Automatic Play Modes

Deep Finesse always allows you to specify which play lines of a hand to explore. The card marks keep you informed about who has the advantage in any position. On any given play, there may sometimes be no substantial difference among the available card choices. So to expedite the analysis process, Deep Finesse offers a variety of automatic play modes selectable under the AutoPlay menu. Deep Finesse will automatically play cards for you depending on the setting.

The options represent a sliding scale from Never auto-play to Always auto-play.  Only one option is selected at a time.  The number of cases in which auto-play occurs increases with each level and includes all auto-play cases in the levels before it. In any of these modes, if Deep Finesse chooses a line of play you do not wish to explore, then just click on the card you want to play instead.

In some modes, Deep Finesse may play cards automatically when you advance to the next trick. Sometimes you might want to examine the position at the start of a new trick, before any cards are played. Just click on cards already played to the current trick to return them to their owners. Doing this gets you the best view of a position before you decide to proceed. Here is a description of the various auto-play levels:

Never: the user must always select which card to play from every hand at every turn.

Singletons: Deep Finesse automatically plays singletons from hands with only one card in the lead suit. Manual play otherwise.

Low from Equivalents: Deep Finesse automatically plays low when the only legal plays are equivalent cards in the same suit. Sequences are always composed of equivalent cards. But non-sequential cards can also be equivalent if every card between them was played in an earlier trick. If the two of hearts was lead, and you hold the ace, nine, and three, your cards are equivalent if all other hearts were played in earlier tricks.

Low from Irrelevants: sometimes Deep Finesse can tell that all legally playable cards are completely irrelevant to the subsequent play line, even if they are not equivalent. For example, if declarer can make the contract by pulling trump in the first two tricks with the ace-king, and you hold the queen-deuce, your cards are irrelevant even though many trumps between the queen and deuce have yet to be played. This is the default mode as it expedites play as much as possible with no chance of auto-playing down a line that you did not want to explore.

Sole Winning Line: in addition to the above auto-play cases, Deep Finesse automatically plays a winning card if it is the only winning play available at a given turn. This mode is useful if you are not interested in exploring losing lines to see why they fail.

Any Winning Line: Deep Finesse randomly chooses from among a player's winning moves but the user still selects what to play when only losing options are available. This mode is useful if you want pit yourself against Deep Finesse by trying to make or set a hand when Deep Finesse says it can not be done. Struggle as you might, Deep Finesse always finds a response to beat you. Toggle off the and marks in this mode if you would like to create a more traditional atmosphere.

Be aware that because the choice among winning plays is random, Deep Finesse will not always make the most "normal" looking plays but rest assured that they are sound given the deal under consideration. Also, Deep Finesse currently gives no special preference to lines that produce overtricks - they are treated simply as winning lines just like those that make a contract exactly.

Always: if winning plays are available, Deep Finesse randomly chooses one; otherwise, Deep Finesse randomly chooses from among the losing plays.