| Have you ever wondered about... |
Mahjong? |
Part III
Source Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong#Mahjong_in_China
Wai Ling Cheng - http://www.otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.F96/vj07/project3a.html
http://www.mahjonggmaven.com/
Anecdotal
By Emy Murakawa
In this next section on mahjong, I thought I would go over some basics of play. This might be relatively familiar to any of you who have played rummy or similar card games. As mentioned in the previous segment, my experience is with the 13-tile version of play learned from my father, so that’s what I will use in these further discussions. As I read the literature, it seems that my way of play may be different from how mahjong is commonly played. Again, likening it to bridge, there are a number of “conventions,” and you would want to know that you are using the same ones as the others in your group. It was not a significant issue with me because I only played with my family and we all consistently played it the same way. It would be important to know, however, if you are just learning or if you wish to play with other aficionados. In either of the latter situations, I encourage you to research further and I present the following recommended readings from wikipedia:
Chinese classical
Chinese official
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As mentioned previously, the banker rotates at the end of each game, unless the banker wins, in which case she remains banker. The prevailing or table wind starts with East and remains East until the deal returns to the original banker, at which time the prevailing or table wind changes to South (then West and then North). The banker’s player wind is always East. The player to the left or clockwise of the banker is South, the next player clockwise is West, and the remaining player is North (again, think of the compass if you become unsure). The deal is initiated each game with the banker rolling the dice to determine the wall and the stacks of tiles to divide from that wall. The dead wall is set apart and is used solely for bonus tiles required for kan sets (four matching tiles). If you are playing with Seasons or Flowers as wild cards, the dead wall can also provide exchange tiles for them too. If no player declares “mahjong” before reaching the dead wall, the game is declared a wash or “nagare,” the banker moves to the next player, and a new game is dealt. |
The primary objective of the game is to be the first player to “complete” a hand – four sets of three tiles and a matched pair “eye” (you could have matched sets of four, in which case you would have to draw a bonus tile to enable you to complete your hand normally). Additionally, there is scoring involved that makes the game more competitive.
If you win the hand, you get 20 points for winning. The additional points are based on the make-up of the winning hand. Open pons (set of three made from another player’s discard) are worth two points. Hidden pons (set of three made up of tiles you have drawn) are worth four. Open kans (set of four made from another player’s discard) are worth four points. Hidden kans (set of four made up of tiles you have drawn yourself) are worth eight. Open pons of winds and/or dragons and/or “ones” or “nines” of any of the suits are worth four points. Hidden pons winds and/or dragons and/or “ones” or “nines” of any of the suits are worth eight. Open kans of winds and/or dragons and/or “ones” or “nines” of any of the suits are worth eight points. Hidden kans of winds and/or dragons and/or “ones” or “nines” of any of the suits are worth 16! Chows (three tiles in sequence) have no point value regardless of whether they are open or hidden. Your “eye” is worth two points, but is worth four points if it is made with winds or dragons. If the sets of your winning hand are all in one suit (maru – circle, take – bamboo or rope, or man – Chinese number character), the value of the pons and kans are the same as for winds and/or dragons.
Set |
Open |
Hidden |
Chow (sequence) |
0 |
0 |
Pon (three of a kind) |
2 |
4 |
Wind/Dragon/Ones/Nines/or hand of all one suit Pon |
4 |
8 |
Kan (four of a kind) |
8 |
16 |
Wind/Dragon/Ones/Nines/or hand of all one suit Kan |
16 |
32 |
“Eye” (pair drawn on last tile to complete hand) |
2 |
2 |
Wind/Dragon/Ones/Nines/or Hand of all one suit “Eye” |
4 |
4 |
Seasonal or Flower tile |
2 |
n.a. |
As you become more familiar with play, you can challenge yourself further by learning ways to make your hand more valuable. The least you can have when you win is 20 points. An example of a minimum hand would be all chows in different suits, with no winds or dragons. To that, you would add the respective points for sets you might have, based on the table above. Then:
If you have three or four tiles of a wind and/or dragon, you can double that score for each set. If you have three or four tiles of your own wind, you can double your point score again. If you have three or four tiles of the table wind, you can double your score yet again! Because every person is given the same number of counting tile sticks (similar in concept to poker chips), we used to say that particularly valuable hands (“break the bank” kinds of hands) were mangan (I think, literally 10,000 points), and did not actually pay them if we wanted to continue play. In fact, if we declared “mangan” instead of “mahjong,” we often didn’t even count up the points.
Special (mangan) hands that I remember:
If you are at the point of needing just one tile to win, you can declare “rii-chi” to let everyone know that you will go out with one tile (somewhat like declaring “last card” when you are playing Uno or Crazy 8s). If you declare riichi, you are basically saying that you will no longer change your hand and that you will discard each tile you subsequently pick unless it is the one that completes your hand. The risk here would be that you may be forced to discard a tile that you know your opponent needs. The advantage is that if you win after declaring riichi, you get two additional points added to your hand (similar to the two points allowed if you complete your hand by getting the second tile of your “eye”). There are also other declarations you could make. If you got a hand that had nine or more tiles that did not match upon the deal, you could abort the game, but if you had enough terminals (terminals are ones and nines), you might decide to play for the mangan hand described above. If, on the first round of play, all four players discard the same wind tile, the game is declared a draw. If four kans are declared in one game, the game is declared a draw. If all four players declare riichi, the game is declared a draw.
I hope this series on mahjong has whet your game appetite and you might be interested enough to find a set (ask your relatives – someone may have one put away in a drawer or attic) and try your hand at this ancient game. In this era of computer games and sophisticated game systems, you might find mahjong to be a great social outlet. I was very nostalgic writing this piece – wish you were here, Dad!
By Gail Sharp
October Photo #1
Finding photographs that get people talking and that jog their memories is the goal of Talk Story. To that end, the October 2008 photographs are a huge success. “Thank you!” to Mrs. Kiyo (Ann) Hojo for submitting the October 2008 photographs, plus two more to be used in a future Talk Story. Quite a few identifications have been made by readers who saw a larger version of the October photos of the Venice Gakuen Fujinkai, 1958 in the VJCC office. So that all of you may have a better view of the faces in the group photo, we are enlarging that portion of the picture for the November Talk Story. Email or call me with further identifications, or stop by the VJCC office and add to the Post-it notes on the photographs in there. |
October Photo #2 |
October Photo #1 - Left
Unknown, Yoshiko Matsuda, Miyo Eshita, unknown, Tomoe Omote, Mitsuye Matsumura, unknown, Murakami Sensei
October Photo #1 - Right
May Izuhara, unknown, Fumiko Sasaki, unknown, Ann Hojo, Kiyoko Tamano, unknown, Joanne Ikkanda
Send your comments to talkstory@vjcc.com with "October Talk Story" as the subject.
