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 he (not his partner) will be the first to get rid of his 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 counter-clockwise, but is frequently played clockwise. However, for more comprehensive rulesets, consult the links below.Įach player sits across from their teammate so that play alternates between the two teams. The following covers the basic rules of gameplay. Tichu is the trade name for what appears to be a variant of Choi Dai Di (Cantonese) or Da Lao Er (Mandarin), meaning 'big two', combined with Zheng Fen ('Competing for Points'). Teams work to accumulate points the first team to reach a predetermined score (usually 1,000 points) is the winner. Tichu (also known as Tai Pan) is a multi-genre card game primarily a shedding game that includes elements of Bridge, Daihinmin, and Poker played between two teams of two players each.