Thursday, June 26, 2003

Column #82

Chinese Official (CMCR). Wei-Hwa was Double West (west seat, west round), with a single W in his hand - but lots of craks.

What tile would you throw now, and why? (Answer at bottom.)

Samantha discarded 3C. If you were Wei-Hwa, would you take it? Well, he did. On his next turn he picked G and got rid of 4D. Soon he picked in another N and started getting rid of bams. A couple turns later, he picked 6C and got rid of the last bam. His hand was now clean.

His next pick was 2C, and he had a quandary as to which tile to throw: W, G, or 2C. He considered pros and cons of each.

W - None discarded yet. Someone could well be ready to pung it. He might pick one, or someone might throw it when he's ready.
G - One's been discarded. It's less likely that someone is collecting, but he has less chance of getting one.
2C - His hand is more valuable if it's all craks, but the pair of N indicates that's unlikely. 1C and 3C have both been discarded (one each) and he's already melded a 123 himself. Twos (and their antipodal siblings, eights) are awkward chow starters. But at least it's a likely discard he could pick up, if ready.

It was pretty much a three-sided coin toss. Going by his gut, he threw 2C. A couple turns later, he picked another and disgustedly threw it back. Immediately, Noriko threw 9C. "Pung!"

He discarded 7C. His next useful pick was G, and he threw W. Now he was waiting for N only (there were now two Gs on the discard floor). Samantha threw the N. Relieved, Wei-Hwa went out.

Answer: You might think he'd want to throw N, but with all those craks, he needs to save honors to target Clean. It's a little early to break up 45B, but 8B and 8D are definitely early throwers since they have less utility than numbers in the middle of the suit. 8B or 8D.

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Copyright 2003 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.