SLOPER ON MAH-JONGG

American Mah Jongg (2022 NMJL card). I just realized I forgot to write a column last week. Sorry about that! Today: defense exercises with hypothetical exposures of dragons and twos.

1. A dragon pung with a same-suit kong of twos. Nothing on the card matches. If someone puts up this combo, you can call'em dead.

2. A dragon kong with a same-suit pung of twos. Again, no such hand on the 2022 card.

3. A dragon kong with an opposite-suit pung of twos. This is Consec #4. The hot tiles are 1B 1D 2D. The ones are key tiles; if either is dead on the table, the player's hand is dead.

4. A dragon pung with an opposite-suit kong of twos. But instead of looking for DDD, look for 000. It's 2022 #2, and the hot tiles are 2C and 2B.

5. Pungs of same-suit dragons and twos. Again: no such hand. If the dragon was soap instead of red, that would be a valid 2022 #2.

6. Pungs of opposite-suit dragons and twos. No such hand, but again, if it was soaps instead: 2022 #2.

7. Kongs of same-suit dragons and twos. You guessed it: nowhere on the card.

8. Kongs of opposite-suit dragons and twos. Paydirt. Any Like Numbers #3. The hot tiles are 2B and F.

9. Quints of dragons and twos. It doesn't matter if they're same suit or opposite suits; that phrase "Any Dragon" in Quints #1 means it could work either way. The problem is, all winds are hot. You can scope out the discard floor; you may find clues there what might be safe to discard.

It seems silly to have so many dead combinations, but I think it's worthwhile to examine possible two-exposure combos in detail and see what can be learned thereby. When we did dragons and fives, two columns ago, there weren't so many dead hands. The problem with twos is their position near the front end of the 1-9 number line; twos come in pairs more often than in pungs or kongs. I don't plan to do this exercise with every number; as can be seen by these columns, some numbers are more interesting than others.

COMMENTS Email . Hit me with your best shot!

Join Johni Levene's popular Facebook group, "Mah Jongg, That's It!" and Donna and Dara's newer group, "Mahjong Community" for lively conversations about American mah-jongg and all things mah-jongg.

Where to order the yearly NMJL card: Read FAQ 7i.

Need rules for American mah-jongg? Tom Sloper's book, The Red Dragon & The West Wind, is the most comprehensive book about the American game, a good supplement to the League's official rulebook. AND see FAQ 19 for fine points of the American rules (and commonly misunderstood rules). AND every player should have a copy of Mah Jongg Made Easy, the official rulebook of the National Mah Jongg League (see FAQ 3 for info on mah-jongg books).

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