Jenn's Corner #6

January 29, 2007

Jenn's Corner #6

Ok, Ok, so my column is one day late. BUT! I have a great excuse! I was busy playing mahjong!! Not good enough? I'm sorry...
The truth is, I took off to Okinawa for the weekend. I'm back now and went to our Monday night Mahjong group as usual, yesterday I really did play Mahjong. IN OKINAWA? you ask, why yes, I played from the comfort of my resort hotel room. Not only that, I played with Garthe in Tokyo, Gem in Taipei, and dbos in Toronto. We were also joined by Doug in Yamagata and Walter in Montreal!

Yes! It's true! In the age of the internet, anything is possible, even playing Mahjong online with friends all over the world! So let me introduce you to the wonderful world of Internet Mahjong!

While there is tons of software out there that lets you play with others, a quick internet search will initially offer you Mahjong Solitaire (also commonly known as Taipei or Shanghai). That's ok if you aren't used to the tiles yet, but why play by yourself when there are a world of opponents out there?? Dig a little deeper and you'll find games like Mahjong Time, Four Winds, and Mahjong Club. The problem with these, which you will find after playing for a few minutes, is the lack of functions, people and speed. That is not true of all English internet Mahjong games,
but the fact is that Mahjong is still finding it's place outside of Asia and things are moving slowly. The other option, is powering through an online game in an Asian language. That can be scary, but when there are good friends like us to play with, a little risk might be worth it.

To find the right Online Mahjong game for you, you need to decide what your priorities are. Do you want to bet money? First make sure it is legal where you live. Do you want to play with Reach Mahjong rules or with Chinese Official rules or with Hong Kong rules or with... the possibilities go on and on. Is it important that you can speak the common language of the software, or is it enough if you know what each button does? Do you want to play with people of your same skill level, or do you just want to meet other Mahjong players? Do you want events or just quick games?

So now let's talk about what we were doing on Sunday (morning for us, Saturday night for the Canadians). Garthe and I were coincidentally playing Ron2 (see our review) when we saw "dbos" watching Garthe play. It didn't take us long to set up our own table and soon Gem was online too! After that Garthe invited a friend and later Walter just happened to waltz in. Ron2 is definitely a happening place, and it's not even translated into English yet! Since Ron2 allows you to put password locks on tables that you make yourself, we were able to play to our hearts content without having to switch seats out with strangers (it's easy to play with strangers on Ron2 too). On full memberships game records are saved and had we desired, we would be able to set up a chat room to discuss the moves made in each game.

This is the system that Garthe and I play on regularly and will continue playing on it. The best part is that we are working on an English translation of the software! It is coming along quite nicely and should be ready for non-Japanese-speaking players sometime soon. Once it is up and running, it will definitely be the only Online Mahjong game we will be able to recommend to you. While there is no gambling option, there is absolutely no better place to improve your skills.

While our link for the registration process doesn't work yet, if you are able to somehow sign yourself up for a free membership, I definitely hope that you would. If enough reader's get on Ron2, we can have some practice and discussion sessions hosted by... You got it!! Garthe and Jenn. I'm sure Gem would show up from time to time too (or maybe everytime!). In the meantime, wait for the translation and maybe you could practice on Mahjong Club or somewhere... Or, get your tiles out yourself! We can't wait to see you there!

In Garthe's Hands #5

January 25, 2007

In Garthe's Hands #5

What to cover, what to cover....there's still so much. In my last episode I jumped in to the wild and crazy world of multi-point hands with the two kinds of flushes. I was debating jumping into the total absolute lunacy of "complete hands" which give more points than anything you've ever imagined and which would have included my absolute favoritest of hands. But I think first I'll take a step back to some hands which are related, but which will figure more prominently in your hand repertoire. These hands are not the most most mostest of points, but will often play a part in hands which eventually add up to a lot of points.

All Triples: 2 Hand Points

First, we'll start with "All triples", known as "Toitoi" in Japanese. Not a lot of trickery involved in the name here, it is sort of just the opposite of Peace. If you remember, Peace is all runs plus the head. All Triples is just that, 4 triples, plus a head. Bumping is allowed and it doesn't change the value of the hand at all.



By itself as a two pointer, it is indeed pretty cheap, and hardly worth the trouble. However, you'll find that the times you tend to use it will be when you have pairs of value tiles which can add to your hand points as you bump them, or also when one of your pairs is the Lucky Dragons. This will turn the otherwise probably 2600 points or so, into 8000. It's a pretty straightforward hand so there's not a lot to explain. Just remember that to make it really worthwhile, you'll probably want to have a couple Value Tiles groups or Lucky Dragons. Half flush also works in nicely with this hand to give you a surprisingly large number of points, if you can pull it off.

7 Pairs (All Pairs): 2 Hand Points

Our second hand for today is "7 Pairs" (the Japanese is Chiitoitsu) and represents a bit of a departure from the traditional hands that we've talked about so far. All of the examples I've given until now have had the same basic format: 4 groups of 3 tiles in triples or runs, plus a two tile head. This hand is nothing like that in that it's 7 groups of 2 tile pairs, or 7 heads, if you will. It's a bit of a wild card in the Mahjong group of hands, and it can often be a cool trick because it's difficult for other players to figure out what you're doing.



Of course, because there is no mechanism for "bumping" pairs, this hand will always be concealed. Also, because of it's structure, your wait will always be a singleton in your hand waiting for it's twin to complete the pair. Because you can choose any tile to be this last remaining pair to complete, you'll want to choose something that seems likely to come out, especially if you're going to declare Reach. For example, a good choice would be a 1 in a suit in which you've thrown away a 4 (players will think that because of the 4, you don't have 2-3 waiting for the 1 or 4 so that the 4 must be safe and they throw your winner). Honor tiles are also good in this situation because they are generally useless unless someone can make a triple with them. Because of this fact, players will often save them as "safe" tiles to throw when someone declares Reach. 7 pairs can also be combined with a number of other hands including Simples, Full or Half Flush and of course, Reach and Self-concealed draw. So even though the hand by itself is only worth 2 hand points (1600 or 2400 real points), it can quickly become an 8000 or even 12000 point hand if combined with other hands.

The reason I present these hands together today, is that I often find that I'll be shooting for one and then by accident I will get the other. For example, on the way getting all triples, you'll have been collecting pairs as that is what triples must start out as, yes? Sometimes you might manage to get 6 completed pairs before you managed to finish your triples. Likewise, you may be collecting pairs when first one and then, oops, 2 or your pairs became triples. Now you're only one away from all triples. So the key is to be flexible with your doubles and triples as they come and react in the way that the tiles seem most likely to keep coming.

Let's look at some examples.

All Triples ex.1

Round: East
Seat: South

That's a lot of work for maybe 2600 points

All Triples ex.2

Round: East
Seat: South

That's more like it, East round makes this an 8000 pointer

7 Pairs ex.1

Round: East
Seat: West

nothing special, maybe just 1600 points

7 Pairs ex.2

Round: East
Seat: North
Lucky Dragon: 1 of Dots

Let's say you declared Reach and drew your own winning tile and that it was the Lucky Dragon, that's 6 hand points bringing you to 12,000 real points!!

Gemma's Journal #4

January 21, 2007

Gemma's Journal #4

So last week was Bump. This week is Chow!


Chow is very similar to Bump although instead of groups this is for runs. There is one limitation to Chow when compared to Bump is that instead of being able to Chow off anyone else on the table you can only Chow off the player to your left.

Back to the table set up!

Let’s imagine I was sitting in the West seat and I have this hand.

I would ideally like a 9 to finish off that run! North then discards the 9, however I can’t Chow that because, obviously, he’s to my right. Finally, South discards a 9 -　Now’s my chance!


So, just as I did with Bump I say Chow! Show my tiles. Discard one tile and then pick up the 9. Play would then continue to my right, again just the same as Bump. Simple!

>Jenn’s Note: Place the tile you took perpendicular to the left of the two tiles it goes with and put the set to your right just like you did with bump! Here are some examples:

One last point to clarify is; what to do if the situation arises when one player declares Bump and another Chow. In this instance Bump is stronger and that player takes the tile. However if the third player declares Mahjong, then neither of the Chow or Bump players can take the tile.



To be honest it’s that simple! My entry for this week is already at an end!

I should fill this entry up a bit more perhaps… Ok you lot can advise me then we can ask Jenn or Garthe to give us their answers!

Which tile should I discard?



PS: If any Brits are reading- I hope you weathered the storms all right and your roofs and cars are still intact!

Jenn's Corner #5

January 18, 2007

Jenn's Corner #5

Mahjong of Yesterday, Mahjong of Today, Mahjong of Tomorrow?

So Mahjong has come a long way from what was rumored to be an illegal card game waaaaaay back in the mountains of China. It has changed with each place it has gone to throughout the world, but the basics are still the same for everyone. No matter how you say it, the way you get tiles is by drawing (tsumo), bumping (pon, pung) and chowing (chi) and you have to throw away one tile for each one you get.

So what is Reach Mahjong like now? What has changed about it? Well, in Japan there is another type of Mahjong called Boo Mahjong. It is not very common to find now, but it used to be the mainstream, especially in Western Japan.

In Boo Mahjong, everyone starts with the same amount of points. I usually hear of starting with 2000. There are many local variations, but some of the common ones are like this. The game stops when someone doubles their starting points or loses all of their points. In order to continue as the dealer, the dealer has to win. In the event of a draw, no points are exchanged, even for ready hands. If you missed your win? Forgetting winning that hand. You can't win on any tile, even a draw, if you have already discarded one of your winning tiles. Ok, so when can you win? Well, if you win on a hand that pushes someone under zero, you better make sure you have more than 2000, otherwise you get a foul! If you bring someone else under 2000 even though you still end up with less than 2000, foul again! So it's ok to push and scratch past people, but you can pull them down into your drowning whirlpool.

The scoring is obviously counted differently than in Reach Mahjong and the final score too. Boo Mahjong got its name because the points are counted using Base Points (fu = Boo). One person with more than 2000 points is A-Top, two people floating is B-Top and three people with more than they started? Possibly another foul. When money is exchanged, the final score doesn't matter and each person receives money according to their place in line. One other interesting thing is that at least in some places, the Drag Indicator (dora hyouji) was the very last of the King's tiles. If you Quaded, you got that very tile and the Drag would actually change to the next of the King's Tiles! Now we use the 4th one which allows for only 4 Quads on the table.

Besides rules changing, manners have changed as well. With more and more Casino-style Mahjong parlors, a new culture of manners and conduct has emerged.

In current Mahjong Parlors the following will get you a warning or out of the game:

• Talking about your hand during play (true or bluff)
• Drawing your next tile before the player before you has discarded
• Throwing tiles away too hard
• Throwing bones when paying someone
• Humming or Singing
• Talking on the phone for too long during play

There are more, but these are the big ones. In my opinion, to make Mahjong more popular in the world, things like bluffing and humming should be allowed. Strong players won't be phased by the bluffing and humming and the whole experience will be more human. I guess it is a question of wanting to go more in the way of poker or more in the way of shogi and chess. I think that Mahjong is 4 people, not 1 on 1 and that makes it more like poker. The fact that there is a deal and that there is luck involved with the deal and the draw also makes me want to lean toward poker.

In the future, just like the past, many things in Mahjong will change as it evolves from a simple form of home entertainment to a world-wide popular game. Let's start by simpling up the scoring system!

In Garthe's Hands #4

January 15, 2007

In Garthe's Hands #4

So I took a look at my Fight Club stats the other day, and as luck would have it, 5 of the 6 hands I've covered so far are my most used hands, by quite a large margin. Of course it's not luck, but rather, all part of my greater plan. Let's take a look:


Reach: 45%
Value tiles: 37%
Peace: 25%
Simples: 23%
Concealed Self-draw: 22%

Only 5 hands and he's already up to 157%? What is he smoking, you ask? Remember, these hands are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The idea is to put as many of these as possible all into the same hand. I must say, I was a little surprised to see Concealed Self-draw so high up there. I really am one lucky son-of-a- Well anyway

It gets me thinking, where to next? Should I continue with the cramming-points-into-your-hand theme or should I move on to the cool-looking-hand theme. While winning is important, looking good doing it may be almost as important, if not more so. So this week, I'm going to leap from the simple boring world of 1 point hands to the wild exciting lunacy of 3 and 6 point hands. Besides, if I were to continue on the other theme, I'd have to do my most detested hand and I don't want to give it that much credit yet. So today we'll cover the two kinds of flushes.

Half Flush: 2-3 Hand Points

First we have the Half Flush, known in Japanese as Honitsu and worth 3 points. A half flush contains only Honor tiles and one of the suits. If a hand starts short-suited and also contains a couple of Value tile pairs, you'll probably want to start shooting for the Half Flush. "Bumping" (pon) and "Chowing" are allowed, but taking tiles from other players will drop the hand's value down to 2 points. However, because of the difficulty of accumulating all those tiles in the same suit, this hand tends to be unconcealed. So in order to make it worthwhile, you'll probably want to have at least one Value tile group and maybe another or at least one Lucky Dragon. One of the problems with Half Flush is that it soon becomes clear what you're aiming for and players will become much tighter with the suit that doesn't appear in your discard pile. Letter tiles will also be less forthcoming.

Full Flush: 5-6 Hand Points

The biggie for today is the Full Flush, Chinitsu in Japanese, and worth 6 points! Like many of the hands that allow bumping and chowing, it loses a point in value when tiles are bumped so then it's only worth 5. It is like the Half Flush but without any of the letter tiles; it is entirely composed of just one suit. Pretty straightforward you say? Well not so fast. Besides the fact that you're trying to accumulate a lot of the same kind of tiles, another thing that will make this hand difficult is figuring out what you're waiting for at the end. With the way tiles get grouped together, you may sometimes miss tiles that complete your hand.

Let's look at some examples and I'll give the points as if they were for the dealer to give an idea of how to make these hands really pay off:

Half Flush ex.1

Round: East
Seat: East

2,900 Points, not an impressive score

Half Flush ex.2

Round: East
Seat: East

Concealed Half Flush AND Peace, 12,000 points, nice pay off.

Half Flush ex.3

Round: East
Seat: East
Lucky Dragon: 5 of Dots

⑤ (5 of Dots) is the Lucky Dragon, East Round, East Seat (Dealer) so Half Flush, Double East, Red Dragon, Lucky Dragon, 18,000 points, Rock on!!

Full Flush ex. 1

Round: East
Seat: East

Concealed Full flush, 18,000 points, Yahooooooo!!!!!

Full Flush ex. 2

Round: East
Seat: East

Open Full flush, 12,000 points, well, not bad

The thing to note in this last example is the huge number of tiles which could have completed the hand. It's not just 5-6 waiting for the 4 or 7. It's really 1-1-1-2-3-4-5-6-6-6 waiting for the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7, a think of beauty, if you can find it. Get out your tiles and try regrouping them by hand to see how each of those tiles finishes out the group.

Gemma's Journal #3

January 12, 2007

Gemma's Journal #3

So quick recap on what I've learnt so far:

• A basic hand is four sets or runs, plus one pair.


• An example of a hand worth points would be:


• A set of dragons
• A set of round wind
• A set of seat wind

Jenn has taught me a new trick that is going to make it so much easier to obtain these sets of wind and dragon tiles!

Just a reminder of the table set up:

East is the always the dealer and play proceeds anti-clockwise from there. Which means that after East (dealer) South will then pull his tile and so on...
Now the trick which I've now learnt to help me create these sets of tiles is Bump (Pon in Japanese). For example I'm sitting there with this hand:

and one of the other players discards the White Dragon, I can steal this off him by interrupting play. I have to shout BUMP or PON then I can take that tile he discarded. Giving me my set of three dragons and my point!

To finish it I have to discard one of my own tiles and then display my set of three tiles to my right with the tile that I stole point towards the player that I took it from. Which means turned to its side and placed on the left of the set if I stole from the player on my left; placed on its side to the right if stolen from the player on my right; and in the middle on its side if stolen from the player opposite me.

Play then resumes anti-clockwise from the person who said Bump (and not from the person who discarded the tile).



I can see I might be using this trick quite a bit to be winning myself some hand points until I can learn some more hands.



Next week, I'm going to be taught Chow which sounds suspiciously similar to Bump but I'm sure I'm misleading myself!

In other news, I'm proving myself to be totally inept at pulling tiles from the wall without throwing them all over the place as you all promised! But when it comes to building the wall - that whole trick where you place a whole line of seventeen tiles on top of another row of seventeen tiles in one swift double pinky move. I'm not enjoying that. This is often what happens:

How do those central tiles turn themselves around like that?! It's almost a special move in its own right! ARGH!

Jenn's Corner #4

January 7, 2007

Jenn's Corner #4

Ok, I've been busy trying to get the calendar updated (it's getting there!), preparing the next chapter for the "Rules" page, putting together Garthe's links (check out the "World Associations" section of the "Links" menu!!) and studying up on poker, which is what Garthe and I spent most of our time doing in Las Vegas. We also looked around for promising venues for a future Mahjong Tournament!! Yay us! So yes, someday we would like to hold a Mahjong tournament in Las Vegas. Anyone interested in joining us?

By the way, we also posted our first Professional Interview with Takki (short for Takizawa) and it is definitely worth checking out! We haven't gotten a picture to go with it yet, but we will soon (did I mention that he is HOT?) and we will also be interviewing more professionals and other great people in the Mahjong World so make sure you keep looking at our website and not just the blog!

Speaking of which, what exactly is a Professional Mahjong Player? What a strange concept... So, let's enter the world of Professional Mahjong. Garthe and I are considered to be professional Mahjong players to many people. This word is used in Japanese and in English, but I have found the meanings to be so different, that it seemed a worthy column subject.

In English, to be a professional at something means that you accept money for doing something. If you play sports for money, you are a professional athlete. If you play sports for competition, you may retain your amateur status. In the gambling world, it is a bit different. Since there are no teams to pay the players, in the limelight, it is the sponsors and the prize money bankrolling the pro's.

In Mahjong, there are very few 'real' pro's in the world. Most of the people that play mahjong for a living and not for a hobby, reside in Japan. Even within Japan the term "Pro" has been so loosely transferred to their language and so loosely defined that Garthe and I, as the only Americans in this business full-time, have found a lot of frustration and confusion. So let's look at what professional mahjong seems to be, and what it could be.

Every "Pro" in Japan must pass a test and join a league. Once you are a member of a league, you may be considered "Pro" by the layman, but, not necessarily by fellow "Pro's". Actually, the term "Pro" to many league-members in Japan, does not have anything to do with money. They believe that "Professional" is a word based on a person's skill level. This creates double-standards and confusion for native English speakers like us who now have to be careful not to pronounce ourselves as "Professional" to the "wrong" people, but still appear as professional to people who want to give us money.

The way I see it, Garthe and I make a fair amount of our living by appearing in Mahjong Fight Club (Konami) and making guest appearances as Professional Mahjong Players, I strongly believe that we are considered professionals. Yes, we took the test, went to the monthly study sessions and we pay the dues, but there are 300-500 members of our league who did that same thing at any given time and play Mahjong full-time. What sets us apart from the other members of the league to make us professionals? In my opinion, not much.

To me, Mahjong is not only my favorite thing to do and an important passtime for me, it is also my job. When you get a job, it is all about what you can bring to the table. So what do I personally bring to the table as a Professional Mahjong Player that made me appealing as a candidate for this position in the Japan Professional Mahjong League, on Mahjong Fight Club and Mondo 21? Personality is a huge part of any job interview. My dedication, my willingness and desire to learn new things and work hard were definitely big factors. Selling points may include my uniqueness (what other blonde 23-year olds speak Japanese and play Mahjong in Tokyo?) and my ability to speak a couple of languages. How is my ability compared to the other Professionals in our league? Not the worst, and not the best (yet), but it is all about making yourself appealing to the employer. So here we are, starting in D2 (the current lowest) League and working our way up.

So what is a typical day in the lives of us Pro's? Well, I'll tell you about mine, although everyone is quite different. I wake up and when I'm trying to be cool, I do some yoga. I also try to get at least one website update (on my personal website or on Reach Mahjong: The Only Way to Play) and then head out to play some Mahjong Fight Club. When Garthe and I have time, we go play some casino-style mahjong together and when we don't then I might go by myself or go home and play online or do more website updates. The first weekend of each month is League tournaments. We have 5 in each season and 2 seasons per year. The top 10 or so usually move up to the next league. It lasts for 2 days because of all the various leagues and when we have time we go watch the other leagues. Three days a month there is also a Champion's League, which is kindof like a practice league. We have to play 5 times per season and the top 15 are eligible for titles. Other than that there are 3 or 4 tournaments hosted by JPML per year and we participate as much as we can. On Monday nights we participate in an international Mahjong club that plays once a week and on Wednesdays we participate in a mini-poker tournament. Free time is usually spent playing Mahjong Fight Club.

So that's it in a nutshell. Any questions?

In Garthe's Hands #3

January 4, 2007

In Garthe's Hands #3

Last week I began a theme on hands that go well together with other hands. This week I’ll continue on that theme with 2 more hands in the same vein. However, these hands are not like the hands we’ve seen so far where you want to build certain combinations of groups or use certain tiles. These are more like situations: Concealed-self-draw and Reach. They are both possible any time a hand is one away from being basically completed. Another way to say it is that any combination of 4 groups of 3 and the 2 tile head will qualify for these hands.

Reach, of course, is where Japanese “Reach Mahjong” gets its name. It is the “men” in the oft heard scoring phrase “men-tan-pin” (Menzen Reach (Concealed Reach), Tanyao (All Simples), Pinfu (Peace) in Japanese). It is what sets girls’ hearts a-racing in the spring. But figuring out how to use it is almost as hard as figuring out what is going on in said girls’ hearts. The concept is not so difficult; it’s really just like calling “uno” in the popular card game. You’re essentially warning everyone that you’re only 1 tile from completing your hand and now you can go out if you draw or anyone discards your winning tile. The problem is that not only are you announcing to the world that you are armed and dangerous, precluding any chance of sneak attack, but having done so, you are now committed to that attack. You’ve thrown down the gauntlet. You’ve declared war.

>Jenn’s Note> You literally do ‘throw down the gauntlet’. To declare ‘Reach’, you need to turn your declaring tile perpendicular to the rest of your tiles and throw out an extra bet of 1,000 points. After this declaration, you are no longer allowed to change the contents of your hand except for Quads.



Like Value tiles or Simples, Reach will be useful in situations where you really want to go out but you haven’t managed to get any other Hand points into your hand yet. But perhaps you already have Simples, Peace and a Lucky-Dragon and you want to change your 4000 pointer into 8000. Maybe you have absolutely nothing and you want to escape with something cheap before someone else hits a big one. Or maybe you’re hoping to get lucky with the Hidden-Lucky-Dragon. The possibilities with Reach are endless. It’s the stuff dreams are made of.

Concealed-self-draw is not so complicated, but an obvious drawback is that it can’t be won off of other players. It won’t often be the only point in a winning hand. Most likely it would happen in a situation where your hand had no Lucky-Dragons and nobody had called Reach. You’re just ending the hand with something cheap before someone can make off with a big winner.

Because any combination will work for these hands I won’t provide any examples. Just remember the key to really making effective use of these hands is going to be putting as many of them as possible into the same hand. If your hand already has a couple points in it, calling Reach and finishing with the Concealed-self-draw will turn your small jab into a full knock down punch.

Gemma's Journal #2

January 1, 2007

Gemma's Journal #2

So after learning the basic shape of a hand last week, this week we went on to learning simple hands.

The simplest hand point I've been taught so far is a group of dragons. I.e. Three white/red/green dragons. So for example:

These would all be worth one hand point. So far so good!

Would be worth two hand points. One for each set of dragons. 1 + 1 = 2. And who said the British education system was in crisis!

Next hand point I wasn't so keen on, because it requires you remembering something for more than a few minutes and having a vague idea of geography.

Little explanation first. In Reach Mahjong there are two rounds played, East round and South round. Similar to the dragon group hand point, for the second hand point I want to describe you just have to get a set of East tiles if the round is East for one hand point or if the round is the South round, then a group of the South wind. Examples being;

Round Wind ex.1
Round: East



Round Wind ex.2
Round: South

Both worth one point each. Again not too hard! The third point starts to get a little difficult.

Each seat is also assigned a directional wind depending on who is the dealer. Now I was useless at geography but I do remember

Never Eat Shredded Wheat


Now the dealer is always East, and your seat wind is decided by that, in the order going anti-clockwise - East, South, West, North. (So the new mahjong mnemonic is Eat Shredded Wheat? Never!) Now getting a set of your wind tile is also worth one hand point.

So if I were sitting in the South seat then getting three South tiles would give me a hand point. If I were sitting in the West seat then getting three west tiles would give me a hand point and so on for East and North.

This starts to get complicated, for me at least, because remembering what seat I'm in for more than a minute seems far beyond my capabilities! Especially as the order is opposite to that of the compass! There are some perks to these points though. For example, if I was sitting in the East seat and it was the East round then:

Would be worth two hand points one for having the round wind and one for having my seat wind! So look out for that!

To be honest though at the moment I haven't been worrying too much about hand points and still been practicing just making a hand in the first place. Small steps! But at least I've started learning the hands and writing it down I hope will let me remember it easier too.


So to summarize the points I have to remember this week are:


Set of dragons
Set of round wind
Set of seat wind



Not too hard, but ask me again next week if I still remember!