February 2, 2007
Gemma's Journal #5
Hey again everyone!
Thank you everyone for commenting on my last entry! That was fantastic! It's great to have everyone discussing and sharing their views, especially for a beginner like myself - getting advice from you all is going to be great way for me to learn. I'm going to do something similar again for this one, so if you're already more than familiar with the rules of Mahjong skip to the bottom!
If we've all grasped the concept of Bump then this next one isn't going to prove a problem at all.
What if you have four of a kind in your hand? Apart from being quite excited, what should you do? This is where we can shout Quad! It's almost exactly the same as Bump, so when someone discards a tile that you could use to your advantage and create a set of four then you can shout Quad and upon showing your group of three take the final tile to create a Quad. However, you would be one tile short to make a full hand if it was left at that. Therefore, to rectify this, you have to take one tile from the far end of the dead wall (or king's tiles) before you choose a discard. Then your Quad gets put to your right side with the tile turned appropriately just as before.
If you are not taking from someone else's discard and instead have pulled the tile yourself then you can still Quad. This is called Concealed Quad; on your go you just say Quad, show the tiles, then pull another tile from the dead wall (or king's tiles) and discard. You then have to place your tiles, as if you had barked them, on your right but turning the outside tiles over to indicate that you drew it yourself.
One last Quad option is; what if you Bumped a set from another player and then pulled the final fourth tile? You can add this and create a Quad! We're calling this Add-a-Quad and then you take an extra tile and discard as above.
Apart from being quite satisfying to collect all of one tile the other exciting aspect to Quadding (It sounds a bit like some game in Harry Potter!) in all of it's varied forms, is that you can then turn over an extra lucky tile indicator - thus increasing your chances of getting a lucky tile in your hand!
There is one last rule for Quads is that if 4 Quads are declared in a single hand by any of the players (i.e. four lucky tile indicators have been turned over) then the hand is replayed.
Jenn's note: If only one player has Quads and they have 4 Quads then the hand is not replayed and it is instead a limit hand (4 Quads). If more than one player has Quads and the count gets to 4 Quads, then the hand is usually started over.
I managed to get a concealed Quad the other day with the red dragons and it was the lucky tile. I can't tell you how pleased I was! Fortune smiled on me that day!
Ok, following on from last week's popularity I have another puzzle you can advise me on. Walter kindly emailed me one that he created and I'd like to see what everyone has to say about it. I love the way he phrased it as well! It's quite a lot like a school maths (and Americans please note - math-S not math… hehe!) textbook.
Bob got extremely lucky. He managed to make Reach with a Full Flush.
But, now he realizes it's not easy to be so lucky. There are too many choices. Too many similar tiles. So he asks his wife, Margaret, who is a far better player than he is : "I'm waiting for a 2 or a 5 Bamboo. But it feels like there may be other ways to finish this hand. Am I missing something?"
Thank you Walter!!!
If anyone else has some more puzzles that they think might be fun and interesting, please email them to me! Or maybe you had a really exciting hand last week and want to share it with us? I know I always get confused whilst playing as to what I might be waiting on, so I jot down my hand and then look at it at my leisure later. Anything like that then email me!
Or just send me fanmail! I like to feel loved! heehee
13 comments:
You may feel compelled to consider any group of four identical tiles as Quads. But, in many instances, Quads are not advantageous.
a) 123333
If you convert the four 3s into a concealed Quad you won't be able to finish. 12_ 3333 You'll never find a fifth 3 to complete the 12_ Chow. There is only four of each tile figure.
Better to think of those tiles as 123 333
b) In a tight game, you draw the fourth Red Dragon, when you have already the other three concealed in your hand.
If you expose the Quad of Red Dragons, you'll warn everybody that you have at least 1 yaku and may be ready to go out. Better sometimes to go under their radar by discarding that fourth tile.
c) Another player made Reach, and you think he's seeking the fourth tile you've just drawn.
There is a special rule called Stealing a Quad. A player with a complete hand can win with your fourth tile if you turn it into a Quad.
d) Another player made Reach, and you think the fourth tile you have just drawn is safe.
In that case, you'll better off discarding the safe tile than adding it to a Quad.
e) Three Quad have been already made by other players.
As Gemma explained, the hand will be replayed if you make the fourth Quad. So you have two choices : 1) if the tiles are not going your way, make the Quad to force a reshuffle; 2) if you feel lucky, discard the fourth tile to continue the hand as is.
Their many other figure cases.
Conclusion : Don't jump on the first occasion you have to make a Quad only for the sake of making one. Quads are pretty and seem advantageous, but sometimes you are better not making them.
Stealing a Quad
Remember that this is worth 1 hand point.
If someone else happens to 'Add-a-Quad' with your winning tile, you may declare Mahjong when they add their quad.
This will not, however, work on a concealed quad. This is ONLY acceptable in 'Add-a-Quad' situations.
One exception, is that according to JPML (Japan Professional Mahjong League) rules, if you have the 13 terminals limit hand (aka 13 orphans, kokushi-musou, etc.), and someone declares a Concealed Quad on your final winning tile, you may declare Mahjong on the Concealed Quad.
I think I'll wait a little bit for my answer. To give everybody a chance to answer.
In 3444455577789 , because there are four "4"'s, they have to be in two melds.
I believe you can also win with 7-Sou (Bam).
Reasons: 1 is out of range.
3 won't work because you can't assume 4444 to be a Kan, thus forcing the two 3's to make an Iipeikou 334455, which leaves out “45” of “445” as a Tatsu (Incomplete Chow).
4 obviously won't work because there's only Four of each tile.
6 won't work because there'll be a "57" (Tatsu) or "44577" which is 2 pairs, incorrect.
8 won't work because you'll have 344445 55 777889. The "55" has to be a pair, and the 777889 isn't two Chows.
9 won't work because the "79" of “779” is a Tatsu.
Now, if you break the 34444 into “34 444” (Tatsu and Ankou/Concealed Triple), you have 34 444 555 77 789. It is now “Ryan men machi” (Double sided wait) and you need a 2 or a 5 to complete.
If you then look at it as 345 444 55 77 789, then it is “Shan pon machi” (Double Pon wait), and you can win with a 5 or a 7. Therefore, 7-Bam is the other tile you can win with.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Well done, I do believe the entire wait is 257. By the way another way to look at it would be to take out the triple 4 so you're just looking at the 34555 77. This is a surprisingly common shape to end up waiting on so it's worth it to sort of memorize that the winning tiles will always be the open ended run tiles or the pair tile. Another example would be say 22234 East East. Your wait there would be 2 or 5 again to complete the run, or another east to complete the triple. You could also think about the 2 as completing a triple there depending on how you're dividing up the hand groups. Full Flush hands are notoriously difficult for determining their winning tiles. Remember that having any one of those winning tiles in your discards will stop you from being able to go out on the hand even when someone else throws a different winning tile. It happens and it is heart breaking to say "RON!" thinking you're getting a ton of points and then have to hand them out instead.
Also, this is another great example of what Walter was pointing out as a place where quadding would be disastrous. This hand really needs to use one of those 4's in a run and quadding would just create a huge hole in the hand. But it's exactly the kind of thing you'll see in mahjong comic book stories. Someone will draw that 2 as the winning tile but instead quad the 4's; the new quad Lucky dragon indicator will be the 3 so they suddenly have 4 Lucky dragons and then he would draw the 1 to complete the run he destroyed by quadding the 4's. And the 1 was the original lucky dragon so what was originally already a super expensive hand suddenly becomes ridiculously expensive through totally dumb luck. Note to comic book writers: just a little realism perhaps please? Sometimes?
Thank you everyone again!
This I didn't see when Walter first sent it to me and I think before I'd thought about it more deeply I would probably have made a quad of the four if I had been playing. And if I hadn't, due to probably not being able to determine my entire wait, screwed myself by coming foul of the sacred discard rule. So many things to think about! Mahjong is certainly giving my brain cells a bit of a work out!
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