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WEEKLY MAH-JONGG
By Tom Sloper

September 12, 2004

Column #179

Japanese Modern (riichi/dora).

1.
East round, west seat. Dora indicator: 5P. What's your first discard?

2.
Two turns later, S has punged ao (G) and discarded 7P. Take it?

3.
Four turns later, S discards 7P again. Pass again?

4.
Different hand. A player's 4th discard is 1P. Take it?

5.
One turn later (hand unchanged). Player discards 3M. Pass?

6.
Two turns later. Player at your left discards 2P. Chow it?

7.
Two turns later, it appears that the mah-jongg gods were misunderstood previously. Discard what now?

8.
A few turns later; the gods are having fun with you.

1. Throw pei (N). It's not worth a fan even if you pick two more.
2. Tempting. You'll probably want to make a simple-chows hand, but you have several terminals. Give it more time.
3. OK, it's getting well along, and you have gotten rid of those pesky terminals. Go ahead. Hopefully this isn't "better late than never."
4. Although it's early, your hand is at a cusp. You might want to do all pungs or you might want to do all pairs. Both are hard to make. Give it a little more time - two more turns - before committing to anything. Pass.
5. The mah-jongg gods seem to be trying to tell you something. Maybe you should listen.
6. You definitely do not want to mix up pungs and chows without a clear yaku in mind. If you chow now, you have to discard four terminals.
7. 3S. And pung anything you can.
8. There's no question #8. What are you looking here for? (^_^) Throw the 1M and hope for 4P or 9M.


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© 2004 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.