Sigh… Should I believe in bad luck? Can that bad luck be in the form of one person? Perhaps. Why do I ask this? Because Jon shows up to watch our game. So far, we had been winning. However, when he arrives, we begin our downward spiral… Can you guess when he shows up from the following?

Well, today we had five people up for the game. Dan discussed a method where some one sits out each hand and the partners rotate in all of the possible combinations. Each person would be scored individually. It sounded interesting and I would be up for it some time. However we decided to cut cards for who would be in and the low person would be out. Fortunately, luck was with me and I was in!

I made a couple of mistakes in this game. And I feel bad about it. I can be so hard on myself sometimes. On the first hand, I had missed the fact that the Phoenix had been played. I could have gone out for a one/two. And then when I called Tichu, I was down to three cards (King, King, Two). Since the Phoenix had been played I was hoping that there were not a pair of Aces out there. I should have instead played the Two and then either play Kings on a pair or split the Kings on singles.

Woo woo! Would you believe that this is the first time that I have won a Tichu game at work? And strangely enough I haven’t lost a Tichu game at home. Anyways, on the first hand, Mike random-wished out my two bomb. So on the next hand, I random-wished out Ed’s three bomb. And on my hand, Mike wishes for a four (?) and I play another card and call Tichu. Unfortunately, Mike random-wished the four bomb out of Adam’s hand. I still made the Tichu. And speaking of bombs, Adam calls Tichu and then bombs the dragon. Mike then over-bombs on the assumption that it would hurt Adam. Adam then overbombs again! Which made Mike throw away his five bomb.

Its interesting how one sided Tichu can get sometimes… For a whole game, one team will score all of the points. And it certinally seemed that way this time. However, the last 3 hands were enough for the other team to come back from behind and win. BTW, this score card is missing a desparate Grand Tichu call made by myself at the last hand.

Sigh. Still haven’t won a lunch time Tichu game this year. Perhaps a small part of that is because we don’t play to 1000 points? Still, it was amusing to have a bomb and set Ed’s tichu call..

This game had an interesting hand. Adam calls Grand Tichu. Ed has the Mahjong and a long straight (12 card). So he decides to call Tichu. Unfortunately, Mike bombs Ed. At the end of the hand, Ed, Adam and myself all have one card. Fortunately, Mike leads a single card which both Ed and Adam were forced to pass on and I was able to play on. This allowed a net -100 point loss for the opposing team.

There were able to come back from behind with 3 one/twos which was enough to give them the game.

Our heroic team was down 350 points. The game was almost over. This was the time to call Grand Tichu. And, unfortunately, it was not me. Although I did force Mike to do it. And apparaently, it was a risky call. Adam was strong and would have gone out. But Mike did have the right cards needed to go out!

On the next hand, we are now down 90 points. In all probability, this is the last hand. No Grand Tichu call was made. So I called Tichu before the pass. And if I were to make it, it would then be a battle over points. Another problem is that during the play, a lot of points were given to Adam. So now I need to go out first and force Adam to go out last. Sadly, my goal was not accomplished. Although it was an amusing hand!

This game had a lot of one/twos in it. On the 5th hand, I made a risky GrandTichu calll with only the Ace and the Phoenix in my first eight cards. Ed passed me the Dragon. Adam starts out with the standard Ace wish. Both Adam and Mike destroyed their hands trying to stop me. I later find out that Ed had all of the good cards and he was able to stop Mike and Adam when they went over my plays…

In this game, I had four bombs and yet, my partner is the only one who called tichu! Sigh! Crap + bomb does not a tichu hand make. The other flawed part of this equation is a last hand substitution of MikeA for Jon. Who called Grand Tichu and made it. Unfortunately, Ed completed the one-two for the win…

P.S. I found another scoring discrepancy which gave my team 100 points…

Since Ed and I were not partners, I had hoped to change my luck. And at the beginning, we were dominating in points each hand. But somehow, in the last three hands, they came back and pipped us for the win!