What's a Knit Hand?

Greetings, salutations and the happiest of holidays to all of Bubbe’s friends! It’s Passover, Easter, the debut of the New Card, April Fool’s Day…busy day all around.

My two recent columns about the newest card created a little buzz, especially about a term that I used to describe some of the hands on the card. I’m going to explain it more clearly, and also define a few other terms that I use when talking about mah jongg hands. I want us all to be on the same page!

First of all, knit hand:

Believe it or not, Bubbe actually doesn’t know a thing about knitting. My cousin tried to teach me, one weekend—I was going to teach her mahj, in exchange—but I was hopeless at it. There were needles and knots and loops and all sorts of complications. 

In mah jongg, I use the term to describe a hand involving two different suits, intertwined. The examples in this year’s card include:

                             1111 222 3333 DDD

                             1111 333 5555 DDD

                             5555 777 9999 DDD

     3333 666 9999 DDD

Think of it as a braiding, or weaving, between two suits. It’s not a single-suited hand; it’s not a three-suited hand. The key factor in making this a knit hand is that it alternates, very cleanly and efficiently, between the two suits: in this case, kong in suit A, pung in suit B, kong in suit A, pung in suit B. I want you to envision it that way, in order to better remember it. The suit in the “middle” pung must match the suit of the dragon pung; the suit of the kongs on either side of the pung must match. This year, it’s 4-3-4-3; some years it’s 3-4-3-4; some years it doesn’t appear at all.

                            

Ascending staircase:

Another pattern that shoes up prominently on this year’s card. In the first Consecutive Runs hand, it’s

                                11 22 333 444 5555

                                55 66 777 888 9999

Again, think of it visually: you begin by taking low steps (two apiece), then larger steps (three apiece) until you are at the highest point, a four-of-a-kind. This pattern of ascending staircase appears again on  the card:

                                11 33 555 777 9999

                                22 44 666 888 DDDD

I always look to the first Consecutive Runs hand first, when I get a new card. It’s generally either an ascending staircase or a “bell curve” pattern, where the pairs are on either end and the high point is in the middle, as in

                                

                                  11 222 3333 444 55

Junk hand:

I generally define the quintessential junk hand as

                                

                                  FF 1111 2222 3333

involving kongs of each of the three suits, in consecutive order. It obviously isn’t truly junk--it’s a legitimate hand on this card--but upon first glance you might not notice it among your tiles, especially if you are setting your tiles up by suit. Because it’s tri-suited, you really have to use a little imagination to put it together. It doesn’t jump out at you immediately. The other hand on this year's that meets this description is

                                FF 3333 6666 9999

There are some tri-suit hands that are trickier, relying on pairs, not just kongs, so I don’t really consider them junk, e.g.:

                                11 22 33 4444 5555

                                11 33 55 7777 9999

                                33 66 99 3333 3333 (kongs of 3, 6 or 9)

I’ll try harder to define my terms in future columns. In general, if you want to know more about the way I analyze the card and think of the various hands, you might want to check out my book, Searching for Bubbe Fischer. The best way to improve your play is to know the card, and I want to show you ways to learn each new card quickly. My rationale is, the better you know the card, the more easily you can focus on the tiles that come your way and make good decisions!!

If you have any questions, you can contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Happy holidays and talk to you soon!

Bubbe Fischer