Before I start talking about last night’s mahjong game, I’d like to present a drawing that Fia, a friend of Wong’s, did last week. Thanks Fia!
Now about last night. It was probably the best, most intense, and fastest game of mahjong we’ve played so far. It went for 11 rounds in about 3.5hrs, into the South round, and someone actually went into the negatives! I wish I could tape a session, but even I’d get tired watching it for three-and-a-half hours even with dBu playing through the PSP for background music (Scarlet Rhapsodia, Necromanza, Ethernal Nocturne, and Oratario del Vento in case you were wondering). As for the pictures this time, you may notice that some of the tiles are a little hard to read due to the angle the camera was at, so I do apologize for that. Anyway, time to recap.
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Players: Kyle, Josh, Caleb, Ruka
Game Type: Han Chan
Casual Rules: Open Tan Yao is possible, temporary furiten is not observed, dead hands are not observed
Starting Score: 26000
East 1
Kyle starts off as dealer.
Josh tsumo’s an East wind.
Round wind, seat wind, four pons; 4 han, 50 fu, 8000.
Game goes to East 2 with Josh as dealer.
Josh +8000, Kyle -4000, Ruka -2000, Caleb -2000
Despite Kyle being in tenpai for this round, he had no chance of winning since his waits were either in the discards or in my hand. Me on the other hand, I’m glad I didn’t throw that East wind out. It did seem a little suspicious that no East winds were out at that point of the game. Overall, it was a good way to start off the game.
East 2
Ruka calls riichi but is immediately ronned by Caleb.
Caleb rons off Ruka’s 7-pin that was being discarded for a riichi (no deposit made), but pays chombo for not having a yaku in his hand. Doras do not count as yaku for the hand, but rather are treated as an “extra” if the current hand can be won with.
Dealer is not in tenpai. Game goes to East 3 with Caleb as dealer.
Caleb -8000, Josh +4000, Kyle +2000, Ruka +2000
Poor Caleb for being foiled by a 789 chi of pins. Otherwise, he could have gotten Tanyao, dora 2 for that hand. Oh, I seem to have not noticed the picture taken at the time, so my hand wasn’t shown. Ah well, we probably should close them eventually at some point.
East 3
Kyle rons off Josh’s 1-man.
Pon of haku, four pons; 3 han, 50 fu, 6400.
Game goes to East 4 with Ruka as dealer.
Kyle +6400, Josh -6400
Hmm…nothing really to say about this round. On a bookkeeping standpoint, I really should pay more attention to how much hands count for especially since I keep thinking Four Pons was only 1 yaku when it’s actually 2 yaku. Also note to self, San Ankou (Three Concealed Pons) can be opened as long as the 3 pons themselves are concealed. Oh…I see now… An open All Pons (Toi Toi) is just 2 yaku, an open San Ankou can also be a Toi Toi which is 4 yaku, and if it’s all concealed, you get a Suu Ankou which is a yakuman! Now I see the progression of this madness!
East 4
Caleb rons of Ruka’s 2-man.
Seat wind, Chanta (all sets contain terminals or honors); 2 han, 30 fu, 2000.
Game goes to South round with Kyle as the dealer.
Caleb +2000, Ruka -2000
None of the other hands this round seemed like they were forming anything but a Seven Pair. Pity for Josh though discarding two doras (haku) in a row like that. At this point, we were about 80min into the game which is a record for finishing the East round for us (granted, none of those rounds were extended). So we had three choices: 1) play IaMP, 2) watch Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei eps 10-12, or 3) go to the South round. The answer was obvious for us.
South 1
Ruka rons off Caleb’s 7-pin.
Tanyao, dora 3; 4 han, 30 fu, 7700.
Game goes to South 2 with Ruka as dealer.
Ruka +7700, Caleb -7700
I’m not sure if Caleb realized that he discarded a dora when he did, but it sure helped rake in the points on the win. On the other hand, Josh was extremely dangerous with a hand that had the potential to go to a Shousangen and even a Daisangen! Luckily enough, Kyle’s tendency to hold others’ tiles (even when he doesn’t need them) kept Josh from cashing in on that hand. Talk about a close call!
South 2
Ruka calls riichi.
Josh calls riichi.
Ruka tsumos a 3-pin.
Non-specific hand, closed tsumo; 2 han, 30 fu, 3000 + 1000 from Josh’s riichi.
South 2 is extended, tsumi 1.
Ruka +4000, Josh -2000, Kyle -1000, Caleb -1000
I forgot to flip the Reverse Dora after the win until after the photo was taken. It was a 1-pin, and I had no 2-pins for dora. Again, Josh’s doras didn’t materialize since Caleb held his South wait, and the other 9-man was still somewhere in the walls. Kyle on the other hand could only wait on the 3-pin since Josh and I held his 5-sou. At least he seems consistent on going for only pons.
South 2-2
Ruka calls riichi.
Ruka rons off Kyle’s 6-pin.
Tan-pin, two identical chi (iipeikou); 4 han, 30 fu; 11600 + 300 from tsumi.
South 2 extends, tsumi 2.
Ruka +11900, Kyle -11900
By the looks of it, Kyle was also in tenpai at the time though his waits were limited to the 8-man and 9-man (dora) which were scarce at that point (one of each left). It’s a little hard to see from the picture, but Caleb ponned a 9-man from me earlier in the game but at the same time limited his winning hand from a Flush (honitsu) to extending a pon to a kan (Chan kan) or a last tile win (haitei).
South 2-3
Kyle calls riichi and it’s immediately ponned breaking a possible ippatsu (one-out).
Ruka calls riichi.
Ruka rons off Caleb.
Ippatsu, pon of chun, 3 han, 50 fu; 9600 + 600 from tsumi + 1000 from Kyle’s riichi.
South 2 extends, tsumi 3.
Ruka +11200, Caleb -10200, Kyle -1000
I’m not entirely sure what to say about Kyle’s waits. In hindsight, they seemed pretty impossible since there were only one 8-man and 4-man in the wall somewhere. On the other hand, there have been a lot of kans in this game so far.
South 2-4
Ruka riichis.
Josh and Caleb ron off Ruka’s 7-sou, but Josh gets it due to Head Bump.
Pon of chun; 1 han, 40 fu, 1300 + 1000 from Ruka’s riichi.
Game moves on to South 3 with Josh as dealer.
Josh +2300, Ruka -2300
Whew! I’m so glad we went ahead and used Head Bump instead of a Double Ron for situations like this. I can handle Josh’s hand just fine, but Caleb’s 4 yaku hand would have put a dent in me. Also, it looks like Kyle was in a closed wait for a 6-man.
South 3
Josh rons off Ruka’s hatsu (green dragon).
Pon of hatsu, dora 3; 4 han, 40 fu, 12000.
South 3 extends, tsumi 1.
Josh +12000, Ruka -12000
This has got to be the craziest round of mahjong we’ve played so far. There was one kan after another which revealed two 6-pins in the dead wall among other things. This all happened fairly early and fairly fast, so tension built up. Out of curiosity, we turned over the tiles to see what the Reverse Doras would have been…
Three, count them, three 6-pins! If Kyle won that round during a riichi, it was easily at least 9 yaku for a Baiman worth 16000! If Josh won that during a riichi, a possible 8 yaku and dealer Baiman which would have netted him 24000! This round could have easily netted a kazoe if the right tiles fell into any one of our hands…
South 3-2
Josh riichis.
Josh tsumos a haku.
Ippatsu, closed tsumo, non-specific hand, dora 2; 5 han, 12000 + 300 from tsumi.
Josh +12300, Kyle -4100, Ruka -4100, Caleb -4100.
Caleb dips into the negatives, game ends.
Personally, I felt this round ended a bit anticlimactically, but the game overall especialy in the South round felt crazy. Heh, just goes to show that any lead can be trumped given the right combinations.
Final Scores
Josh - 56200, +42
Ruka - 40400, +10
Kyle - 12400, -18
Caleb - -5000, -35
Running time: 3.5 hrs
Edit (2008-03-02)
Huh…apparently, I didn’t count up the scores right during the game and even after I posted this the first time until someone pointed it out. If the current scores above are right, Caleb was dead back in South 2-3… Not that it matters, but the following recalculation is for what the actual score was if the game stopped at South 2-3.
Recalculated Final Scores
Ruka - 58800, +45
Josh - 29600, +0
Kyle - 16500, -14
Caleb - -900 , -31
Guess we could’ve had some time for IaMP after all if I was on the ball on scoring =x
I love that comic.
East 1
Psi: woo, good dodge of Josh’s hand in East 1
East 2
Psi: Josh… seems to have been aiming at a Chanta. Well… not a bad choice but perhaps I-Pe-Ko would have been a nice alternative if he could get it. Then he can aim for Riichi and all the other closed hand things
East 4
Psi: Kyle’s hand… no comment. The hand just is a mess from my view
Ruka: He does that a lot
Psi: yeah, that was not a hand with which to keep all your word tiles for
South 1
Psi: uh… what was Caleb assembling anyway in South 1?
Ruka: Probably anything he could get his hands on
Psi: that looks more like he’s just picking up all the Dora tiles with no plan whatsoever… and he Pon’d on North… which doesn’t help him at all. Well… if he had the guts to toss away all his Dora tiles, then it’d be Hon Itsu (1 suit)
South 2
Psi: Kyle reminds me of my early days, when Toi Toi was the only thing I could think of. Well, it IS one of the basic hands afterall and easy to think about
Ruka: It’s not that hard to get either
Psi: yeah, and you can always fall back on 7 pairs if it doens’t work out
South 2-2
Psi: uhhhhhhhhhhh what was Caleb up to in South 2-2?
Ruka: Originally, a flush, but then he ponned the 9-man from me and messed up his hand
Psi: alternatively, he could have tossed away all his… wait that really is a messed up hand - he’d discarded his 7 and 8 man
Ruka: Yup. Shiny dora trapped him
Psi: Ah but of course… the ever present Dora temptation, though he could have recovered from being tempted as that was his 2nd call. But that would have required tossing away all his 9man and his 1man
Ruka: So he only really had two chances of winning
Psi: well, could very well have been Hon Itsu as well. Yeah - either he’d go for Tan Yao, or go for Hon Itsu with Ikki Tsukkan (123456789 of one suit) as an added bonus
Psi: woo, and Kyle somehow stumbles on a hand where he could have formed a straight to finish. Hmm… slightly confusing how he arranged those tiles, but he could have won with… 8man, 5man, 2 pin. Not sure if he realised that
South 2-3
Psi: Hell Waits aren’t as bad as one might think actually - in reference to your comment in South 2-3
Ruka: I just feel a little uncomfortable about them personally
Psi: though it’s most effective when you’re waiting to complete your pair - 2 discarded, 1 in your hand, the last somewhere out there. It’s actually pretty effective - because psychologically who would keep the 3rd tile when the first 2 are out? Though… this applies much more to the Word tiles than regular tiles.
Ruka: Heh. I try that once in a while, but it can backfire if it’s stuck in the dead wall
Psi: besides, during the game you ca’nt tell whether a tile is in someone’s hand or the wall
Ruka: Until near the end
Psi: and yeah - that’s natural. Is luck of course, but waiting on tiles that are in other people’s discard pools ain’t a bad strategy
Ruka: Not at all
South 3
Psi: yeah… condolences on being directly hit by a Dealer Mangan just before the game ended. And yeah, that right there was a Hell Wait for Josh, because he needed that Hatsu to win
Updated the post with recalculations based on the pictures and wins.
What was I trying to do in south 1? Hon Itsu, punks! I split up my tiles for the picture to show that I had my lone pair and my pon of north tiles as the extra bit, and I was waiting for a 2-man and an 8-man. A tough wait, yeah, but it’s no fun if there’s no risk. But yeah, once I’d fallen for the shiny pon in south 2-2, I’d lost my chance for a proper Hon Itsu there, too. On a side note, I was reminded that it’s much easier to chi when you’re playing against one other person instead of three. ^.^;;;;
Yeah see, reason I was confused with your South 1 hand was you had a mid-game discard of 6man - when you know you’re going for Hon Itsu you generally don’t ever discard a tile from that suit (unless you’re going for some super bluff deception or such). Main reason being, Furiten dodging. When you restrict your winning tiles down to just one suit, it’s very easy to end up in Furiten because you tossed something away earlier. Single suit waits can be multiple tiles if you build your hand right.
The way you split your hand for the photo doesn’t make much sense - if you’d kept your 6man discard from before you’d have had 345566, a pretty decent foundation for a multiple wait scenario. Sure, you’d have had to discard your Dora tiles but that’s often a painful reality of Hon Itsu.
Ah well, you had one of those “I’m just not getting tiles of this suit” bad luck moments when you went for Hon Itsu there. Happens at times.
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On a separate note, I see you’re betting your libido on 1v1 Mahjong. How are you progressing?