Friday, June 29, 2007

Gemma's Journal #12

June 29, 2007




Gemma's Journal #12



After last entries disaster I am back and this time better prepared! I hope everyone forgives me!


Here is the new questions:


Question One


Seat = East


Self Drawn







Question Two


Seat = North


Won off of someone else's discard






Question Three



Seat = South


Won off of someone else's discard








I hope I remembered everything this time! Also, I'd like to apologise for the delay in emailing! For some reason my internet here has been terrible over the last
week.



Looking forward to seeing if all our answers match! Happy Playing!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Jenn's Corner #13

June 13, 2007




Jenn's Corner #13



Another pictureless, but not an imageless column.

First, updates, since that is my job




Ron2 translation is finished, waiting for administration to get the thing into action. I know everyone is excited and waiting for it, so I’m really trying to push them as hard as I can, but they’re tough!




Next, website. I have been working really hard on the Hand List. Keep in mind that while the list IS complete, the images are NOT complete. I am updating the images on the road, so until I am finished (by the weekend I hope), some images will be incorrect. As it stands now, the images for the 1 HP hands are all correct. I will work on the 2 HP hands today and tomorrow and hopefully finish up the rest this weekend.




There is a new international online Reach Mahjong community! There has always been a forum on our website (here), but it is rarely used. I would like to encourage everyone to join in the discussions at Yakitori Online!

It is well organized and nice to look at. I hope it will become bustling with activity very soon! Looks like we are making more and more Reach friends all over the world.




OK, now on to even more fun stuff. I am writing this from Hong Kong and tomorrow I will be moving on to Macau for the first World Series of Mahjong tournament at the Wynn.

Tomorrow I will be practicing the rules and from the 15th-17th I will be watching this $5,000 (USD) buy-in event. The prize purse is promised to be $1,000,000 with $500,000 for first place. While this is not a Reach event, the rules hold many similarities to Reach. There are about the same amount of hands, but the scoring system is closer to the Chinese Official rules. I will have some Reach friends working both in the administrative department and also competing in the event. Look forward to a full report next week after the event!




I will probably write that in London when I stopover for one night on my way to the Open European Mahjong Championship in Copenhagen! That’s right, once again, a Reach-less event, but still very exciting because it looks like anyone who is anyone in Mahjong in Europe will be attending along with representatives from countries all over the world! I’m so excited I can hardly keep from typing in CAPS! This will also be my first time to Europe, so I am excited about that as well.




After these events are finished (and I do hope that some of my friends in these places will be up for some private Reach games as well!), I will be going to Italy, visiting Florence and hopefully some other areas to relax a bit before I’m back to Tokyo playing Mahjong everyday! Don’t worry, I’m practicing on the road too with Ron2 and I promise to keep the site updated. I made sure to stay almost exclusively in hotels with good internet access.




Vegas, Hong Kong, Europe, I’m starting to sound like a nomad… But I guess Mahjong journeys could never be a bad thing...
If any of you are in Hong Kong, the UK, Denmark or Italy, please e-mail me. I would love to meet and talk about Reach, Mahjong, the world, etc.!

Saturday, June 02, 2007

In Garthe's Hands #12

June 2, 2007




In Garthe's Hands #12



We have a request!! One faithful reader has expressed an interest in hands that are not "hands". Most of the hands I've covered so far involve some specific combination of triples and runs. However, some of the hands are situational, the triples and runs are not as important as what has the current situation in the game. I've covered a couple such hands so far, Reach and Concealed Self Draw. Remember, in both of these hands, the combination of runs and triples in the hand is not important, the hand must simply be "ready". One might consider these hands that are not "hands" because there's no specific combination necessary. There are several such hands but aside from the two mentioned above, they are comparatively rare. This week I'll cover 3 of the more unusual ones, Final Tile Win, King's Tile Draw (Quad Heaven Draw), and Add-a-Quad Win.





Final Tile Win: 1 Hand Point


Of the 3 hands this week Final Tile Win will probably be the most common (Haitei in Japanese). It is sometimes divided into two categories: Final Draw and Final Discard. Like Reach, the only requirement of the contents of the hand is that it be "Ready". The situation is that it is the last tile of the hand. This means that if the last tile drawn completes that player's hand, he can declare Mahjong, even if he didn't have any other Hand Points in the hand (Final Draw). Even if that last player to draw doesn't complete his hand, the last tile he now throws away is just as important. If that tile complete's one of the other players' hands then that player can now go out, even if he didn't have any other Hand Points in his hand up until that point (Final Discard). Of course, it will work together in the usual way with other hands to make for a multi-point hand if there are other points in the hand. Also, players will sometimes steal tiles toward the end of a hand to make their hands ready in case that hand ends in a draw. It can be a nice extra bonus to win on the Last Tile even though one was only going for the ready hand points.





A key point to be careful of with Last Tile is to not run afoul of the Missed Win rule. When that last player discarding is looking for something to throw away, he will often choose something related to a tile that was just discarded. For example, let's say I'm waiting for the 6-9 of dots with a ready hand that doesn't have any Hand Points in it yet. The second to last player discards my 6 of dots but I can't win on it because I haven't Reached, and I don't have any other points in my hand. Because he has just thrown the 6, the last discarder knows that it's a safe tile and unfortunately for me when he throws it, I still can't go out because I am now on a Missed Win. In fact, even if he had thrown the 9, my wait still leaves me subject to the Missed Win rule and would not be able to win on that tile either. Never forget the treachery of the Missed Win; it killed me more than a few times in my early days. Last Tile is unusual, but it's also a cool way to turn what might have been only 1000 points for a ready hand, into a few more for a winning hand.




King's Tile Draw (Quad Heaven Draw): 1 Hand Point


Next let's look at the Quad Heaven Draw. Once again, the only requirement for the hand's contents is that it be Ready. The situation is that a player has just completed a quad and the extra tile drawn from "Heaven" completes his hand. It's fairly simple actually, but some parlors have a special rule regarding this situation that I really REALLY hate, mostly I suppose, because I'm the only person I know to have ever been hit by it. If the player draws the tile to complete his quad himself, then it won't be an issue; the other 3 players will split the points to paid to the winner in the normal manner. However, if I throw the tile that completes a player's quad and the supplement tile that he draws from the King's Tiles is his winning tile, I am "Responsible", and I must pay the entire amount, even though I didn't throw his winning tile. It really ires me not only because I don't see why I should be paying when I didn't throw his winner, but it also takes precedence over the Missed Win rule which is usually one of the most sacred parts of Reach Mahjong. That player had actually thrown away one of his winning tiles and then drew it from Heaven and then I have to pay?!?!?!?!?!?! !"#$%&$%&'%&'($&'"#$%"%&$()%' Graceful loser that I am I may have lost some face with the staff on that one.


A note from Jenn: The reasoning behind this "Pow" or "Responsibility" rule (also seen in some Limit Hands) is that if you discard a tile that allows another player to declare a Quad, it means you threw a tile that has not yet been seen on the board and you should have an idea that it is quite dangerous. I'm not sure how I feel about this rule either, but there does seem to be some rhyme behind it.




Add-a-Quad Win (Robbing the Quad): 1 Hand Point


And last for this week will be the Add-a-Quad Win. Rarer in fact than some of the limit hands I wouldn't be surprised if many readers never get a chance to see it. The situation required here is that a player has bumped some triple and then draws the 4th of that tile to complete the quad. If he adds the tile to make his quad, and that tile completes another player's ready hand that player wins; the player making the quad must pay the winner. In general, concealed quads are exempt, though there is one situation where one can win even when the quad is concealed. When the winning hand is 13 Orphans, most parlors and home rules allow a win even when the quad is entirely self-drawn or concealed.






Because these hands involve situations and not combinations, it will be difficult to make very illustrative examples. But it just feels so empty without examples so let me go ahead and try anway:




Final Draw



The last tile drawn from the mountain was the 2 of Bams so the hand has Concealed Self Draw and Final Draw for a total of 500/1000 if it's non-dealer, or 1000 from each player if the winner is the dealer.

Final Discard



The player drawing the last tile from the mountain discarded the 8 of Bams and 9 of Dots was the Lucky dragon so the total is 2000 for a non dealer or 2900 if the winner is the dealer.

King's Tile Win



The 1 of Bams was the Lucky dragon so the player bumped hoping to get an outside hand. Unfortunately the 6 of Grands came so he was hoping to draw a 九 so he could change it to an outside hand but when the 9 of Dots came out, he quadded hoping to get lucky and he did!!! After quadding, he drew the matching tile for his head and gets one point for the King's Tile Draw and 3 more for the Lucky Dragons for a total of 4 hand points. That's 8000 for a non-dealer or 12000 for a dealer.

Add-a-Quad Win




A player had already bumped the 9 of Bams and when he drew the last 9 of Bams and added to the other 3 to make a quad, this hand won. Peace, 3 Colored Runs (concealed) and Quad Heaven Draw for 7700 points for a non-dealer or 11600 for the dealer.