Turning Lemons into Lemonade

Greetings and salutations from your academic Bubbe, who is thrilled to see that her undergraduate education has not completely gone to waste!

I want to share an interesting tale from the table. This past Sunday, my friend Melanie, the person who originally got me to take mah jongg lessons back in 2003, invited me over to teach a bunch of newbies the fundamentals of mah jongg. It's not something you can pick up in a couple of hours, but I gave it a try. I created a card with some very basic hands, mostly pungs/kongs or a pair of Flowers with three kongs. Every section but Singles and Pairs was represented--it's hard enough that they can't use jokers in a pair of Flowers, I wasn't going to make them try an entire concealed hand! 

Some players adapted quickly to what we were doing, some of them are going to need a more extensive introduction. At one point, Mel had me sit down to play with her and two other players, one of whom had had similar exposure last year but hadn't had a refresher since. The other was brand new to the game. They both caught on quite well.

 

After the Charleston, I had

 

38 4556778 9 N JJ

 

which was a very promising start for my mock card’s Consecutive Run hand:

 

111 2222 333 4444

 

running from 4 to 7 crak. Obviously it is similar, but not identical, to the current CR 4.1. I figured I could use the jokers to complete any two melds, and ideally I would pick up the remaining “missing” tiles both through exchanging for jokers and picking additional useful tiles.

 

I quickly called for a 7 crak to complete that higher kong, and a 4 crak to complete the lower pung. Mel and I explained to the other players that they should figure out which hand I was going for so that they could play defense. I later picked a 7 crak that I redeemed my own joker, and was able to call for a thrown 5 crak to complete the second kong. We went over the hand again to make it clear that the only thing I was waiting for was a 6 crak. I was trying to gather some combination of the remaining 6 craks and Jokers.

 

Meanwhile the player to my left had exposed a kong of 2 bams, including two jokers, and it sure would have been nice to pick a 2 bam to redeem one of those jokers! Unfortunately, it never became available...or at least, I never picked it.

 

We ended up with a Wall game and I was very proud of my tablemates for bringing it to a “tie”. I had three exposures and they knew not to throw me what I needed. Of course, it was possible I could have picked up, or exchanged for, a joker but I never did.

 

Mel revealed what she was playing. Her goal was

 

FF 2222 8888 DDDD

 

The actual tiles on her rack were

FF 22 66 8888 D N J

 

She actually had both 6 craks and refused to throw them, which I fully understand. She was playing defensively. She also had the two 2 bams that she didn't redeem for the Jokers, as well as that kong of 8 dots that she was nurturing but never got to use.

 

I have nothing against Wall games. Especially in tournaments, they still have value to players; a non-win is better than a complete loss.

 

However....this situation might have gone a different way. While I applauded her for playing defensively, I explained that she could have changed up her hand in a way that might have even won, depending on timing. Had she exchanged the 2 bams for the two jokers, and done so early enough in the game, she could have made something of the 6 craks and the 8 dots. My mock card also included what I call the CR junk hand (this year’s CR 7.3):

 

FF 1111 2222 3333

 

She could have built on the 6 craks and 8 dots with a kong of 7 bams in the middle. It was possible to both play defensively AND work toward a winning hand.

 

Some of you have seen my lectures on the “Psychological Benefits of Mah Jongg”. I have a Master’s in Psych, so it’s nice to use my education toward my vocation. My undergraduate degree is in Political Science, and I never thought I would use THAT in mah jongg—but I realized I was suggesting she use the principle of “coopting”:

 

“the act of taking over, assimilating, or winning over an outside person, idea, or group into an established structure, often to neutralize opposition or use their strength for one’s own purpose.”

 

In other words, you can control a difficult situation by turning a tile from an adversarial status (problematic discard) to part of your team (hand). You can do more than simply neutralize opposition, you might even win.

 

Mel was looking at some 6 craks that she knew I needed. She knew she had to hold onto them to prevent my winning. Rather than say, “I won’t give them up but I’ll do myself in by breaking up my original hand,” she could have said, “Let me incorporate them in my hand!”

 

Just something new to think about, if you find yourself in that situation. You don’t always have the opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade (or dangerous tiles into a winning combination), but if it’s early enough in the game….perhaps you do!

 

I’m always happy to hear from you—drop me a line at Bubbefischer@gmail.com

 

Talk to you soon!

 

Bubbe

What's On Bubbe's Mind?

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, who’s ready to share lots of thoughts and opinions today.

The first is that, as some of you know from my appearance on Tile Talk, I'm somewhat obsessed with SP3, the singles and pairs hand that is essentially a mini 369 hand. I told Christina and Elizabeth (the two co-hosts) that it is my “white whale” this year. (For anyone who doesn't know, that's a reference to Captain Ahab’s obsession in “Moby Dick”),

 

Well, last night at about 11:30 p.m., I made that hand online. I immediately texted Christina a screenshot and wrote, "What will I do with the rest of my life?" But let's be honest, the bots are not the brightest opponents. They often pass things in the Charleston that a real player would never pass (not jokers, but anything else!) I guess my next challenge will be to make SP3 in an actual, face-to-face game against experienced opponents–although I hope I get to play against people who don't read my blog; otherwise, they'll know not to pass 3, 6, or 9.

 

The second thing I want to share is related to SP3. I was giving a Zoom lecture on Sunday to the nice ladies of Walnut Cove, North Carolina, and I brought up that hand. Later on, during the Q&A, an attendee named Sonia told me that she'd had a problem completing a similar hand, 369 #5. She said her hand was declared dead because the kongs didn't match the pair.

 

Uh-oh, embarrassment for Bubbe! I, too, had yet to successfully make that hand. I looked at the card more carefully and realized I'd been taking it literally. I thought that it always required a pair of 3s and that the kongs only had to match each other. In actuality, 369 #5 is another floating pair hand–you need a pair of ANY one of the singles (3, 6, or 9) and then the kongs have to match that number in the other two suits.

 

I thanked her for bringing me up to speed and said that, hereafter, I'll be referring to it as “Sonia’s Hand.” Now that I know how it works, I have actually won with it twice!

 

The third thing, this morning, was a follow up to my white whale text last night. Christina called me and said Bubbe's mnemonics had been really helpful for remembering hands, so she created some of her own. One of hers was fantastic and she said that I'm welcome to share it with all of you. I'm going to be adding it to my lectures, too, with full attribution.

 

It's W6, the hand that I sometimes refer to as the Secret Super Chow hand. It's like W2, the super chow hand that requires ANY four consecutive numbers in the same suit, but for W6 they MUST be 1234. I say it's a secret super chow because you might, at first glance, not recognize the super chow itself. 

 

I'll still refer to it that way in explaining what chows are, but Christina’s nickname is too darn clever: she has named it the Treasure Map. Picture a little kid in their backyard, trying to decipher where the treasure is buried. “Take one step North, two steps East, three steps West, and four steps South…” (For the engineers and science brains among you, that amounts to taking one step West and three steps South, but that's a whole nother story….)

 

Adorable!! I'd call it “Jim Hawkins,” but I think "Treasure Island" references are just a little bit too obscure. I'm already getting blank stares when calling CR5b, my secret knit hand, “Madame DeFarge” after the woman in “A Tale of Two Cities” who is constantly knitting and observing everyone during the French Revolution.

 

It's not surprising that I draw these parallels between literature or movies and mah jongg hands. This game is always on my brain. When I look at phone numbers, I try to detect a pattern. I just sent an invoice for three books, $42.22, and told the buyer I’d recommend a Like Numbers hand. I watch the basketball playoffs with my husband and find myself comparing rebounding and shot clock management to joker strategies. I'm sure if I thought about it long enough, I’d even find mah jongg analogies about the plants blooming in my garden.... Something involving Flowers, obviously. Give me time.

 

Anyway, I am always happy to hear from you. You can email me at Bubbefischer@gmail.com. Feel free to send any questions or comments you have, and please check out my other articles. I'm also happy to give a zoom lecture to your group, or if you're local enough, in person–I might even help out with a fundraising event!

 

Talk to you soon.

 

Bubbe

 

Thought Experiment

Greetings and salutations from your tile-loving Bubbe who has finally emerged from the kitchen after a week of Passover cooking, happily reporting that her loved ones survived a week without REAL bread.

I did get to play a lot of online games (my favorite version is Real Mah Jongg)--I am loving the new "scorecard" feature where statistics are available for review, showing my winning hands and wall games. I seem to get wall games about half as often as a victory--sometimes tying is a triumph, in itself, so I can't complain. Of course, I have no idea how many TOTAL games I've played.

I have gravitated to a few sections of the card. Of my 54 wins to date, I had 23 (43%) divided almost equally between Evens (7), Odds (7), and Winds (9), but a total of 22 (41%) just in the Consecutive Runs section!! On the other hand, I seem to be avoiding and/or not succeeding in some areas: one Quint and one 369 victory so far, and NO Singles and Pairs wins yet.

Usually I have a sense of where I am headed by the end of the Charleston, between two or three different hands, but I'm open to changing if my tiles show me something new. Of course, sometimes what I'm dealt, and what I have at the end of the Charleston, is total dreck (garbage). I haven't a clue what direction to take. For instance, what would you do with this beginning deal:

                       2357 3568 12368 W  

No strongest suit; almost the same number of evens as odds. No Flowers, no pairs, no dragons, no jokers. I showed it to my friend Bobbi, who said, "My friend would say you have a dog from every village."  

It reminded me of a contest I ran a few years ago, for "the worst hand you can think of". Most of them resembled the one I showed, above. 

It occurred to me that I should try a new thought experiment about those worst hands. After all, even if you're dealt absolute garbage, there are 152 tiles in a set. There are 99 tiles still in the walls, and I get to pick as many as 25 of them...right? Maybe I'll suddenly collect great tiles, maybe a bad hand can be salvaged.

Most of you have seen how I sometimes keep statistics at tournaments: how many Flowers and Jokers I was dealt, what I thought I was playing at the end of the Charleston, what I ended up playing, how many Flowers and Jokers I had, and whether it won.

This time, since I'm limited to online games, I'm going to take a time series of screen shots: what I was dealt, what it looked like at the end of the Charleston, what I ended up playing, whether it won or even "walled". I want to see examples of all kinds of things: village dogs and hands I figure "can't miss," and everything in between. I'll be writing about a few of them next week, wish me luck!

As usual, if you have questions or comments, feel free to reach out to me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Enjoy the Spring weather!!

Bubbe 

 

 

 

Spring Renewal and Tile Talk

Holiday greetings and Spring salutations from your festive Bubbe on this multi-celebrational weekend!

Spring is a time for rebirth, for blossoming hope and the fertile growth of ideas. Certainly the new NMJL card itself gives fodder for innovative strategies, and sometimes fresh opportunities even come across our path...if only we're brave enough to try them!

Last month, I wrote an extremely fond recollection of Fern Bernstein. Since 2021, Fern had been the first person I would discuss the card with, on her podcast, "Mah Jongg Mondays." She was my trial audience, my sounding board for all of my crazy ideas and mnemonics. Sadly, Fern passed in September of 2025, and as the 2026 card debut approached, I was particularly missing my friend, wondering about how to cope with her absence. I decided that my article would to coincide with the first Monday after the new card came out, in her honor, but I definitely knew I would miss our give and take.

Fortunately, another dear friend, Johni Levine--founder of the "Mah Jongg, That's It!" Facebook group--had me in mind. She was contacted by a fledgling podcast, Tile Talk, created after Fern's passing, that was looking for a guest with whom they could discuss the new card! Johni asked if I would be willing, and passed my name and contact info on to its two co-hosts, Christina Nonni and Elizabeth Wallace. (Note: They always have a male mahj "civilian" in the studio with them, an engineer who sits in on the discussion and asks occasional questions, but the lineup has varied from session to session)

Christina and I had a great introductory phone chat. I was a little bit thrown off to hear that she wanted our recording to be on VIDEO as well as audio. Bubbe would have to brush her hair for this, whereas Fern and I recorded audio, only, sitting around in our pajamas... but I was still excited to connect with people who take the game as seriously as I do!

Through the miracle of technology I was able to record our interview from my house in New Jersey. Meanwhile, Christina and Elizabeth recorded from where they reside, in Northern Florida. I will hereafter refer to them as my Tile Talk Gals (TTG's).

The podcast was taped earlier this week, and I certainly had a great time. I hope you will take some time to listen to it (or even watch, as soon as I get the link up!!). The TTG's are younger than I am, and it gave me fresh perspective on a new generation of mah jongg players. They came up with some great, sometimes unconventional or unexpected, questions--and I look forward to talking with them again soon!

Give it a try, and check out their previous recordings, too. Let me know what you think about their podcast (including the special announcement at the end for Tile Talk listeners)... You can always reach me at bubbefischer@gmail.com 

 

Talk to you soon!!

 

Bubbe