MAH-JONGG
By Tom Sloper

COLUMN 023

April 28, 2003

Chinese Official (CMCR). In today's game, Wesley learned a lesson about distractions. His deal suggested two possibilities.

His two possibilities were All Chows or All Types. His first throw was 9C. On his next turn, he got 7C. Since two Reds had been discarded by now, he got rid of his as well. When he got another 7C, he decided to concentrate on chows and forget All Types, so the remaining dragons and winds went away. Then he picked 2C.

He threw 8B. On her next turn, Samantha threw 3C. Wesley called it for chow (targeting a shifted chows hand), but Noriko took it for pung.

Next he picked and threw 2D twice in succession. Soon everybody else had exposures (and everyone had two F). Then Wesley picked 5D.

Since Noriko had made a pung of 3C, that 2C was looking very much like a sore thumb. His next pick was another 8D. This, then, would be his pair.

Wesley threw 7C in hopes of getting 8C for mixed shifted chows (456B 567D 678C). There were two on the table; he hoped the other two were in the wall, not in use in someone's hand.

Wesley's eyes were drawn momentarily to an attractive lady doing something at another table. When he looked back at his table, he was horrified to see that Earl had thrown 8C, and he'd missed it! That sinking feeling was making itself at home in the pit of his stomach, when suddenly Noriko also threw 8C.

The score was 19 in all, once it was tallied in full.

The distraction had proved to be a blessing after all. Because he'd missed the third 8C, he'd gone out on the case tile, for another four points! Not that Wesley cared to make it into a strategy in future games - someone else could well have been using the 8C in a chow.

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