In college, “do you want to play cards?” meant Oh Hell!, Hearts, or Cribbage. (If you wanted to play Bridge, you’d name it). “Cards” meant traditional games. “According to Hoyle.” Later, when I attended a boardgame convention, ‘cards’ meant those plus Barbu and Poker. Sometime I’d encounter a newly published card game like Mu & More, typically with a ‘weird’ deck of cards (otherwise why buy the game?).
The better ones would be popular for a while (even a year or two) then disappear.
All except Tichu. It Kept. Getting. Played.
Year after year. And not just casually. Regular partnerships formed and developed carding conventions. Tournaments occurred1. You could play online, and when I dipped my toes in that my (random) partner cursed me out and called me an idiot for not playing well.
It shouldn’t have surprised me: I see that behavior during online Bridge games2. I was stunned at how deeply the players cared. “Card games” were small affairs, not worth berating someone over. But Tichu isn’t just any card game.
Urs Hostettler’s creation is based on the immensely popular Chinese card game Dou Dizhu. Both are in the “climbing” or “shedding” genre where you want to get rid of your hand. You do so by playing ever improving sets of cards. Higher card beats lower card, a set of 2-3-4-5-6 can be beaten by 3-4-5-6-7. A pair is beaten by a higher pair.
Hostettler took the three player game and made it four players, with partnerships. He also introduced a few special cards into the game, each with their own rules and powers. The Mah-Jongg (‘1’) leads first and can ‘wish’ for a card — forcing the next player to play it. The Dog passes the lead to your partner. The Dragon is the highest single card, and the Phoenix can fill out straights or beat any single (non-Dragon) card as “a half step higher.”
The strategy in Tichu comes from grouping your cards. How often will you have to lead (or follow) to shed your hand? In theory you could start with a 14 card straight and be done, but since you must pass three cards at the start of any hand, that requires luck. In general you have to follow the leader’s hand: If they lead a pair, you must play a pair. However, Bombs (Four of a Kind and Straight Flushes) can be played on anything, and out of turn. You can also gamble that you are going to be first out, simply call “Tichu” at any time before you’ve played any cards. If you are right, it’s 100 points, and it’s -100 if you are wrong.
I like Tichu. But swaths of gamers love it. Tichu joined the rank of games that aren’t included when you say “play cards?” You ask for Tichu by name, and many people (judging from the abusive comments) do not want to play with someone who only has dozens of hours of knowledge.
So even though Tichu is based on a traditional game, the fact that it gets played nightly at game conventions thirty five years after it appeared is a good sign that it is worth including in The 100 Most Influential Games of the 20th Century.
Administrative Note — The 20th Century Project will not appear next week. The next posting will be on July 11th.
At least one Duplicate tournament (ala Duplicate Bridge) has taken place. My wife, who never plays Bridge, played in the Tichu duplicate game.
“Play faster.” “You suck.” “Idiot.” It’s why I don’t play online with random people.
Another game I've never played. It has such a fanatical, loyal fan base that it must have something.