It seems I have been banned from the Tichu group. I only found out about it from second hand comments. And from noticing the lack of invites. I was never told why or allowed to defend myself. How very strange and bizarre.

Tuesday’s bridge session netted us with a free burrito from Chipotle Mexican Grill over the weekend. So Nick planned a Tichu game for Friday. However, I forgot that D&D was that day. So he created another session on Saturday. Traci was supposed to have come but she never showed up. It was just Nick and I. So we played Cannonball Colony.

We went back to his house and he dragged me into a short game of Descent. Fortunately, Wayne showed up and we were able to play Tichu.

Thanks to Jon, we were able to make for for Tichu at Chuy’s. Our server was pretty bad. She messed up almost every order and the final bill. But it was still fun. After all, how can you complain about Friends + Tichu + Chuychanga + Margarita + Hatch chili sauce + Creamy jalapeño + Chips?

The group went to Logan’s for some Tichu tonight. Five people showed up, but thankfully, someone sat out. Because I was here for Tichu, I didn’t volunteer. John sat next to an indoor window. Not only were the people on the other side trying to figure out what game he was playing but we could almost make out the reflection of his cards in the window.

B— doesn’t want me to blog about her. She feels it would ruin her reputation. I wonder why.

Oh, my god, Magnum! This has to be the worst score-keeping eva! That is what I get for letting someone else keep score. I mean they didn’t even bother to give the other team the remainder of the points when we said what was taken. I think they just made up a number. I did the best I could reconstructing the score…

Update: Apparently the score was Rittiman compressed. I didn’t consider that as a possibility…

The group finally went to Monument Cafe. Unfortunately, they ordered sandwiches and burgers. To me, the daily and varied vegetable and dessert selections make this place special. Also, our waiter was rather disappointing. He ignored refilling our drinks. And, while he offered to split up the bill, he wouldn’t actually split the bill up. I had to write down everyone’s name on the bill to mark what items were ordered by what person. He then took our credit cards and cash and came back with the change and the credit card bills. You had to trust that he entered everything in correctly for each person.

While I think that Traci understands the mechanics of Tichu well enough. It seems like she doesn’t understand the subtleties in playing with a partner. Whenever Nick would play and John would pass, Traci would go over Nick. This happened whether she called Tichu or not. The most egregious example was her playing the Dragon on top of Nick’s Ace. You need to keep in mind that your partner should have your best interests in their decision making process.

Perhaps we should play more games of Suicide Tichu. My one game of Suicide Tichu distilled and exemplified the “teamwork is essential” experience quite nicely.

Marty came into town and was looking to see if Tichu and Tex-Mex was going on tonight. Since Gravitt was out of town, I took the task of finding two other Tichu players to make this happen. We met at Serrano’s. I haven’t been there in a while. Which is a shame. I like their Chile Relleno.

For tonight’s Tex-Mex, we went to Rio Grande. This is my favorite Tex-Mex restaurant for its Margaritas. All you need is one of their grande and the rest of the night is happy. And boy were people drinking tonight! That’s the only way that I can explain what happened. As you can tell from the picture, the score taking is atrocious. But I think that I was able to recover the score.

We had one other interesting phenomena tonight. I dealt out the cards only to discover that I was one short. So I asked everyone to count their cards to verify the deal. Wayne gave me one of his cards. On the next deal, the same misdeal and the same Wayne giving me a card. Well, when this happened for the third time, we started investigating. It turned out that a card (a red three) fell down to the floor. And Wayne was not counting his cards to see if he was dealt fourteen. So amusing!

One thing that I notice beginners have a problem with is being overly aggressive when going for points. That happened in this game. When trip Kings are played, is it wise to go over it with your trip Aces? How many honours do you have left if you do? If you go out last because if it, then I don’t think that it was worth it. The same is true if a pair of Kings are played.

Now if your partner has gone out first, then that strategy is fine. I will even focus on taking at least some points if my hand is likely to cause me to finish last.

There were six people for tonight’s Tichu. The last time when there was five people, they played that the person who went out last would sit out the next hand. Unfortunately, this changes the dynamics of the game as you normally want to help your partner where possible. So, this time, I proposed that two people would constantly rotate out. Because the two people were symmetric, it also meant that two people would always be paired together.

I think that this setup works. We only played 6 hands which is definitely not enough. The usual 1000 points would work here also.

Ugh, I hate the camera in the iPhone. It is an utter piece of crap. Horrible colors, horrible low light handling, horrible resolution (1.9 Megapixels).

I had an amusing pass. I had a somewhat possible Tichu hand, so I passed John a 2. I received on the pass the Dog, the Mahjong, and a 3. Sigh. At least my partner made the Tichu. But it seemed that he ignored the implied strength of my pass. Not only that, but he told the group that I passed a two to him during the play!

For my one Tichu call, I had AAKQJ098765431. I played the King-high straight. Everyone passed. I then played the Mahjong and wished for an Ace — just because. And I passed on the Traci’s Ace. Fortunately, Traci eventually played a pair. Otherwise, I would have to hope that a lot of singles would be played. Because the Dragon or Phoenix would cover my first Ace on a single.

Our group has stopped going to Tex-Mex places to play Tichu. Tonight, we went to Logan’s Roadhouse. But I am still going to call this game night “Tichu and Tex-Mex” for consistency’s sake. I started off just a little bit confused. I remembered that the restaurant was a “roadhouse” and I figured that it was the Texas Roadhouse next to the Tinseltown Pflugerville. Apparently, it was the Logan’s Roadhouse in La Frontera. But it was no big deal. I was able to drive there in five minutes.

I teamed up with Wayne and Nick. Nick didn’t want to cause this four player game to not happen. So he tag teamed with Wayne. Each person would play one hand. Until Nick left to watch some Showtime show.

John called the first Tichu of the night. Nick was doing a good job of causing him problems. Especially when he played a Queen high full-house and John had to play an Ace high full-house to cover it. Since I had the Dragon and a somewhat strong hand, I over-called Tichu when John played a single. Unfortunately, Traci had a two bomb to stop my Dragon. John was pretty much out of contention at that point so she went out first. Also unfortunately, Nick had the dog. So John was able to go out second for the one/two.

During the last half of the game, I had some good cards. So I would pass low to Wayne and hope that my hand would improve. What was surprising was that Wayne would call Tichu! It was no surprise that we one/twoed a couple of times.

Dessert was interesting. Logan’s served a chocolate peanut butter fluff in miniature metal baskets that the peanuts come in. There was a special going on for 3 for $5. I kept calling them nut baskets and derivatives thereof. And they seemed to be like espresso shots to Wayne. His hand was shaking from all the sugar and adrenaline.