Count On Bubbe

 

Greetings and salutations from your reliable Bubbe, with hand selection advice you can count on (or, for the grammarians, “upon which you can count”).

Whenever I sit down to play, there's at least one game that makes me think, “THIS is is a teachable moment.” Today's happened during an online game. I took a screenshot so that I could come back to it and give you my two cents. Especially for beginning players, I think this is going to be really, really useful advice.

I've heard many people talk about how to decide between two hands. Some say, “Count the tiles toward each of the hands you're considering. Which of the hands already has the most tiles?”

Well, as I learned, that's not the whole story. First of all, the lesson that even Bubbe sometimes forgets is “don't commit until you have the pairs!”

 

So, Game 1: I had pairs of 2s and a matching dragon in each suit, and decided I would go for LN2. Jokers and other 2s were slow in coming, but I picked up a second Green dragon and a Flower. I completed the 2 kong in craks on my rack (unexposed), and decided, “What the heck, let me just keep the Greens and wait for that last Flower.” To anyone who's counting the tiles, you can see that there were 11 tiles towards either LN2 OR LN3

                        2222 D 22 D 22 D... FD   (LN2)

                        F 2222 22 22 DD .... DD  (LN3)

I threw out the Red and the Soap. I exchanged for a joker and was ready to call for the second kong in either suit, when a 2 dot was thrown. There I was with an exposed kong of 2 dots, while concealed on my rack were a Flower, pairs of 2 bams and Green dragons, plus a kong of 2 craks. I was patiently waiting for that last Flower. 

I didn't pick any more Flowers, and no one discarded one. We had a wall game.

Now you might say, “Obviously people weren't going to throw Flowers,” but I might have picked one, there were eight of them.

I threw away the single Red dragon and Soap that had offered a clear shot to LN2. For those of you who thought maybe I was just being ambitious/wanted more points, I just checked again: there really was NO financial reason to go for LN3, it paid the same as LN2 even though it required three pairs!! [Note: some people would say three singles are as hard to get as three pairs, but I disagree, as you only need one of each. Pairs are harder!] I guess I just thought the Greens looked cute together...?

 

Well,"Don't commit before you have the pairs" is a lesson that can never be said too often. But what I really want to talk about is more of this “count your tiles” concept, vis-a-vis deciding which hand to play.

In Game #2, I had a great deal. I mean, GREAT. I started with two jokers and two Flowers. Understand that you average 2/3 of a joker and 2/3 of a Flower with each deal. Sometimes you get none of either, sometimes you get one of each, sometimes you get two of one and none of the other. On average, over time, you'll have 2/3 of each of them in each of your deals. Getting two of each is quite the bonanza!

Well, the Charleston was equally positive. I ended up holding onto even number tiles and dragons, plus received a third Flower. [Obviously bots aren't as smart as people when it comes to Charlestons]

The hand was

                        FFF 888 22 8 D D JJ 

and I was trying to decide between E4 and LN1. One advantage I had was knowing that if an 8 crak came out, I should definitely call it. It was required for either of the two hands, so that was a very easy decision.

As to counting the tiles: there were nine tiles toward either of the two hands, and this time NEITHER needed pairs. You might call it a tossup.

 

                            22 DJ 888 DJ    FFF 8  (E4)                        

                         FFFJJ 888 8    22 D D  (LN1)

 

With three Flowers and two jokers, that sextet was calling out to me: “here's your chance!” but there's a very important old adage, “Don't fall in love with your tiles.”

Looking at it more pragmatically, how close was I to *completing* each hand? What did I need to complete each of the melds?

As we've ascertained, those 8 craks were just waiting for their long lost sibling to be thrown, so that I could expose that kong. That would be the same for either hand, so not part of my calculation.

As for the rest of LN1, yes, another joker or another Flower would complete the sextet, but I only had one 8 dot….that kong was at least two tiles away. You could say, “Use the two jokers as soon as the 8 dot comes out, to complete that kong….” but that leaves me with only three of the six necessary Flowers; I would need some combination of two more jokers and/or Flowers to be able to call the sextet.

 But E4? I could use one joker to call for each of the dragon pungs when tiles were thrown, just like I was ready to call the 8 crak kong–I just needed either a 2 dot or a joker–*just ONE tile*–and I'd be ready for that last meld. Sounded much more attainable, so I went with E4.

As it turned out, I picked a second Soap, so I didn't need to use my joker when a third Soap was thrown. One joker was used to call for the kong of 2 dots, the other to call for the pung of Red dragons.

 

Of course, in order to attain this hand, I needed to throw out all my Flowers. This is where “don't fall in love with your tiles” comes in. E4 didn't use ANY Flowers, which seemed like a shame. On the other hand, Flowers were very sought-after on this year's card so in theory, perhaps I might be able to exchange for a joker or two (see the brilliant Tom Sloper's explanation of Joker Bait). In fact, nobody called for my Flowers. Nevertheless, I did achieve victory.

 

So what have we learned? It's not just the number of tiles themselves, because in both of these scenarios, the two options had the same number.

There are other things to consider, including

* Is either hand missing singles or pairs?

* How many melds are close / are you “on call”?

* What are you going to have to discard? Is it something that one of your opponents obviously needs? Could it be joker bait, or are you throwing out the winning tile?

Re. the third question, you may need to get rid of some of your favorite tiles in order to win, but ultimately that decision is up to you. Do you want to win, or do you want to look at your pretty tiles? You can play it the way you want. HOWEVER, if it's absolutely obvious what an opponent needs, and you choose to throw it to them, understand that everyone else at the table will be furious. "You can't mahj second," and giving away the winning tile is definitely not great strategy. Better to have a wall game, breaking up your own hand so that no one wins.

There's always another game in a few minutes--don't be disappointed that you won't win every hand.

 

As ever, feel free to contact me at Bubbefischer@gmail.com. I've gotten some really fun emails lately! I like to hear about how you're doing with the new card. Tell me if what I'm teaching has helped at all, and which hands you seem to be gravitating towards.

 

Talk to you soon!

 

Bubbe