John is trying to put together a Tichu session on Sunday nights. We shall see if I can make more of them, but I was able to finish all of my chores in time to make this one. There were a couple of new people present. So it was a good opportunity to increase the local Tichu skills.

However, my partner made some mistakes. One thing about this game that can be counter-intuitive is the fact that this a team game. One example is going over your partner’s plays when they call Tichu. When Traci called it, I was waiting to help with a Dragon and a Dog in my hand. After an opponent played an Ace (and the Phoenix was out), I stepped in and played the Dragon. So Traci shocked me when she bombed the Dragon. She then led a low sequential pair which was overtaken by the other team. At this point, my hand was cratered and I could only sit by and hope that she could go out first. My partner should realize that I am not going to play on top of their Tichu call unless I have a strong reason to.

The next mistake was knowing how to stop the one/two. The other team was about to one/two. Wayne only had one card left. So I saw an opportunity to stop him. I played my last Ace and would play three low pairs. However, Traci went over my pair with a higher pair. And then lead a low single. Which I could not stop. Here is another case where you should not play on top of your partner unless you are guaranteed to go out next.

This game had a lot of bombs in it. I counted ten of them. And it was a long and drawn out game. We were even on Tichu calls and one/twos. But we were seriously out-pointed.