MORE about Wall Games

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, who for some reason is still stuck on a Wall....Game.

I know my last blog was all about how to play defensively for a Wall Game, but I threw a tournament a few days ago and wanted to say more words about how valuable this strategy can be.

In a mah jongg tournament, every player is working on earning POINTS, rather than exchanging money. A winning hand is awarded the number of points listed on the card, plus additional bonus points for self-picking and/or jokerless hands. If a game ends without a winner, as a Wall Game, any player whose hand is still "alive" earns 10 points.

Over time, these points can add up. Obviously, they don't add up as quickly as someone who self-picks a closed, jokerless hand; but you could, theoretically, collect quite a few points by playing smart and NOT throwing someone else's mahj tile. If you haven't fully absorbed Bubbe's wise saying, "If you can't win, don't lose," go back and read my last blog entry--better yet, go get a copy of "Searching For Bubbe Fischer."

The downside of Wall Games during a tournament is that they take longer. You have to play down to the very last tile, and if you have two Wall Games, it's even worse...it's hard to complete four such games within the prescribed time limit.

As I wrote in the previous article, there are certain strategies to keep in mind. Especially if you play in a tournament, it is worth learning those concepts. "Not losing" is something to be proud of: one of my good friends, playing in her first tournament, actually had eleven of her sixteen games end that way, for a total of 110 points!

Amassing such a string during a tournament is something to be proud of; that player has managed to stay alive, throughout the game, and deserves  recognition. I know that such a player is never going to actually earn the highest score, so I have created a new prize category. I honor those contestants who managed to "not lose" the most Wall Games. They are awarded "Wall Flowers," or in our case, chocolate daisies:

It is yet another way to celebrate mah jongg. The tournament doesn't have to be only about the top three scorers; other people should have fun, and win prizes, too!

I'd love to hear about your tournament experiences. Feel free to contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon.

Bubbe Fischer

About Wall Games

Greetings and salutations from your Beach Blanket Bubbe!

Okay, maybe I'm not sitting in the sand playing mahj with Frankie and Annette, but I have played a bit this summer and plan to have a few more games before the leaves start to fall. One thing I've noticed, now that we're 3+ months into this card, is that my regular group seems to be very adept at reading one another's hands: we've had a lot of WALL games, where we got to the end of the tiles without anyone declaring Mah Jongg.

Some of you may grumble about how unsatisfying a Wall game is: no one's happy. It's true that no one attained their goal of completing a hand. BUT...no one lost, either. The Wall game gets no respect, even though it happens very frequently. Those who play with table rules like hot or cold walls have them even more often. If you keep a kitty of 25 cents per player for every Wall game, you could have quite a pot by the end of the night!

Those of you who have read my book Searching for Bubbe Fischer know that one of Bubbe's important rules is

                           "If you can't win, don't lose."

What does that mean? It means, if you're getting to the end of the game (maybe 10-12 tiles left in the Wall) and it's pretty clear that you will be unable to complete your hand, then it's time to play smart defense. For instance:

* don't feel bad about breaking up your hand! Bubbe also says, "You can't mahj second." Sure, you may have been only one or two tiles away, but if you throw someone their winning tile, your being close is irrelevant!

* do call for an exposure without Jokers. It might put someone else on the defensive so that they have to break up their own hand.  

* don't make a last-gasp exposure that includes Jokers, "just to show everybody"--don't put up three tiles and a Joker, for instance, if that Joker could be claimed. Someone else might be close and would just LOVE to redeem that Joker for mahj!

* do try to figure out the safest tiles to throw. For example, if there are three of each Wind on the table, feel free to throw the fourth. To make the Quint or any other Wind hand would require so many jokers that it's very unlikely. Do not feel "safe" on Winds if you only see two of each out--it's not improbable that someone's going for the Wind Singles and Pairs hand

                                           NN EE WW SS 11 11 11


or for the concealed "Wind pung" hands

                                 1111 NNN 11 SSS 11   or     2222 EEE 22 WWW 22 

* don't--to the best of your ability--throw a tile that someone else needs. Sure, just as I listed above, there are hands that are concealed, and one exposure does not necessarily indicate a specific hand--but if someone has two or more exposures, the options are more clearly defined. For instance, on this year's card if you see two pungs:

                                             666  888 

don't throw a five, seven or nine crak, a two or four dot or bam, a Soap or Green dragon. If there are already three of the five craks or nine craks, or two or four dots or bams, on the table, then go ahead and throw the fourth, because their hand is already dead.

Side question: should you call a hand dead very late in the game? IF you have no chance of winning, then it's actually to your advantage NOT to call that hand dead. It is impossible for that player to win, they pose no threat to you. Meanwhile, you don't want any on-call player to get extra chances to pick a winning tile. (Note: In a tournament, any player still "alive" at the end of a Wall game gets 10 points, and a player might conceivably wait until the last or second to last tile to call someone's hand dead in order to prevent them from getting extra points...but that's another story.)

A final note: while we were playing last week, having our marathon of Wall games, I came up with yet another new Bubbe-ism:

                                 "If you can't win....get a snack."

It must never be forgotten that the two essential components of this game are kvetching and noshing. Grab a little comfort food.

If you have questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon!


Bubbe

Bubbe's Wisdom

Greetings and salutations from your long-lost Bubbe!

I’ve been away from my blog for way too long, caught up in working on Take Two, the second of my Mah Jongg Table Talk Tale novels. I’m hopeful that it will be ready by the holiday season.

In the meantime, I'm going to run another of my old articles about Bubbe's Wisdom:

I want to tell you about a mistake I made, a few years back. I had a really pretty hand—lots of jokers, a typical 3-4 hand. I don’t remember the specifics, let’s say it was

                1122233344JJJ

Suffice to say that I had thirteen tiles and was waiting for the fourteenth. It was very early in the game for me to be so set. Someone threw what could have been my fourteenth tile—a one-bam—but I was too greedy to call it. I knew I couldn’t be jokerless but I wanted double pay, so I decided to hold out until I could pick my own winning tile. I continued to pick and throw, pick and throw, not getting any of the tiles I needed—and someone else won the hand!

In this particular case the bettor had selected me, and boy, was she mad! I often say, “Don’t bet on me” because I go for crazy choices, but this time I was just playing selfishly and stupidly.

This leads me to a new maxim for the Bubbe canon:

                 

A WIN IS A WIN.

Don’t get schmancy. Don’t try for the self-pick. Don’t wait to go jokerless. Especially in tournaments, just try to win the hand and move on to the next one.

If you want to learn more of Bubbe's wisdom, you can always pick up a copy of  Searching for Bubbe Fischer. I’ll be curious to hear which Bubbe maxim is your favorite. Is it the newest, “A win is a win,” or one of these: 

“Life’s too short to play boring mah jongg”

“If you can’t win, don’t lose”

“Luck favors the prepared mind”

“What’s said at the mah jongg table stays at the mah jongg table”

If you have one you’d like to add, please contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com! 

Talk to you soon!

Bubbe Fischer