Greetings and salutations from your number-crunching Bubbe on this lovely first weekend of Spring!!
Today we're going to tackle the third panel of the card. While it's got as many lines as the middle panel, I'm hopeful that it's a little less “mucky”--those descriptors and variations in CR and the Odd section can be really challenging!
One last reminder about my abbreviations: The Winds and Dragons hands will be referred to as WD and Singles and Pairs hands will be SP. If there are different versions of a hand they will be designated clearly: one- and three-suited variations, for instance, will have suffixes of .1 and .3.
WINDS - DRAGONS
WD1a and WD1b: these are virtually the same hand, kongs and pungs of Winds. You just have the choice of which are the pungs and which are the kongs. The number of Norths must equal the number of Souths; the number of Easts must equal the number of Wests. There are no pairs, everything can use Jokers and/or be called for exposures. Choose wisely!!
Backup options: obviously each of these is the other’s back up before there are any exposures. With one exposure, you might find a different hand within this section. The trickiest part comes once you've committed two or more exposures, especially when you cross beyond their *natural partners* (NS or EW). WD1a can switch to WD6 with the West pung and South kong; WD1 cannot.
WD2: Ah, the super chow! The other day I gave you the official Chinese words for it, but I'm not here to teach you Chinese. All you need to remember is that instead of three consecutive single numbers in a suit, you’ll need four, which can fall anywhere on the number line! As for the dragons, you must collect all three as two pungs and a kong. It does not matter which suit is which; the super chow numbers DO NOT HAVE TO BE the same suit as the kong of dragons.
Backup options: there are several hands on the card that use two pungs of dragons, so early on you could switch to any of those. There are NO other hands that use both a pung and a kong of dragons, but don't sweat it: while your opponents may figure out which hand you're playing, they will have no idea what suit or what numbers are being used in your super chow!
WD3: It's another pung and kong hand, using the E/O convention! The pungs are NOrth and SOuth, and the kongs are the same Odd number in two different suits! This is a pretty sweet hand if you have jokers. Remember, Winds circulate a lot during the Charleston and you only need pungs, so you could definitely pull this off very nicely!
**WD3 is one of Bubbe's picks for the most popular, easy to win hands this year.**
Backup options: any of the other Like Number kong hands on the card.
WD4: Of course, it's the companion to WD3, the “E” version: pungs of East and WEst, with two kongs of like Even numbers in suits A and B.
This will also be an extremely popular, easy to win hand if you play the Charleston well.
(By the way, not that anybody cares about my shorthand, but I will just note that the NOrth/SOuth, is an odd numbered hand (3), and the East-WEst, hand is an even one (4).)
Backup options: any of the other Like Number kong hands on the card
WD5: a super simple Winds and Dragons, pung/kong hand. There are no kongs of Flowers on this year's card. Therefore, the Flowers are two pungs, not a sextet, so you can expose them separately as two different groups of three. The kongs are any Wind of your choice, plus any dragon of your choice. Could not be easier to remember!
Backup options are somewhat limited, but because it's all pungs and kongs your hand cannot be called dead . E7 has the two pungs of Flowers; also there are six hands that use one pung of Flowers and a kong of dragons. If you have only exposed, at most, the Wind kong and find yourself with a pair of dragons in a second suit, you might switch down to the relevant version of WD7.
WD6: anyone remember “All Together Now,” the song at the end of "Yellow Submarine"? This hand involves a super chow which must be singles of the numbers “1234” all in the same suit. The remaining tiles are North, East, West, and South in those quantities, in order. Again, a good Charleston can make or break this hand.
Backup hand: WD1a is the obvious back up. If you put out three Wests and four Souths, you can always claim that you're trying that and just need jokers to complete it.
WD7a and WD7b: our other true Winds and Dragons hand, but this is trickier to make because it's three pairs, and frankly I'm surprised that they're only valuing it at 25 instead of 30. The two versions are virtually the same, it's just whether you collect the North and South kongs or the East and West kongs. The pairs are Flowers, plus dragons in any two different suits. Remember, pairs must be natural.
Backup options: It's likely that you'll find other people exposing dragon pungs that become jokerless, forcing you to switch your hand before you’ve amassed two different pairs. If you've already exposed those Wind kongs, try the appropriate version of WD1. If you haven't exposed any winds, switch to WD5, especially if you have several jokers.
WD8: a concealed hand, this has often appeared in the Year section on previous cards. Pairs of North and South, pungs of East and West, and the meld of 2026, which is actually all singles. The easiest way to remember it is as the bell curve, pairs on either end building up to the kong in the middle.
Backup options: especially in the early stages, during the Charleston and the first wall or two before any exposures, keep Y4 as an option. If you're finding that the Winds are coming to you more easily than that second Soap, stay with W8. If you've got the pair of Soaps, and you're struggling to get extra winds, that's when you switch over to Y4.
Overall, I'm impressed that Wind tiles appear in so many places on the card this year: Year, Even, Odd, 369, SP. As for dragons, they are truly ubiquitous, in all possible sizes: single, pair, pung, kong; multiple suits of single, pair, pung or kong; and of course a kong AND 2 pungs. I'm not saying hoard them, but I wouldn't pass dragons if you have other options, and make them an early discard If you don't need them.
369
369#1.2 and 369#1.3: Very simple hand pung/kong hands. The pungs are 3 and 6 in suit A. You can either complete the hand with the kongs of 6 and 9 both in suit B, or one in suit B and the other in suit C. It's nicely ambiguous because people won't know which 9s you're going for.
Backup option: depending on what tiles you get, you may end up switching to 369#2, but obviously 369#1.2 and #1.3 versions are the easiest backups for each other. If you happen to pick up Winds, you might consider 369#4. Surprisingly, an old reliable 369 hand of a pair of Flowers and kongs of 3, 6, and 9 in either one suit or all three, isn't on this year's card!
369#2: Stair pattern laid out identically to CR3 and O6: pairs of the two lowest numbers in suit A, pungs of those same numbers in suit B, and a kong of the highest number in suit C.
Backup option: especially because of the pairs, this is harder to get than the options of 369#1. Play the hand that works best for your tiles.
369#3.1 and 369#3.2: This is another one that you want to lay out with your own tiles so that you can visualize it more easily. You have a pairs of 3s and 9s and a pung of 6s, all in the same suit, along with a pung of Flowers and a kong of dragons. The variation comes in about whether the four dragons are in the same suit as the numbers, or a different suit. The layout is similar to those CR5 and O5 hands except that the middle number (rather than the highest) is the pung. I suspect this is because they know how hard it is to get 6s this year; they made it a pung so that jokers can be used to complete the meld.
Backup options: Each is a backup for the other just by changing the dragon suit. This is the only 369 hand that uses dragons, so really your only other similar hand would be CR5, starting with pairs of 4 and 5, but make sure you get the suits correct.
369 #4: As I mentioned above, the Winds are sneaking into different number sections! This is a slimmed down version of 369 #1.2, with pairs in suit A and pungs in suit B instead of pungs and kongs, and “NEWS” as the last four tiles (all singles, you can't call for the meld unless It's your final tile). In layout, it resembles Y4.
Backup options: If one of the Winds is fully exposed as a kong, making “NEWS” impossible, and you haven't exposed yet, you can switch to 369 #1.2.
369 #5: Another hand with like numbered kongs in two suits. You may choose whether it's 3’s, 6s, or 9s. It's a floating pair hand (similar to O4): the third suit will include a pair that matches the kongs, complemented by singles of the other two numbers of 369. That only adds up to 12 tiles, so you need a pair of Flowers to complete it. You may want to lay examples of this out on your own table to visualize it better.
Backup options: as mentioned previously, there are eight different hands on the card that use two kongs of like numbers. LN3, in particular, includes two kongs and a pair of the same number.
369#6: A concealed hand. It includes three pungs, which makes it tempting to call for exposures, but you must wait to call until your final mah jongg tile!! Two suits: those pungs of 3, 6, and 9 in suit A, and then the pseudo chow, a single 369 in suit B. The hand is completed with a pair of Flowers.
Backup hands: as a concealed hand, no one will know what you're doing or if your hand has gone dead. As you're collecting 3,6, and 9 tiles you may want to simultaneously consider SP3 and see how it shakes out.SINGLES AND PAIRS (did you see what I did there?)
Bubbe often says that playing Singles and Pairs is the most aerobic activity you can do at the mah jongg table. When you're one or two tiles away, your heart starts beating way faster. All of these hands are concealed, none of them use Jokers, and you can't call any of them for exposures except the final tile. Note they're all valued at 50 cents or more, because they are difficult to make, and since obviously they're already jokerless, you will not be eligible for a jokerless bonus.
Singles and Pairs hands are basically the stripped-down version of hands from all over the card. My dear friend Fern Bernstein (z’’l) and I called these hands “Skinnylicious,” like the supplemental menu at The Cheesecake Factory that features reduced calorie versions of certain items. If you don't already know Fern, you'll hear more about her in a future column.
SP1: This hand involves tiles from Winds and Dragons as well as Like Numbers. You will need pairs of all four Winds, and then the number of your choice as a single tile in all three suits, each with a single matching dragon.
Note: this is one that you're either going to consider by the end of the Charleston or you're not going anywhere near it. Amassing pairs of all of the Winds is not an easy task. If you're collecting them and you also seem to be getting dragons, the easiest of the three pieces is the Like Numbers.
Backup hands: possibly E3 or O3, definitely WD3 or WD4 especially if you pick/exchange for jokers.
SP2: This is very much a Skinnylicious version of E1 in three suits. Suit A and suit B each have singles of 2 and 4, pairs of 6 and 8; suit C requires the pair of 8s. It's the kind of hand where if you're collecting Even numbers, it may fall into place but again, it's not one that you can just randomly decide to play!
Backup options: E1.1, or perhaps any hand that needs 3 suits of like numbers (the 8s)
SP3: Bubbe had to put on her reading glasses for this one. She didn't quite catch it the first time, she thought maybe it was a typo. Obviously it's a stripped down 369 hand in all three suits, but it's quite clever. You need the pseudo-chow 369 in each suit, but with a “floating pair” twist: suit A has a second 3, suit B has a second 6, suit C has a second 9. You get to pick which suit gets which pair. The three melds only add up to 12 tiles so you have to add in two Flowers to complete it.
Backup hands: to make this, you need to have a foundational pseudo chow of 369 in all three suits. Once you see somebody expose a natural kong of any of those nine specific tiles, the hand is no longer viable. See what else you can find within the 369 section, the world's your oyster!
SP4: A Skinnylicious, single-suit Consecutive Run hand. It can begin with a pair of 1s, 2s, or 3s, followed by the next six consecutive pairs all in the same suit.
Backup options: CR1a and CR1b are the most obvious options, but you may consider other single-suit hands in the CR section, particularly CR 2.1 or CR 4.1.
SP5: A Skinnylicious O7, replicated in two suits. Each of the two suits requires pairs of the 1s and 9s surrounding single 357 pseudo chows.
Backup hands: You may try SP5 with the third suit if the second suit is no longer viable. If you start to pick up jokers, consider the O1s or O7s, depending on what your strongest suit/tiles are.
SP6: as expected, it's the Big Hand, a pair of Flowers and 2026 in each of the three suits. I've seen people throw away jokers in order to make this hand. We all try to make it at least once a year…
Backup hands: Y1 would probably be the easiest to complete because you can expose and/or use jokers for any of the melds. You might also consider Y2 or Y3. If you happen to have Winds, Y4 or WD8 could also be an option.
I hope you're enjoying learning about the card as much as I am. Please feel free to make comments or ask questions; you can email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com
Coming up next: Illegal exposures!!
Talk to you soon!
Bubbe
No comments:
Post a Comment