MAHJONG SESSION 08-12-2007 - AN ODE TO KNITTED HANDS

We finally managed to get enough people for a game last Saturday after our almost one month “sabbatical”. AJ managed to join SJ, EP and I for the game after being MIA for almost a month.

We had a pretty interesting game. For once, there were a lot less chow hands attempted or made during the entire two games that we had, and that applied to all four of us. I must have made the record “All Pungs” attempts in my entire mahjong career. For someone who dislikes pung based hands as much as I, it wasn’t exactly a very comfortable experience, but I didn’t do too badly, walking away with 6 table points after the two games (Actually what felt good was getting more table points than EP).

SJ won her first ever knitted hand in the first game, and I also managed another knitted hand win in the same game. The knitted hands always seem to both fascinate and intimidate beginners. Personally, I love them, and I think I hold the record for making the most knitted hand wins in the group. I like to think that I have inspired some of the others to try knitted hands too, when they see it is not all that difficult to achieve.

Knitted hands depend a lot on starting tiles. I never commit to knitted hands unless there are at least 10 tiles in the starting hand that contribute towards the combination, and at least half of them should be singular honor tiles. If there are more than 5 singular honour tiles in the starting hand, I may commit with just 9 suitable tiles in the starting hand.

Reasons to love knitted hands:

1) No decision making. Once committed, it is a straight road ahead. Draw, discard or keep until the hand is complete. For someone who HATES decision making, building knitted hands is a stress free process.
2) High flexibility. Since the knitted part of the hand need not be entirely complete to go out, there is greater flexibility for building the hand.
3) Multiple waits. If the hand is built fast enough, one can expect at least two or three tiles to wait for. Sometimes, even four. No need to lament death of crucial tiles and a higher chance for self draw.
4) Value for effort. At 12 points minimum and up to 28 points max (eg. Greater Honours Knitted Tiles + Fully Concealed Hand), the knitted hand is extremely worthwhile to attempt for its flexibility in building and waiting. This is especially so considering the starting tiles are mostly so disjointed that it would be difficult to build anything else out of them.
5) Defense value, both ways. Since knitted hands are always concealed (for knitted straights, the knitted portion is always concealed), and there can be a variety of combinations, it is hard for other players to defend against you. Likewise, a concealed hand offers better defense for the player if other players do make dangerous exposures or near the end of the game. With thirteen tiles to choose from, it will be hard NOT to find a safe discard.

I need to clarify here that I refer mainly to Lesser/Greater Honours Knitted Tiles, hence the stipulation for the singular honours in the starting hand. I never attempt Knitted Straight just by itself, unless it happens to combine with Lesser Honours. In my opinion, since there are more suit tiles to build on and less singular honour tiles to get rid of, it will easier to develop “pure” Knitted Straight hands towards the more regular chow based hands, which are perhaps worth more and definitely easier to build. Knitted Straights without Lesser Honours also have much less flexibility when it comes to getting ready and going out, since the knitted part of the hand needs to be complete.

The one thing to note about making knitted hands is that there is no turning back. I learnt that there is no such thing as keeping options open for a round or two when it comes to knitted hands. Since the tiles required to build knitted hands and those for other chow or pung based hands appear to be mutually exclusive, changing between them will guarantee plenty of “If only I had kept that tile” laments throughout the entire game. Knitted hands need to be committed to right at the start and players attempting them need to stick with them right to the bitter end. The only other hand that may co-exist with knitted hands, and only for a little while at that, is Thirteen Orphans.

It looks like this post has turned into an ode to Knitted Hands rather than the hands analysis that I had intended. Oh well, more for the next post then.