Tichu

From: Abacus Spiele List Price: $15 Players: 4 Playing Time: 60 minutes  Type of game: Card Skill level: 8 Complexity: 8  Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 26, Summer 2001

I’ve never cared for The Great Dalmuti. It can be good for a few laughs if you emphasize the role-playing element and use different chairs, hats, etc. for the various positions, but that gets old quickly for me. The problem is that Dalmuti is an activity rather than a game. Without a scoring system to provide drama and closure, it’s a repetitive exercise in mundane cardplay.

Tichu fixes all that. In doing so, it joined Mü at the top of my card game preferences. Tichu offers risk, reward, strategy, drama, tension, and surprises—all the elements missing from Dalmuti and its kin. Tichu is not an activity, but a game. And a darn good one.

Tichu uses a standard 52-card deck (although with different suits and colors), plus four special cards which give the game greater depth. Like Bridge, it’s a partnership trick-taking game with all cards dealt at the outset. A player can lead various poker-like card combinations—singletons, pairs, consecutive pairs, triples, full houses, or straights. Each subsequent player can pass or play a higher combination of the same type and length. The trick doesn’t end until all four players pass in sequence, giving the trick to whoever played last. At the end of the hand captured fives, tens, and kings earn points.

A hand begins with each player passing one card to every other player. Strategy starts here, because what you pass can make or break the hand. It’s not as simple as getting rid of your lowest cards, because if they’re paired or part of a straight they can be disposed of as a group during the hand. And you don’t want to pass a bad card to your partner. Do you hope you’ll receive the missing card for your straight, or do you abandon it and focus on your pairs instead?

The 2 of clubs leads in Hearts; the Mah Jongg leads in Tichu. This card has a rank of 1, so it’s the lowest card in the deck. When playing the Mah Jongg, a player can “wish” for a rank. Until a card of that rank appears in a trick, each subsequent player must play that rank if at all possible—even if he destroys his hand in doing so. Insightful wishes can really hurt the opposition and prevent them from calling Tichu.

Before playing his first card, a player can call “Tichu” to indicate he thinks he’s going to get rid of all his cards before any other player does so. If he succeeds, his partnership scores a 100 point bonus. Failure, however, carries a 100 point penalty. Not something to be taken lightly, then, but certainly something to try to set up with the card exchange. Except to fulfill a wish or make the opening lead players are never obligated to play a card, so it can be many tricks before a player drops his first card and calls Tichu. Players can even call a Grand Tichu after seeing only their first eight cards, for double the bonus or penalty—a common gamble when a partnership is already far behind.

Other special cards include the Dragon (the highest card, playable only as a singleton), the wild Phoenix, and the Dog which transfers the lead to one’s partner. The Phoenix is worth -25, so it’s something of a double-edged sword. The Dragon is worth 25 points, but any trick won with it must be given to an opponent. That doesn’t mean those points are gone for good, however, because the player who fails to go out must turn over his tricks to the player who went out first. No big deal if it’s his partner, but painful when it’s someone on the other team. Any cards remaining in the last player’s hand are always turned over to the opposition, so a player can’t simply hold onto the Dragon to avoid giving it away.

The final distinctive feature of Tichu is the bomb: a natural four-of-a-kind or straight flush at least five cards long. Bombs can be played out of turn to trump the trick, making them extremely powerful. Only a higher bomb can beat one. The possibility of a bomb means you’re rarely sure that you won’t get overplayed, which adds terrific tension.

One of Tichu’s strengths is the way partners can and often must work together, either to win their Tichu bid or set their opponents’. Tichu is a team effort, and partners must sometimes sacrifice their hand for the good of their partner. This is a complex game capable of engrossing card players for hours. Not only does Tichu have meat, but also thrills. I defy your pulse not to quicken when you get a bomb or call Grand Tichu. This is a terrific game which has already inspired player associations in Germany and deserves a wide audience here.