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June 18, The Year Of The Dog
Chinese Official Tournament Rules.
Calling exercises. For each of the following hands, what possible discards are you willing to call (for chow, pung, or kong)? My answers below. If you see something I've missed (and you probably will), email me and we'll discuss on the bulletin board.
Column #271
1. All Types. The pung of G means your minimum 8 is in the bag; no need to kong it and give clues. Call 4C, 7C, 2B if discarded by your upper seat. 7C gives you a point for Mixed Double Chow.
2. It's tempting to go for Pure Straight, but until and unless something shows up in the upper three, I wouldn't force it. Take 4C or 7C if they come along, and whatever you do, don't get rid of 6D. Could become Mixed Shifted or even Mixed Triple (chows, of course).
3. Don't call anything. This strongly indicates a knitted and honors hand, and you need to stay concealed.
4. If it's early in the game, this could well become Seven Pairs. I wouldn't call anything. See what comes in.
5. Call 6B and 4D. Make Mixed Triple Chows for sure. The 4th set will probably be 789B.
6. Pung 5C, 6B, and S. Do kong the 6D for the extra point (you'll probably need it to make your minimum 8, unless you're in the South seat or it's the South round). Besides, with All Pungs, nobody can tell what you need anyway.
7. I wouldn't call anything until this one starts looking like something. Will probably want to make Mixed Shifted Chows (around the lower four, not the upper three) and lose the reds and the lone nines... depending.
8. Mixed Triple Chows or at least Mixed Shifted Chows. Call 2C, 4B. I wouldn't pung or kong 4C (better to make this All Chows if you can... and you probably can).
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Question about this column? See an error? Email 
and the discussion will be posted on the Mah-Jongg Q&A Bulletin Board.
>Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:38:13 +0200 (CEST)
>Subject: Strategy column #271
>From: "Tina Christensen" [tina♥mahjong:dk>
>To: tomster♣sloperama,com
>Hi Tom,
>Nice exercises [in column #271 yesterday].
>
>Hand #1. Normally I wouldn't go for All Types with just one wind. But this
>is potentially a very fast hand, so here I think I will. As you say, the
>dragons should stay concealed, so the plan isn't given away. I would call
>8D (as long as the Mixed Straight possibility is still alive), 2B, 4C and
>7C.
>
>Hand #2. Three plans are likely: Pure Shifted Chows (234,345,456), Pure
>Shifted Chows (123,345,567) or Mixed Shifted Chows. I would chow C4, C7.
>And then go for either chowing B4, B4, B3 or B1, B3, B7. The last Pure
>Shifted option is the most likely. As you say, keep D6 for Mixed Shifted
>possibility. D9 should be the last of the honours/terminals to be
>discarded, because of Mixed Straight possibility.
>
>Hand #3. 11 tiles for Honours & Knitted. No calls until "mahjong".
>
>Hand #4. Seven Pairs is very tempting. For a fast All Types hand I would
>pung red, or, if it gives two points, north. But unless I get two
>additional points for All Types, the hand stays concealed with Seven Pairs
>as main plan.
>
>Hand #5. Hand is almost finished. I call 3B for Mixed Shifted Chows, and
>7B to get a fourth chow.
>
>Hand #6. This one's quite difficult. Off course you can go for All Pungs.
>There is a good chance for Double Pung. Keep B4 for (slim) chance of Mixed
>Shifted Pungs. But the hand also have Middle Tiles potential, or Mixed
>Shifted Chows. I would pung B6 and C5. And South, more reluctantly. I
>would not kong D6 unless my hand is already open going for All Pungs;
>instead I would pung D6 and discard C1. This leaves Middle Tiles and Mixed
>Shifted Chows alive. If I pick some more middle tiles or tiles for Mixed
>Shifted Chows, I will discard the South pair. All this said, the All Pungs
>hand is still a very likely outcome...
>
>Hand #7. I agree, don't call anything. Discard reds.
>
>Hand #8. I will definitely chow C2, B4. I would also chow B1. Early on, I
>might be greedy and think of Lower Four, but probably I would still chow
>C5. I would pung C4, because it gives a Tile Hog, same value as All Chows.
>
>Tina
>--
>Tina Christensen
>tina♥mahjong:dk
>http://uk.mahjong.dk/
Hi Tina,
Wow, this is some great stuff! Let's go through it by the numbers:
Mixed Straight - yes, very nice.
Pure Shifted Chows - DOH! I missed that entirely! Your strategy to hang on to 9D until the last is very nice.
I like your idea very much. In particular, I admire the way the Reds are the "hinge" that the two choices (All Types or Seven Pairs) will turn on.
Mixed Shifted Chows - cheaper, but yes, faster. Good thinking.
Nice detailed plan!
Tile Hog. Yes, that's what I'd been thinking initially when I laid out the hand, but then I forgot it when I was writing the analysis. Your suggestion to add two more calling tiles is also good.
Tina, I like this so much I'm going to append it to the bottom of that column. Cheers, and may the tiles be with you!
Tom Sloper (湯姆スローパー)
MJ♠Sloperama.com
Los Angeles, CA (USA)
Juneteenth, 2006
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