New from Bubbe!

Greetings and salutations and new ideas from Bubbe!

Don't get excited, this isn't about the new card. I don't have it yet, either.

I did get a fascinating email from Vickie Reynolds, who shared with me a variation that she and her friends play. I warn you that it is absolutely a table rule game. The League doesn't know about this, the League doesn't approve of this, there are no hard-and-fast rules to it other than the ones that Vickie taught me, and if you call the League about it, they'll think you're crazy.

Mah jongg maven extraordinaire Tom Sloper says, and I agree, that table rules are just that, not conventional NMJL rules; once you start using them, you've gone to uncharted territory and therefore can't ask the League for any help to settle your disputes. Understand it's a certain kind of lawlessness that you and your friends must all agree to uphold, and to settle amongst yourselves.

I’m not completely against table rules to change things up. A while ago, I posited a table rule that we could have a special sticker to designate one of the eight jokers as “magic.” If one wins a hand using that particular joker, there could be a certain bonus involved, like maybe another quarter from each player. If you had the opportunity to exchange for one of two jokers, you might choose the “magic” one; otherwise, it was purely the luck of what you picked or exchanged, yourself. It's like paying the winner double when East rolls doubles to break the first wall: a very simple, basic table rule.

Vickie's group has an idea that blew my mind. Maybe Bubbe just doesn't get around that much, I don't know. Vickie's group uses four additional tiles--all blanks--for a total of 156 tiles. Now, if your set doesn't have extra blanks but does have additional Flowers, you could put stickers on them, or designate the four Season tiles as your “blanks”. The main point is that these tiles need to look exactly like all of your other tiles from the back, but on the face are clearly distinct from any of your usual 152 tiles. For brevity's sake, I will hereafter refer to this version as “Tuile Blanc” (“blank tile”), or TB for short.

In TB, whenever someone picks one of the four special tiles, it is as if they had picked a super-joker with a unique function. A TB may be exchanged for any discarded tile--including a Joker! The TB does not have to be used immediately, but the exchange can only take place during your turn.

For example, you may pick up a TB, see nothing on the table that you want or need, and hold on to it for the future, discarding something else. A few turns later, you may see that someone has discarded a tile that you need for a single or pair, or a Joker, or one of the other components of your hand. Just like in regular League rules, your turn begins when you either call for the current discard (which you must use in an exposure) or pick from the wall. While it is still your turn, you may redeem any of your tiles for exposed Jokers; you may exchange your TB for any discard on the table, including discarded Jokers; or you could even exchange your TB for a discarded tile that was previously not redeemed for a Joker, and take THAT Joker. You can redeem as many Jokers on any turn as you like, but you may only exchange one TB during a turn. Your turn ends with a discard or by declaring mah jongg.

Two interesting related rules to remember if you're going to play TB. The first is that you do not need to show/expose how you are using your newly-revived tile. You simply make your TB exchange, and the new tile stays in your rack, not exposed. Secondly, you may find that you don't need the TB, after all, and may discard it like any other tile. Obviously, it would be better to take advantage of this bounty, but there may be a certain hand where you just can't use it. You MAY NOT declare mah jongg with a blank tile among your 14--it must be exchanged for a “real” tile.

I think it’s fairly obvious that the main advantage of this version is that it’s more likely that someone will win. I can’t imagine there are as many Wall Games when anyone can resuscitate tiles that have already been discarded. On the other hand, it doesn't guarantee a winner: if someone drew all the TB’s she still might not win, e.g. all the tiles she needed for pairs were exposed or kept by other players. Hopefully she would know the card well enough to figure out a way to change up her hand.

I'm not married to the name “Tuile Blanc.” I picked it because it was similar to “Carte Blanche,” but that's just me. You might prefer “Zombie Mahj” (because discards can come back from the dead) or “Super Joker,” I don't know. Anybody have any fun ideas for a title?

Let me know if any of you try this. I don't recommend playing it every week, but it might be fun to change things up once in a while... especially while we're waiting for the new card.

Feel free to contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com with similar ideas and comments. I love hearing from you!

Talk to you VERY soon.

Bubbe

Happy 2019!

Greetings and salutations from your friendly year-end Bubbe!

We all know that, even if the calendar is turning over to 2019, the year doesn't REALLY start
until the end of March, when the National Mah Jongg League releases its newest card. The
suspense is always thick: will we still have hands using six Flowers? Will there be more Winds
and Dragons hands? What will the addition/multiplication hands be? We know 9’s will be hot (for
2019), but beyond that, it's anyone's guess. It's all speculation until approximately April 1st.

Until then, we continue on with our trusty 2018 cards. Unfortunately, some players have grown a
little restless after nine months of the same hands, and are looking for new ideas to keep the
game interesting.

There are table rules that make the game more interesting by changing the payoff: for instance,
add a sticker to make one of your eight jokers “magic”. Any winning hand that includes that joker
earns double.

It doesn't have to be a joker. You could randomly select a tile, before each game, and if the
winning hand uses that tile, it pays double.

To add a mental challenge, you might add a hand-du-jour from an old card. I personally really
miss the 1-9 and 2-8 hands: a pair of Flowers with kongs of 1,9,Dragon or 2,8,Dragon in same
suit or all three suits. Just make sure that everyone at the table is aware of the extra hand(s) so
that they can play defense.

Bubbe says to go ahead and spice up your game a little...it will make these shorter, colder days
fly by!

Let me know if you have any such table rules with your group. You can email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon!

Bubbe Fischer

Bubbe Needs YOUR Help!

Greetings and salutations from your always analytical Bubbe!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of playing with a different group than usual. Unfortunately, I could not find my card.

"That's okay," I said, "I'll probably just play the same five or six hands, anyway."

Everyone was very kind and, since we were playing with a bettor, each one was willing to share her card with me when she was betting. Some had the big print, some had the small print. The one thing that each card had was a little indicator marking every hand that the owner had won.

It was cute. There were dots, or little stars, in blue or black ink. One woman had even glued on little gems--bedazzled, I guess you'd call it. At the end of November, a little over halfway through this card,  they'd each "made" about 70 percent of the hands.

As we played, I realized that, even with their sharing, I WAS playing certain hands more frequently than others. I probably could have gotten away with not using the card, after all.

One of the other ladies remarked that she often finds herself playing variations on the knit hand, this year. She was winning with it; I was winning with it. 

As a reminder, it's  AAAA BBB  CCCC DDD where A and C are kongs of the same suit, B and D are pungs of a different suit, and "D" really does stand for "Dragon." The A, B, and C can be consecutive numbers; they can be 3,6,9; they can be 1,3,5 or 5,7,9. As long as the pung of "B" matches the dragon's suit, and the two kongs are both from one of the opposite suits, it works.

It's a very versatile hand. If you find that you've started collecting numbers in different suits and have a dragon here or there, you might be able to finagle your tiles into one of these hands. Of course, it really helps to have jokers...

It got me thinking, though. She said was winning a lot with this hand. While she and her friends (and probably many of you!) keep track of which hands they've won, there's no reflection of how often they've won with each hand. Likewise, there's no record of how often they've crashed and burned, trying for a Singles and Pairs hand....

I have a geeky proposal for my readers. Next time you play, try to keep track and forward the information to me at bubbefischer@gmail.com. Tell me which hands you ended up playing, and specifically which ones you WON! I'll be very curious to see, and happy to share the results.

Talk to you soon!

Bubbe Fischer

DE-FENSE!

Greetings and salutations from your Bubbe, who wants to talk about defensive strategy.

Now, I know that mah jongg is more than just a competitive hobby. If you've ever heard my presentations, you know I discuss the psychological benefits of the game. (If you've NEVER heard me speak, email me and we can figure out how I can share my wisdom with your community!)

Not everyone sits down at the table with the mindset of winning. Occasionally we just want to relax with friends, or distract ourselves from whatever issues are bothering us. We might even see that a fellow player needs a boost more than we do, and throw a tile or two their way. Sometimes winning is the furthest thing from our minds.

HOWEVER...experience tells me that many of you, at least some of the time, are playing to win. There is absolutely no sin in that. We're playing a game, and it's natural to want to be good at it. I'm going to guess that you read my book and my blog because you want advice about how to "get good."

Okay, perfectly understandable. Read my archives. Better yet, buy the book. I talk about how to best prepare yourself. After all, "luck favors the prepared mind." The better you understand the tiles and the card, the better prepared you will be when good tiles come your way.

But as I also say, it's unreasonable to expect to win every hand. Among evenly matched players, over time, you will probably only win about 20 percent of the games. Even with players who are not at your level, it's unlikely that you will win every single hand--the tiles just won't come your way every time.

There are occasions when you don't have a hope of winning. The tiles you want have not come to you; you don't have enough jokers to call for exposures that you need; key pairs are no longer attainable because three of that tile have been thrown or used by other players; you've run out of wall, and there are only so many picks left in the game. For whichever reason, you're not going to win. So what does a smart (and competitive) player do?

Well, another famous Bubbe-ism is "If you can't win, don't lose." Especially when your hand is completely hopeless, to battle back to a tie is its own kind of victory. In tournaments, a wall game earns each player ten points!

In order to not lose, one has to have some defensive savvy. You need to be able to figure out what your opponents are playing, or at least have an educated guess as to what tiles are more valuable. Some players claim they can tell what everyone else is playing from the outset, based on the Charleston and the first few discards. I don't personally believe that--I've done my own research and find that, literally half the time, I end up changing my hand from the one I had expected after the Charleston.

As the game wears on, though, I do believe it becomes more clear what other players are doing. Certainly if they have an exposure or two, you can get a decent picture of where they might be headed. It may not be perfectly obvious: for instance, say my opponent has exposed three 2-dots and three Soaps. They could be playing a variation of either of two hands:

222 000 1111 8888

or 1111 222 3333 000*

*(note that a third exposure, a kong of 1-bams or 1-craks, would still keep this ambiguous

 

If the game is almost over and I am far from winning, then it would be smart for me to refrain from throwing 1, 3, or 8 tiles, even if it means breaking up my own hand.

What does "far from winning" mean? Let's be realistic. Say there are 12 tiles left in the wall--three picks each--and my hand is still missing four tiles. It is smart to recognize the impossibility of winning, and shift to defense.

Last week, I was actually shocked at the following scenario: I was one tile away from winning. I was going for

FFFF 2222 0000 18

and only had the kong of 2's exposed. I needed a Flower, Soap, or joker to win. We were down to the last four tiles. I picked and did not get a useful tile. The next player picked and discarded and the player to my left called it for exposure--NOT mah jongg, just exposure! This meant that I was entitled to one more pick. Sure enough, the next tile was a Joker, so I picked my own mah jongg! (The final tile was a Soap, so I might have even called for that if it had been discarded).

The lesson to be learned in that scenario was, at the end of the game, think defensively. If you are far enough away from winning that you are calling tiles for exposure (not mah jongg), you probably should not be calling for them. CERTAINLY don't expose at that point, if it means exposing a viable joker (one that can still be redeemed). In disrupting the order, you are allowing players to get extra picks.

One defensive thing to note is that, if you were the only one who would have called for tile X, then X is probably a "safe" tile to throw. No one else wanted or needed it, so late in the game, so it would be the perfect discard.

The ONLY reason to expose so late in the game would be to put other players on the defensive, so that they would break up their own hands...but generally a solo exposure, that late in the game, is not a smart play. If you are playing competitively and are far from winning, try to minimize your risk.

I hope that's helpful. I would love to hear from you. Email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon.

Bubbe Fischer

Mahj-ical New Year's Hand

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, with l'shanah tovah (Happy New Year) to my Jewish friends!

I've commented before that there are several different calendars that we recognize:

The Julian calendar is the conventional one that we all use, with 30 days in September, April, June, and November--31 in all the others but February.

The mah jongg New Year begins around the end of March, when the new card comes out, and ends the following year when the next card comes.

The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar schedule and generally falls between late January and mid February. There is a 12-year cycle of characters, with the current one being the Year of the Dog, and although they don't faithfully keep the total year number, it's somewhere in the 4000's.

The Jewish calendar is also based on the lunar schedule, and its New Year generally falls in late summer/early fall, between September and October. This year's begins this Sunday evening, and the new year is 5779.

Bubbe couldn't help but notice the mahj-ical nature of this number, and is hereby recommending a table rule for you and your friends:

I propose that there be a Singles and Pairs hand, worth 50 cents (concealed, obviously), consisting of

FF 5779 5779 5779

As with ALL table rules, you must inform everyone at the table before you start playing. It's not fair to suddenly spring this on them with no warning.

I hope everyone has fun with it. Feel free to call it "Rosh Ha-hand," "Bubbe's Hand," whatever you want. 

If you want to get in touch with me (and send photos of your winning hand) you can reach me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

Bubbe Fischer

    

Don't Forget!

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, who just remembered what she wants to tell you!

My last blog entry was all about how I had three jokers, and with a little insight I was able to pick the hand that was easiest to make. I developed that insight from understanding certain design conventions used by the NMJL.

**Psst: Here's where I give the disclaimer: Hands as designed on previous cards are not a guarantee of future cards' hands...but after seeing the last 16 years' worth, I'm pretty sure they will continue**

The most basic convention is one that everyone MUST know, as they begin to play the game: each suit has a matching colored Dragon. Green goes with Bams; Red with Craks; and White (Soap) with Dots. Some people remember by saying that bamboo is green; the characters are written in red; and dots look like soap bubbles. My personal memory trick is to rely on alphabetizing: BCD (Bam Crak Dot) match with GRW (Green Red White).

There are two additional NMJL conventions involving affiliations between number tiles and Winds, and between certain Dragons and Winds. I used these conventions to pick my hand in the last blog article--and I'm going to teach you a really great mnemonic for them, going forward.

Both of these kinds of  "relations" appear in the Winds and Dragons section of the 2018 card.

1) Even vs. Odd numbers
 On the 2018 card, there are two similar hands involving kongs of Winds (East and West or North and South), each with pairs of the same number tile in all three suits:

NNNN 11 11 11 SSSS (any odd tile)

EEEE 22 22 22 WWWW (any even tile)

This N/S Odd and E/W Even design convention has appeared in other years' cards, e.g. a concealed hand of 11 NN 111 SSS 1111 and 22 EE 222 WWW 2222  

2) Colors 

On the 2018 card, there are two hands that involve kongs of Winds and a pair of Dragons:

FFFF NNNN RR SSSS

FFFF EEEE GG WWWW

This color/wind relationship does not occur every year, but when it has (in the last 16 years), it remains consistent, following the N/S Red and E/W Green convention. 

"Okay, Bubbe, how are we supposed to remember this, short of memorizing the hands themselves?"

Glad you asked. Say the words out loud. EAST goes with EEE-vens and GrEEn dragons. Nothing in the other group (North/South, Red, Odd) has the "Long E" sound.

I have had 25-year veteran mah jongg players tell me that they never realized these pairings before!! I hope I have enhanced your knowledge--and maybe my little memory trick will save you some time and aggravation when working out what hand to play. 

If I think of any other cute little tricks, I'll be happy to share them. Meanwhile, if you have a question or comment, please feel free to contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon.

Bubbe Fischer

 

Easy Choice!

Greetings and salutations from a very remiss Bubbe!

It's almost like Confession: "It's been three months since my last post." The problem is that my new dog keeps me from sitting down at my desktop computer. Such is my life. It's certainly not the worst thing in the world, having an adorable puppy, but it does keep me from checking in with all of you. I apologize.

Fortunately, today I had such an interesting deal that I knew I had to write about it, especially for you fledgling players who wonder how to choose which hand to play.

I started with 66 6 6 D D N W JJJ 4 8 --yep, THREE jokers in the deal!

If you've read my old blogs about statistics in tournament play, you know that jokers provide a definite advantage: the more jokers, the more likely it is that a hand can win. You have 65% chance of starting with a joker in each deal: sometimes you'll get one or two, and sometimes none. It is very rare to get more than two at the start, so if you get them, you need to think about how to take advantage of such a windfall.

I assessed my tiles for strengths. The most obvious assets were the three jokers, the Sixes in all three suits, and matching Dragons to two of the suits. At first glance, with a wealth of jokers, one might be tempted to go for the Quint hand of Like Numbers: 

11111 11111 1123

 or possibly the other Quint hand involving Winds and Dragons:

 11111 NNNNN DDDD

Another attractive option based on my starting point was Like Numbers with Dragons:

11 DD 111 DDD 1111

Obviously, without going through the Charleston there was no way to know exactly what hand to choose. I decided to play my usual Sesame Street-inspired "One of these things is not like the others," in order to eliminate unnecessary tiles.

Because my beautiful Sixes were even, I knew that I would not need a "North" tile (unless I suddenly picked up enough for Quints). I decided that the North, the Four bam and the Eight dot were expendable. I decided to keep the two Dragons on the chance that I might get more of them--especially a pair of Reds, which would make the Like Number/Dragon hand simpler.

After the first Across pass, I had

66 6 6 D D E W JJJ 2 9

This is where Bubbe's wisdom comes in handy. Luck favors the prepared mind. KNOW THE CARD AS WELL AS YOU CAN. If you understand all the different possibilities, you can make the best choice.

Seeing those two "Even" winds--East and West--made the choice easy for me. I would keep both the Winds, and one of the Dragons, because they provided more options: either the Wind/Dragon Quint hand OR the Wind/Like Numbers hand:

EEEE 22 22 22 WWWW (any even number)

More importantly at this point, I would stop collecting Dragons in more than one suit because the Like Number/Dragon hand was a Concealed Hand. Having three jokers was lovely, but if I was playing a Concealed hand I wouldn't be able to call for any exposures!!!

Once I decided to give up on the Concealed hand, I had confidence going into my first Left pass.  Unfortunately, after my second Left, I was actually kind of stuck:

66 6 66 EE W JJJ 3 7

As much as you hate to pass away a tile you need, there is no way out of that second Across--you must pass three tiles. Obviously the Three and the Seven were going, but I needed to select a third. I decided that it would be foolish to give up any of the Sixes, since the pairs were so essential. The second East was the most expendable--it still might come back in the passing, or if it got thrown, I would call for it and hope that I got a chance at another joker, either by exchanging back for it or picking---or perhaps picking a second West.

Luck favors the prepared mind...and Bubbe was prepared, let me tell you. In the final, optional across I was passed a North and TWO Easts. Somehow no one had an inkling of what I was playing.  

66 6 66 N EEE W JJJ

It was probably as close as I have come to a heavenly hand (starting the game with mah jongg). All I needed was to complete my East and West kongs before the third Six bam was discarded, and hopefully either pick it myself or have it thrown to me.

I threw the North as my first discard, hoping someone would assume Winds were safe. Sure enough, someone threw a West and I called for it, exposing two of the Jokers. No one would have any idea that I didn't even need the fourth East, since I had a Joker to cover it. It was now a waiting game to see if a Six bam would come my way.

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long. About four turns later, I picked my own Six bam--and won sixty cents from each of my opponents, who were shocked at how quickly the game ended.

What was the most valuable lesson here? Know the card, and make your decision based on what is most attainable. Especially with a wealth of Jokers, don't go for a Concealed hand if an easier, open hand is possible. I agree that it was risky--what if someone had been playing a hand that used three of the Six bams, so I could never make that last pair? Honestly, even if I had exposed both Easts and Wests, my hand would not have been called dead. There was still NNNN EEEE WWWW SS, or FFFF EEEE GG WWWW, or the East/West kongs with pairs of any other even numbered tile. The prospect of my hand being called dead was certainly not enough to detract from making this easy choice!

What I always recommend is thinking about these situations in the abstract, so that when you are in a game situation it is EASY for you to make the right choice! Faced with the options of Open vs. Concealed, I definitely chose well. Waiting around for Sixes and Dragons that I couldn't call would have been so frustrating!!

I hope this was helpful to you. You might want to read my book for more ideas. If you have questions or comments, you can always check in with me at bubbefischer@gmail.com  I am REALLY good at replying quickly to emails--finding the time to sit down and write a whole article is quite another story.

Talk to you soon--

Bubbe Fischer