Middle Panel of 2022 Card

 

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, ready to look at the middle panel of the 2022 card!

 

Quints section

 

Just a quick reminder that every quint hand is going to require at least one joker, and therefore cannot be made jokerless. That's why they pay a little bit better for winning. Also none of these hands is concealed, and it's likely that you'll need to call for tiles for exposure. Finally, except in the case of Q2, you can use any numbered tile that fits the description (e.g. don’t start Q3 with a pair of 8s.

 

Q1  My favorite kind of quint hand, I play it all the time when nothing else jumps out at me.  This year's version doesn't use Flowers. It does use five dragons, so if you see someone exposing five dragons you'll know immediately what's going on. On the other hand, an exposure of four Winds could be one of several hands, and five of any number could be any of the Quint hands so... A little hard to defend based on one of those solo exposures. Reminder that the dragon does not have to be the same suit as the number, and that you can use a kong of any Wind

 

Q2 Super-sized E1 or E5.1 without Flowers or dragons. Pure single suit, ascending even numbers as pair, pung, kong, quint. Once again, getting the natural pair of 2s will be the bane of your existence. NOTE: it MUST be these four numbers in this specific order.

 

Q3 Interesting three-suited hand. You need a pair of two consecutive numbers in the same suit. The next consecutive number is represented by quints in each of the other two suits. Until and unless I hear otherwise from the League, I am assuming the pairs must be LOWER than the quints.

 

Q4 A super-sized version of CR 3.1, below. A kong of Flowers joined by quints of two consecutive numbers in the same suit.

 

 

 

Consecutive run

 

Reminder that except for the very first hand (1 through 5 and 5 through 9), any numbers can be used to begin consecutive runs, space permitting (e.g. if it's a sequence of four numbers, you can't start it at 7). And no trying to get cute, calling a soap a zero for the purpose of consecutive runs!!

 

CR1a/CR1b The variations are based on using either the lower (1-5) or upper (5-9) end of the number line.

 

Ordinarily, this is the hand that sets the tone for the rest of the card….but not this year. It's one of the most basic hands: an ascending staircase with pairs at the lower end, then two pungs, then a kong as the highest number. We're not seeing a whole lot of ascending staircases this year, so there go Bubbe’s old theories. Reminder that, once again, that natural pair of 2s is going to be a pain to achieve.

 

CR2 If you look back at yesterday's wedding day posts, here we go again. This set of mothers are a little friendlier than the E6 group. Two pungs of Flowers, two kongs using consecutive numbers, but still dressed in different suits/colors. Very easy hand to play, can use jokers and/or call for any exposures.

 

CR3.1 / CR 3.3 This is my proverbial junk hand. A pair of Flowers and three kongs in consecutive numbers. You can either play it in one suit or three. Any of the kongs could use jokers and/or be called for exposures, but the pair of Flowers must be natural.

 

CR4 Stutterstepping. I talked about it yesterday, that's when you have five components, grouped as pair/pung, pair/pung, kong.

 

This time it's in three suits. The two pair/pung combinations use the same two consecutive numbers in two different suits, and the Kong component is dragons in the complementary suit.

 

CR 5.1/5.2 Super easy pung pung kong kong (3344) hand in consecutive order. You can use jokers for any meld, you can call for any exposures. One option is that the whole hand is in the same suit. The second option is that the two pungs are in suit A, and the two kongs follow up in suit B.

 

CR 6 This is an oldie. Five components, but it's probably easiest to think of it as another sandwich hand: two kongs in suit A, exactly two numbers apart (e.g. 2 and 4 or 5 and 7). Obviously you can use jokers and/or call for exposure for either or both of the kongs.

Between the kong slices, you need a filling: pairs of the middle number in each of the three suits. Again, because it’s a more generous filling with THREE pairs, it’s worth an extra nickel if you win!

 

CR7 Well they still refuse to give us the old favorite hand, with two consecutive numbers, Flowers and dragons. Life should never be so easy, right?

 

Instead we've got five components of a single-suited hand. Kong of Flowers, three consecutive numbers with pair, pair, and pung in ascending order, with a matching pung of dragons. If you want to throw the Flower kong at the end, then it does look like an ascending staircase! 

 

CR 8  Do I hear a waltz? (RIP Stephen Sondheim)

 

Three consecutive numbers as pung-single-pung, repeated again in a second suit. If it helps you to think 3-1-3, 3-1-3, go for it. Just remember that it's a concealed hand so you can use Jokers for any and all of the pungs, but you can't call for anything except the mahj tile.

 

 

 

13579

 

Unlike most of the other hands on this panel, of Quints and most CRs, this section of the card is very explicitly only the number as listed. You can't make variations.

 

O1.1 / O1.3 This time it's a bell curve. Pairs on either end (ones and nines) ascending up to the fives and then back down.

 

There's a one-suited version, or a three suited where the ascending pair/pung is in suit A, the kong of 5s is in suit B, and the descending pung/pair is in suit C.

 

O2a / O2b The variation depends on whether you use the lower or upper end of the number line (either 135 or 579). It's a pair of Flowers with three number Kongs, each in its own suit.

 

O3a / O3b  Again, the variation depends on whether you use the lower or upper end of the number line, 1-5 or 5-9. It’s a pung pung kong kong hand (3344), with the first two numbers in suit A and the second two numbers in suit B. Any meld can be used jokers or be called for exposures

 

O4 More food metaphors. It's tea time and the butler is serving a traditional yet skinnylicious watercress sandwich (as opposed to the more filling CR6).

 

The presentation is a pung of Flowers garnishing kongs of 1s and 9s, with a very thin layer of filling--single 357-- in a different suit. Fancy but not overly filling...only pays 25 cents!

 

O5a/O5b Both versions are one-suited with the variations based on the number line, either 135 or 579.

 

Yet again throwing off convention, this particular pattern is kong pung kong pung (4343)! The lowest and highest numbers are represented in kongs, and the middle (either 3 or 7) is a pung, matched with a pung of same-suited dragons. Basically just remember that the League is playing with your head and running away from any one overriding pattern on the card!

 

O6a/O6b Always a three-suited hand, this one's variations depend once again on the number line (135 or 579). 

 

It's exactly like the three-suited stutter step we talked about in CR4 above. Pair/pung, pair/pung, kong. The two lowest numbers are repeated in two different suits, with the highest number being a kong in the third suit.

 

O7 Boy, oh boy, they really don't want to have this card be easily decipherable. In previous years you might have seen a pattern that appeared elsewhere on the card, but nope. Not 2022.

 

I'm calling this one a windy flagpole. There are seven components to it:

We have a flagpole (our two Flowers). Hanging on that flagpole are two different-suited/colored banners, one including the lower end of the odd number line (135) and the other, the higher end of the odd number line (579). Both banners start small, and spread out with gusts of wind: single, pair, pung; single, pair, pung. Remember that as the numbers ascend, the size of the meld increases on each colored banner.

 

 

 

Feel free to compare and contrast this with yesterday's left hand side of the card. I bet you can guess what I'm going to talk about tomorrow!!

 

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com,  I love hearing from you.

 

Talk to you tomorrow--even if it is going to be April Fool’s day, you know I'll take this seriously!

 

Bubbe