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WEEKLY MAH-JONGG
By Tom Sloper

March 20, 2005 (Year of the Rooster)

Column #206

Japanese Modern (riichi/dora). Watanabe had good tiles (including dora) but the table got too hot to handle. From the deal...

Watanabe started with the usual sort of discard - S (nan). And his next tile was the usual sort of pick - another S. Etsuko was doing something other than the usual, discarding simples.

Watanabe's first instinct was to go for riichi pinfu dora. If he wanted tanyao he'd have to discard his dora tile. Would have to decide that before the middle point. He also considered Etsuko's discards.

Clearly indicative of an all terminals and honors hand (chanta). Towards the end of the second row of discards, Watanabe had discarded all his terminals.

What would you do now? See answer 1, below.

Then Etsuko declared riichi with N. Shigeru declared riichi with 5M. Watanabe picked 8P. What would you do now? See answer 2, below.

Surprisingly, Etsuko konged 1P (concealed, of course). Watanabe threw safe tiles, then Noriko declared riichi with 7M. It didn't take long then. With three people discarding whatever they picked, it was practically inevitable that one of them would give mah-jongg to another. It was Noriko who threw Shigeru's tile.

1. There are too many pairs to go for an all-chow hand. 6S is safe because one went out recently, as did 9S.
2. Must switch to defense. Discard safe tiles. 5M is safe.

* Dora tile shown, not dora indicator tile.


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© 2005 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.