Right now there are threads going here, on the SABG site, and on BGG. Here are the arguments I’ve seen (in various places):
Reasons for limiting straights to 5 cards:
- It would add some hard predictability to the hand
- It would keep people from going out on a single lucky play (or two, or three). [Really just a restatement of predictability].
- It makes the “when to break up a straight” decision more interesting. [Full argument here.]
Reasons for the current rules:
- It makes it easier to go out.
- It adds tension in that anyone could go out quickly once they got the lead.
- It makes ‘relinquishing control’ more dangerous.
- It makes the decision to bomb more agonizing.
- It makes the pass more interesting
- It turns wretched hands (lots of low cards, only a single high card) into playable ones. [Also phrased by Curt Carpenter as “Adding length also adds strength, an important dimension orthogonal to rank.”]
- You unbalance the game towards pairs/trips/fullhouses.
- There are interesting decisions (Whether to break a seven card straight to beat a six card straight, etc).
"Bad" cards are the bane of any card game, in that you can’t do much with a bad hand. The great card games allow mechanisms to mitigate. Bridge has bidding, poker has betting. You are never going to get rid of the issue. In Tichu, "Bad" cards are low cards. The ability to put them into pairs or trips makes them better … the can’t win you the lead (except a small pair combined with a large trip during full house), but they may be able to keep it. Allowing "long" straights helps make lots of low singletons worthwhile – again, they may keep the lead.
But I see the arguments for the five card limit as reasonable. Not bad ideas, just outweighed by the other arguments (to my tastes). I’m not a raging Tichuaholic ([Homer Voice]“I’m addicted to Tichuahol!”[/Homer]), but this has been interesting.
I’m reminded of something I saw in one of the Bill James books where he said (paraphrased): Baseball is a great game, but let us not imagine that it was handed down from on high. If we think that tweaks will improve the game, we should tweak. (He was talking about rules to make games go faster).
Related Posts (on one page):
- Tichu Followup
- Thoughts on yesterday's games
The others (from memory) -- restrict mid-inning pitching changes (you get one for free, but can't change a 2nd time until a pitcher has given up a run), cut the 'between inning time by 30 seconds" and, uh, two I forget. (He specifically argued against raising the mound or things like that).