MAH-JONGG
By Tom Sloper

COLUMN 016

April 21, 2003

Chinese Official rules (CMCR). Edgar started with more than his fair share of pairs (not to mention flowers).

Deciding it either was going to be All Pungs or Seven Pairs (the latter preferable), Edgar started off by throwing a lone suit tile, 2C.

Wouldn't you know it, within the first turn, he had to make a snap decision. Wei-Hwa had thrown 8B. Edgar decided it was too early to decide (thus effectively making a momentous decision already).

Immediately after that, Noriko threw 6C. Edgar decided to stick with his decision not to decide yet, and picked 8C. Whew! Out went 9C.

Shortly after, Edgar's plan came into question as he picked 7D.

Thinking fast, Edgar decided to stay his ground with the honors, and threw the 7D. Sung picked it up for a chow. An E went out, and then another. Edgar picked 8D and thought mightily hard about throwing his E, but decided to hang onto it just a while longer. Out the 8D went.

About halfway through the wall, Edgar had a 4th flower and picked a third 8C. Seven Pairs wasn't working, he decided, and the E was history. Then he punged 8B and had to decide between 6D and Wh; both were raw. He needed the points, so he threw 6D. Soon he konged 8C and punged 4D. With trepidation, he put the White out, and nobody bit. Now, he figured, he had to self-pick to make his 8 points.

He picked 9B and said "Woo." As he was adding, he got as far as eight, and was about to go to the flowers. Noriko nicely pointed out that he also had Double Pung, Terminal Pung, and No Honors, for four more. With the four flowers, it totaled 16. Everybody paid him 24, much to his delight.

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