Players who love new and interesting card games will love the Tichu Card Game.It is simple to learn: one need only get rid of his cards. The basic game is played by two pairs of two partners each with the players of each team sitting opposite one another. During the game, the partners try to help each other score points and opportunities to lead. The game is played over several hands with the goal to be the first team to score a total of 1000 points. Although Tichu is primarily a partnership game for four, with the two packs of cards, Tichu is well suited for large groups, too.
Tichu Card Game Objective:
The objective of Tichu is to score 1000 points. If both teams get there in the same round, then whoever has most points win.
Tichu Card Game Overview:
The cards, with their four suits (Jade, Swords, Pagodas, Stars), each of 13 values, correspond to the western bridge pack. The Ace is the highest in each family, the 2 the lowest. The 10s rank between the 9 and the Jack, as in most British and most US games (not between the King and the Ace as in the American Pinochle and many continental European games). Four extra cards bring the pack up to 56 cards: the Dragon, the Phoenix, the Hound and the Hemp-Sparrow (or Mah Jong).
The two partners in the two Tichu-teams sit opposite one another and try to help each other obtain points and opportunities to lead. Before the game starts the winner of the previous round shuffles the pack, allows it to be cut and places it in the middle of the table. The Chinese do not deal cards they take them. The dealer himself takes the top card. Now all in turn take one card at a time until the stock is exhausted and everyone holds a fan of 14 cards in his hand.
Now comes the pushing. Everyone gives everyone else one card from his hand, face down, thus giving away three bad cards and getting three unknown cards in their place. Obviously a player can only pick up the new cards when he has made his own three discards.
The game is begun by the holder of the Mah Jong. The player on lead may lie any of the following combinations on the table:
- a single card, for example a 4
- a pair of cards of equal rank, for example 8,8
- a sequence of pairs of adjacent value, for example J,J,Q,Q,K,K (the example is a sequence of three pairs. Other numbers of pairs are also allowable. Translator)
- a trio of cards of equal rank, for example 2,2,2
- a full house (trio + pair), for example 5,5,5,9,9
- a sequence of length at least 5, for example 4,5,6,7,8,9
