Backup Hand Tale #3: The Confession

 Greetings and salutations from your guilt-plagued Bubbe, who has a confession to make:

 “It’s been nearly two years since I played an in-person game.” 

All those articles I wrote about game scenarios were “real….mahjongg,” online. I have several very vulnerable family members and am also health-compromised, so I didn’t want to take chances, even after being boostered.

I recently moved and one of my new neighbors (who doesn’t play….yet) told me about a drop-in session at the library. I RSVP’d, and the organizer wrote back saying, “We only want experienced players, no beginners. Are you an experienced player?” I said I thought so, I’d been playing since the 2003 card.

Today was my first day with the group. One of the first things I noticed, being back at a real table, was the fun of turning over those smooth tiles, one by one, to see what I was dealt. It also took adjusting to remember to set up my rack defensively—not making it obvious whether I was keeping a pass, or separating tiles that I knew weren’t useful.

I was the only player who wore a mask, but no one batted an eye about it. Leaning back in my chair, I compensated for the mask and distance by speaking loudly when I named my discards.

In the first game I bluffed a little, “getting excited” about a pick that was actually dreck, just to throw my opponents off from any tells that I ordinarily would show. We ended in a wall game, and I mused about how normal it felt to be playing in person again.

The one thing I did—that I never used to do, before Covid, and certainly don’t do online—ended up creating a big problem in the second game. Online, the tiles can be shuffled and readjusted automatically. They are set up pretty much the way I would normally set up my tiles: Flowers to the left, then the three suits, dragons, Winds, and Jokers.

At the end of the Charleston I had:

5 8  2 22 44 66 88 W J

Since I had no Flowers or dragons, the best option was definitely E3.1, a pung/kong hand in dots. I was ready to call for the third tile in the 2 and 6 dot pungs, and could use the Joker with the 4 or 8 dots to call for at least one kong.

But then--I have NO IDEA why--I thought it would be fun to put the joker between the pairs of 4s and 6s. I never play that way. Big mistake.

Someone threw a 6 dot, and I called for it. Although I only needed the pung and didn’t need to use my Joker, my brain was confused by the placement of that Joker so I used it to expose a KONG of 6 dots. It wasn’t until the next two players had picked and thrown that I realized I had messed up the E3.1 hand!

Remember: there are no “bad” first exposures that will make your hand dead. There is always another hand that you can go for, after you make one exposure. In this case, although it was a ridiculous longshot and a waste of all those nice dots, I realized I had to try for the next hand down, E4.  I certainly would have no problem keeping that pair of 4 dots to go with my kong of 6 dots. I would need to complete the pairs of 2 craks and 8 bams, and SOMEHOW acquire a kong of 4 craks when I had none to begin with.

It was definitely a longshot. Fortunately for me, my opponents seemed to be going for Odd hands; there were a lot of even tiles passed around during the Charleston, and I had grabbed them.

I actually picked up a 4 crak and exchanged for someone's exposed Joker, so I knew it was not a COMPLETELY ridiculous plan. A few picks later, I got my second 2 crak. My supposition was confirmed about “Odd” hands when my opponents started making more exposures, and I felt a little more confident that at least no one might want the same tiles as I did. In fact, they were starting to block each other’s success, cancelling one another out.

I exchanged for my own (6 dot) Joker, and was now looking at

22 4JJ 44 6666 (exposed) 8 D

One of my opponents threw out a 4 crak, so I called it for an exposure. I realized that I had a GREAT ambiguous double exposure with kongs of 4 craks and 6 dots: it might be logical to assume that I was going for CR5.3 and needed a kong of 5 bams and a pair of Flowers, or CR2.2 and needed pungs of 3 craks and 5 dots. I know I would have assumed that—most people don’t think of the wacky, three-suited, three-paired hand in the Evens section. I had the pairs of 2 craks and 4 dots; all I needed was that last 8 bam.

Fortunately for me, I picked it on the next turn! Of course, I caught everyone by surprise, but it was the only hand of the three possibilities that actually made any sense, considering they were all playing Odd hands on the upper number line! I had really lucked out that their choices had cancelled one another out; it bought me a lot of time and extra picks, since none of them was able to wrap up their own hand.

My opponents were impressed by this more challenging hand; I confessed that it wasn’t a typical choice for me, and that I was forced to try for it after I made the wrong exposure. I didn’t harp on about how knowing the card makes all the difference, and not being afraid to try every hand, etc.—I figured no one wants to hear that kind of stuff from an opponent.

It felt good to be back, and to be able to think on the fly like that. I don’t know WHY I fooled around with the Jokers on my rack. I’m not going to do that ever again!!

You can email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com to let me know if you have any questions, or drop me a line to say how you’re doing with the new card. I love hearing from you!

Talk to you soon!

 

Bubbe