King Kongs

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, with a third look at the new card: Ambiguous Exposures, Kong edition!

You KNOW there are kongs of 7’s and dragons all over this card. That’s the first thing that jumps out when you see it. Last time, I talked about the only two pungs that are illegal this year: Winds and Dragons. Every other pung and kong is fair game. The good news is that you can make a “lonely” exposure and your hand probably won’t be called dead, since it could be one of a number of hands.

The only “li’l ol’ me” exposure that, by itself, points to only one hand is a pung of nines. That can ONLY be part of the 13579 stutter-step, three-suited hand: pairs of 5’s and 7’s in first suit, pungs of 7’s and 9’s in the second suit, and a kong of dragons in the final suit. If someone puts out matching dragons with that pung, or any other exposure than a pung of 7’s in the same suit, it’s a dead hand. Also if three of either the 5's or 7's in both opposite suits are out, the necessary pairs in the hand are unattainable and therefore the hand is dead.

Every other exposure: a pung of any number, a kong of any number, wind or dragon (or Flowers), could literally be one of a number of hands.

The good news for you is, if you make only one exposure and your original hand falls apart (e.g. all the Flowers are out; the matching dragons for the pair are gone; the pair that went with it isn’t available), you might be able to switch your hand. If it’s too late in the game to switch, you can at least bluff your way to the end.  Never throw up your hands in defeat, saying, "That's it, my hand is dead." You cannot declare your own hand dead, and in fact, with one single exposure, it probably isn’t dead. 

By the way, there is no shame in bluffing your way to the end of a game. As I like to remind people in my lectures, and in my book “Searching for Bubbe Fischer,” if you're playing against evenly-matched players, over time, you should only expect to win about 20 percent of the games. There will definitely be hands where you fall short of your goal. Just keep playing, and try not to throw anyone the tile that they need.

I’ll talk a lot more about switching hands in another post (or three), but for now I’m focusing on what else this new card holds for us. As I said, a single exposure is pretty harmless, you can bluff your way to the end…but what if you make two exposures and your hand falls apart?

Fear not. There are quite a few hands on this card with “ambiguous exposures”: two (and sometimes three) exposures that could be referring to more than one hand. It is very useful to learn the card and recognize the opportunities that might arise.

For instance, a kong of Flowers and a kong of any number tile greater than “3” is ambiguous this year. We all know that the “old reliable” Consecutive Runs hand (CR5) is back: kong of Flowers, kong of two consecutive numbers in same suit, and pair of matching dragons. If those dragons go out and you’ve already got Flowers and one number exposed, you can possibly switch your hand, or at least bluff your way through to the end of the game. In fact, if it’s an 8, you could be playing one of THREE different hands: 2468 #1, Lucky “13” #2, or CR5. Until every 1,3, matching 2, or three of the matching 4 or dragon has been thrown, your hand is still “alive”. Pretty sweet.

Other examples of ambiguous double exposures of Kongs that work to your advantage:

·       *  Kongs of N and N+2 in same suit (for example, 1111 3333 or 4444 6666), for any N and N+2 except 6 and 8, could be part of the sixth Consecutive Run hand or a specific pair in the Even or Odd section. If some of the pairs in CR6 are no longer available, you might switch to the Even/Odd hand…or bluff for as long as you can.

·        * Kongs of N and N+2 in different suits, for any N and N+2 except 1 and 3, could be part of the second Consecutive Run hand OR the third Consecutive Run hand (the “junk hand”). Even if all the Flowers are thrown, you can bluff that you’re still going for CR2.

·       *  Kongs of two dragons. You could be going for the second 2017 hand or the last Winds & Dragons hand, but if seven flowers are exposed/thrown, you’re in trouble. Don’t expose that second kong of dragons unless you’ve got the Flower pair or are otherwise set for mahj.

·        * Kongs of matching winds (N/S or E/W): with those two exposures, you can never be called dead. You might be going for pairs of dragons. If you’ve exposed East and West kongs, you might be going for the first Winds & Dragons hand. Even if every South or dragon is thrown, you could still be going for the two pungs of Flowers. I predict it would be very late in the game (and sometimes never) before anyone could say there was no chance of your getting jokers and flowers to complete the hand.

·       *  Kong of 6’s and 7’s: in the same suit, it could be “Lucky 13” or our beloved CR 5. Even if you also expose the kong of Flowers, your opponents still won’t know which it is. In different suits, it could be “Lucky 13” or Consecutive Runs hand #3, AKA “the junk hand”

·        * Kongs of same number in two different suits: could be either of the Like Number hands. If seven Flowers are out, you could still bluff that you were hoping for enough jokers to make the Flower pungs. If the number happens to be “7,” it might also be the third 2017 hand; if it’s a 3, 6, or 9, it might be part of the fifth 369 hand.

These kong combinations are not quite so ambiguous:
 

·        * Kong of a number and opposite dragon: This most likely is the first Like Numbers hand, which would go dead if seven Flowers were on the table. If it's a 7 crak or bam with four soaps, it could be the first 2017 hand.

·        * Kong of a number and matching dragon: This is a rare occurrence on the card. When the number is a 3 or a 9, if there are three sixes of that suit on the table, your hand is dead. Sorry! If it’s a 7 dot with soaps, of course, it’s the first 2017 hand, which can’t go dead.

How are you supposed to play defense when someone else makes an exposure? Well, I’ll save that for another day!

I’m always happy to hear from you about your adventures with the new card, or if you have a question. Contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon!

Bubbe