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The Chop

The Chop​

  • The "sieve" part of Referential Sieve indicates that slot 1 acts like a sieve for cards entering the hand.
  • When a player has no safe actions, they are given Permission to Discard slot 1.
    • This is called the chop, since it's like the card is on the "chopping block".
  • If a player has a safe action, they do not have a chop.
Alice has r2 in slot 1, and Bob has y1 in slot 1.
Alice's chop is r2, and Bob's chop is y1.
  • Note that when a player receives a safe action, the card that would have been on chop instead moves into the hand.
Alice clues yellow to Bob, touching slot 5.
After Bob plays slot 4 (from the Referential Play Clue), he will get a new chop.
  • That card is now sieved. As cards can only move toward the right of one's hand, it will never be on chop again.
  • Sieving trash cards into the hand is very bad, because additional clues will be needed to make them discard!

Managing the chop​

  • Your partner should always either have a safe action or a safe chop (i.e. not playable or critical).
  • If your partner's chop is important, a clue should be given to save it!
Alice's hand is g5, p2, b3, g2, b3.
To prevent Alice from discarding g5, Bob can clue 2 to Alice (as a Referential Discard Clue).
  • Giving any safe action will move the card on slot 1 off chop.
y1 is played. Alice's hand is p3, y5, g2, y2, b3.
To prevent p3 from being discarded, Bob can clue blue to Alice (as a Referential Play Clue).