Tichu is the first game I played this year. Yesterday I met some of my friends and taught the game to them. Olli was especially interested in the game, as I had advertised how the game has more depth and learning potential than average German boardgame.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find a fourth player. That’s pretty bad, as Tichu is a four player partnership game. Well, fortunately, there’s an official three-player variant in which one of the players (the turn changes every deal) is dealer and plays with a mock player, the table. Table has an open hand.

Anyway, after the nine deals were over, it was obvious who won: Olli had acquired points in every single deal. As some of them were 200 point double wins, he had over double the score that me and Ville had. Also, on our last turn, when me and Ville played against Olli and table, I made a daring large Tichu call (nothing to lose, everything to win) and failed it. The final order was Olli, table, me and Ville. It’s so pathetic to lose to a mock player…

Starting the year with Asian games seems to be a new tradition for me — last year started with Majiang.