Tuesday, May 12, 2003
Column #38
American (2003 NMJL card). "I want to stop the Charleston." Nora's words were greeted with disbelief.
"Must be nice to have a dream hand."
"What, do you have all eight jokers or something? ...That would explain this!"
"We've only just now gotten our tiles! You can't stop it until after the first left."
Nora sighed. "I know. But you should see this."
Esther quipped, "Sure!" And started to crane her neck.
Nora hid her tiles with her hands. "Kidding! Just kidding!"
Nora had two hands. Like Numbers with dragons, and F19D (13579 #4). To preserve both options, Nora had only two tiles to pass. Both hands could go multiple ways. Picking a tile to pass meant giving up on at least one of those ways. She counted.
She now knew what was her best option - but it was a concealed hand, darn it.
She knew she needed to keep all the ones. Which left one solitary nine (9B) to add to the sixes to pass right.
After the 1st right she had another 1C.
She'd have to break up the pair of 9D.
"Go slow, ladies. ...And gentleman"
"I want to stop the Charleston."
Sophia sighed and asked, "How many?"
Nora offered two. 6B and a 1C (she only needed three). Will she win? Tune in on Friday to find out...
Click the entries in the header frame, above, to read other columns.
Copyright 2003 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.