Tichu Strategy
Tichu took much of its rules and mechanics from Zheng Fen. It is a partnership climbing card game, and the object of play is to rid yourself of your hand, preferably while scoring points in the process. The deck is a standard 52-card pack with four special cards added: dog, phoenix, dragon and Mah Jong (1). Tichu is a partnership climbing card game, and the object of play is to rid yourself of your hand, preferably while scoring points in the process. The deck is a standard 52-card pack with four special cards added: dog, phoenix, dragon and Mah Jong. Tichu is a strategic partnership card game whose goal is to be the first to use all of your cards. It may seem like a simple game, but ask any Chinese bus driver and he'll tell you it is a. Tichu is a great card game for two pairs of partners that is played by millions of people every day in Asia. While it may sound odd, the game has been popularized in the United States via Germany, where a version published by Abacus was picked up by Rio Grande Games and is now sold in a 2-deck box by RGG. Tichu is a strategic partnership card game for which your goal is to be the first to use all of your cards. It may seem like a simple game, but ask anyone who's grown up with it, and he'll tell you it is a challenge for beginners and experts alike. Your computer opponents will pull no punches, calling Tichu or Grand Tichu.
by Aaron FuegiThis article was first printed as 'GAMEPLAN: Tichu' in issue 26 of The Game Report, published by Peter Sarrett. It is modified and expanded somewhat here, freefrom the constraints of print.
Tichu Online
Tichu is a 4-player partnership climbing game sold by both FataMorgana, Rio Grande Games, and AbacusSpiel. It is in the same family of games as The Great Dalmutti (Wizards of the Coast) and Asshole. More information is available here.
I learned Tichu in June, 2000 and have since played well over 200 gamesof it, more by far than any other game over a similar period in my life. Ifind the game to have a very broad appeal and also great depth of play. I updated this somewhat in March, 2014 and again in September, 2018. At this point, I have played thousands of games of Tichu so, not surprisingly, have learned a few more things.
This article should provide some strategy pointers for playing Tichu. Ifyou disagree with any of them, please email me and I'd be happy to discussit with you. I am assuming here that you know the rules of the game and have played at least a few hands; if you haven't this will likely bedifficult to follow.
Note that where directions of 'left' and 'right' are given, this articledoes assume you are playing in the standard Western clockwise order, eventhough Tichu officially is played counter-clockwise.
You will generally pass your two 'worst' cards to your opponents. Thisdoesn't necessarily mean your two lowest cards. You are trying to pass awaythose cards that don't fit well into sets with your other cards and will bedifficult to get rid of during the hand. It is wise for partners to followa passing convention, a policy specifying in what direction each should passtheir cards, to reduce the chance of each of you passing the same rank to one opponent and possibly giving that person a bomb. The convention I recommendis to find the two cards you are passing in the list 3 5 7 9 J K A Q 10 8 6 4 2 and pass the card appearing farther on theright of the list to your right-hand opponent. Splitting a pair to theopponents is even better. A detailed explanation of the benefits of thisconvention is available at http://scv.bu.edu/~aarondf/Games/Tichu/tichu_pass.txtA good general principle to follow for passing cards to your partner is topass either your third 'worst' card or your very best card1.This principle should only be broken with a good reason. The Tichu scoringsystem greatly favors going out first. A partnership that regularly goes out1st and 4th will easily defeat a partnership that regularly goes out 2nd and3rd, assuming they correctly call Tichu during a good number of the hands.Partnerships are therefore encouraged to try to concentrate their strength in asingle hand. Keep a strong hand strong2and pass away the three worst cards. With a weak hand, assume your partner'shand is stronger and help it by passing her your very best card. Notethat sometimes when passing away your three worst cards, you actually may want to pass away one of the lower ones to your partner. An example would bewhen passing 245 from a hand that includes 244556789....., I would pass the2 to my partner as it and only it could fill a four of a kind bomb. I nowplay a more rigorous version of the rule explained above as a passing convention with my partner. This convention was developed by Sean McCarthy (aka SevenSpirits) and is explained in this post on the BoardGameGeek.com web site.
You should rarely pass any of the special cards to your opponents. The Dragonand Phoenix are the two best cards in the deck and should either be kept orpassed to your partner. The 1 (or Mah Jong) is also an excellent card in thatit gives you the first lead and that its special ability can be very powerfulin hurting another player's hand. I value the 1 as better than a Kingbut not quite as good as an Ace; however, it should be noted that the 1 issometimes just as good in your hand as in your partner's so I would normallypass a King or Queen to a partner who called (Grand) Tichu before I would passthe 1. The Dog is a bad card for the player who has it but a great cardfor his partner. It is one of the very best tools you can use to support yourpartner's Tichu call. If you have quite a good hand that you think is verylikely better than your partner's hand, pass the Dog to your partner.Passing the Dog to an opponent who calls (Grand) Tichu before the passwill hurt that player's bid but could lead to their side going out 1st and 2nd.It also sometimes is more valuable in stopping the (Grand) Tichu by being inthe weaker of your partnership's hands; if that person can get one lead to useit, that may be just what is needed for the other partner to go out first. This is a complex judgment call that takes a lot of experience that will stilljust give you a good sense of what to do.
The Dragon is the simplest of the special cards. Only playable on asingle trick, it will always win (unless bombed). Control of the Dragonmeans that you can lead a singleton and be certain that you can win the leadback. If you can, you should hold onto this ability for as long as possible,playing your Aces first. Also, do not always play the Dragon on thefirst opponent's Ace you see. Unless by taking control you can quickly goout, it is often better to wait and see what the opponent leads. Maybe your5-10 straight will actually win you a lead over a straight she leads rather than just being played yourself on lead to get rid of it. You should of course give the Dragon trick away to the opponent you think will go outlast. Note that if one of the opponents has already gone out first, it makes no difference who you give it to - the opponents will always score it.
The Dog is the one card in the deck with which you can best aid yourpartner. If you have a quite strong hand (and in particular a hand whichincludes a bomb or the Dragon), it is often best to save the Dog, particularlyif your partner called Tichu, so that you can use it later to bail your partnerout of trouble. Other than these rare cases, it is usually best to playthe Dog at your first opportunity (this includes the very firstlead of the game granted by the 1/Mah Jong). It is very bad to have hada lead and not taken the opportunity to play the Dog and then not gottenanother chance before some opponent goes out.
The Phoenix is probably the best card in the game. It is certainly themost versatile. Whether you will want to play it as a single card on top of anopponent's Ace or as a wild card depends on your other cards. Always thinkabout using it each way and decide which is better before you play to the firsttrick but also be prepared to rethink that decision if the play calls for it.
The 1/Mah Jong (also sometimes called the Sparrow) is a quiteinteresting card. Both its gift of the first lead and ability to be used inlow straights are excellent, even giving one the possibility of the mythical 14card straight. I haven't yet myself had one but have seen several, includingone which stopped my Grand Tichu call!
Most interesting of all, however, is the special ability, probably the mostconfusing rule in the game. First off, note that the special ability isoptional, despite what some early English translations (including onewith my name on it) said. In fact, I generally recommend not using it when playing the 1 as part of astraight3.The reason for this is pretty simple. Most likely your opponents will beat youif they can anyway, but your partner won't--so why force her? It is alwaysbest to call something, however, when you play the 1 as a singleton. If youcall out nothing, you give your left-hand opponent free rein to play anythinghe wants. Calling for the card you passed him, on the other hand, limits hisoptions and can't reasonably hurt your partner. This does not mean you shouldalways call what you passed. If your partner called Tichu, call what youpassed. If your left-hand opponent called Tichu, don't call what you passedand take the chance on more significantly hurting him (for example, by breakingup a straight or calling out an Ace). In other cases, use your own judgment. If your partner calls a random card and it ends up hurting you (such as forcingout a bomb), don't be upset at him--it happens and he had no way to know itwould hurt you.
There is only one reason to call Tichu before the pass: to tell your partner topass you his very best card; to give you the extra help you need to go outfirst. In general, however, if your partner is following the rule above andyou have a very strong hand, he will often be passing you his best card anyway.In addition, there are several disadvantages to this. The other cards passedmay be really bad for you. The opponents may pass you the Dog. Yourright-hand opponent may use the special power of the 1 to call out an importantcard. I therefore feel that you should only call Tichu before the pass if noneof these things is a serious concern to you and you feel that all you arelacking to feel confident of going out first is one strong card.
Grand Tichu is a very risky call. You may pick up 6 very bad cards after youcall it and you are putting a target on your head for the opponents to aim for.However, it is worth twice as much as a regular Tichu. In my recent statisticscollecting, I have found Grands to be called in around 17% of the hands andmade around 70% of the time. My friend Brian came up with a reasonable rule ofthumb on when to call a Grand - the 8 best cards in the deck are probably thePhoenix and Dragon, 4 aces, the 1, and the Dog in that order. If you have fourof these, you want to at least consider calling Grand. I do not recommendcalling a Grand just because you have a bomb in your first eight cards. Bombsseem very nice but they actually only win you one lead. A bomb iscertainly better than any single card but isn't generally nearly as good ashaving the Dragon and Phoenix, for example. Consider a bomb to be worth about1.5-2 of the 8 cards above. The idea above is just a 'rule of thumb' however.In practice, personally, I will almost always call if I have the Dragon and Phoenix, regardless of my other 6 cards, and will usually not call if I have AA1Dog. Calling without either the Dragon or the Phoenix has great risk. If you end up with both of them against you, you will very likely fail.There is an excellent analysis by Curt Carpenter on BoardGameGeek.com of 2.3 million hands of Tichu played on the online siteBSW. I strongly recommend reading the highlighted points. The money quote is'Dragon + Phoenix, with no aces and no kings already succeeds at77.4%. That's really already enough! Unless 77.4% isn't high enough for you,you can stop looking once you see those two and confidently make the grandcall. No aces required.' However, with strong players, I do not buywhatsoever the low value he finds of the Dog and the 1. I have had a ton ofcalls killed by the 1 and the Dog in partner's hand is vastly better than ineither your hand (because opponents passed you it) or in the opposition's hand.I would certainly take either one over a King.
/pic5485390.jpg "Tichu")
The primary objective in Tichu is to get rid of all of your cards. Playing 13 of your cards but leaving yourself with a final card which you willnever be able to play is of basically no value4. The skill in the game is indevising a plan for getting rid of all fourteen cards before playing the first.With a good set of cards and a good plan, this will also let youcall Tichu. With a bad set of cards, there may be no reasonable plan togo out early and you may just have to do the best you can to avoid going outlast and/or to help your partner.Generally, you want to divide your hand up into three categories of card groups(a group is any set of cards which can be played all at once in Tichu): losersyou'll have to lead (the 1, Dog, or very low groups), cards which aren'twinners but are often easy to get rid of (such as middle singletons like 6-Q,medium pairs, medium threes of a kind, and medium full houses), and groupswhich you hope will be winners (bombs, Dragon, Phoenix, Aces, high groups). Agood hand has more winners than losers. The best hands are ones where you canlead low groups and be confident of getting the lead back with high groupsuntil you get rid of all of your cards, never relinquishing the lead to theopponents.
The fundamental rule of play is 'lead low, win high'. Only break itfor a good reason. Keeping the lead is not a good reason. Neverlead a winner unless you are just about to go out or don't have anything butwinners. If you unexpectedly lose the lead, having a winner can let yourecover.
If your partner called (Grand) Tichu, do everything in your power tosupport him. If doing so requires ruining your own hand, do it withouthesitation. Until she has gone out, you should only worry at all aboutyourself if you think you have a good chance to go out second.
In general, split Aces. Unless you have an incredibly strong hand, playingAces together wastes their power. Each Ace can usually win a lead on its ownand even when they don't, they force out very dangerous cards from theopponents. Since Kings don't usually win singleton tricks until one or morepeople are out, playing them together is much more reasonable.
Don't overplay your partner if her current play has a reasonable chance to winthe trick. Overplaying a 5 with a 9 is fine but overplaying a King is usuallyunwise. This rule is particularly important if your partner called Tichu.Having the Dog is not a reason to break this rule. The Dog's purpose isto take the lead away from one of the opponents and give it to your partner,not to take it from your partner and then give it back. The former ismuch more valuable. If you called Tichu or, by winning thistrick, know you can immediately (or quickly) go out, feel free to ignore thisrule.
Unless you have a bomb or other very good winners, play the Dog early as ithelps your partner and you may never get another lead where you can play it.If you do have a bomb, it is probably better to wait to bail your partnerout of (possible) trouble later.
Be bomb-proof if you can, especially if you have called Tichu. If yourlast two cards are 2-Dragon, it would be nice to lead the Dragon andthen go out with the 2 as it doesn't give a free lead to your left-handopponent. However, this is very risky. If the Dragon is bombed, you areruined. If you lead the 2, even if it is bombed (unlikely) the moment anothersingleton is led you will go out. If you have 2-Dragon and do not havethe lead, play the Dragon on the first singleton. If it is bombed you are indeep trouble, but in this case you really don't have much choice so it is asmart risk to take.
Following on the previous point, take the risks you need to take. If youcan, play it safe, but if your only way to go out is to take a risk, go forit. Don't be too scared of bombs; they occur on only a low percentage ofhands. Generally, don't let yourself lose to a hand that doesn't have abomb because you were scared of the possibility of a likely non-existentbomb.
Counting some cards, particularly the four special cards and the four aces,is quite useful and well worth the effort. The more cards you track, thebetter you can play, especially in the endgame.
Don't try to stop a (Grand) Tichu bid, fail, and by having spent yourgood cards early, let the opponents also go out one-two. Sometime you justhave to let the Tichu caller go out. This is a hard decision to make. Also,you should either both try to stop it or neither one. One of you alone tryingwill almost certainly fail. Support your partner's actions, even if youthink they won't be successful - you don't know her hand.
Situation: three players left. If your partner is the one who has alreadygone out, try to go out next or even third but if you can't, at least try toget as many scoring cards as possible into your pile before the others go out.Your side will score them even if you don't go out. If you are the opponents,make certain that one of you goes out second to avoid the One-Two, no matterwhat you have to do.
Situation: two players left and your opponent has 1 card. Play all multi-cardgroups and then play your single cards from highest to lowest. What willreally matter is if your opponent's card is higher than your 2nd lowestsingleton. The situation would effectively be the same if your opponent has2 cards and you have all pairs or bigger groups (with one major and commonexception5).
Situation: two players left and your opponent has many cards. Play your lowcards and win the lead back with your high cards until you get to the abovesituation. If your opponent is leading low singletons, beat them, even ifit requires breaking up groups - otherwise he will just continue to leadsingletons and things will only get worse.
Special note. With only two players left, if you have the Phoenix in your handyou actually may want to think about whether you even want to go out.Depending on the cards you and the other player have, it may actually be betterto just let him go out, thus sticking them with the -25 points from the Phoenixto score.
Enjoy the game! --Aaron
Please send Aaron EMAIL if you have any comments on or suggestions for these pages or if you just want to say hi.
Shall I Teach You About Tichu?
Legend has it that over 642 million Chinese play Tichu nearly every day! I don't know about that. All I know is that Tichu might very well be the world's best card game.
Tichu is a partnership game for four players where partners battle to be the first to play all of their cards and score points. Each hand is filled with strategy and risk. Will you be the first player to play all of your cards? Perhaps you'd like to make a little wager on that? Are you willing to risk 100 points? How about 200?
Tichu has long been the favorite card game of all time on BoardGameGeek. Find out why! I promise that you won't regret it!
Now this game is available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch and the critics agree! Tichu is awesome! Here's a sample of just some of the comments:
How To Play Tichu
Tichu is my favorite game! |
| BGG's favorite card game becomes one of the best board game apps on the iPhone (and iPad). (Sebastian Blanco, game reviewer for TUAW.com) |
Steve Blanding's Tichu is an excellent adaptation of an excellent card game. I expect it to remain one of my most-played iGames for a long time. |
Beyond awesome! (Pat Sweeney - Tichu lover and all-around good guy) |
A portable gaming experience that is not to be missed by card game fans. (Greg Swarthout - game reviewer) |
Steve Blanding has done it again. He is an iPhone card game programming ninja. (EvilTimmy - highly perceptive individual) |
Here's what Tichu looks like on the iPhone and iPod touch:
(On an iDevice, use two fingers to scroll to the right and see more.)
| the splash screen | the welcome screen | use Shake-A-Hint™ to get play suggestions | highly configurable AI | detailed in-game documentation | extensive tutorial | linked play over Bluetooth | the score sheet is just a touch away |
And this is what Tichu looks like on the iPad! (Click on an image to view full size.)
(On an iDevice, use two fingers to scroll to the right and see more.)
| beautiful high resolution cards | hopefully you won't see this screen too often | detailed statistics | learn from the extensive tutorial | full in game documentation | the computer calls 'Tichu!' | playing the Dog |
Tichu boasts the following great features:
Tichu Near Me
- Fully licensed and authorized by designer Urs Hostettler and publisher Fata Morgana Spiele.
- Computer controlled opponents boast a challenging and lifelike Artificial Intelligence that is configurable in numerous ways.
- Up to 4 humans can play linked over Bluetooth or Game Center.
- Extensive tutorial and in-game documentation will teach you how to play and have you playing like a champ in no time.
- Shake-A-Hint™ feature helps you play while you learn.
- Track your statistics over multiple game sessions.
- Keep track of your game's progress with a fully automated score sheet.
- Play in English or German.
- Optimized high resolution images for iPhone 4 and iPad.
(It also looks fantastic on older iPhones and iPod touch.)
Here's a small taste of what it looks like in motion:
Do you have any questions? Do you think that you have encountered a bug? Then please feel free to consult the FAQ which you will find by following this link:
Frequently Asked Questions About Tichu
Tichu is a card game published by Fata Morgana Spiele. It was brought to the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch by Steve Blanding. It requires OS 3.1.3 or later. Not all devices support Game Center. Game Center related functionality (achievements, leaderboards, and wide-area networked games) requires a device that is capable of supporting it.
For a fascinating look at some of the things that went into the making of this game, read Steve's article on Bringing Tichu to the iPhone Family!
For another superb card gaming experience, you really should check out Mü!
For a fun and silly way to liven up your next game night, take a look at Start Player!
And for a much lighter experience, check out FireworksToy!