2023 Backup Hand Tales #1 and 2

Greetings and salutations from your schoolmarmish Bubbe, who wants to talk more about backup hands through real-world examples.

 

One of the things I love about leading post-beginner mah jongg classes is seizing on teachable moments. Students need to master the basics of reading the card, understanding the Charleston, etc, before they can really learn strategy from one another, and an intermediate class for players with 6 months to 4 years of experience is sort of my sweet spot for teaching people. Of course, anyone can continue to learn even at an advanced stage, and we all love a shortcut or two each year when the new card comes out.

 

I'm presenting these case studies to my 6-month to 4-year-"olds", but I suspect that veteran players can find something useful in them as well.

 

 

Tale #1: "Like Numbers or....?"

 

F 257 147 3778 EE

 

I was dealt a nice collection of 7s: two 7 dots, a 7 crak, and a 7 bam. I also had two Easts in the deal, and one Flower.

 

My thoughts immediately went to a couple of options: LN1 (a 4F hand!) and, if single dragons showed up, perhaps LN2 (the concealed triplets), as well as Q1 if I acquired enough jokers.  [Remember that Q1 is the LN/N quint: quints of the same number in two different suits, and a kong of any specific Wind.]

 

Sadly, I had started with zero jokers, but held on to the Easts because, for Bubbe, Hope springs eternal. 

 

 

My mind was already prepared to accept as many Flowers, 7s, dragons, and Easts (or perhaps another wind?) as came along during the Charleston, to see which (if any) of these three hands started to reveal itself.

 

During the Charleston I was passed two more 7 dots which made it very easy to still keep Q1 in the running; I wouldn't need to have a joker to call for the 7 dot exposure. I also got a second 7 crak which made it possible to consider LN1, since I now had a natural pair to go with my kong of 7 dots. Unfortunately I still only had one 7 bam. 

 

Interestingly, I was also passed a soap and a green dragon during the Charleston, so LN2 was definitely still in the running. I just needed a red dragon and a second Flower, as in that hand the single dragons and the pair of Flowers must be natural. I also had to remember that the hand was concealed, although each of the triplet 7s could use as many jokers as necessary.

 

Obviously, without jokers, I wasn't going to be able to make exposures anyway, so I just picked and threw, hoping that I would pick tiles that would help me better define one specific hand.

 

When I picked a red dragon, I held onto it, of course, since I hadn't made any exposures. I have a new "Bubbeism": all hands begin as concealed, meaning that until I made a commitment by calling for an exposure, no one would know what I was playing, including concealed hands.

 

Someone threw an East, and as I said, without a joker I wasn't going to be able to call for that to complete the kong. Jokers were still few and far between, no one had exposed any and I hadn't picked any, so I was despairing of ever accomplishing Q1.

 

Then I picked up a second Flower, and had

 

FF 7 D 77 D 7777 D EE

 

This was 11 of the 14 tiles required for LN2 (I had an extra 7 dot). I had to discard something. The obvious choice was to get rid of one of the Easts, as I still wanted to keep the kong of 7 dots on the off chance of still making LN1. Especially if I were to pick up another Flower, I could call for the fourth. It could be easier to complete an exposed hand than a concealed one.

 

Of course, this was all theoretical, because with no jokers I wasn't completing any melds. I couldn't call for things, I just had to sit and wait for lucky picks. Time ran out on me: someone else made mah jongg first.

 

Lesson: It's important to consider backup hands, but without jokers, you will probably lack the flexibility to win the hand.

 

 

Tale #2: "Like Numbers or....?" WITH Jokers

 

JJJ 144 2 11334 N

 

This hand already started out much better than the first one, as I was dealt three (!!) jokers. Remember, on average you're going to get 2/3 of a joker per deal as well as 2/3 of a Flower. Some hands you won’t get either, some hands you get one of each, sometimes you get a bonanza!! I wasn't dealt any Flowers, but I certainly got some nice jokers.

 

 

SO many options. There's the possibility of LN1 with 1's or 4's, CR5.3 with "234", or even A1, since the 2 was in the complementary suit to the 1s.

 

I decided to focus on either doing LN1 with 1’s or keep my option open for the A1 hand, because either would be using kongs of 1’s. The appeal of LN1 was that I would not need a natural pair of Flowers, but I certainly would for A1.

 

I passed away my 3s, 4s, and North. By the end of the Charleston I had

 

JJJ 113 27 1114 S

 

The strongest case was there for A1, if I could get the natural pair of Flowers. Q1 would be harder since I only had one Wind tile. If I couldn't get a natural pair of Flowers, I would need to get a kong of them and go for LN1; either way, I most definitely needed to call for that last 1 dot if and when it was thrown.

 

My first pick was a Flower, which made me confident that I could pick up a second one at some point to complete the pair. I committed (mentally, anyway) to going for the Addition hand.

 

That mental commitment bore out when someone discarded a 2 crak, and I used two of my jokers to expose the kong. I knew that when it came time to call for either of the kongs of 1’s, my opponents wouldn't know whether I was playing CR 5.3 or A1!

 

Sure enough, someone discarded that last 1 dot and I called for it. I was fortunate enough to pick up a second Flower, and found myself "set" with

 

1111 2JJ2 exposed // FF 11J on my rack

 

Someone exchanged a 2 crak for one of the jokers and I felt a little regret about exposing two of them so quickly, but I knew that was the best way to make the hand—I might never see another 2 crak! Luckily, I picked up the other 2 crak and exchanged for my own joker to complete mah jongg!

 

Lesson: If you have some jokers and know the card well, pay attention. Be ready for opportunities to make decisions.

 

 

As you can see, these were very similar scenarios in terms of having interesting backups and possibilities, but the Jokers made a huge difference!

 

We can't control what we're dealt.

 

We CAN control how we plan and execute.

 

Luck (like being dealt three jokers!) favors the prepared mind.

 

 

If you have any questions or comments, you can email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com I always love hearing from you!

 

Talk to you soon!

 

Bubbe 

Figuring it out

Greetings and salutations from your driven Bubbe, on a mission to help you improve your game!

The past two articles were groundwork in order to show you the most powerful benefit of 4F. When I talked about DEDUCTION, I mentioned that the word has several meanings. The first one I referred to was “subtraction.” Each 4F pattern is really a (14-4) tile pattern; each can be broken down into components adding up to 10 tiles. Think about each for a moment.

·       Which was 5+5?

·       Which were 4+2+4?

·       Which was 4+1+1+4?

·       Which was (1+1+1+1)+3+3?

·       Which were 2+2+3+3?

·       Which was 1+2+3+4?

 

Deduction also has a second meaning. I wrote,

There’s also the logic-related term, meaning “the inference of particular instances by reference to a general law or principle”. In other words, the solving of a puzzle based on other established facts.

That other meaning of “deduction,” inference, is the real value of understanding 4F. Our established fact on this year's card is that there is only one 4F hand in each section; that means, when you’re trying to differentiate or decipher other hands in a section, you will know that they do NOT have a 4F.

 

I’ll give you the example of that perennial favorite hand involving Flowers, consecutive numbers, and dragons. Although there was one magical year when it was all pungs and kongs, it has usually been three kongs and a pair. Some years that pair is the dragons, some years it’s the Flowers. It can be really frustrating to remember what the current pattern is.

Consider some of the established facts Bubbe has given you for the 2023 card:

·       Every hand has 14 tiles

·       This hand has Flowers, two consecutive numbers, and dragons in the same suit

·       The only legal Flower combinations this year are pairs and kongs

·       The only 4F hand in CR involves five components, including two pairs and two pungs

From these facts, we know that this hand is not the 4F hand for the CR section, so it must use a PAIR of Flowers. If the Flowers are a pair, the other three melds for this hand have to add up to (14-2) = 12 tiles. That means all three non-Flower melds are kongs.

Sure, it’s a bit of backwards logic to suss out exactly what the hand is, but just puzzling it out strengthens the association in your mind. You have figured out for yourself why it has to be a kong of two consecutive numbers and a kong of dragons; it’s because the Flowers are a pair.

 

Let’s try another. You are considering going for the Addition Hand rather than Like Numbers, but you can’t remember how many Flowers you will need. Is it a pair or a kong?

Bubbe already told you that the only two sections of this year’s card with NO 4Fs are Addition and Singles and Pairs. That means that the Addition hands use a pair of Flowers, and the three number melds, in separate suits, are all kongs.

 

A third example. You’ve got a kong of 2 craks, a kong of 3 bams, and a Soap among your tiles—with no exposures!!--but someone just exposed a pung of 2 dots. There’s no way for you to make Y2 without two single 2 dots.

“I’ve got a pair of Flowers and some jokers, though. What are my options?” you think to yourself. “There’s a consecutive runs Junk hand, with three kongs in a row in different suits….there’s a Quint hand with two consecutive, different-suited numbers. Is that the one with the Wind kong or the Flower kong?”

Well, if you remember your list of 4Fs, you’d know they go with the consecutive quints. **A useful mnemonic to differentiate the two "two Quint" hands, Q1 and Q3: the “N” (representing ANY Wind) kong goes with the LN quints**

 

Bubbe feels strongly that you can improve your game by preparing, based on the adage, “Luck favors the prepared mind.” The better prepared you are, by knowing the hands on the card, the easier it will be for you to make a good choice when opportunities fall in your lap. Whether it’s by learning how to defend against other hands, or to know when and how to switch your hand, or just being more aggressive and taking chances, I’m here to help you prepare and be the best player you can be!

Feel free to email questions or comments to me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon.

Bubbe

King Kong

Greetings and salutations from your story-telling Bubbe, who promised yesterday that I would tell you about a special kong that would unlock some of the mysteries of the new card.

 

As I said before, all hands have 14 tiles. Many hands include three kongs, and use a pair Flowers as filler to reach the total.

 

Flowers don't only appear as pairs. Last year’s card used pairs, pungs, kongs, and DOUBLE pungs of Flowers. The 2023 card has only pairs and kongs of Flowers.

 

Well, those Flower kongs (hereafter referred to as 4F*) are actually much more interesting than you might think, at first glance. Kongs can use jokers, which makes the 4F meld easier to attain--you can use as many jokers as you need to complete the set. Pairs of Flowers must be natural and can't be called, except for your final mah jongg tile. You could be waiting the whole game to call a final Flower and never have the opportunity.

 

Last year I was fixated on what I called the “wedding hands,” so named because they had two (bouquet) pungs of Flowers, but those hands weren't as common on the 2022 card as 4Fs are for 2023. Anyway, there's no value in studying an old card when I am trying to learn this one.

 

I noticed that, on the 2023 card, there is breadth but not depth to the distribution of 4F hands. They appear in every section of the card except Addition hands and Singles and Pairs (obviously), so they are pretty ubiquitous--but 4Fs appear only ONCE in each of the other sections (technically twice in the Odd section, with the same pattern on upper or lower ends of the Odd number line, and twice in the 369 section as a pattern in either one or three suits.) I will talk more about the significance of these facts in my next article.

 

 

Today we're going to go section by section to look at each 4F hand. Per my previous article, we know that setting aside an entire kong leaves only ten (14 minus 4) number, dragon, and/or Wind tiles to define the hand, so really, we only need to think about how the specific ten tiles are laid out:

 

Y3. This 4F hand uses one meld of 2023 (all singles), leaving a scant six tiles. These tiles are divided into pungs of dragons in two different suits. The suit of the year meld may or may not be one of these two suits, so the hand is either a two- or three-suited hand. 

 

E1. I earlier described this 4F hand as too much bread with a very skimpy filling. It is a single-suited hand with kongs of 2s and 8s (the lowest and the highest numbers), leaving only two additional tiles, a single 4 and 6, in that same suit. 

 

LN1. This is a three-suited hand, meaning the same number appears in all three suits. Because we've already taken up four tiles with the 4F, we somehow have to split up the remaining ten among three suits. This year, the like numbers are split as two kongs and a pair. 

 

Q3. This 4F hand leaves two quints, 5 + 5=10, for its remaining balance. The quints are sequential numbers in two different suits.

 

CR7. This 4F is a consecutive runs hand in three suits, with the first suit represented by two consecutive pairs, and the second and third suits being matching pungs in that third number. All together, 4F + 2 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 14. It's kind of a tricky hand to visualize so I recommend laying it out with your own tiles, as practice, to get used to it.

 

O6a and O6b. These 4F hands are very similar to CR7: same pattern of two consecutive odd pairs in one suit, followed by matching pungs of the third consecutive odd number in the other two suits. It's presented on either the bottom or top of the Odd number line.

 

W5. This 4F can most easily be remembered by the way that the ten Wind tiles begin with a single North, and gradually increase (pair of East, pung of West, kong of South).

 

369 #2.1 and 2.3.  The pattern of this 4F hand closely resembles the Even 4F hand, especially in the a single-suited version: kongs of 3 and 9 (the lowest and highest numbers), and the remaining two tiles being a pair of 6s. It is the same pattern for the three-suit version, but of course each number meld is represented in its own suit.

 

 

 

Now that we have a clear description of each of the 4F hands, I want to talk about whether it's possible, once you've displayed a 4F, to switch to a backup hand. It truly depends on your original plan. I’m actually introducing a new color (!!!)—yellow—to indicate CAUTION--you may have trouble backing up!!

 

If you are playing Y3 and put out 4F and a pung of dragons, you are definitely committing to that hand. You can switch the suit of the year meld if you need to, and likewise you can make the second suit of dragons either of the other two remaining suits, so there is a slight amount of flexibility. If you can’t get the Soap and/or the numbers, you’ll never make this hand.

 

If you're going for E1 and expose a kong but can't get one of the singles, you might be able to switch to LN1 in 2’s or 8’s.

 

The converse, if you are playing LN1 and expose 4F and a kong, is you might be able to switch to E1 (or either of the 369 #2 hands) if your chosen like number is 2, 3, 8, or 9.

 

Backing up Q3, the 4F quints hand, is easiest if you plan ahead and/or have a lot of jokers. Like Y3, once you make the exposure of 4F and one meld (a quint of X in suit A), you are locked down to this hand. You have at most four options for the second quint: X-1 or X+1 in suit B, or X-1 or X+1 in suit C. If you expose a quint of 1s or a quint of 9s, you only have two options. 

 

If you expose 4F and one of the pungs in CR7, O6a or O6b, finding a backup will be interesting. By exposing a pung, you've clearly committed to one of these hands (and if it's not a 5 or a 9 pung,  you're obviously doing CR7). You could either switch up the order of suits—if possible—OR….

Because of the similarity of structure of CR7 to the O6 hands, you might be able to salvage the hand depending on the numbers involved. Certainly you could switch from an O6 to CR7, but switching the other way (from CR to Odds) only works if your initial pair is 3 or 7. A 345 sequence could become 135, or 789 could become 579.

 

W5 is another hand like Y3 and Q3 where you're truly locked down if you expose 4F and a meld. Once you put out either Wests or Souths, you're in big trouble if all four North, or three East, tiles are exposed or discarded. There's nowhere else you can go, and your hand will be dead.

 

369 #2’s: If you are going for 369 #2 (either version) and expose 4F and a kong and then find you have problems with the 6’s, you could either go from the 2.1 to 2.3 version (or vice versa), switch up the order of the suits of 2.3, or, per the situation of E1, try LN1 in 3’s or 9’s, based on which number kong you exposed.

 

 

I hope this has been useful exploration for you to better understand the 4F hands. Believe me, I have more to say, but I'll save that for tomorrow!

 

As ever, if you have questions or comments, feel free to reach me at bubbefischer@gmail.com ! Always a pleasure to hear from you!

 

Talk to you soon!

 

Bubbe

*Yes, 4F is also a military classification for people who are “unfit for military service,” due to physical issues, but today I'm using it for mah jongg

 

Word to the Wise

 Greetings and salutations from your ever-pensive Bubbe, with a very timely word to share:

DEDUCTION

Obviously at this time of year, we think of tax preparation and the deductions that a person can take from their tax debt through charitable donations, medical expenses, mortgage interest, etc., etc. It’s obviously on everybody's mind.

However, “deduction” has multiple meanings for me at this time of year. There’s the (non-tax-related) mathematical term for removing, a synonym for subtraction.

There’s also the logic-related term, meaning “the inference of particular instances by reference to a general law or principle”. In other words, the solving of a puzzle based on other established facts.

We can talk about mahj and charity another time. The second and third definitions are most relevant to this article, in the context of figuring out patterns and learning the new card. Bubbe never advocates memorizing the card, per se—it’s always good to have it as a reference, especially for switching hands—but in general, I recommend being fluent enough in the card that you can remember what you’re playing without constantly looking back at your card as a reminder. You can focus, instead, on other players’ discards and what has been exposed; ideally, you can also keep your eye out for available jokers!

 

The basic rule about any specific hand’s components, the absolute fundamental of our version of mah jongg, is that every hand consists of 14 tiles. 

Therefore, every hand includes combinations that total 14. 

4+4+4+2=14

3+4+3+4=14

5+4+5=14

2+2+2+2+2+2+2=14

There are all kinds of ways to get to 14, and it’s a really valuable thing to recall when you’re trying to remember whether you have the right combination.

For instance, in that first equation, substitute “three kongs and a pair” and you're describing many hands all over the card. Often that additional pair is Flowers, which essentially serve as placeholders; they aren’t numbers, they aren’t suited. They must be natural (no jokers!), so thank goodness there are eight of them! Another thing to remember, for shorthand purposes, is that the “4” can refer to a kong of four of the same specific tile, or a special meld of four singles like NEWS or 2023. You can’t use jokers in those special melds, but for mathematical purposes, you can think of each as a block of four tiles.

Therefore---when you’re trying to remember what a hand consists of, you can work backwards (subtract AND infer) from what you already know about the hand.  If it’s a hand that includes NEWS, you have to somehow come up with 10 other tiles. If it’s a hand with a quint, there will be nine remaining tiles.

In my next two articles, I’m going to talk about a very specific kong that will unlock a lot of ways to remember hands, through both mathematical and logical deduction. I hope you’ll follow along. If you’re as smart as I think you are, you’re going to learn a lot of hands very easily this way.

This is as good a time as any to point out (speaking of deductions) that I DO sell books (a memoir/manual called Searching for Bubbe Fischer, as well as two mah jongg novels), and if you’re interested in any of them, you can contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com for a special Bubbe fan rate. You can also email me with questions or comments any time.

Get ready for some serious card geekery!

Bubbe