A standard 52-card deck with 4 jokers (marked to indicate the special cards) can also be used.Įach player is dealt (or alternately draws, in Chinese play) eight cards, and may call 'Grand Tichu,' a 200-point bet that they (not their partner) will be the first to get rid of their cards. The game is played with a deck of 56 cards, consisting of a 52-card deck of four suits (Jade, Sword, Pagoda, Star) plus four special cards (Mah Jong, Dog, Phoenix, Dragon). The game is traditionally run anticlockwise, but is frequently played clockwise. However, for more comprehensive rule sets, consult the links below.Įach player sits across from their teammate so that play alternates between the two teams. Tichu was invented by Urs Hostettler and originally released in 1991. Tichu is the trade name for what appears to be a variant of Dou di zhu, Choi Dai Di (Cantonese) or Da Lao Er (Mandarin), meaning 'big two', combined with Zheng Fen ('Competing for Points'). Teams work to accumulate points, and the first team to reach a predetermined score (usually 1,000 points) is the winner. Tichu is a proprietary card game primarily classified as a shedding game that includes elements of Bridge, Daihinmin, and Poker played between two teams of two players each.

Skull with tichu cards