Recently in Lunch Time Tichuers Category

Today was the last lunch time game of Tichu with Adam. We are now dependent upon the flakiness of Chapel.

The cards were one sided once again. But that is nothing new. However, I was able to make two Grand Tichus in a row. But the next one/two was the knock out punch for our team. Jon had all four aces (the most useless bomb there is).

We finished early, so we played a couple of more hands. And ended up with setting Adam one last time...

The game started off alright. The first two Tichu calls were set by opposing bombs. Nothing new there. Ed's call was also set with a bomb. But the amusing thing, however, was that I was able to go out first when I had two cards left in my hand: a Jack and a three!

The came the Tichu and one/two round. So I called Grand Tichu when my partner picked up his first eight cards. Little did I know that he also was fighting against me. We needed to go out 1/2 for the win. Unfortunately, he kept all of his strong cards and passed me a totally crappy card. So, as a result, I had no chance in going out first (I would have gone out first if he would have passed me his Dragon). Sigh. I will have to remember that in the future. Don't make GT calls with Jon as a partner...

The first two Tichu calls were set by bombs. The next set Tichu was set even though the opposing team had two bombs. I had the perfect hand: AA,JJ,22,Ace high 8 long straight.

So Adam goes on a Tichu calling rampage. While the heroic team slowly crawls ahead to the finishing line. Jon's Tichu call on the last hand of the game gave our team the win! Woo woo!

For the first four hands, Adam and I passed our high cards to each other. Which is depressing. However, the other team only Tichued once during that time.

Adam's first Grand Tichu was interesting. He had a natural Ace bomb and was passed a two bomb. So it was no contest in that he was going out first. During the play, I noticed the fact that almost all of the points were taken by Adam. And even stated that fact out loud. Jon played the last couple of Kings to go out second. So I should have known that Ed had the Phoenix and somehow get him to be in the lead. However, my mind was on the rote task of going out next. Which meant that we got stuck with the -25 points. If I would have automatically passed when Ed got control, we would have ended the round with 115 points! Ugh!!

Adam's second Grand Tichu call was risky. With two Aces, a King, two Queens, and a Jack, I thought that either he was in trouble or we were certainly going out one/two.

On the fourth hand, Jon had all four Aces. How did we know this? Because Adam wished for an Ace, Ed passed, and I played a low card. Of course, only Adam really knew that Jon had all of the Aces. But I certainly suspected. Fortunately, Jon could not call Tichu since he had too many low singles to get rid of.

My first Tichu call was risky. However, since Adam passed low to me, I figured that he must have had some of the missing control cards. And, apparently we had all of the cards since we one-twoed.

On the last hand, I passed the Phoenix to Adam as I didn't think I was going to call Tichu. However, when it came time to play, all of my cards fit together. And I was able to go out first.

I had the Dragon a lot today in the cards that were dealt to me. Sadly, I was never able to use it. In my one Tichu call, a ten bomb stopped me. And I do not feel bad making that call. You can never predict that a bomb is out there.

This was the Adam show. No doubt about it. He called and made Tichu on the majority of the hands.

The cards were certainly one-sided today. And yet, our team did not call Tichu often enough. The trick is to figure out when your partner has good cards instead of the other team. You only get one piece of information. And that is the card which your partner passed to you. If it is the Dragon, the Phoenix, or an Ace, it is a clear sign. Even very low cards like twos through fives can be clear signs. The question is how do you interpret when you are passed a middle card? In this game, it was: "I hope to make a strong Tichu hand so I am keeping my honors."

Woo woo! My streak of bad luck finally broke! I was worried there for a while (even during this game).

This game started out very painful. Down 400 points after two hands. For my first hand, I had a King bomb and no Aces. So I wished for an Ace, which forced Ed to bomb with his Aces. Later, Jon stopped in by bombing a trick I was going to win with a ten bomb. But, I over-bombed with Kings and went out with a pair of fives. Afterward, Adam surprised us with an eight bomb which, unfortunately, was not enough to let him go out third.

Jon's first Tichu was set naturally. On the next hand, Ed plays a straight that does not contain the Mahjong. Adam then bombs it with threes to force Ed to keep the Mahjong (which is a looser). Jon calls Tichu and Adam surprises us again by coming up with another bomb. Unfortunately, Jon has too many winners to be set.

And, on the following hand, three more bombs showed up. Two were in the opposing team and one was in my hand. Jon got down to one card and played a pair. Adam won that pair and dogged me. But I had three singles that I needed to play. So, I played the Queen and hoped that Jon could not beat it. Unfortunately, Jon had an Ace. I was set regardless because Ed still had a bomb.

When it got to 750 - 750, Ed said it was the last hand of the game. Which left a distasteful feeling to me. Why play this game and have it be decided by one hand? Thankfully, everyone agreed to play to a thousand. Which was amusing when we Tichued/one-twoed for the win! All that worrying and discussing for nothing.

Ugh. The run of bad luck continues. And, as you can see, one team was getting all of the points. Until Ed was set. Then, it went our way. But our desperation Grand-Tichus sealed our fate.