King and Queen Kong: Ambiguous Double Exposures

Greetings and salutations from your Bubbe, who’s been looking over the new card whenever I’m not chopping celery or polishing the silver…

If you read my previous article, you’d see my immediate enthusiasm for a few features of this year’s card. I like that the three Flowers aren’t a giveaway as to what hand you’re playing. I like that “knitted” hands are in three different places. I like that NEWS is back.

Another thing I love is the ambiguity. In my book, Searching for Bubbe Fischer, I encourage players to look at the card and critically assess which exposures won’t force them into a corner. It’s so important to have a backup plan, especially once they’ve made one (or more) exposures. 

Today I’m going to talk about double kong exposures. There are plenty of hands where you can make two kongs exposures and your opponents will STILL not be sure what you are playing. They will have a hard time deciding how to defend against two, three, or MORE hands….and best of all, even if your original target becomes unavailable (e.g. you don’t have a pair of Flowers), there’s generally an option that could be made with extra jokers.

Example:

You put out kongs of two consecutive numbers in the same suit, e.g. three- and four-craks. You could be playing

   111 222 3333 4444 or 111 222 3333 4444*

Or 

   FF 3333 4444 DDDD

Or

   FF 2222 3333 4444 or FF 3333 4444 5555

*Note: if you use ones and twos, or twos and threes, you will not be able to do this particular hand—otherwise, for any other exposure of two consecutive kongs in same suit, your hand could not be declared dead because you could be going for the top combination.

If you put out kongs of the same number in two suits, for instance 2222 and 2222, you could be playing

  FF 2018 2222 2222

Or

 FF 2222 DDDD 2222

Or

 FFF 2222 FFF 2222

You could claim that you were going to use Jokers to acquire enough Flowers, even if all the Flowers go out. It’s hard (but not impossible) for your hand to go dead.

Note that the above scenario also true of kongs of one’s and eight’s. If you put out kongs of threes, sixes, or nines, you could be playing a variation of

  FF 33 66 99 3333 3333

or either of the official Like Numbers hands, above.  Two different kongs of fours, fives, or sevens can only be one of those two Like Numbers hands.

Other fun ambiguous Double Kong exposures are with two kongs of the same suit, two numbers apart, e.g. one and three dot.

These could be part of:

                FF 1111 2222 3333

Or

                1111 222 3333 DDD

Or

 

                FF 1111 3333 5555**

**Note that every kong combination: 1 and 3, 3 and 5, 5 and 7, or 7 and 9 will be a variation on that 13579 hand, and there is an additional option for the 3 and 5 or 7 and 9; 2 and 4 or 4 and 6 will be part of the 2222 4444 6666 88 hand, and kongs of 6 and 8 will be part of 222 444 6666 8888. 

In this situation, even if ALL Flowers are discarded or used, you can still not be declared dead because of the “knit” hand scenario.

There are many other two-kong exposures that are ambiguous--look at the card and you'll find them in almost every section except Quints and Singles and Pairs!

I hope this little lesson will help you to think critically about backup plans and how the various hands can be switched, even after you’ve made one (or more) exposure(s)!

Back to the kitchen I go! Talk to you soon.

Bubbe Fischer

First impressions of the 2018 card

Greetings and salutations from your long lost Bubbe, who stepped away from simmering the brisket long enough to give you FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE NEW CARD!

Boy, oh boy, you’re gonna love it.

Off the top—the basic patterns this year are 22334 and 3344—that means ascending pairs, pungs, and kongs shows up in many places as does  AAA BBB CCCC DDDD. Also—big shock—the addition hand this year is “12,” in one or three suits, for 3-9, 4-8, and 5-7 combinations.

To be fair, however, this is an Agatha Christie card—full of twists and turns. Just when you think you understand the 3344 pattern, they’ve tricked you! The “knit hand” Consecutive Run hand (AAAA BBB CCCC DDD) is back—note that the “DDD” really DOES mean “dragon”—and note that it’s kongs on either side of the pung, with a pung of matching dragon. The fun surprise is that it shows up again in the 13579 section: 1111 333 5555 DDD or 5555 777 9999 DDD and in 369: 3333 666 9999 DDD! 

More new and interesting twists: THREE FLOWERS (a pung) is a thing again, but in a new and better way—it’s not just for Like Numbers anymore. Although the opposite Wind kongs/Flower pungs hand is gone, the Like Numbers hand (two Kongs of a number in different suits and two pungs of Flowers) still exists. In addition, a Flower pung (or two!) shows up unexpectedly in 2468, 13579, and 369. You won’t be able to tell from one exposure, what someone is playing, or even if they will need more Flowers!

Speaking of twists, turns, and Flowers: sometimes a kong of Dragons is accompanied by a pung of Flowers; sometimes by a pair of Flowers; sometimes by a kong of Flowers (well, only if it’s Soaps, in the 2018 section). 

Another thing that kind of blew me away, on first glance: there is a weird variation on Like Numbers in the 2018 section! You can make 2018 with two opposite suit kongs of ones, twos OR eights.

Singles and Pairs almost perfectly matches what I say in my lectures: each SP hand is basically a “mini” version of a different section of the card. There’s a Consecutive Run SP hand, a 2468, a 13579, a 369—you’ll see. Nothing earth-shattering in that section, and in fact, the 60 cent hand is back, to many people’s chagrin. We want the big payout!

Other big payouts (the Quint section)—kind of meh, this year, to be honest. I wasn’t blown away by any of them. The hand that I love—Quints of Winds and any number tile, plus a kong of dragons, is back. The other three hands aren’t that special, in my opinion.

As for old favorites:

NEWS is back, for those who have missed it—it’s in the closed 2018 hand, as well as a Winds/Dragons hand. An interesting point about that Winds/Dragon hand: it’s the only one on the card that uses TWO DRAGON KONGS.

The Consecutive Run “old reliable” Kong/Dragon hand is back with a variation: only two Flowers, with kongs of consecutive numbers and matching dragon. There’s a fun twist: you can also just do kongs of three consecutive numbers, and skip the dragons! That’s basically a single-suit version of the junk hand (three consecutive kongs in different suits), which also is back.

As for “illegal” exposures: the only “typical” exposures that do not exist on this card are pungs of 9’s and Winds. All single Kongs are legal, as are quints of any Wind or numbered tile.  

I will certainly write more, going forward, about ambiguous exposures and tricky variations on hands, but wanted to give you some quick feedback.

Enjoy your holiday weekend. The card’s coming, but you’ve got the inside scoop. If you want to send me your impressions when you get YOUR card, email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon!

Bubbe

Wild About Harry

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, fresh from a Thanksgiving cruise!

I got to spend time with loved ones--three generations! One of the highlights of our trip was stopping in Key West, Florida, where we got to see the "Little White House" where President Truman spent several weeks in the Winters during his years as President.

My favorite room was the game room--of course--and Truman's friends created a lovely poker table for him. Although he and his buddies (usually Cabinet members, Generals, and Supreme Court Justices) played for chips valued as pennies, nickels, and dimes, they still kept their holdings secret. Look at the chip racks built into the table--no one knew how much the others had!

No doubt, between the end of World War II and the Korean War, Truman had many stressful days and nights. It was important for him to be able to blow off steam and refocus his energies. He wasn't really a golfer or fisherman; poker was his game, and he played almost every evening.

I wonder if Bess liked mah jongg?

Hope you enjoyed spending time with YOUR family. Drop me a line at bubbefischer@gmail.com and let me know how your game is going. If you have a friend that needs a little boost in strategy, don't forget that Bubbe's book make a great holiday gift--and if you or your friends want the distraction of a mah jongg rom com, there's always Small World and Take Two!

Talk to you soon!

Bubbe Fischer

Regarding the Old Reliable

Greetings and salutations from your Bubbe, hot off a successful afternoon at the mahj table!

At my regular weekly game, one of the players commented that her winning hand was fairly ordinary, "just" the Consecutive Run hand of 111 2222 333 4444. We reminded her that she won, after all--isn't that exciting enough?!


It reminded me of an article I ran a few years ago. I've updated it for you. I still think it's an essential pieces of mah jongg wisdom, namely, the topic of the "Old Reliable."

The Old Reliables are actually two related types of hands:

The first are made up of two pungs (three of a kind) and two kongs (four of a kind), in the form of AAA BBB CCCC DDDD or AAA BBBB CCC DDDD.  This year they seem to follow more of the latter style. 

The second type include two quints (five of a kind) and a kong: AAAAA BBBB CCCCC. 

I am going to lump together the quint-kong hands with the pung-kong hands, and name all of them “3-4” for short. They are very important and useful hands.

So what’s so special about a 3-4 hand? 

·         First of all, on every card I’ve ever seen, it’s always an “open” hand. You can call for exposures. No waiting in agony while every one of the tiles you need is discarded by other players. 

·         Second, it has no pairs. You won’t be praying for that elusive matching tile to make your hand work. You won’t have to change your game plan when the third one is thrown out. You can always use a joker to complete any grouping.

·        Third, related to above—you can have as many exposures as you want, and not be called dead. Because there are no unattainable pairs, there is no basis for another player to call you dead—jokers save the day!

In sum, the 3-4 is the workhorse of hands. There are all sorts of options available to you: pick specific tiles, pick jokers, pick tiles to trade for jokers, call for tiles that are thrown. The payoff on a true 3-4 (not a Quint) is generally 25 cents—not big money—but it is a good, steady, reliable hand to play. 

Every year, when you get your new card, I recommend that you identify and familiarize yourself with all of the 3-4 hands on it. You’ll find them in almost every section of the card—except Singles and Pairs, of course!

Since these hands appear all over this year's card (222 0000 111 7777; 222 4444 666 8888; FFF 1111 FFF 1111; 111 2222 333 4444, etc., etc.) they get played often, and are the hands that make up a significant percent of wins. I'm going to a tournament this weekend, and I think I'll actually do stats: how many times do I play them, and how many times are they the winning hand?

If you have any questions or comments, you can email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com . I always love hearing from you.

Talk to you soon.

Bubbe Fischer