Principle of restricted choice

The principle of restricted choice is a guideline used in card games such as contract bridge to intuit hidden information. It may be stated as "The play of a card which may have been selected as a choice of equal plays increases the chance that the player started with a holding in which his choice was restricted." Crucially, it helps play "in situations which used to be thought of as guesswork." For example, South leads a low spade, West plays a low one, North plays the queen, East wins with the king.

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