Ambiguous Exposures

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, who has been tied up with chores over the past few days. Lately I have had a lot more dishes to wash...funny how that happens.

I wanted to follow up on the Quiz I ran last week. I had asked, "Try and find these two exposures in at least one hand on the card".

7777 888 appears only once, in the 4th Consecutive Run hand ("CR4").

444 5555 could be CR 1, CR 4, or CR 6!

222 3333 would be CR 3

3333 3333 could be LN1, LN 2, or the second hand in 369 

5555 7777 could be CR 2 (b) or 13579 2 (b) hand

555 777 was a trick question--it doesn't appear on the 2020 card!!

Christine Blackford emailed me her answers, she got 100% on the little quiz--nice going, Christine!

This fits in with one of my favorite topics, Ambiguous Exposures. If you got to hear me on Fern Bernstein's podcast, you heard me talk about Ambiguous Exposures a lot. What I mean is that sometimes one, two (or even three!) exposures could refer to two (or more) hands. 

The concept is a little different than having a backup hand. I'll discuss that in more detail in a future article. Ambiguous exposures could be used defensively: recognizing what possibilities your opponent might be playing, based on their exposures. You can also use ambiguous exposures to your own advantage, if opponents don't know what you are playing. For instance, if the tiles you need for your original hand are no longer available, you may still have a second (or third) hand to point to, if anyone questions whether your hand is dead.

One example I used in the podcast was based on the LN #1 and #2 hands: each includes two kongs of the same number. No one would know from exposing kongs of, say, 7 bams and 7 craks, whether you were going to need that third kong (four 7 dots) or pairs of the green and red dragons. There are additional potential ambiguities, based on the number exposed: if there are two kongs of 2's, you might also be playing the first 2020 hand. If there are two kongs of 3's, you might be playing the second hand in 369.

Another example I used was based on the fifth "quiz" question, above. There is an interesting feature of the second, tri-suited version of CR2, with two kongs of different suits in two "skipped" consecutive numbers, e.g. kong of 1 crak and kong of 3 bam, with a kong of Flowers and a pair of 2 dots in the middle. This year's card has tri-suited "multiplication" hands in the Even (2468) and Odd (13579) sections, and there's ambiguity with all THREE exposures compared with CR2(b): four Flowers and then kongs of 4 and 6 in different suits; 6 and 8 in different suits; 3 and 5 in different suits; and 5 and 7 in different suits. The last two tiles could be "24," "48," "15," and "35," respectively, in the third suit...OR they could be the middle "pair" (55, 77, 44, or 66) in the third suit.

A third example was how both the first and fourth 369 hands involve a pung of 6s in one suit and a kong of 9s in a second suit.

The advantage with each of these "ambiguous hands" is that you avoid being called dead. In the Like Numbers example, if three dragons go out in one of the suits you need, you can avoid being called dead because it's possible that you are going for the third like numbered kong. In the CR2(b)/ multiplication example, if the pair in the middle is no longer available, you can try for the "product" numbers, or vice versa. The 369 example is even better, because if you were going for hand #4, involving two pairs of 3's but they were unavailable, you can say you were going for the non-pairs 369 hand (369 #1)--and that hand NEVER goes dead!

Try looking the card over and seeing if there are other examples, I'm sure you'll find some!

I always enjoy hearing from you--feel free to contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

 

Talk to you soon!

Bubbe Fischer

Bubbe Speaks!!

Greetings and salutations from your loquacious Bubbe!

Sure, you've been reading my words of wisdom all these weeks, or months, or maybe some of you have been following me for years. But finally….Bubbe speaks!

My friend Fern Bernstein has a podcast that started from her book, Mah Jongg Mondays. She invited me to come on and talk about the new card, specifically picking one hand per section to discuss. Frankly, I am amazed she got me to STOP talking.

Some of my friends say that reading my books is like listening to me talk, that I basically write exactly as I speak. Now you'll get to hear for real, that yes, this is how I talk. I could wax rhapsodic about mah jongg all day long. So if you've got 45 minutes or so, click on the link below and give it a listen. You will hear me citing some of my most famous Bubbe-isms, and you might pick up a few new things as well:

Mah Jongg Mondays Podcast

As always, if you have any comments or questions, you can email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com

Talk to you soon!

Bubbe Fischer

PS: Fern has asked me to come back for another podcast, and if you have a particularly good question, I may include it as part of the Q&A in that show.

Legally Mahj

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, whose little gerbil mind is running on the wheel again today!

One of the other columns I write for each new card, in an effort to be helpful, is identify illegal exposures for "exposed"/open hands. I recommend that you become familiar with them so that you won't make a mistake and have your hand called dead.

There's an ongoing controversy about this. Some mahj players feel that it's "rude" to call another player's hand dead. I don't think anybody needs to take it so personally. There's no way a person can win if their hand is dead, and the other players will now be able to see 33% more tiles. On the other hand, there are certain times when it might be to your advantage NOT to call another player's hand dead, because your hand is terrible and you want to restrict the number of picks that everyone else at the table gets. Long story. Back to the new card…

Single exposures in 2020, YAY or NAY?

●       PUNGS: an exposure of three Flowers, dragons, North, or South is illegal. A pung of East, West, or any number is legal.

●       KONGS: ANY exposure is legal.

●       QUINTS: an exposure of five Winds or dragons is illegal. A quint of any number or Flowers is legal.

Second exposures:

●       A quint of Flowers could be joined by a kong of dragons, or a pung, kong or quint of a number. No Winds.

●       A kong of Flowers could be joined by a kong of any number, or a pung of any number EXCEPT 9's. No dragons or Winds

●       A kong of dragons may be joined by a quint of Flowers or any number; a second kong of dragons or a kong of any number; or a pung of East, West, or any number.

And by the way....

●       A kong of North will have a matching kong of South (same with East and West).

●       A pung of East will have a matching pung of West.

Exposing numbers gets a little more complicated. Rather than explain each legal and illegal combination, I will just remind you to review the card closely. As a quick quiz, try and find these two exposures in at least one hand on the card:

7777 888

444 5555

222 3333

3333 3333

5555 7777

555 777

If you have any questions or comments, you can email me at bubbefischer@gmail.com . I am always happy to hear from you!

One such correspondent earned a special shout-out. Azimeh Roshan pointed out an error in the description of the third Singles and Pairs hand: it should say any TWO consecutive pairs. Great job!

I know I'll talk to you all VERY soon.

Bubbe Fischer

2020--What's OLD?

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, on this sunny last Thursday in March.

It seems like people are enjoying yesterday'sarticle, whether they have the new card or not. There are a few who are grumbling not to be told anything until they receive theirs, but it's a free world and they're welcome to ignore my comments for eternity, let alone until they have the card for context. 

For those of you who DO have the card, or are curious, or are tired of feeling so isolated, I think I'm going to start writing every day. Keeps my mind busy, and hopefully it gives you a little bit of a distraction from epidemiology statistics and fears of going out. Stay home: what could be safer than reading about mah jongg?

So today I have to correct myself. I originally said that 30 to 40% of the hands are the same. Boy, was I wrong! I compared the 2019 card to the new card, just to have a really clear picture. I was surprised to find that there are only six hands that are absolutely identical to last year's card: under 10%!  Obviously there are some that are slight variations on the old ones, but I'm not going to count those for now.

So what's "old" that remains on the card?

Well, obviously all of the 2020 hands are brand new, so they're immediately ruled out!

There are two hands in the 2468 section that remained the same. Last year's third hand--kongs of twos, fours, and sixes, and a pair of eights, all in the same suit--appears again this year. Also that interesting bell-shaped hand: pairs of twos and eights, pungs of four and six, and a kong of dragons, all on the same suit, is still on this year's card.

The first Like Numbers hand is also the same. That's not a surprise. When you're talking about like numbers, it's the definitive hand: a pair of Flowers and kongs of the same number in all three suits. As simple as can be.

This year's Quints are different from last year's in interesting ways.  Even my favorite junk hand is not how it used to be.

Consecutive Runs? NONE. Not one of the hands is the same as last year's. It's going to take people a while to get used to this. Many of us are going to make illegal exposures until we get used to doing it right. That's part of why I do these articles, to get you to think about the new hands and  learn not to make obvious mistakes.

None of the 13579 hands are the same, either. I give them a lot of credit, the people who designed the card this year were creative and I think we're all going to benefit from that.

For the Winds and Dragons hands, they varied last year's patterns such that all of the open hands are different. The only one that is identical from 2019 is the closed/concealed hand, with a pair of Flowers and pungs of each wind.

In the 369 section, they kept the most basic pair of hands: two Flowers and then kongs of three, six, and nine, either all in one suit or representing all three suits. Because there were so few that carried over from last year, I'm going to count those as two hands.

Finally, it was to be expected that the big Singles and Pairs hand changed, but every hand in that section is different. Reminiscent, but different.

I think we all need to look at this card closely for the first month or two. Old habits die hard, and if we don't pay close attention, we're bound to make some mistakes!

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com, I love hearing from you!

Talk to you soon. Probably very soon.

Bubbe Fischer