Please click here if you do not see a Nav Frame at left and Header Frame above - you'll need them!
October 3, 2004
Column #182
Japanese Modern (riichi/dora). Etsuko's deal:
There's one obvious first discard. What is it? (See answer #1 below.) Next, she picked 2S and threw it back. Noriko threw 7S. Should Etsuko take it? (See answer #2 below.) Her next turn she picked 3P and threw the other terminal. Now her hand had nothing but simples.
Noriko's next discard was 1P - Etsuko didn't call it. She picked and discarded R. Watanabe threw 4M (dora). Shigeru punged E from Noriko. Watanabe threw 5P. Should Etsuko pung it? (See answer #3 below.) Watanabe declared riichi with 4S. Etsuko's next pick was 4M (dora). Here are Watanabe's visible discards:
And here are Etsuko's tiles:
What should she discard now? (See answer #4 below.) Watanabe threw 6M. "Ron!" It was a fairly cheap 2-fan hand. Tanyao, dora ichi. 2900 plus the riichi chip (3900 from Watanabe only).
Etsuko kept the deal. Her next hand:
What should she do with this? (See answer #5, below.) Subsequently, she picked 8S, discarded S, then got W (now she had two). What should she discard? (See answer #6.)
1. 9S. It's a sore thumb - completely disconnected.
2. It seems a little early, to go chowing on the 2nd go-round. But the hand is strong. Go for it. Discard 9M or 9P (tanyao).
3. Sure. Discard 8P, and you have a one-way call for 6M. You can always change the call depending on what you pick (you might even get dora, who knows).
4. Throwing 7M both gives you a two-way call and is probably safe (based on the 1-4-7 principle).
5. She'll need a riichi hand with all that junk. Throw any wind.
6. 1M, 4M are the sore thumbs. Off to a good start! And I'm out of space. See you next week!
Click the entries in the header frame, above, to read other columns.
Question about this column? See an error? Let us know about it on the Mah-Jongg Q&A Bulletin Board.
Links about Japanese-style mah-jongg:
© 2004 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.