Tichu strategy

When Grand Tichu is worth it

Grand Tichu is a decision made on 8 cards, with a 400-point gap between success and failure. You do not call it because you "have good cards" — you call it because you have control: cards that take the trick whenever you want.

Count your control cards: Dragon, Phoenix, Aces, and a bomb if you already hold one. The rule of thumb:

• Dragon and Phoenix together, or Dragon with an Ace: think about it seriously.
• Two Aces with the Phoenix: borderline. It depends on whether the other 5 cards fit together.
• One Ace and nothing else high: no, however nice the rest looks.

Remember that 6 more cards are coming plus three from the passing — and that your partner will give you their best card the moment they hear the call. That is the real advantage of a Grand: the whole table plays around you.

When Tichu is worth it

With 14 cards in hand the question is more precise: in how many plays do you go out? Organise your hand into combinations and count them. Six or fewer, with at least two control cards to get the lead back, is a good basis. Eight plays without a Dragon is a wish, not a plan.

Two things make a Tichu much safer: a bomb in hand, which guarantees you the lead the moment you want it, and a partner holding the Dog, who can hand you the opening. And one thing makes it far more dangerous: an opponent who has already called — because they are now also playing to finish first, with the whole table helping them.

Do not forget that the call is allowed until your first play. If your hand is borderline, wait to see what the Mah Jong holder opens with and what they wish for. One trick of information is free.

Passing

Three cards, three different logics.

To your partner

The best single you can spare — usually an Ace or a King. If they have called Tichu or Grand Tichu, give them the best you have, even the Dragon. If you are the one who called, they will give you their best: do not send back something they will need to protect you.

To the opponents

Your lowest cards: 2s, 3s, 4s. A low card is one more play for them. Watch one thing only: if you intend to wish for a value with the Mah Jong, do not pass an opponent exactly that value — you are handing them a cheap way to satisfy the wish.

What you never pass to an opponent

Dragon, Phoenix, Ace, Dog. The Phoenix in particular, with its −25 points, looks like a tempting "gift". It is not: you are giving a wild card to someone who wants to go out before you. The 25 points can be sent elsewhere: drop the Phoenix into a trick the opponent is taking anyway.

What to wish for with the Mah Jong

The wish is the only tool in Tichu that forces someone to play. Use it with a target.

• Ace. The classic wish. An opponent holding an Ace must play it the first time they can — early, on a cheap trick, instead of saving it for the end. If you hold two Aces yourself, all the better: you know at most one is still out there.
• The card missing from their bomb. If you suspect a four of a kind, wish for that value. The game will force them to break it if that is the only legal way to satisfy the wish.
• The value you hold three of. You know there is only one out there — and you know it will come out.

Do not wish for a value your partner probably holds, and do not wish at all if you have no reason to: no wish is better than one that helps an opponent shed the card they wanted to shed.

When to play a bomb

A bomb is the only guarantee in the game: whenever you play it, the lead is yours. That is why it is worth saving for one of three moments:

• On the Dragon. You take the trick with the Dragon's 25 and deny the opponent the lead. A 50-point swing in one move.
• To stop a Tichu. When the player who called is about to go out, the bomb takes the lead and often the round. A 200-point difference.
• To go out yourself. If one play remains after the bomb, the bomb is effectively your exit.

Do not spend it on a trick with a single five in it, and do not play it "so they see you have one". A bomb everyone knows exists does half its work without being played: nobody plays a Dragon comfortably while you still hold 14 cards.

The Dragon

Two questions: when to play it and who gets the trick.

When. Ideally on a single that is already high — an Ace or the Phoenix — so the opponent has spent their control card and you take the lead. Or near the end, when opening the next trick means going out. If the trick is poor in points, the gift to the opponent is small.

Who. The opponent who is furthest from going out — the one with the most cards. They will probably finish last, and the last player's tricks go to the first. If you finish first, the Dragon comes back. Second criterion: the opponent who has not called Tichu, so you do not help them with the lead.

Playing for your partner

Tichu is won by teams, and your role changes depending on who has called.

When your partner has called Tichu

• Never beat their play. If they play an Ace, you pass — even holding the Dragon.
• Open tricks they can take: low singles, pairs you know they beat.
• Keep the lead away from the opponents: beat their plays, not your partner's.
• The Dog is your best card. Give them the lead the moment they need it.

When an opponent has called

• Play aggressively: put down combinations that are hard to beat — straights, runs of pairs, full houses. Every pass of theirs is a turn in which they shed no cards.
• Save your control cards for their singles. The Dragon and the bomb exist for this moment.
• Do not rush to go out yourself. Finishing second behind the opponent's Tichu changes nothing; keeping them third changes 200 points.

Count the cards

You do not have to remember everything. Four things are enough:

• How many Aces have been played. There are four. Once three are gone, your King is suddenly the second-highest card at the table.
• Where the special cards are. Dragon, Phoenix, Dog — if you have seen them, you know they will not happen to you again.
• The pending wish. If an 8 was wished for and you hold an 8, you know when you will be forced to play it. Plan around it.
• How many cards each player holds. The player with three cards is two plays from going out. Watch them, not the one with ten.

The six mistakes that cost rounds

1. Grand Tichu on one Ace. Eight cards say less than you think. Call on control, not on hope.
2. Passing the Phoenix to an opponent. You give away the best resource in the game to save 25 points you could have saved another way.
3. The Dragon early, on a low card. 25 points as a gift, and no answer left for the Ace.
4. A bomb on a poor trick. You spend the only guarantee in the game for five points.
5. Beating your partner. Especially when they have called. Your pair of Kings is not more important than their Tichu.
6. The Dog as your last card. Without the lead, you never go out. Shed it early.

Strategy questions