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July 23, 2004

Tichu last night

Played a couple of games of Tichu last night at Matt's and the second one was pretty crazy and painful. After winning the first game (different players), the second game ended up being Nate and I against Kim and Pete. Unfortunately, lots of crazy things happened and decisions which might have been a normally good choice kept going wrong for us. Early on I stopped Pete's Grand but probably should have overcalled it and didn't and then soon after I conservatively didn't call a Tichu I would probably make. I also stopped a Tichu of Kim's when I noticed a straight flush bomb in my hand halfway through the hand and after, without paying attention, playing a Queen that was luckily not the Red one I needed for the bomb. I can't remember how long its been since I had a bomb and didn't notice it but I guess I was very tired and out of it last night.

Shortly thereafter was a crazy hand where Kim called Tichu and Nate overcalled her and yet I had TWO chances to go out first with nothing either of them could do about it. Unfortunately, I decided to hope Nate was right to overcall and passed up both my chances to give him a shot and the end result was that Kim made HER Tichu. The key problem point on this hand was when Kim led a 9 card straight (leaving her with 2 cards) and Nate was playing next and agonized for forever before playing a 9 card straight which included a bomb in it (which Nate hadn't noticed - Doh!) and the Phoenix. This was extremely painful as I could have beaten the straight with ease (it was in fact a perfect lead into my hand) and that Kim didn't have a pair anyway so Nate could have just passed and probably gone out when she led a single even if I didn't beat the straight.

A couple of hands later Kim called Grand and I went into the pass with 4666999QQQKKKA (FOUR Triples) and decided to pass 49A with the idea that I'd be more likely to get passed a 6 to me and that with the Queens and Kings the height of the other Trips wasn't that imporant. Amazingly, though, Kim and Pete had Full Houses of 8s over AND 7s over respectively and I would have ended up stopping the Grand if I had just kept the 9 and passed the 6. I also made a questionable decision to with KKK3 play a King and then Kim immediately after led TTT and I couldn't beat it.

Finally, on the last hand of the game I called a risky Grand but then ended up with enough that I should be able to make it. Pete then even led a perfect-length for me 7 card straight right into me. However, he turned out to have a pat hand of AA Full House (incl. the Phoenix) for his remaining cards and there was nothing I could do about him going out when I led a a second single. Worst of all, Kim then turned out to have a bomb and to go out 2nd to end the game with a blast. Very painful game but also shows whats so good about Tichu - many, many interesting non-obvious decisions even after over 500 games lifetime.

Posted by aarondf at July 23, 2004 11:16 AM

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