February 12, 2007
Gemma's Journal #6
I got an email from Walter this week with evidence that the puzzle that we had last week can occur in real life!
This was a picture from the Mahjong Montreal Winter Tournament:
An amazing wait of 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 bamboo. (He quaded the 8 because it was a Drag (Lucky Tile)!)
However, if he wasn't careful and had previously discarded one of these tiles then his hand would have become a lost hand. It's this Missed Win (or Lost Hand, a.k.a. Sacred Discard) rule that I wanted to look at in this entry. Mostly because it's really upsetting me and catching me out A LOT recently. (If you're not understanding the terms I just used because you know the Japanese one etc, you clearly have not checked out Jenn's great new glossary! Made lovingly for you! http://reachmahjong.com/en/rules/glossary.html)
So Missed Win means that if I've already discarded a tile that could have completed my hand, even if that's not the tile I eventually want to win on, then I can't Mahjong on it. Unless I pull it myself. Woah, that's a complicated sentence! To make it a little clearer I'll use some pictures!
My hand is this:
My discards look like this:
My wait is ⑥⑨... But oh no! There's the ⑥ in my discard pile! That's a Lost Hand for me...
That's quite a simple one to see but that's when those horrible waits start to catch you out. When you (more specifically me) don't calculate correctly your wait and then realise to your horror after you've reached that unless you pull it yourself you're lost - it's really annoying!
That's why these puzzles are so good! So that we can get used to the patterns that come up and see what we're waiting on better. Certainly something that I need more practice on if my recent performance is anything to go by!
And with that here's my puzzle for you! Actually I have two this week. Perhaps they may be a little too easy for the more experienced but I hope they'll be fun nonetheless.
What's my wait?
And this is a hand I actually got playing ron2 this week. Can you see what my wait is? Also try and guess which tile I'd discarded that made this hand fall foul of the Missed Win rule!
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
8 comments:
Ok, I'll say for the first one
2-5-8 of coins
For the second one
3-6-9 of Bamboo
chafor,
Great!
But there are more! Look harder!
I feel, that there's something interesting here, almost like a pattern.
I forgot the 9 of bamboo in the first hand
And the 8 of caractere
- "I feel, that there's something interesting here, almost like a pattern."
Yes, great insight. Their seems to be something magic about 1-4-7, 2-5-8 and 3-6-9. Don't you think?
First one is 258 Dots and 9 Bam.
Second one is 369 Bam and 8 Crak.
147, 258, 369 is called "Suji", I LOVE these sorts of waits. There was a specific Japanese name for this specific kind of "Taamen Machi" (many tile wait).
I can't remember the name, or maybe it was just a "Hensoku" (mixed) of "Shan Pon" (Double Pon) and "Ryan men" (Double Sided) version...
You guys rock!!
I like to call the 1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9 waits (suji in Japanese), Piano Keys in English.
I like to call the double waits Open-ended (ryanmen in Japanese).
Did you know that if you have 2345 in your hand and you are waiting for 2 or 5 for your final tile, it is not called an Open-Ended (ryanmen) wait, it is actually called a Double-Singleton Wait (nobe-tan in Japanese, meaning stretched Single).
We are all getting better at Mahjong by the second! I think I need to get moving even faster on the translations... And I'm getting more and more material for the Glossary!
Keep up the great work Gem!
Yes, I've heard of Nobetan (延べ単), but unfortunately you won't receive the yaku "Pinfu/Peace" if you wait like that.
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