A week ago, I was sitting in a ballroom at the Paris Las Vegas hotel, surrounded by 150+ other mah jongg players. We were at a three-day mah jongg tournament sponsored by Destination Mah Jongg. In fact, it was billed as "the World Championship" of American mah jongg, with it largest prize ever awarded--$5000!
Most novice players have never participated in a tournament. In fact, many experienced players have never tried an extended event, either. Although you may have spent a full afternoon, or maybe a weekend getaway, with a group of 4--or 8--or a dozen--friends, a mahj tournament has a few factors that make it an experience like no other. Scoring, time limitations, rotating tables--all of these make the environment a little more challenging than usual. If you want to read more about my own early tournament experiences, check out Searching for Bubbe Fischer.
This particular tournament featured many winners of previous events. The organizers, Fern Oliphant and Sheryl Perry, contacted competition directors all over the country, offering "Golden Tickets." If a person came in the top three in his/her local contest, they were awarded a ticket. It served as both invitation and discount at the Championship. Of course, other players (Super Enthusiasts) were allowed to enter at full rate, but I can assure you that the invitations resulted in some highly skilled players attending this event.
How do I know? Well, Bubbe organizes tournaments three times a year. In addition, I attend events all over the country. I've seen my share of players...and scores. In most tournaments, scores are based on the NMJL card--plus bonuses for self-picking mahj or having a jokerless hand (this doesn't include Singles and Pairs hands). There are penalties for throwing a mahj tile, as well, and a ten-point score for Wall games. What I have seen, consistently and over time, is that the winner does not necessarily play the hardest hands, e.g., Quints and Singles and Pairs hands, but rather brings in an average score of 60 points per round. In our four-round events, a score of 225-250 is generally the top score; for a twelve-round, three day event, the winner breaks 700 points.
This DM tournament was actually slightly more generous with scoring than many of the events I have attended: rather than the usual 10-point bonus for a jokerless hand, they awarded 20 points. As with most tournaments, they penalized 10 points for throwing to zero or one exposure, and 20 for throwing to two exposures. I know that, in my own tournaments, players grumble about this, but I remind players that they would pay double for throwing the mahj tile--the worst penalty in a tournament is 25 points for throwing to three exposures, so really, 10 is not so bad.
In my own experience as an East (the person who keeps score), in 48 games, there was only ONE hand that earned the 20-point jokerless bonus! This, to me, was extraordinary! Obviously, it varies from event to event, but it indicates just how important jokers are to winning.
At this particular event, even with the additional bonus for jokerless hands, the scores were surprisingly low. The winner, Bonnie Wise, had 655 points--about 55 points per round. This is a full 5 points per round less than I ordinarily see.
Bonnie made a few extraordinary hands, including the 60 point Singles and Pairs, the consecutive run Quints (twice), and two other Singles and Pairs including starting a hand with F 7788 7788 7788! She also self-picked mahj several times. I have to assume there were quite a few Wall games. At my own table, we had 12, or 25%, of games end with no winner. I heard similar stories from other players. Although each player ends up with 10 points in a Wall game, no one is able to "run away" with the score. It's hard to rack up hundreds of points at the rate of only 10 at a time.
So how did Bubbe do? I ended up in the middle of the pack, just shy of 400 points or just above 30 points per round. This came from winning 11 hands, having those 12 Wall games, and racking up a good share of penalties--seven altogether, including one where I took a chance and threw to two exposures! My "biggest" hands were a Quint--FF 66666 77 88888--and a Singles and Pairs--NN EE WW SS 44 44 44. (By the way, for any Bubbe fans who wonder whether I ever stop the Charleston, I did for that Singles and Pairs--I had 12 tiles!) Neither of these big hands was a self-pick, but they were nice points, all the same.
In comparison, my friend Barney Gallassio finished "in the money"--tied for twelfth place--with a final score of 530, or just under 45 points per round.
Fern Oliphant crowning King Barney
He allowed me to look at his scorecard to see what his distribution was like:
Barney had a consistent showing. He never won more than two games in a round, but he also never went scoreless. Out of the 48 games, he won 14 hands, only the last one of which could be considered "big"--55 points for picking his own Quint hand. Like me, Barney had 12 Wall games and never got the jokerless bonus, either!! He only received penalties five times, so essentially, his three extra wins and fewer penalties made a big difference.
I think, in general, the players were more competitive, very careful not to throw obvious tiles. There were many Wall games overall, throughout the room, but no one player dominated the competition from round to round. I'm going to do another blog about it, with a score analysis of the Leader Board, to show you overall score fluctuations.
Write to me at bubbefischer@gmail.com if you have any questions about Tournaments, I love hearing from you.
Talk to you soon.
Bubbe Fischer
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