Also known as “Tai Tee”, “Chor Tai Tee”

Last night, my usual card playing buddies (and great friends) got a little sick of playing texas hold-em. I was reminded of “Cho Tai Tee” after playing this German card game that we had played last month. I thought it might be a fun game to play among the 3 of us. I knew what it was called and roughly what the romanized version of the name might look like. We got a couple of hits off google but none that stated what the rules where. RL and me speculated that perhaps the rules of the game are passed down by oral tradition. Anyway I thought it might be nice to write down the rules of the game (or at least how I remembered the rules) as a warmup to NaNoWriMo.

Objective:
First player to get rid of all the cards in their hand wins.

Equipment:
For 2 - 4 players, a standard 52 card deck. For more than that, you might want to use a second deck of cards and it changes the dynamics of the game somewhat (this is ideal if it’s late at night and everyone is drunk). Joker(s) may be played if everybody so desires.

Rank of Cards:
Suits matter in this game. The highest suit is Spades, followed by Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds. The biggest face value in the game is Two (“Cho Tai Tee” roughly translated is Big Two). The smallest card in the game is Three of Diamonds.

How to play:
1) Deal cards to each player. (An optional rule is that any player dealt 4 Twos is declared the immediate winner)
2) Player with the Three of Diamonds starts the game by putting that card down. Play begins to the left of that player.
3) The next player places a card on top of the Three of Diamonds. You want to use a bigger card to gain you control of the stack of cards. Being in control of the stack is an important element of the game.
4) If you are unable (or unwilling) to place a bigger card than the one on top of the stack, you can choose to pass. If play passes to the player who placed the card on the top of the stack, he gains control of the stack.
5) When a player gains control of the stack, he can choose to play any of the following hands:
- Single Card
- Pair
- Three of a Kind
- Four of a Kind
- 5 Card Straight, Flush or Straight Flush
(Here’s where my memory of the game gets a little iffy, I can’t remember whether any 5 card poker hand is valid. The ones that would be missing are a Full House and a Four of a Kind with a fifth card. The other rule I’m fuzzy about is whether the Two high straight/flush is the highest possible straight/flush in the game)
Subsequent players must now play a hand with the same number of cards as the hand at the top of the stack. You must put down a bigger hand in order to wrest control of the stack.
6) The first player to get rid of all his/her cards is declared the winner.

Scoring the game:
You’ll typical play a number of rounds of Cho Tai Tee. To score the rounds and determine the winner, the number of cards you have at the end of each round is your score for the round. The person with the lowest score is the overall winner. Poker chips or Pencil&Paper are a good way for keeping score.

General Strategy:
Gaining and retaining control of the stack is key to the game. Being overly aggressive at the start of the game and using up all your big cards may leave you stranded towards the end of the game. Being overly conservative means that you won’t get a chance to play. As with most games, the right strategy is somewhere in between.