Debutante

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe with a little confession--

I only just got a chance to play with the new card!!

Do as I say, not as I do, right? I never got to play up until this week, what with speaking engagements and puppy training and family obligations. But there I was, finally, with some of the ladies in my usual mahj group--nine of us, the perfect amount for rotating between tables--and boy, was I nervous. "New card? What if I can't win? How embarrassing would that be?"

Well, the first couple of hands were as hard as ever to win, since I couldn't get jokers or the right tiles. But eventually I fell into a groove and my first win was one of my old go-to hands: Quints with a number tile, a Wind, and a Dragon kong. I started with only one joker, but I had three of my number tile (4 crak), three Wests, and two Red dragons, so I was confident I would make it. Sure enough, I picked the fourth West and another joker pretty quickly. I called for a Red, and traded for a third joker. I was able to pick my own winning 4 crak tile, and got a sweet 90 cents from each of my opponents.

My second win was also on an "old" hand. The Winds were circulating so I kept them, and with the help of a few jokers ended up winning the NNNN EEEE WWWW SS hand quickly.

The strangest thing that happened to me was a hand where I was dealt four Flowers. It's actually not a great card for four Flowers--not a ton of options. I thought about trying to make the "12" hand but didn't have the right combination of tiles. I ended up calling for discarded Flowers and turned my original four into six (two pungs), and played the returning Like Numbers hand (FFF 1111 FFF 1111), for the win.

I also won on some newer hands, including the first 369 hand: FFF 33 666 99 DDDD. I confess 369 is not generally my favorite section of the card--for some reason, I don't really look for it, but I won't fight it if my tiles fall that way. I had the pairs of 3 and 9 bams, a Flower, a pair of 6 bams and the matching Green dragon, so it was the right hand to play and, with the help of another joker or two, came in very well. I will note that that single pung of Flowers is a great distraction: it threw people off!

I also tried the knit hand: 5555 777 9999 DDD. It worked out because no one was quite sure, with the 7's and Dragons, whether I was doing Consecutive Runs or 13579. Again, jokers played a key role in the win.

The new hand that kept thwarting me, all day, was the closed 2018 hand: 22 000 NEWS 111 88. If I had all four of the "NEWS," I couldn't get the second 8. If I had all the numbers and jokers, I couldn't get the Soap in time to call for the last North. It was frustrating, but I wanted to try for a tricky hand because, as I say in my book Searching for Bubbe Fischer, life is too short to play boring hands.

So that was my day. I threw a winning tile because I wasn't paying attention; I paid my share of quarters when someone else threw a winning tile. It worked out pretty well, on the whole: I went home with more than I brought, so I can't complain. Plus the snack mix was delicious!

How about you? Enjoying the new card? Your Bubbe is always happy to hear from you at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon!

Bubbe Fischer