RIGHT panel 2024

 

Greetings and salutations from your Bubbe, who knows good things come in threes. That means it's time for our third panel, the right side of the card.

 

Let's get to it.

 

Abbreviation standards:

WD is the Winds and dragons section, 369 is 369 and Singles and Pairs is SP.

 

Winds and dragons section:

 

WD1a and WD1b: same as last year. It's a pung and kong hand, no pairs. Every meld can utilize Jokers, any discard can be called for an exposure. Wests equal Easts, Norths equal Souths. You decide which are the pungs and which are the kongs, but once you expose a meld, you have to commit to that choice (unless..... we'll talk about backups and WD4 in a few days).

 

WD2: It's the year of the dragon, so let’s use all of them! This is a pung kong hand, and just as with LN1, we know that there are no pungs of Flowers this year. Therefore, there are four Flowers, leaving us with 10 tiles. That means that of the three melds of dragons, two are pungs and one is a kong. You get to decide which suit is the other kong.

 

WD3a and WD3b: another pung and kong hand. Jokers for any meld, any discarded tile can be called for exposure. This time, we have kongs of two consecutive numbers in different suits, with pungs of either the East-West or North-South combination. I have a feeling this will also be a popular hand.

 

WD4: A little different than last year's hand, although like last year’s, it defies the E=W, N=S pattern. We also need to remember 1) we only need a pair of Flowers, and 2) this is a step formation. Therefore, it's pairs of the Flowers and Norths, pungs of East and West, and a kong of South. This hand will come up again when we're talking about backup hands, especially with WD1a.

 

WD5a and WD5b: This is a two kong, three pair hand. It’s a similar sandwich hand to 369 5, kongs surrounding three pairs. I’m going to call this one the “simple sub”. The roll is the kongs of matching Winds, either North/South or East/West, and the filling is three pairs of consecutive numbers in one suit. Simple, ideal for the picky eater. Again, a good hand to keep in mind when discussing backup hands 

 

WD6: a true Wind and dragon hand. Kongs of two different dragons, a pair of Flowers, and the four singles that make NEWS. 

 

WD7: a concealed like numbers hand, similar to the one on last year's card. This time it's four pungs and two singles, with 3 Norths and Souths around a single East and West, and then like-numbered pungs in two different suits. It's something to consider as backup if you are building LN3. 

 

369 Section:

 

369 1.2 and 369 1.3: pung/kong hand. Say it with me: “Jokers can be used in any meld, and any discard can be called for an exposure.” Most important thing to remember is that the pungs are on the three and six, both in the same suit. The options for the six and nine kongs are that they can either both be in suit B, or one each in suit B and suit C.

 

369 2: we've seen this one before, a pair of Flowers and then single, pair, pung of 369 in one suit, with additional pungs of matching number (either 3, 6, or 9) in the other two suits. We’ll talk about it again when we discuss backups, especially for LN1.

 

369 3.1 and 369 3.3: the equivalent of CR 3.1 and CR3.3, a pair of Flowers and three kongs. In this case, it's kongs of 3, 6 and 9, either all in the same suit or one in each suit.

 

369 4: another pung kong hand, pungs of the same number (either 3, 6, or 9) in two different suits, with the kongs of their matching dragons. Jokers can be used in any meld, and any discard can be called for an exposure. One easy mnemonic to keep this simple hand straight: "pung" and "number" both include the letter U; "kong" and "dragon" both include the letter O. Think of it as a special like numbers hand, exclusively for 369. I have a feeling it will be very popular this year as well.

 

369 5: A little bit of nostalgia for a hand we used to see in the CR section. A variation on the pattern comes up again in WD5. It’s the “Magic Meatball sub”: a long roll of kongs of 3s and 9s in the same suit, with a colorful meatball filling--pairs of 6s using each of the three suits.

 

369 6: you can visualize it as a stair pattern, if you put the kong of Flowers at the end. Pairs of the 3s and 6s along with one pung of 9s, all in the same suit. There's a final pung of dragons in your choice of second suit, plus the four Flowers. It's another one I recommend forming with your own tiles, to get used to seeing it.

 

369 7: a concealed hand, the 369 equivalent of CR8. Both suit A and B use pungs of 3s and 6s, and the hand is completed with a pair of 9s in suit C. It seems easy enough, but that's why it's concealed!

 

 

SINGLES AND PAIRS:

 

SP1: from the Even section, it’s Skinnylicious time! Pairs of 2s and 8s with skinny fillings of single 4 and 6, in two suits. Finished off with a pair of Flowers.

 

SP2: from the Odd section, and it's about as basic as they come. It's a pair of Flowers and pairs of 135 in suit A and 579 in suit B.

 

SP3a or SP3b: from the CR section. Those of you who've read my first book may remember Sylvie, who taught me so many things. "Number vomit" was her charming nickname for this kind of hand, where you have a pair with a single in suit A; two pairs with a single in suit B, and finally three full pairs, in suit C. For this particular collection, the options are ascending consecutive numbers from 1s or descending from 9s.

 

SP4: from the 369 section. I talked about this hand in the overview. I like it because it's true to the spirit of singles and pairs. You have a pair of Flowers, and then pairs of 3, 6 and 9 in suit A and "369" single combinations in each of the other two suits.

 

SP5: from the CR section, a new twist on an old friend. We've seen two Flowers and six consecutive pairs. We've seen two Flowers and five consecutive pairs with matching dragons. We've seen seven consecutive pairs. I think this is the first time we've seen five consecutive pairs with pairs of complementary dragons.

 

SP6: the Big Hand, from the Year section. Like SP5, this is a new twist on an old friend. Obviously in years like the 2000s, 2010, 2020 and, presumably, 2030, one can't put three "year" melds in the Big Hand because there just aren't enough soaps. In those cases, two Year melds were supplemented with dragons or Winds, as well as the usual pair of Flowers.

This year they're trying something new. Even though they didn't have to, they're only including two melds of the year in different suits, and then a six-tile NEWS combination with pairs of North and Souths and single East and West.

But wait, you say, that already gets us to 14 tiles! That's right, no Flowers. 

I kind of dig this Big Hand, it frees up some more soaps, it doesn’t require all three suits, and you won’t need to hunt down the pair of Flowers. Grab your change purse: I predict that the Big Hand will be a lot easier to make, this year.

 

 

 

So that's it, those are all of the hands on the card. I think we're going to get a handle on this pretty soon.

 

As many of you already know, Bubbe’s most important lesson is that “luck favors the prepared mind.” I'm here to help you prepare. Aren't you lucky?!

 

In the next days, we're going to do more preparation, first talking about illegal exposures and then moving on to ambiguous exposures amd backup hands. Talk to you tomorrow.

 

Bubbe