Today’s mahjong session was with EP, KP and AW. For the first time ever since we started playing with KP and AW, I actually managed to maintain a good lead all the way, and EP had his first zero table point game since goodness knows when. I’m now only half a point away from EP in the overall ranking!
I had an extremely good start in the very first deal of the session. My initial deal consisted of two Green Dragons and two White Dragons, with some other suit tiles. I managed to pung the Green Dragon and drew the third White Dragon from the wall. In the meantime, the other players had already discarded two Red Dragons, and I hadn’t managed to draw any, so I gave up on the possibility of Big/Little Three Dragons. I finally managed to manoeuvre the rest of the suit tiles into terminal chows and had an outside hand waiting on one of the wind tiles, two thirds way into the hand.
I must have done something very good this week to deserve this kind of karma, because, my next draw was a Red Dragon. There was a good chance the fourth would be discarded, since there were already two discarded and I had only one exposed meld of Green Dragon. True enough, AW discarded the last Red Dragon a little later, thinking it was safe. So I had the Little Three Dragons in the bag.
During our hand analysis later, EP mentioned that they should probably have noticed that no White Dragons were discarded or exposed by that point, so the Red Dragon was probably still dangerous even though two had been discarded. But then, hindsight is always 100% correct, isn’t it?
I also asked EP if he was in my position, whether he would have konged the White Dragon if a chance presented itself. Probably not, since it would have alerted the rest regarding the Red Dragon. However, I thought that I would chance it if it were a concealed kong. I wonder what other players would have done.
I had luck with dragons today. Every other hand had a pair of one of the dragons in the initial deal. So I went with the flow and did a few half flush hands and all type hands. I also had luck with pung based hands today, and won a number of relatively large hands of mixed and pure shifted pungs.
I managed a three-kong hand today, the first in our group’s history (?). Although I felt like I had managed to win it by default. I had melded kongs of Green Dragon, 5B and 6B and had a pair of 3B and Red Dragons in my hand, waiting to go out on either. The game was drawing to a close and it was quite easy for the rest to deduce what I needed to go out from the melds and discards. However, AW was also sitting on a valuable hand of all terminals and honours and she still had a good chance on her waits. So she took a gamble and threw the 3B. KP grumbled a little since he had valiantly broken up his hand and kept all the bamboos and the remaining Red Dragon. EP also commented that it might have been strategically sounder for AW to have broken up her hand and gone for a draw.
KP managed another all honours and terminals later on in the session, that was almost Four Little Winds. He had the following hand, waiting for either the East Wind or Red Dragon to go out.
He then drew a North Wind, decided not to change his hand and discarded it. EP threw the East Wind later, since with North Wind discarded, the chances of KP winning a Four Big/Little Winds hand was minuscule.
Analysing his hand later, EP commented that he would have kept the North Wind and discarded the Red Dragon, then punged the East Wind later, discard the remaining Red Dragon and waited for North Wind to go out with Little Four Winds. KP felt that it was late in the game (we were maybe three-quarters way through) and he would rather not take any chances with his hand. With three winds exposed, it was doubtful if the rest of us would have given him the North Wind and he was not confident of a self draw. I must say that I would have done the same as KP did in this situation. I would love to hear the opinions of other players.
It was an eventful session, with many interesting hands being made. However, I felt that luck and a certain randomness factored very strongly in our session today. EP felt the same way. EP and I were playing no more differently than we usually do in our other sessions with KP and AW. Yet, contrary to past sessions, I had a smooth sailing game with good starting tiles and quite a number of self drawn wins today, while EP had to struggle with poor starting hands and poor draws, and did not manage to win a single hand.
Personally, I had always tried to downplay the luck element when I analyse our sessions, hands and my own playing strategy. I guess I had begun to think of the MCR variant as a purely strategy-based game, and forgot the built in random nature of the mahjong game itself, no matter which variant. However, it just hit me very strongly today that there are some things that cannot be attributed to anything but luck, that there are just good days, where every tile you draw happens to be the one you need; and bad days, where every tile you draw is twin to the one you just discarded. I guess I can cut myself some slack and not take it so personally when things don’t go well during future mahjong sessions; be a bit more fatalistic.
We ended the session after one full game and EP and I rushed down to the Ritz for our high tea. After the morning’s mental exercise, both of us luxuriated in the quiet and relaxing atmosphere of the Chihuly lounge, pigging out on hot tea and cucumber sandwiches in the true British way (although I never did manage the pinkie-sticking-out way of holding my teacup ^_^). There was a citrus theme going on and almost all the desserts offered had some citrus fruit as ingredient. I had intended to take some shots of our tea session and post it on the blog, but forgot to bring the camera, so there goes the pictures of the nice food.
We are having another mahjong session with AJ and WJ next weekend. Wonder what surprises will the next session bring?
4 comments:
Speaking objectively, KP's All Terminals and Honours hand was rather good, but it could have been better, depending on the luck of the draw. Whether or not to go for Big Four Winds depends on some internal considerations: desire to win, no matter the basic score; defence against other opponents; consideration of wind discards on the table and guessing of opponents' hands; tactical consideration of the running score.
Personally, I think the number of tiles left in the wall is not a major factor (note KP's Last Tile Claim win in another hand). There is always a chance, right to the end. If the missing tiles (NW, EW, RD) are not in anyone's hands, they are in the wall, and he has a good chance of drawing them. If not, his opponents have to hang onto them and play defensively. No one would win, but he does not lose out (unless he was far behind the rest in the running score).
Also note that KP did not know his fan well enough, so he did not even realise he had an All Terminals and Honours hand, thinking only that he had a Half Flush hand with (many) honour triplets. I believe this hinder his consideration that he could have gone for a bigger hand (and the NW in his hand is a good opportunity!).
I would have gone for Big Four Winds, since it is a higher-scoring fan, but I would have also considered my running score. If I am especially behind (like in today's game) or far ahead, trying to score a big hand would be worth it. If the scores are close, and time is of the essence, I might have gone for a cheaper but faster hand.
Hi, EP, thanks for the comments.
I guess this points towards another facet of our different playing styles. Personally I am kind of conservative in my play, not any kind of risk taker, rather like my character.
If KP's hand was one step towards being ready, meaning he only had to change one RD, I would definitely have gone for it in his place. Which is what I did with the Little Three Winds in my first deal.
However, he had two steps towards getting ready again if he decided to go for Little Four Winds, and against a two way wait for RD and EW, I would have taken the faster but smaller win. Unless he managed to self draw the EW and/or NW, it was highly unlikely that we would discard those dangerous wind tiles once he managed to make another wind meld. And in his table position at that time, it was probably more worth it to go for a smaller win than none at all.
Although, I have to agree that his not knowing the faans well enough hindered his decision making. After all, he had a potential hand worth over a hundred points in the making if he had only known.
I guess in this case, I can only say: To each his/her own.
True, true, each has their own playing style. How one plays this hand (all hands, I would say) depends on their style and character. In fact, I believe you might not even reach the stage of having three wind sets, unless you did start out with a good hand without having to hoard wind tiles like KP does.
Yet, to make a Four Winds fan deserves some extended consideration. Don't forget that Big/Little Four Winds requires one more set than Big/Little Three Dragons (I am sure you meant Dragons rather than Winds), and it is more difficult (thought worth the same 64 points), unless the starting hand is indeed very favourable. More likely than not, to achieve Big/Little Four Winds probably requires some melding, probably two or three melds, thereby arousing the notice (and perhaps defensiveness) of the other players.
If there is always this reluctance because of the fear that everyone will play defensively after seeing so many wind melds, no one would ever try making this fan unless their starting hand includes two or three concealed pungs of wind tiles! Of course, one could avoid making this fan since it is less viable than Three Dragons (for the same number of points, whether Big or Little).
As for KP's running score, winning with an All Terminals and Honours hand with Big Three Winds did help a little, although this win did not move him into a better placing (he remained in 3rd), and would have helped him even less if the win was as he scored (Half Flush plus various honour pungs). So, I would not use the argument that a small win is better than no win since he did not consciously consider this factor.
Here's an interesting dilemma: would you have held onto the NW? What would you think if you self-drew the NW again after discarding it?
Need you ask? ^_^ You know my playing style very well. I think I have already mentioned that I would have done as KP did.
As to what I would have done if I had drawn NW again, I guess I would just whine, since you do not allow us to spit on your mahjong tiles. ^_^
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