Lunch Time Tichuers: June 2006 Archives

Sadly, one one game of Tichu at work this week. One where we had 5 people willing to play even. Mike loves to sit on my left. He likes to make random wishes and knows I am not a big fan of them. This time, he was able to make two random wishes. The first was for a 5 during my first Tichu call. I didn't have a 5. Or any low cards for that matter. Ed had the Dog and he jumped into a singles trick by playing a King. Everyone passed and he was forced to play a 5 and not Dog me.

When Adam had called Grand Tichu, Mike's passed me a green 4 for the bomb and then wished for it. I bombed, led a 5-card Queen high straight and then played a pair of fives. I now have two cards left. Ed took up race now and starts playing strong cards. Unfortunately, he was trying to lead low pairs to me but I only had a Jack and a Nine left. Mike was now forced to play high in order to stop me from going out. I knew he would eventually run out of cards to do that with when Adam kept leading singles. Surprisingly enough, Adam lead trips and Ed played trip Kings to go out first. I could tell he had the Phoenix but was hamstrung with the Dragon still out there. I was able to play my 9 for the 1/2 and the win!

Mike is usually late coming to these games. Even though we remind him constantly to show up earlier. So, when 12pm rolled around, J.P. joined in his place.

J.P. has played other trick taking games before as well as bridge. And he has watched us play, so it didn't take much for him to get up to speed. However, he did make some beginner mistakes. For Ed's first Tichu call, Ed was down to one card and J.P. took the lead with a single King. He then has two cards left (K2). Unfortunately, he led the 2 (since he knew it was a looser). He should have led the King instead because everyone else had passed on the single King before. I was in no position to stop Ed with a A32.

The other mistake that he made was playing a Phoenix on Ed's Queen when Ed called Tichu for the second time. Yes, it is worth -25 points. But, it is a powerful card that should not have been thrown away so quickly and needlessly.

And once again we lost by one Tichu call and 230 points.

For the first hand of the game, Mike started out with his reckless behavior by wishing for an Ace. When I played low, Ed was forced to play his Ace. Later on in the hand, Adam came in and called and made Tichu.

This turned out to be a game of points. And a one-sided one at that. The GrandTichu and Tichu calls evened out. The opposing team just scored 350 more points than we did.

Adam's first GrandTichu call was apparently close. Mike had played a King on one of Adam's singles. And apparently if it had been lower, Adam would have made it. Oh well.

Ed's Tichu call was amusing. He leads a length 7 straight (with no wish) and calls Tichu. Adam then plays his length 7 straight. Mike then plays his length 7 straight. I felt like Mike had the Dog here. I look at my hand. It is a Ace-high, length thirteen straight. After checking the played cards for bomb potentials, I split my straight into two and called Tichu. Apparently, Ed should have led his straight last (which is what Mike did in another hand).

For our one-two, I did not call Tichu like I normally would. I was so burned by my string of bad luck recently, that I didn't want to take a remote chance of being set.

In Mike's first GrandTichu call, he was set by Adam. Who's highest card in his hand was a 10.

Ugh. More smacking down. What was amusing was what happened after we finished early. We then played a couple of more hands. On the first one, I Grand-Tichued and made it and on the second one, we set Ed's Tichu call. Sure, when the game doesn't count, I have great luck...

Sigh... The luck has not been with me... I can only hold up against so much smacking down...

For Adam's first Tichu call, there was slight hiccup. During the deal, Adam accidently deals me a card face up. He quickly puts it back into the cards remaining to be dealt at some position. I noticed that it was the Dragon and jokingly asked to keep it as long as everyone knew I had it. Then Adam called Tichu. And during his play I noticed that he had the Dragon! Interesting coincidence...

For the opposing team's first one/two, Ed had the ability to go on top of Adams 2-pair-sequential run. It would have killed his hand though. If Ed had done so and led a single card to me (knowing that he passed the Dragon to me and I still had not played it), I could have gone out second and stopped the 1/2.

For my second Tich call, I had good cards. However, Mike won a trick and then dogged Ed, who had a 13 card straight. Mike also had a bomb and was able to go out second. Sigh.

For Adam's first Grand-Tichu call, Ed opend up with the Mahjong and made the standard Ace wish. However, what surprised me was that Adam played a 3 and Mike played the Ace! I was passed the Dog by Adam but I never got a chance to take the lead and he was set.