Greetings and salutations from your friendly year-end Bubbe!
We all know that, even if the calendar is turning over to 2019, the year doesn't REALLY start
until the end of March, when the National Mah Jongg League releases its newest card. The
suspense is always thick: will we still have hands using six Flowers? Will there be more Winds
and Dragons hands? What will the addition/multiplication hands be? We know 9’s will be hot (for
2019), but beyond that, it's anyone's guess. It's all speculation until approximately April 1st.
Until then, we continue on with our trusty 2018 cards. Unfortunately, some players have grown a
little restless after nine months of the same hands, and are looking for new ideas to keep the
game interesting.
There are table rules that make the game more interesting by changing the payoff: for instance,
add a sticker to make one of your eight jokers “magic”. Any winning hand that includes that joker
earns double.
It doesn't have to be a joker. You could randomly select a tile, before each game, and if the
winning hand uses that tile, it pays double.
To add a mental challenge, you might add a hand-du-jour from an old card. I personally really
miss the 1-9 and 2-8 hands: a pair of Flowers with kongs of 1,9,Dragon or 2,8,Dragon in same
suit or all three suits. Just make sure that everyone at the table is aware of the extra hand(s) so
that they can play defense.
Bubbe says to go ahead and spice up your game a little...it will make these shorter, colder days
fly by!
Let me know if you have any such table rules with your group. You can email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com
Talk to you soon!
Bubbe Fischer
