Greetings and salutations from your calculating Bubbe. Today I'm going to talk about a basic fact of mah jongg, one that is so simple that we sometimes forget how helpful it is.
When we're taught the game, when we're learning new hands, when we're playing the game, what is the one essential truth of the NMJL version of the game? Our hands have 14 tiles!
"Yes, thanks Captain Obvious, we all knew that there are 14 tiles in a hand." But when we are puzzling out combinations, one way to remember the missing piece is by simply going back and doing arithmetic.
I'm going to point out some of the most common combinations that get us to 14.
Seven pairs (7*2)
Three pairs and two kongs (2+2+2+4+4)
Two pairs, two pungs, and a kong (2+2+3+3+4)
Two pairs and two quints (2+2+5+5)
One pair and three kongs (2+4+4+4)
One pair and four pungs (2+3+3+3+3)
Two pungs and two kongs (3+3+4+4)
A kong and two quints (4+5+5)
But don't forget some special ones for this year:
A single, a pair, a pung, and two kongs (1+2+3+4+4)
A pair, a pung, a kong, and a quint (2+3+4+5)
Four pungs and two singles (3+3+3+3+1+1)
Six pairs and two singles ((6*2) + 1 + 1)
** 'NEWS' and ‘2021’ are not kongs, they are each a collection of four singles, just as the '21' isn't really a pair but two separate singles. For hand "size" memorization, think of the former as types as kongs and the latter as a pair.**
Besides these various ways to reach 14, I will remind you to review the details from previous articles about the 2021 card:
* Two key patterns are the bell curve (23432) and the 3434 in two suits
* There is no pung of Flowers, or quint of Dragons
* All of the Wind tips from "NEWS you can use"
How do those little tricks, and the sum of 14, help us figure out what our hand should look like?
Example #1:
There's a three-suited 2021 hand where you need to collect 1's, 2's, and the 2021, each in its own suit....plus some Flowers. The numbers are both in kongs, and there are four tiles in "2021," so the number of Flowers to collect is....14-12, or 2.
DUAL examples #2:
There are two very similar hands on CR, three and four numbers in a row. Let's say one is 1 22 333 4444 and the other is 22 333 4444. Each has honor tiles that go with it: which uses Dragons, which uses Flowers, and how many of each?
The second hand uses (2 + 3 + 4 = 9) nine number tiles, so it needs FIVE honor tiles. There's no quint of Dragons this year, but there IS a quint of Flowers, so the 223334444 goes with five Flowers. The 1223334444 is already ten tiles, so only needs a kong: THAT's the hand that uses matching Dragons!
Example #3:
The LN hand using all three suits and Flowers. We know it's going to be three kongs and a pair (4 + 4 + 4 + 2 = 14). Just remind yourself that the pair is one of the LN's.
Example #4:
The LN hand hidden in the Winds and Dragons section uses three each of the appropriate Winds (Evens use East/West, Odds use North/South), and like numbers in all three suits. The Wind pungs are six tiles, leaving us with eight number tiles. One suit is a kong, so the other two suits must be pairs (3 + 3 + 4 + 2 + 2 = 14)
As I keep saying,
"luck favors the prepared mind." I am trying to help you learn this
card as well as you can--how hands that are similar to one another can be
switched up, how to take advantage of lucky tiles when they come to you.
Everyone has a different learning style. Some of you are auditory learners. Some of you are visual learners and like to "see" the patterns. Some of you want precision, so this little mathematical double check might reinforce how the hand is structured.
Try "adding 'em up" with any hand on the card that you've been having trouble with. Consider each of the melds that you are SURE of, and remember that you've got to come up with 14 total tiles. Add up the pieces you know, and subtract from 14 to figure out what piece is missing.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me at Bubbefischer@gmail.com, I love hearing from you.
Talk to you soon!
Bubbe Fischer
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