In fact, it doesn't seem to matter at all in the entire game.with one exception. A run of pairs of adjacent values (2-2-3-3-4-4, 6-6-7-7-8-8-9-9, veral pairs in a row, the only stipulation is that the values have to be consecutive).A single card (you know, 2, 7, Q, all by itself).They can play cards in any of the following combinations: Whoever has the Mah Jong card goes first, though they do not have to play the Mah Jong card. This means that you can get rid of some of your trash, but you'll be getting other people's trash in return. In Tichu, you pass one to each other player. Now, in hearts, you would pass all three to one person. Once all the cards have been drawn, you choose three to pass. This is not something you can discuss with your partner. You can call a Tichu after this, and before you play your first card, though this is a small Tichu (which is only worth 100 points). If you succeed, your team gets 200 points. If, before drawing your ninth card, you think can get rid of all you cards first, you can call a Grand Tichu. Instead, each player (starting with the 'dealer') draws the top card, then everyone takes turns drawing cards. The deck is shuffled and placed in the center of the table.

In the game, partners sit across from each other. There are also four special cards - Mah Jong, Dog, Phoenix, and Dragon. They're numbered A-K, just like standard cards. These suits are called Star, Sword, Pagoda, and Jade.

The suits are slightly different than standard suits: There are 56 cards - 13 cards in each of four suits, and four special cards. It's a partnership game where you are trying to get rid of all of your cards, and get to 1000 points.Īs I said, you could just play this game with a standard deck of cards. You can play the game with 3-6 players, but I'm only going to talk about the four player version, called Tichu Nanjing.

The game was designed in 1991 by Urs Hostettler. There is a special deck for it, but you really could just use a standard deck of cards to play Tichu. It does have its origin in several different Chinese games, but this iteration was designed by a Swiss guy. GreatgamegateOur next game comes from China.sort of.

Bgg tichu