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Today was the last lunch time game of Tichu with Adam. We are now dependent upon the flakiness of Chapel.

The cards were one sided once again. But that is nothing new. However, I was able to make two Grand Tichus in a row. But the next one/two was the knock out punch for our team. Jon had all four aces (the most useless bomb there is).

We finished early, so we played a couple of more hands. And ended up with setting Adam one last time...

The game started off alright. The first two Tichu calls were set by opposing bombs. Nothing new there. Ed's call was also set with a bomb. But the amusing thing, however, was that I was able to go out first when I had two cards left in my hand: a Jack and a three!

The came the Tichu and one/two round. So I called Grand Tichu when my partner picked up his first eight cards. Little did I know that he also was fighting against me. We needed to go out 1/2 for the win. Unfortunately, he kept all of his strong cards and passed me a totally crappy card. So, as a result, I had no chance in going out first (I would have gone out first if he would have passed me his Dragon). Sigh. I will have to remember that in the future. Don't make GT calls with Jon as a partner...

The first two Tichu calls were set by bombs. The next set Tichu was set even though the opposing team had two bombs. I had the perfect hand: AA,JJ,22,Ace high 8 long straight.

So Adam goes on a Tichu calling rampage. While the heroic team slowly crawls ahead to the finishing line. Jon's Tichu call on the last hand of the game gave our team the win! Woo woo!

For the first four hands, Adam and I passed our high cards to each other. Which is depressing. However, the other team only Tichued once during that time.

Adam's first Grand Tichu was interesting. He had a natural Ace bomb and was passed a two bomb. So it was no contest in that he was going out first. During the play, I noticed the fact that almost all of the points were taken by Adam. And even stated that fact out loud. Jon played the last couple of Kings to go out second. So I should have known that Ed had the Phoenix and somehow get him to be in the lead. However, my mind was on the rote task of going out next. Which meant that we got stuck with the -25 points. If I would have automatically passed when Ed got control, we would have ended the round with 115 points! Ugh!!

Adam's second Grand Tichu call was risky. With two Aces, a King, two Queens, and a Jack, I thought that either he was in trouble or we were certainly going out one/two.

On the fourth hand, Jon had all four Aces. How did we know this? Because Adam wished for an Ace, Ed passed, and I played a low card. Of course, only Adam really knew that Jon had all of the Aces. But I certainly suspected. Fortunately, Jon could not call Tichu since he had too many low singles to get rid of.

My first Tichu call was risky. However, since Adam passed low to me, I figured that he must have had some of the missing control cards. And, apparently we had all of the cards since we one-twoed.

On the last hand, I passed the Phoenix to Adam as I didn't think I was going to call Tichu. However, when it came time to play, all of my cards fit together. And I was able to go out first.

I had the Dragon a lot today in the cards that were dealt to me. Sadly, I was never able to use it. In my one Tichu call, a ten bomb stopped me. And I do not feel bad making that call. You can never predict that a bomb is out there.

This was the Adam show. No doubt about it. He called and made Tichu on the majority of the hands.

The cards were certainly one-sided today. And yet, our team did not call Tichu often enough. The trick is to figure out when your partner has good cards instead of the other team. You only get one piece of information. And that is the card which your partner passed to you. If it is the Dragon, the Phoenix, or an Ace, it is a clear sign. Even very low cards like twos through fives can be clear signs. The question is how do you interpret when you are passed a middle card? In this game, it was: "I hope to make a strong Tichu hand so I am keeping my honors."

Woo woo! My streak of bad luck finally broke! I was worried there for a while (even during this game).

This game started out very painful. Down 400 points after two hands. For my first hand, I had a King bomb and no Aces. So I wished for an Ace, which forced Ed to bomb with his Aces. Later, Jon stopped in by bombing a trick I was going to win with a ten bomb. But, I over-bombed with Kings and went out with a pair of fives. Afterward, Adam surprised us with an eight bomb which, unfortunately, was not enough to let him go out third.

Jon's first Tichu was set naturally. On the next hand, Ed plays a straight that does not contain the Mahjong. Adam then bombs it with threes to force Ed to keep the Mahjong (which is a looser). Jon calls Tichu and Adam surprises us again by coming up with another bomb. Unfortunately, Jon has too many winners to be set.

And, on the following hand, three more bombs showed up. Two were in the opposing team and one was in my hand. Jon got down to one card and played a pair. Adam won that pair and dogged me. But I had three singles that I needed to play. So, I played the Queen and hoped that Jon could not beat it. Unfortunately, Jon had an Ace. I was set regardless because Ed still had a bomb.

When it got to 750 - 750, Ed said it was the last hand of the game. Which left a distasteful feeling to me. Why play this game and have it be decided by one hand? Thankfully, everyone agreed to play to a thousand. Which was amusing when we Tichued/one-twoed for the win! All that worrying and discussing for nothing.

Ugh. The run of bad luck continues. And, as you can see, one team was getting all of the points. Until Ed was set. Then, it went our way. But our desperation Grand-Tichus sealed our fate.

Jon continues his streak of being bad luck for me (that's my story and I am sticking to it!). Towards the end, I was forced into making a desperation Grand-Tichu call (Jon picking up all of his cards first). Which I should not of made in the first place, but oh well. On the next hand, Ed calls Tichu when his team only needed 35 points for the win. When we set him, we once again had a little hope of making a comeback. And Jon kept hope alive when he made a Tichu call. Unfortunately he made an ace wish when he played his eleven card straight. And I was able to satisfy that wish by breaking up my thirteen card run (leaving me with a 2, a 3 and a jack). Jon had no aces. So he was trying to improve his hand by forcing an opponent to play an Ace. It was a risky call. But when you are behind, you need to take chances...

Wow. I think that this constitutes a new record of "Most one-sided distribution, evar!" I know that I have complained before about one team having all of the cards. Well, now the granularity of that statement has increased to one person having all of the cards -- Adam. I now have proof that Jon is a pretty bad person to team up with in Tichu...

When Adam went into his Grand-Tichu death spiral, Ed first passed him an Ace instead of the Phoenix. What was amusing was the second Grand-Tichu call. This time Ed passed Adam the Phoenix instead of the Ace. So when I played my King-high straight, Ed could have gone over it if he would have kept that Phoenix. This allowed me to set Adam. My dilemma during the pass was: should I pass Jon an Ace or a 9? I decided that my hand was not so great otherwise, so I passed him that Ace on the top of my straight.

There are two important Tichu adages:

• "Don't play for the bomb."
• "If you make all of your Tichus, then you are not calling it enough."

I failed to live up the the first. I could have played my pair of aces, but no.... Ed certainly lived up to the second.

Ed's Grand-Tichu call was a classic case of Grand-Tichu chicken. Its late. The game is almost over. You need to take a chance. And your partner has picked up the rest of their cards. When I had the Dragon, Phoenix, Dog, and one Ace, I knew Ed was in trouble. I was tempted to over Tichu, in fact. But I played it safe instead. Jon did try his best to disrupt us. But he led a single card to Ed when I had the Dragon and Phoenix left in my had. Ed played a King. And I thought about being tricky and playing the Phoenix on top of that. But I didn't and Dragoned it instead. Adam played an Ace on my Phoenix and went out shortly after that.

Wow. Five one/twos in the game. For Adam's Tichu call, he decided to call it because of the passed cards. Both Jon and Adam passed low cards to each other. Ed starts the round out by wishing a card out of Jon's hand. Since Jon did not decide to call Tichu, Adam decides to make the riskier call. He figures that Jon had a strong hand since he passed low. This would promote his hand a little bit because he figures that some of the honors are in Jon's hand. That was indeed the case and Adam makes his Tichu call.

On my call, there were three bombs out there. I have: A, KKKxx, 6 card bomb, a 6 and a 2. Thankfully Jon wishes the two out of my hand. I play my Ace which Jon Dragons. I consider bombing it but wait. Now I have to worry about is playing a six. But Jon leads a low single and, surprisingly enough, my six won that round! I play my full house and bomb it. Ed now steps up to the plate and goes for the one/two. He bombs a round but Jon over-bombs it. However, he didn't need to worry about it because he still went out second.

This next game evens out the karma I suppose. But I protest calling it an official game! For some unspecified reason... Can't let the other team win now, can we?