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!