Greetings and
salutations from Bubbe, ready to look at the middle panel of the 2022 card!
Quints section
Just a quick reminder
that every quint hand is going to require at least one joker, and
therefore cannot be made jokerless. That's why they pay a little bit better for
winning. Also none of these hands is concealed, and it's likely that you'll
need to call for tiles for exposure. Finally, except in the case of Q2, you can
use any numbered tile that fits the description (e.g. don’t start
Q3 with a pair of 8s.
Q1 My favorite kind of
quint hand, I play it all the time when nothing else jumps out at me.
This year's version doesn't use Flowers. It does use five dragons,
so if you see someone exposing five dragons you'll know immediately what's
going on. On the other hand, an exposure of four Winds could be one of
several hands, and five of any number could be any of the Quint hands
so... A little hard to defend based on one of those solo exposures. Reminder
that the dragon does not have to be the same suit as the number,
and that you can use a kong of any Wind
Q2 Super-sized E1 or E5.1 without Flowers or dragons. Pure single suit, ascending even numbers as
pair, pung, kong, quint. Once again, getting the natural pair of 2s will be the
bane of your existence. NOTE: it MUST be these four numbers in this
specific order.
Q3 Interesting three-suited
hand. You need a pair of two consecutive numbers in the same suit. The next
consecutive number is represented by quints in each of the other two suits.
Until and unless I hear otherwise from the League, I am assuming the pairs must
be LOWER than the quints.
Q4 A super-sized version
of CR 3.1, below. A kong of Flowers joined by quints of two consecutive numbers
in the same suit.
Consecutive run
Reminder that except
for the very first hand (1 through 5 and 5 through 9), any numbers can be used
to begin consecutive runs, space permitting (e.g. if it's a sequence of four
numbers, you can't start it at 7). And no trying to get cute, calling a soap a
zero for the purpose of consecutive runs!!
CR1a/CR1b The variations are
based on using either the lower (1-5) or upper (5-9) end of the number line.
Ordinarily, this is
the hand that sets the tone for the rest of the card….but not this year. It's
one of the most basic hands: an ascending staircase with pairs at the
lower end, then two pungs, then a kong as the highest number. We're not seeing
a whole lot of ascending staircases this year, so there go Bubbe’s old
theories. Reminder that, once again, that natural pair of 2s is going to be a
pain to achieve.
CR2 If you look back at
yesterday's wedding day posts, here we go again. This set of mothers are
a little friendlier than the E6 group. Two pungs of Flowers, two kongs using
consecutive numbers, but still dressed in different suits/colors. Very easy
hand to play, can use jokers and/or call for any exposures.
CR3.1 / CR 3.3 This is my proverbial
junk hand. A pair of Flowers and three kongs in consecutive numbers. You can
either play it in one suit or three. Any of the kongs could use jokers and/or
be called for exposures, but the pair of Flowers must be natural.
CR4 Stutterstepping. I talked about it
yesterday, that's when you have five components, grouped as pair/pung,
pair/pung, kong.
This time it's in
three suits. The two pair/pung combinations use the same two consecutive
numbers in two different suits, and the Kong component is dragons in the
complementary suit.
CR 5.1/5.2 Super easy pung pung
kong kong (3344) hand in consecutive order. You can use jokers for any meld,
you can call for any exposures. One option is that the whole hand is in the
same suit. The second option is that the two pungs are in suit A, and the two kongs
follow up in suit B.
CR 6 This is an oldie.
Five components, but it's probably easiest to think of it as another sandwich
hand: two kongs in suit A, exactly two numbers apart (e.g. 2 and 4 or 5 and
7). Obviously you can use jokers and/or call for exposure for either or both of
the kongs.
Between the kong
slices, you need a filling: pairs of the middle number in each of the three
suits. Again, because it’s a more generous filling with THREE pairs, it’s
worth an extra nickel if you win!
CR7 Well they still
refuse to give us the old favorite hand, with two consecutive numbers, Flowers
and dragons. Life should never be so easy, right?
Instead we've got
five components of a single-suited hand. Kong of Flowers, three consecutive
numbers with pair, pair, and pung in ascending order, with a matching pung of
dragons. If you want to throw the Flower kong at the end, then it does look
like an ascending staircase!
CR 8 Do I hear a waltz? (RIP Stephen Sondheim)
Three consecutive
numbers as pung-single-pung, repeated again in a second suit. If it helps you
to think 3-1-3, 3-1-3, go for it. Just remember that it's a concealed hand so
you can use Jokers for any and all of the pungs, but you can't call for
anything except the mahj tile.
13579
Unlike most of the other
hands on this panel, of Quints and most CRs, this section of the card is very
explicitly only the number as listed. You can't make variations.
O1.1 / O1.3 This time it's a bell
curve. Pairs on either end (ones and nines) ascending up to the fives
and then back down.
There's a one-suited
version, or a three suited where the ascending pair/pung is in suit A, the kong
of 5s is in suit B, and the descending pung/pair is in suit C.
O2a / O2b The variation depends
on whether you use the lower or upper end of the number line (either 135 or
579). It's a pair of Flowers with three number Kongs, each in its own
suit.
O3a / O3b Again, the variation
depends on whether you use the lower or upper end of the number line, 1-5 or 5-9. It’s a pung pung kong kong hand (3344), with
the first two numbers in suit A and the second two numbers in suit B. Any meld
can be used jokers or be called for exposures
O4 More food metaphors. It's
tea time and the butler is serving a traditional yet skinnylicious
watercress sandwich (as opposed to the more filling CR6).
The presentation is a
pung of Flowers garnishing kongs of 1s and 9s, with a very thin layer of
filling--single 357-- in a different suit. Fancy but not overly
filling...only pays 25 cents!
O5a/O5b Both versions are one-suited
with the variations based on the number line, either 135 or 579.
Yet again throwing
off convention, this particular pattern is kong pung kong pung (4343)!
The lowest and highest numbers are represented in kongs, and the middle (either
3 or 7) is a pung, matched with a pung of same-suited dragons. Basically just
remember that the League is playing with your head and running away from any one
overriding pattern on the card!
O6a/O6b Always a three-suited
hand, this one's variations depend once again on the number line (135 or 579).
It's exactly like the
three-suited stutter step we talked about in CR4 above. Pair/pung, pair/pung,
kong. The two lowest numbers are repeated in two different suits, with the
highest number being a kong in the third suit.
O7 Boy, oh boy, they
really don't want to have this card be easily decipherable. In previous years
you might have seen a pattern that appeared elsewhere on the card, but nope.
Not 2022.
I'm calling this one
a windy flagpole. There are seven components to it:
We have a flagpole
(our two Flowers). Hanging on that flagpole are two different-suited/colored
banners, one including the lower end of the odd number line (135)
and the other, the higher end of the odd number line (579). Both banners
start small, and spread out with gusts of wind: single, pair, pung; single,
pair, pung. Remember that as the numbers ascend, the size of the meld increases
on each colored banner.
Feel free to compare
and contrast this with yesterday's left hand side of the card. I bet you can
guess what I'm going to talk about tomorrow!!
If you have any
questions or comments, feel free to contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com, I love hearing from you.
Talk to you tomorrow--even
if it is going to be April Fool’s day, you know I'll take this seriously!
Bubbe
