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WEEKLY MAHJONG

By Tom Sloper (湯姆)

October 1, The Year Of The Dog
Column #286

Chinese Official Tournament Rules. The 4th China Majiang Championship and Forum is just around the corner! In preparation, herewith some waiting/scoring exercises.

How would you score a hand with four kongs, three of them concealed?

Let's say your final pair is 6D, and you'd won on a 6D discard. See answer #1, below.

Here's one from Danish player Henrik Leth. One of Henrik's opponents at the German Open had a concealed hand and declared hu on a self-picked 1B.

How is this scored? See answer #2, below. What other tiles could have completed the hand, and how would the hand have scored by self-picking those other tiles? See answer #3.

1. Four Kongs (88), Three Concealed Pungs (16). Add two Pung Of Terminals Or Honors (1+1). 106 points. The tricky thing is that kongs can count as pungs in some circumstances. In this case, three of the kongs being concealed earns Three Concealed Pungs (there not being a specific fan for "three concealed kongs"). If you had two concealed kongs, you'd add 8 points to your 88. If just one of your four kongs was concealed, you'd add 2. Self-pick is implied.

2. Full Flush (24), Pure Straight (16), Fully Concealed (4), All Chows (2), Pure Double Chow (1). 47 points. You might argue that it could earn Two Terminal Chows (swappable for the Pure Double Chow, since you couldn't claim both) - but it might be argued that Pure Straight implies Two Terminal Chows. Self-pick is implied.

3. Pure hands can be very complicated to sort out in your mind. So many possible combinations! In this case, the other possible winning tiles are 2B, 4B, 5B, 7B. Self-pick is implied since it's Fully Concealed.

 2B - Full Flush (24), Fully Concealed (4), Two Terminal Chows (1). 29 points.

 4B - Full Flush (24), Fully Concealed (4), All Chows (2), Short Straight (1), Two Terminal Chows (1). 32 points.

 5B - Full Flush (24), Fully Concealed (4), Two Terminal Chows (1). 29 points.

 7B - Full Flush (24), Fully Concealed (4), All Chows (2), Short Straight (1), Two Terminal Chows (1). 32 points.

Henrik's opponent won on the best possible tile, because from among the 5 possible winning tiles, only 1B gives you a Pure Straight. Try as you might, you can't use 3B, 6B, 8B, or 9B to complete the hand.

麻雀

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© 2006 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.