Bob 知道 Alice 理应打出红 1 而不是蓝 2。Alice没有打出带有「Priority」的那张牌。
  • Bob 看到 Cathy 的「Finesse Position」上有一张蓝 3。这意味着 Alice 是在启动一个对 Cathy 的「Priority Finesse」，而不是对 Bob 的。Bob 做了些无关紧要的事。
  • Cathy 打出「Finesse Position」上的牌，这是一张蓝 3。

The Priority Bluff

• Similar to a normal Bluff, it is also possible for players to perform a Priority Bluff.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • Alice has a known playable red 1 and a known playable blue 2 in her hand.
  • Alice plays blue 2.
  • Bob comes next. Bob knows that normally, when you have a choice between two cards, you are supposed to play the lowest rank card. (Unless it is a blind-play, or it leads into someone's hand, or it is a 5.) Bob does not see any blue 3's, so he knows that Alice was supposed to play the red 1 instead of the blue 2. Alice did not play the card with Priority.
  • This means that Bob must have a blue 3. Bob does not have any clued cards in his hand, so he blind-plays his Finesse Position card. It is not the blue 3 and is instead the green 1. Bob now knows that he was Bluffed and that no-one has the blue 3.

A Priority Flowchart (for Choosing Between 2+ Playable Cards)

Priority can be confusing. Here is a flowchart that shows, in general, which card should be played when there is a choice between two cards.

Here is another flowchart that shows how Priority works when one or more of the cards is unknown.

Situations Where Priority Does Not Apply

Priority does not always apply. Some common exceptions are listed below.

1) End-Game

• Priority is generally "turned off" in the End-Game, because players often need to play specific cards.
• With that said, Priority can still work if a player plays a card that would be really terrible for the team otherwise.

2) The 4's Priority Exception

• If a player has a known playable 5 and a known playable 4 that leads into their own hand, then according to the above Priority table, the known playable 4 would have Priority. However, this does not make much sense, since the 5 has to be played no matter what, playing the 5 gives the team a clue back, the 4 could be distributed to someone else, and so on.
• Thus, if a player has a known playable 5 and a known playable 4 that leads into their own hand, then the 5 is said to have Priority.

3) Blind-Playing Globally-Known Cards

• Normally, blind-playing cards has Priority over everything else.
• However, in some advanced cases, the blind-play does not need to be demonstrated to the team - everyone already has full knowledge of what is going on. In this case, players are supposed to treat the cards as clued for the purposes of finding the Priority. (The Gentleman's Discard on a non-1 is the main move that this applies to.)

4) "Important" Cards

• Normally, cards that are the same rank should be played from left-to-right.
• However, in certain situations, players can know that some other card is more important than the left-most card. If a player plays a "more important" card, it should never trigger a "right-to-left" style Priority Finesse.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • In the Early Game, Alice clues number 2 to Bob, touching three 2's on slot 3, slot 4, and slot 5 (his chop). (This is the 2 Save convention.)
  • Later on in the game, all of the 1's are now played on the stacks.
  • Bob has not received any other clues since then - all of his 2's are known playable, but he has no idea what color they are.
  • Normally, Bob knows that he is supposed to play his 2's from left-to-right. However, he also knows that his 2 on slot 5 is the most important card out of all of them - it was the focus of the original 2 Save by Alice.
  • Thus, Bob plays his 2 on slot 5 first. After that, he plays the 2's from left-to-right like normal.

Playing Into Someone Else's Hand

• For the purposes of playing into someone else's hand, we only consider what the very next card is, in order to keep things simple.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • Alice has a globally-known blue 3, red 3, and red 4.
  • Bob has a globally-known blue 4.
  • Cathy has a globally-known red 5.
  • Here, Alice knows that when playing cards into other player's hands, she is only supposed to consider what the very next card is.
  • Thus, Alice plays the blue 3 into Bob's blue 4.

• The obvious exception to this rule is if one of the players on the team is locked. In this situation, it is better to work towards unlocking that player.

The Load Clue

• Players will generally play cards without Priority if they see the next card in someone else's Finesse Position, because this will get the card for "free" as a Priority Finesse.
• Less commonly, players will see the next card in someone else's hand, but it will not be in Finesse Position. In these cases, it might still be good to play the card without Priority, just so that the player with the next card will have something to do on their turn.
• However, if they do play the card without Priority, it will cause an impending misplay because the target player will think the card is actually on their Finesse Position. Thus, doing this forces someone to give a clue to the card directly in order to stop the misplay.
• This clue is similar to a Fix Clue, since it fixes an impending misplay. But we specifically call this kind of clue a Load Clue to differentiate it from a Fix Clue that fixes a Lie or mistake. It is a Load Clue because it is loading the player who received the clue with something to do on their turn.
• Note that a Load Clue applies even if the clue would look like a Save Clue otherwise. (In other words, the card promised from the Priority move has to be somewhere.)
• If you receive a Load Clue, you should suspect that you might have something valuable on your chop, as this would be an excellent reason to commit the team to giving the Load Clue in the first place.
• If a player has a choice between playing one card that leads nowhere and playing one card that commits the team to giving a Load Clue, then they are not obligated to choose one or the other - they can choose whichever one is best for the situation.
• When a player receives a Load Clue, they are to interpret it as a normal Play Clue instead of a Fix Clue.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • Red 1 and blue 1 are played on the stacks.
  • Alice has a choice between playing a known red 2 or a known blue 2. The red 2 has Priority because it is the left-most card.
  • Alice plays the blue 2.
  • Bob sees that Cathy's hand is as follows, from newest to oldest: yellow 4, yellow 3, yellow 4, red 1, blue 3.
  • Bob sees that Cathy will think that Alice is performing a Priority Finesse on the blue 3. Thus, Bob must now give a Load Clue to stop the impending misplay.
  • Bob clues number 3 to Cathy.
  • Cathy is surprised - she was about to play her Finesse Position card as a blue 3, but she now knows that it can't be a blue 3.
  • If this was a Fix Clue, Cathy might be inclined to play the card that was closest to her slot 1 (which would be the 3 on slot 2).
  • However, Cathy knows that Load Clues are to be interpreted as normal Play Clues instead of Fix Clues, so she interprets this as a normal Chop-Focus Play Clue and plays blue 3 from slot 5.

The Layered Priority Finesse

• Similar to a normal Layered Finesse, it is also possible to initiate a Layered Priority Finesse as long as the blind-playing player is not the very next person.

The Priority Finesse (Special Case)

• To review, if a player has two playable cards, and both of them are fully-known, then they always have the ability to trigger a Priority Finesse.
• If a player has two playable cards, and only one of them is fully-known, a Priority Finesse will never be triggered if they play the unknown card.
• But what if a player plays a fully-known card over an unknown card? They can still trigger a Priority Finesse, but only if every single possibility for the unknown card would have Priority over the card that was played.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • Red 2 is played on the stacks. The 1's are played on all of the other stacks.
  • Alice has a globally-known red 3. (She was given a Play Clue on it earlier.)
  • Alice has a 2 of unknown color. (She was given a Save Clue on it earlier, but it is now playable since all of the 1's are down.)
  • Alice's 2 could be either blue 2, green 2, yellow 2, or purple 2.
  • The rest of the team does not have any clued cards in their hands.
  • Alice knows that all of the possibilities for the 2 would have Priority over the red 3, since all of them are lower rank.
  • Alice plays the red 3 anyway, which triggers a Priority Finesse on the red 4.

The Trust Finesse (A Situational Priority Finesse)

• According to the Priority rules, if an unknown card is played, no Priority Finesse can be triggered.
• However, even if this is the case, if playing one of the cards over the other would be really dumb, it should still trigger a Finesse.
• This type of move is called a Trust Finesse to distinguish it from the case where the card is globally known.
• It is also possible to perform a Trust Prompt, a Trust Bluff, and so forth.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • All the 1's are played on the stacks.
  • Alice has two playable cards in her hand:
    • One of the cards has a red clue on it. Since it was originally clued as a Play Clue, it is globally known that Alice knows that this is exactly red 2.
    • One of the cards has a number 2 clue on it. Since it was originally clued with a Save Clue, it can be any non-red 2. But it is playable because all of the 1's are already played.
  • Bob has a clued and globally known red 3 in his hand.
  • Alice knows that she is expected to play her red 2 into Bob's red 3, because that would be good teamwork.
  • Unknown from the rest of the team, Alice knows from the context of the game that her 2 must be exactly blue 2.
  • Bob has blue 3 on his Finesse Position.
  • Alice plays the globally unknown 2 to cause a Trust Finesse.

The Paused Priority Finesse

• For the purposes of Priority, blind-playing a card is the most important thing to do. When players are supposed to be blind-playing a card, they are usually not allowed to perform a Priority Finesse - they must stick to playing the blind card.
• One exception to this is if a player is in the middle of unraveling the layer of a Layered Finesse. Since they have already blind-played their first card in the layer, they have demonstrated that the Finesse was on them, and now everyone on the team knows that the rest of the cards inside of the layer are "gotten" for sure.
• Thus, in this situation, a player can "pause" finishing up the Layered Finesse and play some other clued card to perform a Priority Finesse. This is called a Paused Priority Finesse.
• Note that this only applies when the card that was blind-played was unrelated to the original Layered Finesse.
  • For example, if a player is finessed for both the red 1 and the red 2 and has just blind-played a green 1, then they can perform a Priority Finesse, because everyone on the team knows that the green 1 played as red 1 and therefore that the layer is not yet unraveled.
  • However, if a player is finessed for both the red 1 and the red 2 and has just blind-played the red 1, then they cannot perform a Paused Priority Finesse because they haven't demonstrated to the team that they are still finessed for the red 2.