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WEEKLY MAH-JONGG
By Tom Sloper

September 27, 2004

Column #181

Chinese Official Tournament Rules.

This week's column comes from a session with the new "COMJ" (Chinese Official Mah-Jongg) from Nine Dragons Software. Author J.R. Fitch has invited us to try out an "early Beta" version of this modification of his classic Hong Kong Mahjong ("HKMJ"). COMJ is [no longer] available at http://www.ninedragons.com.

East round, West seat. Here's the deal and 1st pick:

1.
What are your possible hands?

2. You pick W. Now what do you do?

3.
Punged W. Now what do you throw?

4.
A few turns later, what do you throw?

5.
A few turns later, what do you throw?

6. S throws 8B. Does the hand earn the eight points?

1. One lousy pair (a valueless wind), and no good chow prospects. Go for either Half Flush, 13 Unique, or a Knitted hand.
Regarding Knitted: Each one of the three suits has two tiles for the 369 set. Two sets have one tile for the 258 set. Two sets have one tile for the 147 set. Knitted isn't looking so good.
13 Unique looking even worse - five tiles.
Regarding Five Types: Eight tiles. That may be the best choice. Try to find a discard that preserves the most possible hands. If you throw 1D now, you can throw 2B next.
2. Big deal, so you have two pairs. W is more valuable than N, but keep both, of course. 9D is discardable.
3. Go for Outside Hand. Throw 6C.
4. 1C. 113B can go a couple ways, but 1123C is clearly going to be a chow.
5. Only one choice: 3B. Need 8B to win.
6. Yes. Here's the breakdown: Outside Hand (4), Seat Wind (2), Pung of terminals (1), One Voided Suit (1), Closed Wait (1). Nine points.

The only other computer program that offers the Chinese Official rules is Four Winds, available from Lagarto & Armadillo Graphics at http://www.4windsmj.com. Both are excellent programs.

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Read about the 2002 WCMJ.

Read about the 2003 CMOC.

The next big events are the 2004 CMOC and the 2005 OEMC.