Unconventional Thinking

Greetings and salutations from your impatient Bubbe—three months into the new card, and already itching for something new!

 

Nobody loves figuring out the new NMJL card more than I do. You've seen the many articles that I rush out as soon as the new card comes, trying to make sense of each section, the patterns and how they interact, trying to find the "keys.”

 

And if you've ever seen my lecture on the psychological benefits of mah jongg, you know that one of the things I love the most about this game is that it changes every year. Our brains are stimulated and we're challenged to learn new patterns, forget old ones, and reorient ourselves on defense.

 

I just feel like maybe—after all these years—the traditional National Mah Jongg League patterns have gotten a little bit stale and predictable, often alternating between the same two, three, or maybe four types of patterns. With all due respect to the various independent cards that have been created: the NMJL card has a built-in audience of hundreds of thousands of players. 

 

Maybe, some day, the League will be looking for new ideas, and perhaps they would hear me out. If you've got connections with the League, feel free to forward this article to them!

 

 

There are certain conventions that NMJL has followed for at least the 19 cards I have known. MOST fundamentally, Green dragons go with bams, Red dragons go with craks, and White dragons go with dots. This is canon.

 

In addition, in the Winds and Dragons section, East is paired with West, Even numbers and Green dragons, and North and South go with Odd numbers and Red dragons.

 

 

Bubbe would never presume to change these conventions with her new ideas. However...

 

1) ORDER

 

We have seen that as the numbers increase, the melds (sets of numbers) go from "smaller" to "bigger," as well--or perhaps they make a bell-shaped curve, small on either end with a large middle.

 

Let me present this a different way for those of you who are more visual learners. Here is a hand where the melds increase in size:

 

11 22 333 444 5555

 

Here is a bell-shaped curve, where the melds are the smallest on both ends and largest in the middle:

 

11 222 3333 444 55

 

 

Likewise, we often see one of two "34" combinations, 3434 or 3344:

 

111 2222 333 4444

or

111 222 3333 4444

 

where the lowest number is always among the smallest melds, and the highest number is represented as the largest meld.

 

This year's card has some of the most egregious examples of "lowest to highest":

 

1 22 333 4444 DDDD

 

11 222 3333 FFFFF

 

In both cases, as the numbers increase, the size of the melds increases.

 

 

If Bubbe got a chance to break tradition, she might propose hands like these:

 

Consecutive Runs of four pungs, with a dip via a pair in the middle:

 

111 222 33 444 555

 

with companion hands

555 666 77 888 999

111 333 55 777 999

 

 

How about hands that START with large melds and decrease in size?

 

1111 222 333 44 55

5555 666 777 88 99

 

 

1111 2222 333 444

or

1111 222 3333 444

 

(Note: We DO sometimes do see this in 2222 4444 6666 88)

 

 

 

2) NUMBERS THEMSELVES

 

Taking the face value of the numbers literally, Bubbe recalls a quint hand that appeared like this:

 

22 333 4444 55555

 

and would like to suggest a 2468 hand as follows:

 

22 4444 666 666 88

 

 

3) MIX UP THE COLORS!!

 

Per the above example, there are many ways that two- and three-suited hands could be incorporated more creatively. The "knitted" or weaved suits, where melds alternate between two different suits, don't appear enough.

 

Addition/multiplication hands could also be used more frequently as well, in their one- and three-suited combinations.

 

 

What do you think? Is it time for the League to mix it up a little more, start thinking outside the box? Let me know at Bubbefischer@gmail.com

 

Talk to you soon!

 

Bubbe Fischer

 

No Surprises!!

 

Greetings and salutations from your scientific Bubbe, who ran an experiment despite being VERY confident of the outcome.

 

If you remember, a few weeks ago I asked for people to give me their worst possible hands. Unfortunately, I only got two participants. On that count, I am surprised and slightly disappointed that no one else wanted to play.

 

Be that as it may, I assure you that both entrants’ hands were awful. Just really crummy ways to start. One had a Flower, the other had none; neither had Jokers. One had three different Dragons, but not a lot to build on.

 

B’s was:

 2568149D3678E

while H’s was:

F149D27D38DNE

 

Because there were so few entrants, I decided to submit one of my own as well:

137847D2569NW

 

I figured that I could set up a “Charleston Solitaire” where the three crummy hands would play against one completely random "East" player, "Rhonda." In Charleston Solitaire, the key is to have no vested interest in the success of any specific rack, but to maximize each one’s potential. After the Charleston, I would play out the entire match if I had time.

 

Now if you stop and think about it for a minute, and recognize that we've already removed tiles for three crummy hands from the total of 152 tiles, you'll realize that Rhonda’s hand would already have an incredible advantage. We've only removed one Flower from the pool, and no Jokers. In other words, Rhonda had a much better chance of getting more Flowers and Jokers than even in a "normal" deal. I've often reminded players that, on average, any hand will get 2/3 of a Joker and 2/3 of a Flower in each deal, which is to say that sometimes they'll get several and sometimes they'll get none, but in the course of the day, the averages will work out. I’ve tested this out, several different times, over 48 game tournaments—it works, trust me.

 

Well, as we know, there was only one Flower in the first three players’ hands, and there were no Jokers. Based on the averages cited above, we might expect 8/3 of a Joker, and 5/3 of a Flower, for Rhonda--or, rather, two or three Jokers and one or two Flowers.

 

Lo and behold, these were Rhonda's starting tiles:

 

FF2357788NSJJJ

 

That's a pretty nice hand to be dealt!! I guess the most obvious thing would be to go for Consecutive Runs hand #5

 

FF 1111 2222 3333

 

and hope that the 6 dots or 9 dots came: Rhonda already has nine of the necessary tiles just from the deal. Other options might be the Quint #1 hand

 

                   FFFFF 1111 WWWWW

 

with either 7 or 8 dots, Flowers, and one of the Winds, depending on which comes in stronger during the Charleston. It might also be possible to go for Consecutive Run Hand #2

 

                   111 2222 333 4444

 

with 5 and 6 bam, 7 and 8 dot, but it seemed a shame to waste that pair of Flowers.

 

I began playing Charleston Solitaire. I decided to focus on the Winds and Dragons section for H (it began with five); 369 for B (it had four in different suits); and hold onto number tiles on the low end for my hand (I began with five)—either for Like Numbers or Consecutive Runs. For “Rhonda,” I focused on the first Consecutive Runs hands above, trying to build up as many high-number dots as possible.

 

In fact, Rhonda got a third 8 dot but was forced to pass it on her second across. I figured if that 8 dot was going around, she had a chance of getting it back in the Charleston or at least calling it for an exposure. She then got an 8 dot back from H. For her last right she stole a tile for a blind pass and only passed two for the optional across.

 

Here is where we stood at the end of the Charleston:

 

B:

68944779D3366     

or, set up more nicely, 

3366699 84477D

H:

 

FD122DNNNEEWS

 

Me:

 

112334557DD58

 

Rhonda:

 

FF287778889JJJ

 

The real question wasn't "would Rhonda win," but "how quickly?"

 

“We” began with Rhonda discarding the 2 bam. The hands started to shape up. H’s second 2 crak came in and it looked like it was heading for the closed 2021 hand:

 

                                      NNN EE 2021 WW SSS

 

B’s hand was progressing slowly toward

 

333 6666 666 9999

 

but it's hard without Jokers. My Consecutive Run #1 hand in bams was fairly healthy, with the pairs on both ends, but again without Jokers, there's no flexibility to call for exposures.

 

Literally on the 14th tile, Rhonda picked up the victory. Not a surprise, when your three opponents have lousy tiles and you're allowed to select from the remaining pool. In a completely randomized draw, I'm not sure that Rhonda would have been exactly that lucky, but it did stand to reason that she would have a nicer hand than the other three.

 

I can't say which of our three loser hands was “best.” They all made sense in their own way but none of them was close to complete. I suppose by the objective measure of how many tiles they had towards mah jongg, B's had 7 (and switched to craks on the upper end!):

69466779D3366

or

3366669 69477D

Mine still had 8:

112334557DD58

 

and H had 11...but it was on a concealed hand that would need a second natural West:

 

NNNEE 2021 WS FD

 

Congratulations to both B and H for participating….I’m going to say it was a tie for worst!

 

 

Have any questions about the new card? Just want to chat? I’m always happy to hear from you, email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon!

 

Bubbe Fischer