{"id":916,"date":"2013-07-01T11:11:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-01T10:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/?p=916"},"modified":"2016-01-24T13:56:03","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T11:56:03","slug":"jicin-and-the-shithead-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/2013\/07\/01\/jicin-and-the-shithead-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Ji\u010din and the Shithead Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

For fifty years or more my family has been involved in the game of Mahjong; at every family gathering the tiles and dice would come out and the Chinese oaths would begin. Now days, however, Mahjong players are hard to find. \u00a0So about 15 years ago when an English college student taught me the new game Shithead, it became the game of choice for family events. \u00a0Plus Karin and I played best two out of three hands most nights after dinner instead of immediately jumping up from the table.<\/p>\n

It did not take long for this infectious game to spread among family and friends. \u00a0The rules appear complicated at first look but when you have played three hands you understand the game. \u00a0The hands go quickly and are exciting because the outcome is undetermined until the last hole card is turned over. \u00a0The leader can quickly become the loser. \u00a0By the way, there are no winners in a Shithead game, only losers.<\/p>\n

Speaking of rules. \u00a0A quick browse on the internet produces as many variations as there are locations where the game is played. \u00a0This appears to be the natural course for a game popular among young drinkers and smokers(not tobacco).<\/p>\n

Now the point of this is to point out a major benefit of long term travel. \u00a0You have the time to find and experience off beat, out-of-the way festivals, events and activities. \u00a0So I first searched for Mahjong in Prague and then for Shithead and turned up Ji\u010din International Shithead League<\/a> on Facebook. \u00a0We arrived in Prague on 31 March and on \u00a0 20 April we caught the bus to the quaint town of Ji\u010din(Jitz son) about an hour out of Prague.<\/p>\n

We arrived early enough to explore the town and have lunch before arriving at the<\/p>\n

\"Shithead<\/a><\/em>Grand Hotel Praha for the tournament. \u00a0Both Karin and I had difficulty adapting our game strategy to the local rules which were very different than those we had used in thousands of games over 15 years. \u00a0The main benefit was spending an enjoyable afternoon with a mixture of expats and Czech students practicing their already good English.<\/p>\n

\"Jicin<\/a><\/p>\n

We did not make it back for the May event but did for the season grand finale on 27 June, the last day of school for the Ji\u010din college students. \u00a0The mood was festive and many had dressed up for the occasion. \u00a0I wore a tie for the first time in a couple of years. I did play better but consistently lost to one of the best student players. \u00a0Karin not only won her table to enter the semi-finals, she came close to beating the player with the highest win percentage and finished second out of 22 very experienced entrants.<\/p>\n

\"Jicin<\/p>\n

How many tourists can have this kind of experience?<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For fifty years or more my family has been involved in the game of Mahjong; at every family gathering the tiles and dice would come out and the Chinese oaths would begin. Now days, however, Mahjong players are hard to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[60,9],"tags":[244,246,245],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2MK34-eM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1185,"url":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/2014\/02\/26\/shithead-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":916,"position":0},"title":"More Shithead: The Game","author":"Michael","date":"February 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month we discovered that the Jicin International Shithead League, in which we enjoyed playing a couple of sessions at last year, had now expanded from the provincial college town to the country\u2019s capital.\u00a0 Students from the large and prestigious Charles University --mostly from the law school if\u00a0 there is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/EndGame-300x236.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":442,"url":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/2011\/12\/10\/st-mikulas-night-in-prague\/","url_meta":{"origin":916,"position":1},"title":"St. Mikulas Night in Prague","author":"Michael","date":"December 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As older expats with all of our family back in the US we miss sharing Christmas\u00a0with children. \u00a0So when ever we can we join in the family fun where ever we are\u00a0living. \u00a0We are still young at heart after all. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 In Prague and many other parts of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/OldTownAngel-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":48,"url":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/2010\/01\/15\/lobkowicz-the-palace-the-beer-and-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":916,"position":2},"title":"Lobkowicz: The Palace, The Beer and More","author":"Michael","date":"January 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Lobkowicz is one of the most inspirational museums I have ever been to! \u00a0Not many museums, if any, have brought tears to my eyes! \u00a0This one did. Photos were not allowed inside but you can find several on the official web site. Lobkowicz Palace has a very long history reaching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Places"","block_context":{"text":"Places","link":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/category\/places\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10001,"url":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/2017\/09\/02\/prague-is-so-cool-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":916,"position":3},"title":"Prague is so cool — again!","author":"Michael","date":"September 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I had to follow up the previous post because just a day later I saw an article about Bohemia Boards and Brews, a board game cafe'. \u00a0It is open now in Vrsovice with a Grand Opening slated for mid September. \u00a0The early reviews are all raves including the Zemsky pivovar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Places"","block_context":{"text":"Places","link":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/category\/places\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/BohemiaBoards.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":316,"url":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/2011\/03\/01\/praise-for-prague\/","url_meta":{"origin":916,"position":4},"title":"Praise for Prague","author":"Michael","date":"March 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"We, Karin and Michael, have been travelling over the last three months to USA, Ireland, England and Scotland.\u00a0 All of our family and friends in those countries asked about Prague and why we liked it so much.\u00a0 The long answer would be to refer them to this blog and all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"architecture\"","block_context":{"text":"architecture","link":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/tag\/architecture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3757,"url":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/2015\/11\/29\/podebrad-square\/","url_meta":{"origin":916,"position":5},"title":"More N\u00e1m\u011bst\u00ed Ji\u0159\u00edho z Pod\u011bbrad","author":"Michael","date":"November 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"You may think that living in the middle of the city about three blocks from a tram stop and a Metro (underground) station that we get tired of the same urban scene. \u00a0You would be wrong because in many ways we see variations every time. The major differences are as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3837,"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/3837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parosparadise.com\/CzechMates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}