Regarding the Old Reliable

Greetings and salutations from your Bubbe, hot off a successful afternoon at the mahj table!

At my regular weekly game, one of the players commented that her winning hand was fairly ordinary, "just" the Consecutive Run hand of 111 2222 333 4444. We reminded her that she won, after all--isn't that exciting enough?!


It reminded me of an article I ran a few years ago. I've updated it for you. I still think it's an essential pieces of mah jongg wisdom, namely, the topic of the "Old Reliable."

The Old Reliables are actually two related types of hands:

The first are made up of two pungs (three of a kind) and two kongs (four of a kind), in the form of AAA BBB CCCC DDDD or AAA BBBB CCC DDDD.  This year they seem to follow more of the latter style. 

The second type include two quints (five of a kind) and a kong: AAAAA BBBB CCCCC. 

I am going to lump together the quint-kong hands with the pung-kong hands, and name all of them “3-4” for short. They are very important and useful hands.

So what’s so special about a 3-4 hand? 

·         First of all, on every card I’ve ever seen, it’s always an “open” hand. You can call for exposures. No waiting in agony while every one of the tiles you need is discarded by other players. 

·         Second, it has no pairs. You won’t be praying for that elusive matching tile to make your hand work. You won’t have to change your game plan when the third one is thrown out. You can always use a joker to complete any grouping.

·        Third, related to above—you can have as many exposures as you want, and not be called dead. Because there are no unattainable pairs, there is no basis for another player to call you dead—jokers save the day!

In sum, the 3-4 is the workhorse of hands. There are all sorts of options available to you: pick specific tiles, pick jokers, pick tiles to trade for jokers, call for tiles that are thrown. The payoff on a true 3-4 (not a Quint) is generally 25 cents—not big money—but it is a good, steady, reliable hand to play. 

Every year, when you get your new card, I recommend that you identify and familiarize yourself with all of the 3-4 hands on it. You’ll find them in almost every section of the card—except Singles and Pairs, of course!

Since these hands appear all over this year's card (222 0000 111 7777; 222 4444 666 8888; FFF 1111 FFF 1111; 111 2222 333 4444, etc., etc.) they get played often, and are the hands that make up a significant percent of wins. I'm going to a tournament this weekend, and I think I'll actually do stats: how many times do I play them, and how many times are they the winning hand?

If you have any questions or comments, you can email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com . I always love hearing from you.

Talk to you soon.

Bubbe Fischer