A Funny Story

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, with a true Tale from the Table!

I just got back from a one-day tournament in Farmington, Connecticut, with a new group called the Connecticut Mah Jongg Club. There were eight tables of ladies playing six rounds, with a lovely catered breakfast and lunch plus prizes throughout the day. Some of the attendees had never been in a tournament before, but they caught on just fine. Everyone had a wonderful time, and I see bright things in the future for this group.

Per Bubbe's usual tournament style, I was planning to keep statistics on how many Flowers and Jokers I began with, what I thought I would play by the end of the Charleston and what I ended up playing, and what the winning hand turned out to be. I was also East, trying to keep everything going with two newbies, and by the third hand of the first round, I just couldn't keep the statistics. Sorry to let you down.

Many of you don't go to tournaments, so you may not know how the scoring differs from regular play. No one actually gets "double points" for self-picking or getting a jokerless (non-Singles and Pairs) hand. Instead, those feats are awarded 10 and 20 additional points, respectively. Also, every player whose hand is still viable at the end of a Wall game receives 10 points.

There are also penalties. In this particular tournament, instead of owing double for throwing the tile to a winning hand, you are only penalized 10 points for throwing to zero or one exposure, or 20 points for throwing to two exposures. In the rare event of throwing to three exposures, you’re penalized 25 points. If you are just a bystander in a mah jongg win, you neither gain nor lose points.

So...understanding those scoring rules, let me tell you about what was one of the most amusing four-game rounds of my life. It was the first round after lunch, where we were told that another player had scored over 300 points in the first three rounds (for comparison purposes, I find that tournament winners generally need to accumulate an average of 60 points per round).  None of the four of us at my fourth round table could hope to catch up with her for the grand prize. We were there for the joy of playing.

During the second hand of the round, I started to amass a mix that would turn into a pair of Flowers with consecutive kongs in each of the three suits. As we played, South exposed two kongs of Like Numbers, and West had a kong of Soaps exposed.

There was already a 3 crak on the table, and then South threw another. Thinking it was safe, I followed with a 3 crak from my hand. We were surprised when North called for it, using a joker and the fourth 3 crak to expose a pung. A few throws later, she exposed a pung of 4 craks.

As you know, the most obvious hand that this could have been is the first Consecutive Runs hand of the 2018 card: 11 22 333 444 5555. It also could have been the second Consecutive Runs hand: 333 444 5555 6666.

There were already two 1 craks on the table and I felt like taking a chance, so I threw the third 1 crak. In my next turn, I figured I was completely safe in throwing out a 5 crak: obviously North was not going for the first Consecutive Runs hand, since it was no longer viable.

North then did the equivalent of walking into oncoming traffic: she called for it and exposed a kong of 5 craks. I just looked at her and pointed at the table and said, “You know there's already three 1 craks out there, you know your hand is dead, right?”

She said, "Yes," and then explained what is at once the funniest and yet most brilliant tournament strategy I've seen in a long time.

She said that she would rather have her hand go dead than throw to one of our hands. Based on the exposures she'd seen, she felt the chances were fairly good that she would be penalized for throwing someone's mah jongg tile. By being called Dead, she would not suffer any penalty. If we had a Wall game, she wouldn't get any points, but she wouldn't lose any, either.

Even though time is of the essence in a tournament, I had to take a good 15 or 20 seconds to just pause and laugh. I don't know chess well enough to be able to come up with an equivalent scenario, but I found it to be a plausible defensive play. Bubbe always says, "If you can't win, don't lose." Break up your hand so that you won't throw someone else's tile; in a tournament, you might still get ten points if it ends in a Wall game.

This particular North had a different perspective. She was fairly certain that one of us would win, and did not want to be responsible for it. Hers was a strange but beautiful logic: If it's clear that you can't win because among your discards is a tile that would make someone else's mahj (e.g. a Flower), and you'd rather not be forced to throw that, you might as well make your hand go dead: go out with a bang! Obviously, breaking up a hand is Bubbe's go-to strategy in this scenario, but this struck me as so funny, so cavalier/"hey, why not?" that it amused me.

I promise as soon as I get to see the 2019 card, I will share my tips with you. I look forward to hearing your questions and comments, you can always reach me at BubbeFischer@gmail.com

Talk to you very, very soon.

Bubbe