Adam and Mike came early. And when Jon showed up, we opened up the Tichu deck to play a couple of hands while everyone else showed up. For the first two hands, I had pretty good cards. I called and made Tichu both times. For the third, and final hand, Adam calls Tichu. Then Mike over calls Tichu. I cringe. Mike did have a Queen bomb, but Adam had a 9 bomb, the Dragon, the Phoenix, an Ace, and other cards. Adam also went out first. Sigh. I must work with Mike about over calling Tichu…
We broke up into two four player tables and Indonesia was on our table. I was very happy to play it again. After explaining the rules to Mike, it took us about two and a half hours to play. There was a little bit of Ashly-Rollmaning going on (and Hamzying) mainly during the Merger phase. Bidding seemed to require the most thought in this game. What was annoying was the constant queries about how much money everyone had. And unfortunately, I let it get to me. Perhaps if everyone wrote out their current total on a sheet of paper, it would speed up the game (maybe make large L.E.D. displays).
Anyways, it was still fun to play. Especially since I ending up in first by a narrow margin (it was a tight game). I will leave you with a picture of Mike Ashley-Rollmaning…
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