Contrary to popular belief, you can play mahjong with only three people. All you have to do is take out one-fourth of the tiles out of the game. This can be approached two ways: part of a numbered suit (say 2-man through 8-man) and an extra random six tiles after the walls are built are removed or an entire wall is removed with random tiles that was supposed to be in that 4th wall. It’s not really as complicated as it sounds.
In Tenhou, 3-player games are done following the first approach as mentioned above. In addition, North tiles are treated as a bonus tile (not dora necessarily) in which you can opt to use to draw from the dead wall. Also, hands values are capped at 24000 instead of the usual 32000 (increase each value by 50% for dealers). Which leads me to the picture I was meaning to show:
This type of hand is called a Kazoe Yakuman which means it’s a yakuman just by yaku count (13+, 16 yaku for this hand). This wasn’t the first yakuman of the night though. Wong had a Dai San Gen (3-of-a-kind or 4-of-a-kind of all three dragons) earlier, and I was wondering why it was only worth 24000 when it’s usually worth 32000 (for non-dealer).
Well, I guess it’s because it’s easier to get a yakuman in a three-player game, but I’m not sure how that math works out.
Anyway, mahjong game with people from campus tomorrow seems a little shaky right now due to the weather. Ice and snow are in the forecast, and I don’t think it’d be a good idea for them to drive over just so we can get our mahjong fix for the week. Well, here’s hoping for just cold weather and nothing else.
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