No-No's---Illegal Exposures 2022

 

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, who loves reviewing this new card with you.

Today we’ll discuss illegal exposures. Believe it or not, there are new things to be seen this year!

 

I'll remind you again why it's important to know illegal exposures. Especially early in the new card season, it's easy to make a mistake on exposures that result in a dead hand. Obviously none of us wants our own hand to go dead, but if it happens, NEVER announce it! You have to wait for someone else to recognize it and call your hand out. They're actually putting you out of your misery, since there's just no way you're going to win that hand. As an upside, remember that remaining involved in the game means that you're slowing down your opponents, and the play might end as a wall game.

DEFENSIVELY, it's always important to pay attention to everyone else's exposures, but especially when everyone is a newbie with the card. Per above, mistakes will be made--if you call an opponent's hand dead, you might be able to get a chance at more picks and put together a winning hand!

Because it's early in the season and no one knows the card well, when in doubt, probably best NOT to call an opponent's hand dead. On the other hand, based on the information in this article, you will know a lot better than your opponents what is, and is not, legal/kosher on this year's card!

 

Let’s start with Dragons. You can expose a pung, kong, or QUINT of Dragons! You can expose TWO kongs of Dragons. You can expose a kong AND a pung of Dragons. You can even expose two kongs AND a pung of Dragons.  HOWEVER—exposing TWO PUNGS of Dragons is illegal; those appear together only in W7, the concealed hand of the Winds and Dragons section!

Speaking of Winds…the only legal Wind exposure is a kong! Some hands use pairs, which can’t be exposed. The only time Wind pungs are used are in concealed hands (Y4, W7). Note that a kong of Norths doesn’t necessitate a kong of Souths. A kong of Easts goes with a kong of Wests (W1, W6)--except in Q1, where there's only a sole Wind kong (kudos to Cheryl R. for catching that one!). If you see a kong of Norths with either Easts or Wests, there’s only one hand it can be, W1!

As for numbers: sure, there are combinations all over the card, but WHICH (if any) specific number exposures are illegal? (I remember years where a legal exposure of a pung of 9’s just did not exist!) Well, thanks to Like Numbers, there is no unique exposure of numbers that is illegal: you may see a pung, kong, or quints of any number. We can talk about illegal combinations at a later date, but recognize that no “sole” exposure of numbers is problematic.

Finally, let’s talk about Flowers. We've seen that the Flower pung is back—and sometimes twice in one hand! Remember that for a pung of Flowers, any or all of them can be Jokers. There are several hands using a kong of Flowers. There are no hands using a quint of Flowers.

 

Let’s get a little more complicated! Flowers and Dragons? You can have four Flowers and three Dragons, or four Dragons and three Flowers, but there’s only one hand of each (CR7 and W2, respectively) so pay attention! Note that W2 also involves three Flowers and three Dragons--essentially, there is NO hand that has four Flowers and four Dragons.

Flowers and numbers? There are Flower kongs with a quint of a number, or a pung of a number, but there are no hands using a kong of Flowers with a kong of a number, so if you see that combination the hand is dead. There are hands that use a Flower pung with a kong of numbers, especially the various "wedding" hands (E6, L1, CR2). The ONLY hands that use a pung of Flowers and a pung of a number use the number “6”: E1 or 32. An exposure of a pung of Flowers with a pung of any number other than 6 is illegal.

Winds with Numbers or Dragons? Oh, I weep. I weep for the loss of my “Long E” rule this year. There are NO related long E rules for the 2022 card. They JUST DON’T CARE. W4 uses two suits of kongs of any odd or even Like Number. W5 and W6 are identical hands using three consecutive numbers with Winds, so obviously they all involve both even and odd numbers; the only thing that matters is that the Wind kongs are complementary (East with West or North with South). Even the concealed W7 hand just doesn’t care about suits—pungs of Norths and Souths and any two Dragons. In fact, the only legal Wind/number or Wind/Dragon exposures are kong of a Wind with a pung of a number between 3 and 9; a quint of any number; or a quint of any Dragon.

 

I hope this helped you think a little constructively about how the combinations work or don’t work on this card. You can check in with me at bubbefischer@gmail.com!!

Talk to you tomorrow.

Bubbe

Right Side of the Card, 2022

 

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, looking at the third/right side panel of the new card!

 

Winds and Dragons

 

I just want to tell you all how sad I am that the code I cracked for this section, last year, is completely irrelevant to this year's card. We're just going to have to scramble through a new way for 2023.

 

 

 

W1 Back to the old asymmetry. Three kongs of Winds, with South being the sole pair. Maybe this story will come in handy again.

 

W2 A dragon hand to melt anyone's heart. A pung of Flowers and then all three of the suits of dragons represented--you pick which one is the pung. You can use jokers and/or make as many exposures as needed.

 

W3 Kongs of Flowers, North and South. Instead of a pair to complete the set, you'll need a single East and a single West.

 

W4 It's a Like Numbers hand with a skinnylicious Wind grouping thrown in. Kongs of any number, in two suits, plus pairs of North and South with a single East and a single West. Pay attention during the Charleston and you could very easily land this one!

 

W5/W6 These hands have one simple variation, either pairing the kongs of North/South or East/West. Beyond that, it's a little bit like yesterday's O7 (windy banner): a consecutive run in one suit of a single, pair, and pung, you pick the numbers. 

 

W7 Truly a Winds and Dragons hand!! There are four pungs involved, so you can use jokers for any of them, but remember it's a concealed hand--You can't call for anything but the final tile.

 

The pungs are North, South, and any two dragons. You complete the set with a single East and West.

 

 

369

 

I can't explain it, but I have the biggest mental block on this section. I'm sure if I tallied up all my games over the years, this is the one I play the least frequently. Go figure.

 

31 Simple pung Kong hand. It's sister to either O3 hand. Pungs in the first suit, using the low and middle numbers (36), and Kong's in the second suit, using the middle and top number (69). Easy peasy.

 

32.1 / 32.3 An easier pung/kong variation of the old “369 kongs and a pair of Flowers” hand: instead of having to scrounge for a natural pair of Flowers, you can use jokers or call for exposure. Just remember that the pungs are the Flowers and the 6’s, the kongs are the 3’s and 9’s. This can be all in one suit, or each number in its own.

 

33 We’ve seen this hand before, and it’s physically similar to O1b: a three-suited bell curve, where the ascending pair and pung are in suit A, the “top” kong is dragons in suit B, and the descending pung and pair are in suit C. You can use jokers and/or call for both of the “6” pungs as well as the complementary suit’s dragons.

 

34 All in one suit, with five components: 3, 6, 9, D and Flower. The pairs being used are the 3’s and Flowers; the tricky thing to remember, if you want to think of it as a staircase, is that the pungs are the 6’s and the dragons—save the kong for 9’s. If you’d rather think of it as a bell curve, think of the 9’s in the middle and put the pair of Flowers on the end, beyond the dragons.

 

35 Another hand with no direct analog on the card. It resembles E4 because the first suit shows the numbers ascending most of the way, and then completes the series with matching number in suits B and C—but this time it is kongs of 3 and 6 first, in suit A, then two sets of pung 9s in the opposite suits. Try to think of it as the “pung 9’s” hand, that could help.

 

36 Okay, this REALLY has no analog on the card. It is a two-suited stutterstep hand (all the others had been three suits). Five components, pair/pung, pair/pung, kong. Our first pair/pung is Flowers and 3’s, then 6’s and 9’s—ALL IN THE SAME SUIT—and then for your completing kong, you can choose 3, 6, or 9 in either of the two remaining suits. I guess you could call it a stutterstep potluck hand? The good news is that it’s an exposed/open hand.

 

37 Hey, we’ve seen this pattern before in O7—flag pole Flower pair, two suits of banners waving but this time it’s 369 ascending, twice. Don't forget that it's concealed.

 

 

Singles and Pairs

 

I know there are some of you who never use this section. You worry about not being able to call for exposures; you think it’s harder to make them. Especially if you pick up a joker, you hate to waste it. I get it.

 

But sometimes the tiles talk to you, showing you that you can make this hand—TRY IT! We are, after all, gambling!

 

S1  A variation of W7. Couldn’t be easier to remember: pairs of every Wind and every dragon.

 

S2 Another old familiar hand. It’s all about the odd numbers. You need pairs of each odd, in suit A, and then matching odd pairs in suits B and C. Very straightforward—and no 2’s required!

 

S3 Hearkens back to CR8—more waltzing, except easier to remember. A pair of Flowers, and then three consecutive pairs, repeated in two suits.

 

S4 Did someone say consecutive pairs? This is as simple as a Singles and Pairs hand can be, all in one suit. I recommend going for 3 through 9 (then you don’t have to deal with the 2’s!)

 

S5 Here she is, the original skinnylicious hand. It’s two Flowers, and then a couple of pared-down “2468” sandwiches—pairs of 2’s and 8’s with a single 4 and 6—in two different suits. Once again, this involves two pairs of 2’s so I don’t think it’s going to be too easy to get.

 

S6 This is the style of hand my old tablemate (in the book, I called her "Sylvie") used to call “number vomit”—you just spew the numbers out there in all three suits. There’s a more polite way to say it, but I think the imagery will stay with you.

 

The first suit grouping is small—a pair and a single; the second suit uses two pairs and a single; the third suit has the full three pairs. This time, the NV hand uses 369 section. It’s a mess, and yet it’s worth 50 cents!!

 

 

So we’ve seen all the hands. Some of them are familiar from old cards, some of them are completely new (to me, anyway). Most of them are related to other hands on the card, but there’s no one overriding theme this year.

 

If you have any questions or comments, you can always contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

 

I’m going to post next about illegal exposures—look for it over the weekend! 

 

Bubbe