The card led determines the only combination of cards that can be played on that trick, so if a single card is led, then only single cards are played if a straight of seven cards is led, then only straights of seven cards can be played, etc. If play passes all the way back to the player who laid the top cards, they win the trick, clear the cards, and lead the next one. When it's your turn, you may either beat the current top card combination (single card, pair of cards, sequence of pairs, full house, etc.) or pass. The deck is a standard 52-card pack with four special cards added: dog, phoenix, dragon and Mah Jong. TICHU has evolved to worldwide popularity since its release thanks to Urs Hostettler, and here is why: yeah I'm feeling old too) taking many of its rules and mechanisms from 'Zheng Fen,' a traditional Chinese game, that itself takes some scoring from 'Da Bai' and 'Tuo la Ji,' two other traditional games.
TI-CHU (and not tissue) has been a successful trick-taking game since it was released last century (1991 to be exact.
