July 31, 2011 | 11:30 pm

SHE WHO HESITATES

Posted by Elaine Sandberg

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                                                                        SHE WHO HESITATES

As a beginning Mah Jongg player, or even as a novice, making a decision about a hand to play is not always easy, simple or quickly made.  It’s when you first get your tiles,  passing in the Charleston or, as the game progresses,  you might want to change your hand.  Let’s talk about deciding to change your hand by calling for a tile which can reveal information about your probable hand—- helpful to your opponents. 

And unfortunately, there’s not a lot of time to make the decision.

In a recent game, one of the players, Carol, called for a 6Dot, but she hesitated—for a long time.  Eventually, she decided not to take the 6Dot. By taking a long time to decide, the message was that she probably couldn’t decide to play one hand over the other.  Her indecision about calling the tile gave her opponents another advantage—that 6Dots were probably the discard to make.  If she couldn’t (didn’t) call, once all of the 6Dots were out, Carol would be forced to try Plan B.  And if she had decided to play Plan B, 6Dots were safe.

Although it’s not always fateful to be indecisive, it’s not a sign of a confident player.  She who hesitates, helps the opponents, one way or the other.

Til the next time….
MAY THE TILES BE WITH YOU!

July 25, 2011 | 1:38 am

THE PROBLEM HAND

Posted by Elaine Sandberg

                                    THE PROBLEM HAND
In my last post, I presented a hand a student had after the first Charleston.  It posed a problem for her, and for me.

Here is the hand…..and here’s how she resolved it.

F 11 3Dot,  1 33Bam,  11 33Crak,  N E

She might have played the Like Numbers hand, using either the 1s or 3s, but she had no Dragons and she’d need 5.  There were 2 odd hands that were a reasonable fit, the last hand, but she had no 5s and the hand is Concealed, something she was reluctant to try. And the 2nd.  All those options seemed not the greatest opening hands, each utilizing just 5 tiles—-but not completely out of the question.  Singles and Pairs hands were out..

But after some searching, she found another hand that gave her a third option, the 2nd Quint hand, albeit she didn’t have Jokers—yet.

1223 22222 22222

All she needed to get was a 2—any 2 in any Suit. Since there are 12 2s in the set, the possibility of getting one was great. As the game progressed, depending on what she picked from the Wall, she could make a decision about which number to Quint—either the 1s or the 3s.

So she stopped the Charleston, gave the 2 Winds in the Courtesy and got a 2 Bam, completing the first and most crucial combination and giving her 7 tiles to start.  Her decision was made to play the Quint hand—and hope for Jokers and 3s.

In the end, she came really close…..needing a 3Dot, a 3crak or a Joker……But she had an exciting game, even tho she didn’t win,  it was great fun!

Til next time…….
MAY THE TILES BE WITH YOU!

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July 17, 2011 | 11:54 pm

A PROBLEM HAND

Posted by Elaine Sandberg

                                                                      A PROBLEM HAND

In the last class this was the hand one of my students ended up with after the first Charleston—
 
F 11 3Dot,  1 33Bam,  11 33Crak,  N E

I would love to know what tiles would you pass?

What hand would you pursue? 

Let me know……

Til the next time…..
MAY THE TILES BE WITH YOU!

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July 11, 2011 | 1:15 am

THE END OF THE GAME

Posted by Elaine Sandberg

                                                                          THE END OF THE GAME

I’ve been playing with a group of friends over the week-end and I was a little surprised to see what these pretty good players discarded at the end of the game.
But let’s define what I mean by “the end of the game”.  I teach my students that when there are only two or three picks left in the Wall for each player, it’s “the end of the game”.. time to aggressively defend by discarding the only really safe tile—the Joker—painful tho it may be!

In my experience, if I am two or more tiles away from Mahj, the chances of me winning are zero—I can’t win.  Mostly, since the Exposures have given away the hands being pursued,  players will not (should not) be discarding any tiles, other than Jokers. So I use my Jokers to defend against giving an opponent Mahj..  Even when I have no Jokers, I break up my hand and find the safest tile to discard.

If you are “waiting”, again, your chances of winning are close to zero, because in most cases, the others will not discard your Mahj tile or any tile, but they will, again be discarding Jokers.  The only chance you have to win is to pick the tile for Mahj—very, very, very slim. And if you pick an opponent’s Mahj tile, you are forced to discard Jokers and/or break up your hand.  Discarding tiles, hoping someone will discard your Mahj tile at the end of the game, is dangerous and can be costly.

So, I was surprised to find these players discarding tiles other than the Joker at the end of the game— players sometimes discarded Flowers—something I teach my students to never do!  But I stayed silent, not wanting to appear critical.  But playing with fire inevitably leads to getting burned and at the end of one game my friend, Marsha, threw the Mahj tile for another player. 

She was roundly chastised by the others and, no longer being able to contain myself, I “suggested” that discarding Jokers was the correct and preferable play, explaining something I thought every player knew.  It turned out to be a case of “All’s Well that Ends Well” because after that,  for the most part, playing ended “well”.

Til the next time…..
MAY THE TILES BE WITH YOU!

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