Tichu General Strategies, Passing Conventions and Tips

[KeslerReyesHoward]

1. Focus on going out first. If that is not possible, Focus on NOT going out last.
2. Points: Beginners and novice players should generally not be worried about points.
Number 1 above will generally get you and your team more points.
Once you become more experienced, perhaps you can adjust your play to consider points.
3. You and your partner are a team and need to work together to defeat the other team.
4. When you have the lead, you should generally play your lowest single card or lowest card hand.
This will let you get rid of these low cards, even though the other team may play a higher hand to beat you.
5. Generally, you should only play your higher first if a) you are highly confident that your hand will not be beat and
b) It will allow you to go out, when you follow up, by playing your one lower card hand to go out.
6. If you leave yourself with only low cards by playing all your higher cards first, you will be stock with those cards and you will Not go out first.
7. It is generally safe to play a slightly higher single card or low pair over your parter when considering cards played are valued from two to nine.
8. The key and focus should be for you to save your higher cards to play over your opponent’s play.
9. If your partner passes on an opponent’s play, that can signal a few possibilities.
Option A. Your partner does not have the cards to play a higher hand.
Option B. Your partner does not wish to play that higher hand, because it may destroy a different hand that they want to keep for later play.
Option C. Your partner needs your help to play a higher hand to beat your opponents.
Option D. Your partner does have a higher hand that beats your opponents but thinks that you have a better opportunity to go out first.
10. Many more General play tips will be discussed in more upcoming topics.

[KeslerReyesHoward]

II. Calling Grand Tichu.
Analyzing the first Eight Cards. With conservative views.
Consider: The six highest cards in the game; the 4 aces, the Phoenix, the Dragon and a bomb.

Option A: If you have four or five from the list above, you should always call Grand Tichu. However, if you are conservative and you only have four aces, you may also need at least two face cards to be safe.
Option B: If you have three of the items above, you should always call Grand Tichu. However as in Option A above, if you only have three aces, you should also have at least three face cards to consider calling Grand Tichu.
Option C: If you have two items from the list above, you should only consider calling Grand Tichu with at least four of the other cards being face cards.
Do Not call Grand Tichu.
Option A: Three or four consecutive pairs, with no items from the list above.
Option B: Three of a kind face Cards, with no items from the list above.
Option C: Any regular straight of five, six or seven cards, with no items from the list above.
Tips on how to pass Passing with a Grand Tichu Call. If your partner calls Grand Tichu, you should Always pass your best card to your Partner, even if it messes up your hand. You should always keep the dog and the one/mahjong if you were delt them.
If one of your opponents call Grand Tichu, you should pass the dog to the person that called Grand.
If you have the one/mahjong you should make the one/mahjong is in the hand of the teammate that will go immediately before the person that called Grand Tichu. This way the person that goes first with the one/mahjong will wish an Ace from the person that called Grand. Purpose: To give the opponent, that called Grand, one less opportunity to get rid of low cards.
Warning, this play, may, OR may not improve your chances, of stopping the Grand Tichu call.

[KeslerReyesHoward]

III. Passing Conventions and Strategies.
These are Required to be publicly and openly discussed amongst all players before play.
There are absolutely No secret passing conventions allowed, as this would be cheating.

These are Not rules that designed to be followed not matter what.
If following these guidelines destroys your hand, than don’t follow them.
The purpose and idea is to follow them as much as possible.
Following passing Conventions can give you great information about what is in your partners hand and your opponents hands.

As an example for myself, on average, I may not follow these passing guidelines once per game, due to not wanting to trash my hand. With more experience you will be able to recognize quickly during play when your partner did not follow the passing conventions.
Some players are stricter and may insist that their partners follow the suggested Passing Conventions no matter what. There are also other passing conventions that exist. For example: there are different ways to pass to your partner. The important thing is that you and your partner establish publicly what the passing conventions will be for that game.

[KeslerReyesHoward]

1. Passing to Opponents:
Option A: Pass your lowest odd card to the left and your lowest even card to the right.
Edit: Another way to describe the passing, would be to pass your lowest odd card to the next player and your lowest even card to the previous player.

OR
Option B: Pass your lowest even card to the left and your lowest odd card to the right.
Edit: Another way to describe the passing, would be to pass your lowest even card to the next player and your lowest odd card to the previous player.
-Either of these options will work if all four players agree on one of the two options.

Option C: Pass your lowest pair of cards away, one to each opponent. Ex: If you have a pair of twos, you pass one two to each opponent.
-Purpose: This lowers the chances of passing a bomb to the opponents.

2. Passing to your partner:
There are six high cards in the game: the 4 aces, the Phoenix and the Dragon. A bomb may also count in this passing consideration.

-Option A. If you have only one of the six high cards, you should pass it to your partner.
-Option B. If you have two or more of the high six cards, you should pass a card that is ten or lower.
-Option C. If you have none of the six high cards, you should pass the highest face card that you do not need.
-Option D. -OR- if you have only one of the six high cards, pass the highest face card that you do not need to your partner.
This will most likely give a false signal to your partner (see purpose below). This may be a valid option if one high card will allow you to not go out last.

-Purpose: a) This tells your partner how many high cards, that you may have in your hand.
b) It may also help you determine if you should call Tichu. Now you know, how much your partner will be able to help you.
c) It may also help you to determine what to wish for from your opponents, if you have the 1/Mahjong.

3. Passing the dog:
There is a great discussion about the dog on the BGA Tichu forum here: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35171

-Option A. If you are planning to call Tichu, you may give the dog to your partner, if you feel that you may need some help getting your Tichu. This signals to your partner that you are planning to call Tichu and that you may need some help. Your partner can now pass you the lead if they win a trick.
- Option B. You are planning on calling Tichu and your hand is amazing. (for example, you have four of the high six cards and/or a bomb.) You should keep the Dog and not pass it away.
-Option C. If your partner has called Grand Tichu, you should keep the dog.

-Option D: One of your opponent’s calls Grand Tichu. Pass the dog to the opponent that calls Grand Tichu. This now gives that person an extra card that they have to get rid of.
-Option E. Passing the dog to your opponent in a normal hand will carry risk. If the opponent’s partner calls Tichu, you just gave your opponents a card that may help them get their Tichu call. It is generally best to keep the dog except as noted above.

4. Passing on your turn. There are many circumstances when you should pass on your play, even though you have a playable hand that will beat the last hand played.
-Option A: There are multiple hands that you can play and some of them may involve the same card or cards. Is it better to save that specific card or cards for a better hand later?
-Option B: It can be better to save certain cards of hands until later in the round, so you can use them to go out.

-Option C: If your partner has called Tichu, it is generally ok to play only to play a single card over them, maybe valued at 9 or under, as long as you are not jumping too far ahead of them in numeric value. It may also be ok to play a low pair (maybe valued at 6 or under) over your partner, that is only one or two numeric value higher than your partner’s pair. Otherwise, you should not play higher than your partner.

[KeslerReyesHoward]

IV. The One/Mahjong lead.
-Option A: You do not have to play the one. You can play another hand, however you should generally do so:
a) to play a low hand that you might be stuck with later
b) if you know that you can get back the lead to play the one on the next hand.

-Option B. ONLY wish for the card that you passed to the next player after you. If you wish for some other random card you a have 50% chance of messing up your partner’s hand. Do NOT endanger your Partner’s hand. You are on the same team and you Need to help each other to increase your chances of winning.

-Option C. If your team mate is following the passing to your partner convention recommended above, you will know where the Aces are in the game. If you know, your partner does Not have an Ace and you do Not have all four of them you can now wish an Ace out of your opponent’s hand.

[KeslerReyesHoward]

V. The Phoenix.
-The Phoenix should be used to improve your hand and to assist you with getting the lead so that you can go out sooner.

-The Phoenix can best be used to:
a) fill in a long straight
b) to play over an opponent’s Ace.
c) to improve high hands that are likely to win the trick.
-Generally, the Phoenix should not be used for low hands, nor as a throw away card. It is not worth giving away the negative 25 points to an opponent, if that will now prevent you from going out, because you no longer have the Phoenix to help you as a high card.

[KeslerReyesHoward]

VI. Calling Tichu
1. You should Not call Tichu before passing.
You are giving both your opponent’s information they can use against you in the pass, and in the first hand, if they have the one/Mahjong.
It is generally not worth getting one good card from your partner, verses alerting both of your opponents in advance.
Your partner will support you when you call Tichu at the appropriate time.
You will also know if you partner can support you based on what card they past you if you follow the partner appropriate passing conventions suggested previously.

2. You should not call Tichu until, just Before, you play your first card OR your first hand.
Remember that you can pass and wait to see what happens for up to several hands, before deciding to jump in to play, and then call Tichu at the appropriate time. If a few high cards have been played, like Aces, Dragon or Phoenix,
Now those cards can no longer be used against you, when you play.

3. You need to take some risk in Tichu. If you make your Tichu call every time, you are not calling enough.
There is always a chance that your opponents will have a bomb (or two) that could stop your Tichu call. However, you should NOT take this into consideration when calling Tichu. Otherwise, you will lose too many opportunities to make a Tichu call.

4. Guaranteed (Highly Likely) leads. These can be counted on as highly likely to get you the lead.
a) 4 aces, b) Phoenix, c) Dragon, d) bomb, e) 4 or more consecutive pairs, f) long straights of 7 or more cards.
g) six or more face cards in your hand.
5. If you have four-4 or more of these “guaranteed leads” you need to call Tichu, period.
6. If you have three-3 of these “guaranteed leads” you should heavily consider calling Tichu.
7. If you have two of these "guaranteed leads”, it could be a bit risky to call Tichu. However, it depends on the other cards in your hand and/or if you know that your partner can help you get your Tichu.

8. Also considering how many singles cards (that do not form other hands) that are valued from two to ten in your hand is a factor in calling Tichu as well. For example: Two guaranteed leads may not help you, if you have four or more low single cards to get rid of.

9. When to play over a trick:
If your partner has called Tichu, you should generally be passing on tricks when your parter has played a hand. The exceptions are when singles are led and you have the chance to play a low/mid single. You are going to avoid playing high cards on single tricks, because you may deny your partner the chance to shed a mid/high single. It is a frequent occurrence for new and novice experienced players dropping J/Q/K on their partner's single trick, which can potentially wreck their partner’s Tichu hand.

10. If your partner has called Tichu, it is generally ok to play over them, with a single card, or a pair, when the cards are valued at 7-seven or under. Otherwise, you should not play higher than your partner. Please be careful, you generally do not want to play over them more than once.

11. If your partner has called Tichu, but passes on a play, it may be a sign that they need your help.
When your partner has called Tichu, if you see them passing consistently on singles/pairs/etc. then you know that they cannot; or for good reason, do not want to play, on that type of hand.
-In this case, you should heavily consider trying to win that trick, so that when you win the trick, you can now lead with a different type of hand to get your partner back into play. See options below under #12.

12. If you get the lead, when your partner has called Tichu, your goal is to give them back the lead.
-Option A. If you have the Dog, you should play it.
-Option B. Usually the next best way to give your partner the lead is to play a low single card.
-Option C. If you have really great hand to play, that you may not be able to play otherwise later, (for example three or four consecutive pairs or a long straight), and you know that will get the lead back, it may be ok to play that hand first, then follow option A or B above.
-Option D. Play a very low pair with cards valued at five-5 or less.

[KeslerReyesHoward]

We hope that this Tichu 101 discussion of General Strategies, Passing Conventions and Tips was helpful to you. For those that may be playing Tichu with me here on BGA I will frequently be sharing these during game play.

[KeslerReyesHoward]

As more additional Tichu discussion items come up I will post them here.

[KeslerReyesHoward]

Section VII. Open Discussion Protocol and Details
1) Ideal but not likely on BGA: This would require longer planning and very fast timing on BGA. Open discussion is posted and agreed upon for all players prior to start of play. This method works with live play.

2) Possible on BGA: Players that play together on BGA have agreed upon passing conventions that they follow and announce them to all players prior to tacking ANY Actions at the start of the game.

The first action players can take on BGA is whether or not to call Grand Tichu.
All announcements of agreed passing conventions would need to take place prior to that decision.

3) Likely For BGA: Discussions for agreed upon Passing conventions that will be used for the remainder of the game after the first hand and are not applicable for the first hand.

4) No open discussion about card play is allowed during the hand, as this would be considered cheating.
Discussion can occur after the hand as to what you should have done or why you took a certain action.
5). Training or Learning Game Alternative:
In live play, we will sometimes announce in advance that we will have open discussions during play.
This is generally for new players. This is also known as open hand play.

This is when all players openly discuss what they are doing and why.
This is not considered cheating, since all players are having an open discussion and are therefore on equal ground with no one having hidden information as an advantage.