With my MCR (Mahjong Competition Rules) group failing miserably to play regularly (or rather, it is really half-dead), my thoughts turn to whether online play would be a more sustainable way of playing MCR mahjong in a place like Singapore where it is really difficult to find interested players (whether for casual fun or for competition).
There are several online mahjong servers, but few offer MCR, most notably Mahjong Time. Mahjong Time has teamed up with the European Mahjong Association (EMA) to offer online tournaments, such as the Open European Mahjong Championship–Online (OEMC-Online) and several national online championships such as the recent Online Hungarian Mahjong Championship (OHMC). Incidentally, Mahjong Time is also teaming up with World Mahjong Limited to bring the US$1,000,000 World Series of Mahjong (WSoM) online, offering the Zung Jung ruleset to online players and organising some online qualifying events for the finals in Macau in September this year.
Online mahjong may not have the atmosphere and authentic feel that some mahjong players like, but it does offer the convenience of playing whenever one feels like playing, without having to find three other players for a game. Moreover, it offers the intrepid mahjong player a chance to play variants not usually played with friends. It is thus the case with MCR mahjong. In Singapore, it is not a common variant, with most Singaporeans playing Singapore Style, or less commonly, Hong Kong Old Style, Taiwanese mahjong, or Malaysian mahjong. Since MCR mahjong has so many patterns to learn, it is also daunting for beginners. It would come as no surprise that the take-up rate is probably quite low. Online mahjong may perhaps then offer interested players a chance to learn, play, and advance in skill, variants not common in their home regions.
As I looked at the recent reports on OHMC [1], I was surprised to find ranked third in the tournament, a Singaporean player! No doubt, there are Singaporean players interested in playing MCR mahjong. However, since it would be difficult to find like-minded players to play face-to-face/offline games, online mahjong is a solution. This is probably the same for fans of other mahjong variants, most notably riichi maajan. There are at least two well-known Japanese servers providing quality online riichi maajan: Ron2 and Tenhou.
Singaporeans are not the only ones not able to find opponents and friends to play in face-to-face environments. The winner of OHMC, JulJul (her online moniker), also could not find friends to play 'real' games with her, and she had to turn to the Internet, since MCR mahjong is not commonly played in the United States. One participant of OHMC is from India, a country where mahjong is probably not very common either, much less the MCR variant!
Considering this, I am most tempted to give Mahjong Time a try, especially with regard to the online tournaments! If I am not able to compete in real offline tournaments, at least I could try competing in online ones. The pioneering success of my Singaporean compatriot is certainly inspiring!
Notes:
1. Mahjong News had a brief report on the results of the online tournament, as well as an interview with the OHMC champion. The Online Ranking System (MORSE) on the same website revealed the nationalities of the participants of the online tournaments organised so far.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Online MCR Tournaments
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Singapore Style Mahjong: Pinghu
I had earlier discussed some features of Singapore Style mahjong in the previous post Mahjong, Singapore Style, namely, the use of animal tiles and immediate payouts in some situations. A third feature I consider to be important in Singapore Style mahjong is the pinghu hand (平和 Mandarin: pínghú, Cantonese: pengwoo, Japanese: pinfu). This pinghu hand is somewhat different from pinghu hands in other variants, such as Japanese riichi maajan and Cantonese/Hong Kong Old Style mahjong (HKOS), and this feature of Singapore Style mahjong will be discussed in some detail in this post, with reference to the other variants, and with some speculation on the development of this hand.
This hand is a difficult hand to learn for beginners to Singapore Style mahjong, despite its usefulness in the Singaporean game. The English name of All Sequences, or All Chows, suggests all that is needed to complete this hand is complete of four three-tile sequences and a matching pair. However, this is not the case, and the English name is just a convenient term to describe the general application of this hand. There are certain conditions required before the hand can counted as a pinghu hand in Singapore Style mahjong.
Making a pinghu hand in Singapore Style mahjong
Basically, the hand is composed of four three-tile sets of sequences or runs (顺子 Mandarin: shùnzĭ). Such sequences can be exposed or concealed; there is no requirement to have all sequences concealed like in Japanese riichi maajan. In order to declare a win with the pinghu hand, there are two main conditions: the hand has to have a multiple wait, and the eyes have to be tiles that are not a potential double.
The multiple wait refers to the number of different tiles that the hand is waiting for. This multiple wait has to be for tiles from the same suit, and can only be for two or three different tiles due to the nature of this hand. If the hand is only waiting for a unique tile (that is, only one tile can complete the hand, whether this is a closed wait, an edge wait, or a single wait), and the player wins on a discard, the hand would not be counted as pinghu. The exception to this is if the winning tile is self-drawn. However, this is not applicable to a situation where the player has a hand where he had melded four sequences leaving a concealed single tile, since this clearly does not allow a multiple wait. The reason why a player can win a self-drawn pinghu when waiting for a single tile, and not when he has only one tile left in the concealed portion of his hand, is that there are no specific rules about checking the winning tile, to see if it completes a unique wait or a multiple wait.
The eyes are the remaining pair in the hand, and have to be tiles that are not potential doubles. If these tiles can be melded as a pung, this pung should not give the player a double; this typically means that among the Honour tiles, only tiles of winds that are not the seat wind or the round wind can be used as the eyes in the pinghu hand.
Given that the pinghu hand has to be completed in a particular way, players of Singapore Style mahjong have to learn the rules correctly, although many beginners do not learn the pinghu hand correctly. These players are then most like to commit fouls when playing, a supposed one-double pinghu hand turning out to be a no-double chicken hand (the Singaporean game is usually played with a one-double minimum for winning), often an expensive mistake since the errant player has to pay the other players as a penalty.
Origin of the Singapore Style pinghu (with some speculation)
The pinghu hand is not simply a hand that has four sequences and any pair. There are certain conditions required while making the hand for it to be considered as pinghu and not any chicken hand. The Chinese term for this hand, 平和 (Mandarin: pínghé but usually pronounced as pínghú; literally a "flat or even" win), seems to indicate that this hand is very ordinary and has no value. This may seem strange to Singaporean players since the pinghu hand is worth at least one double in Singapore Style mahjong! However, we have to look at the history of mahjong development.
The style of play which predominated at the turn of the 20th century is known as Chinese Classical, and the point-scoring is more complicated than in most modern variants. Essentially, points were awarded pungs, kongs and bonus tiles (flowers etc.) as well as to pairs of certain tiles, as well as for declaring a win, or winning with a unique wait, and this counts as the basic score. Doubles are used to progressively multiply the basic score to obtain the final score. Riichi maajan retains this scoring of basic points (fu in riichi maajan) to some extent whereas variants such as HKOS and Singapore Style removed the need for such point-scoring, keeping only the doubling.
Thus, in Chinese Classical mahjong, a 'No-Score' hand can score one double for pinghu. This hand does not have any pungs or kongs, or pairs that can score basic points. This can be viewed as some form of consolation, since there are hardly any basic points to double (except for points scored for winning, and for points for bonus tiles, and a few other situations), unlike hands with pungs and kongs. The pinghu hand in Singapore Style mahjong can be analysed as a development of this Chinese Classical pinghu hand. This is the reason why the eyes cannot have tiles that are a potential double, since in Chinese Classical, such pairs (of tiles such as Dragons, Round Wind, and/or Seat Wind) score basic points.
Why the hand has to have a multiple wait is more of a mystery. According to Millington's description [1], his pinghu hand allows single waits ("filling the only place"). Of course, this may not be a standardised way to play a pinghu hand. Perhaps some players have a different view of what 'no-score' means, and this could mean points for 'filling the only place' should have been excluded as well and players therefore did not allow single waits for pinghu. In riichi maajan, this is taken even further: the winning tile cannot be for completing a pair, even if there is a multiple wait. Thus, in a sequence of 1d-2d-3d-4d, 1d and 4d can be valid waits for Singapore Style pinghu, but not for riichi maajan, as this counted as a single wait (nobetan "stretched single"). Completing the pair ("fishing the eyes") does earn some basic points according to Millington, and is considered a different situation from 'filling the only place'. The Singapore Style pinghu hand is likely to be a development from Chinese Classical, but in a way that is not exactly faithful to Millington's version.
Interestingly, the Singapore Style pinghu hand differs from other pinghu hands. In Chinese Classical mahjong, the pinghu hand is awarded one double. The pinghu hand is also awarded one double in riichi maajan and in HKOS. The Singapore Style pinghu scores one double only if the player has bonus tiles, and four if there are no bonus tiles (both flowers and animals). Given that the usual limit in Singapore Style mahjong is five doubles, a four-double pinghu hand is thus quite high-scoring. However, it is usually not easy to win a pinghu hand without drawing a bonus tile, and since there are twelve such bonus tiles in Singapore Style mahjong, the chances of drawing a bonus tile are higher.
As the structure of the pinghu hand in modern play has some precedents in Chinese Classical mahjong, the scoring for pinghu in Singapore Style mahjong could perhaps be attributed to the 'no-score' principle as well. The 'no-score' of the pinghu hand in Chinese Classical only encompasses points for pungs, kongs, and pairs of certain tiles; points for self-draw, "filling the only place", "fishing the eyes", "drawing the final tile", and bonus tiles, are allowed. The pinghu in Singapore Style mahjong seems to have gone one extra step: disallowing bonus tiles, thus reducing the basic points (that would have been counted in Chinese Classical), and in turn allow this hand to score more doubles.
Four-double pinghu and its consequence on play
The pinghu hand is generally easy to make, and a pinghu-based strategy is rather viable in Singapore Style mahjong. Players usually assess their hands at the start, to see if their hands has a good chance with a four-double pinghu, provided they do not already have drawn bonus tiles. If they did not draw any bonus tiles, and quite a few have already been exposed by the other players, they have a good chance at completing the pinghu without any bonus tiles. Once such a decision is made, players may break up pairs of Honour tiles with potential for doubles (such as Dragon tiles) and give up the chance to obtain doubles through making pungs of such tiles, since there is a more valuable hand if they pursue the four-double pinghu.
Even if they did draw a bonus tile, there is a good chance that the bonus tile carries some double (one-third of bonus tiles are animal tiles, which are worth one double for any player). This is why pinghu hands are quite common in the Singaporean game.
Players pursuing four-double pinghu are considered dangerous, and players sitting above them may play defensive, by discarding carefully to prevent chows (there is no restriction of exposed chows in Singapore Style, unlike in Japanese riichi maajan), that is, until the four-double pinghu player draws a bonus tile which reduces the danger immediately (a four-double hand to a one- or two-double hand).
The pinghu hand can be seen as a basic hand, yet it is one of the more difficult hands to learn for beginners. In the typical Singaporean game, where there is a one-double minimum for winning, the pinghu hand is commonly used to obtain the minimum, especially for players who dislike to depend on luck to obtain doubles through drawing bonus tiles. Moreover, the high score of pinghu when a player has no bonus tiles is an incentive to attempt this hand, despite the possibility of drawing a bonus tile later in the game that will reduce the score.
I hope that I have thrown some light on the pinghu hand in the context of Singapore Style mahjong through this discussion. Does this pique your interest in Singapore Style mahjong?
Notes:
1. A.D. Millington, 1993, The Complete Book of Mah-Jongg, Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Mahjong, Singapore Style
For the past few months, I have not been able to organise MCR mahjong sessions due to the lack of available players. Yes, the player pool is small. Still, I managed to play some mahjong during the Chinese New Year, albeit in the Singapore Style. So, this presents me an opportunity to write a little about the Singapore variant of mahjong.
There are many varieties of mahjong in Asia, each with their own local flavours and developments. Singapore, despite being a small city-state, has its own variety. There are enough techno-savvy mahjong enthusiasts of Singapore-styled mahjong to have a Wikipedia article on its scoring, Singaporean Mahjong scoring rules! Despite being quite similar to Hong Kong Old Style (HKOS) mahjong (also known as Cantonese mahjong), Singapore Style mahjong has some salient differences: the use of four animal tiles; immediate payouts for kongs, flower/animals tile pairings and some special limit hands; and a high-scoring All Chows (All Sequences) hand. There are some other differences, but these are minor details. However, since there is no central authority governing the rules of Singapore Style mahjong, some of these features discussed here may not actually be played by some groups who profess to play Singapore Style mahjong, and these groups may include rules more consistent with HKOS mahjong.
Animal Tiles
People observing a game of Singapore Style mahjong would be immediately struck by the presence of the animal tiles. These animal tiles are the cat (猫 māo), rat (老鼠 láoshŭ), cockerel (公鸡 gōngjī), and centipede (蜈蚣 wúgōng). Animal tiles are used in the same way as flower and season tiles, that is, as bonus tiles. Each animal tile obtained counts as a tai (台 Mandarin: tái) [1], and a set of all four counts as five tai, with each animal tile counting as one tai and one bonus tai given for having a full set of bonus tiles. This means that it is easy to get tai (doubles) in the Singapore variant. Often, players with poor hands and no doubles in sight would hope to obtain an animal tile, and thus able to win, albeit with a minimal score.
The animal tiles are divided into prey (rat and centipede), and predators (cat and cockerel). The situation when a prey tile and its corresponding predator tile comes together is called a bite or biting (咬 Mandarin: yăo, Hokkien POJ: kā, 'to bite'). If a player obtains a corresponding pair of prey and predator, he can collect some payment from all the other players. Strauser and Evans (1964) [2] describes a different way of using animal tiles — players with predator tiles can capture prey tiles exposed by other players. This rule as described by Strauser and Evans is not used in Singapore Style mahjong.
Immediate Payouts
Singapore Style mahjong, like many other mahjong variants, is used for small-stakes gambling, and there are immediate payouts for some situations when they occur in the game. These situations include special combination of bonus tiles (such as flower pairings, animal bitings, bonus tile kongs), kongs of suit and honour tiles, and some special limit hands. Players need not win a hand in order to collect payment, and depending on the stakes decided at the table/house, such payouts can be more profitable than hands with low scores (i.e. few tai/doubles). Typically, immediate payouts for pairings/bites/kongs is set at 2× the rate of one tai.
Singapore Style mahjong usually use flower tiles in two sets. Usually, this is depicted by numbers in two colours (red and blue) or as words (the Four Noble Plants, 梅兰菊竹 méi lán jú zhú; and the Four Seasons, 春夏秋冬 chūn xià qiū dōng), often with both numbers (one set in Arabic numerals, the other in Chinese characters) and the words for the flowers and seasons. Each player will have flower tiles corresponding to his seat. A player obtaining both is said to get a flower pairing. This is colloquially known as kau'in (from Malay kahwin 'wedding'); sometimes, players say yao or ka ('bite' in Mandarin and Hokkien respectively) instead, following the practice for animal tiles.
For animal tiles, bites occur when a player obtains a corresponding pair of prey and predator (explained above).
Kongs are situations when a player obtains four of a kind, whether for normal suit and honour tiles, or for bonus tiles. Thus a player can get payment for collecting all four tiles of a flower or animal set, in addition to the bonus double for such a lucky feat.
All flower pairings, bites, and kongs can come as exposed or concealed. The payment earned for a concealed pairing/bite/kong is double that for an exposed one. Flower pairings and bites are considered concealed when a player obtains such tile combinations in his starting hand, before any replacement of tiles; and considered exposed in all other situations. Flower and animal kongs are always considered concealed, since it is statistically difficult to obtain all four in the set in a starting hand.
Besides bonus tile combinations and kongs, there are two situations where immediate payment occurs: for the special limit hands of Big Three Dragons (大三元 dà sān yuán, often translated as Three Great Scholars) and Big Four Winds (大四喜 dà sì xĭ, often translated as Four Great Blessings).
Any player obtaining the triplet combinations defining these two special hands can declare a win, which is scores the limit (usually set at five or six doubles), without having to have the rest of the hand complete. The uncompleted portion has to be kept concealed though, since there is an option to complete the hand for a higher-scoring win (provided the players agree to play above the set limit of five or six doubles). Although this is a common rule, it is by no means universally applied in Singapore, and some players prefer that the hand is completed in order to claim the win.
The Dead Wall
Besides the use of the animal tiles, immediate payouts, and the special All Chows hand (more on this in another post), there are some other differences in the details of the rules of the gameplay. One such difference is the number of tiles in the dead wall.
The dead wall is the portion of the walls where replacements for kongs and bonus tiles are obtained. In the Chinese Classical rules, exactly sixteen tiles is counted and separate from the live wall. This dead wall is not replenishable, and used only for replacement of kongs. However, in HKOS mahjong and Singapore Style mahjong, the dead wall is replenished whenever a player draws replacement tiles after declaring flowers and kongs, such that a certain number of tiles is kept in the dead wall. For HKOS, there are fourteen tiles in the dead wall, but for Singapore Style, there are fifteen tiles (seven and a half stacks) in the dead wall.
The one extra tile in the dead wall for Singapore Style mahjong could be attributed to the inclusion of the four animal tiles, which are not found in HKOS. Thus, an increased number of playable tiles could have led to a larger dead wall, to keep the random and surprise factor more proportionate.
Do note that the actual rationale for the dead wall in the original game is not known at all, and the mahjong variants found today have different number of tiles in the dead wall (if the dead wall is played). As mentioned earlier, in Chinese Classical mahjong, exactly sixteen tiles are reserved for kong replacements only, which is the total possible number of kongs in a hand of mahjong (four per player), rare but possible! In Japanese riichi maajan, fourteen tiles are set aside for the dead wall, but there are no flowers to replace, and there is no replenishment of tiles. Moreover, only four kongs per hand are allowed, which results in a draw unless the four kongs are made by the same player. (Edit: There is indeed replenishment of the dead wall after kongs are made! Many thanks to Tina Christensen for the correction.) In other variants, there is no dead wall, and play continues until all the tiles have been drawn. The variety of rules regarding the dead wall, or the lack of a dead wall, show that the function of the dead wall is not conserved amongst the descendant variants of mahjong. There is also no consistent explanation for the function of the dead wall by authors of mahjong books.
So, in this post, two features of Singapore Style mahjong have been discussed. The All Chows hand, pinghu (平和 Mandarin: pínghú), as played in the Singaporean game, will be discussed in the next post. Hopefully, this post has not been too dry and boring!
Notes:
1. Tai is the common term for 'double', used in Singapore Style mahjong, and probably derives from Taiwanese mahjong, although the actual usage in Taiwanese mahjong is different from that in Singapore Style mahjong. The general Chinese and Cantonese equivalent is fan (番 Mandarin: fān).
2. Kitty Strauser and Lucille Evans, 1964, "Mah Jong, Anyone? A Manual of Modern Play", Tuttle Publishing. A more up-to-date and revised version with additional material by Tom Sloper was published in 2006 as "Mah Jong, Anyone?: A Manual of Western Play".
Monday, December 31, 2007
World Mahjong Championship 2007
The 'first' World Mahjong Championship (WMC) was held earlier this year in Chengdu, China, and featured the best players of MCR in the world, bringing together mahjong enthusiasts from America, China, Europe, and Japan.
The WMC was meant to be the culmination of a World Series of Mahjong, coordinated by the World Mahjong Organisation. However, there was very little news (in English) about this World Series of Mahjong (not to be confused with the other World Series of Mahjong held in Macau, with a prize purse of US$1 million). Of the five proposed stops in this World Series of Mahjong, I could only find coverage of the European stop, that is the Open European Mahjong Championship, in Denmark. The proposed American tournament was apparently cancelled, as there is a lack of interest in MCR in the United States, where American mah-jongg is the most popular form of mahjong (although some would argue American mah-jongg is not mahjong at all, not anymore!) amongst the non-Asian players living in the United States, while the Asian players there are probably more familiar with Hong Kong style mahjong or Japanese riichi mājan.
World Series of Mahjong aside, this WMC was to feature the best from the various mahjong-playing 'areas': China; Japan; Europe; and America and others. The best players from each area were to be chosen via qualifying tournaments organised by their national associations. Of course, not all areas could send their best players: due to the lack of interest in MCR in America, there is thus only a small contingent from the United States. Instead, the player quota for 'Area D' (i.e. America and others) was filled up by extra teams from the other three areas. The players from the same area would not play against each other during the tournament. Instead, each table would comprise a player from each of the four areas. Players therefore meet a whole variety of opponents, including all the formidable players from China and Japan (who indeed dominate the top end of the WMC 2007 standings).
This tournament was billed as the "first" World Mahjong Championship, but there was actually an earlier First World Mahjong Championship held in 2002, in Tokyo, Japan. This was before the founding of the World Mahjong Organisation in 2006; the 2002 tournament was jointly organised by the Takeshobo Mahjong Museum, the Japanese Mahjong Organising Committee (JMOC) and the city council of Ningbo. However, since the first actual world championship in Tokyo was more of an ad hoc event, and this tournament in Chengdu marks the start of a regular world championship, the WMO and JMOC had agreed to call this tournament the real 'First World Mahjong Championship'.
There are differences between the two tournaments, of course. In the course of time since the 2002 World Championship, there has been some changes to the mahjong ruleset. The WMO issued the updated official rules in 2006, and this new ruleset is called 'Mahjong Competition Rules' (MCR) in the English edition (the previous English edition is called 'Competition Mahjong Official International Rulebook', often abbreviated as OIRB). The tournament format has also become more structured, with the division of players into four areas, and is more international in outlook. The 2002 tournament had 100 participants of which 24 represented four non-Asian countries. This year's WMC saw the participation of 55 players from ten European countries and the United States. It really does seem more of a world championship with the increased participation of players from the rest of the world (apart from the host country and birthplace of mahjong, China, as well as traditional mahjong powerhouse Japan).
The WMC 2007 has a tournament system where all players get to play against opponents from other 'areas' for eight ju 局 (game/session). The top 16 players after the completion of the eight ju then go on to compete for one final ju, where they are drawn to face each other Swiss-style (i.e. the top four players face each other at one table for the final ju, the next four at another table and so on).
Each ju lasts for two hours, or the sixteen hands of a complete game, whichever is faster. As this Chengdu tournament utilised automatic mahjong tables, the players probably saved some time in not having to shuffle and stack the tiles, and the chances of cheating by manipulating the tiles while shuffling are also reduced.
After the first eight ju, the sixteen finalists included five Japanese players, and one European player from the Netherlands. This meant that there were ten Chinese players. This showed the dominance the Chinese (as well as the Japanese, to a smaller extent) had on mahjong. Laurent Mahé, a French player, had narrowly missed out on the final, being ranked at 17th with 20 table points, just one point off the next higher-ranked player. (Laurent Mahé can, however, boast of having set a tournament record of the highest-scoring hand of +303, after self-drawing a Thirteen Orphans hand. Also, a special prize was awarded to any 88-point fan made.)
At Table 1 (where the top four players were drawn to play each other), the Japanese player Imaeda Minoru 今枝実 was in the lead with 29 table points out of 32 possible after eight ju, while his three Chinese opponents all had 28 table points. However, he was outplayed, and third-ranked Li Li 李立 (pinyin: Lĭ Lì) won the game with a convincing +256. Imaeda Minoru only managed to obtain 1 table point with a score of -76 giving him third place. His overall ranking was thus also third place, just edged out of second place by Zhang Zhangfei 张章飞 (pinyin: Zhāng Zhāngfēi). At Table 2, ranked fifth with 26 table points, Zhang Zhangfei managed to win at his table during the last ju and earn 4 table points to tie with Imaeda Minoru, each with a final 30 tables points, but he had a better competition point score of +1143 to Imaeda Minoru's +752.
So, the final individual standings: Li Li in first place, Zhang Zhangfei in second, and Imaeda Minoru in third. Désirée Heemskerk, the only European in the final, managed to improve her ranking from 12th to 10th. The full final results can be found here on the China Majiang website 中国麻将网.
The team results: China Shanxi Jiexiu team 中国山西介休队 in first place, China Shanghai Zhangjiang team 中国上海张江队 in second place, and the Japan Mahjong Sport Association Osaka team 日本麻將體育協會 大阪隊 in third place. The winning team was really strong, with three of its members in the top sixteen (after eight ju): in 2nd, 4th, and 15th places. The second-placed team also had three team members in the top sixteen: in 5th, 6th, and 16th places.
News, information and photographs of WMC 2007 can be found at the following websites: Mahjong Danmark (photos), Sloperama's Mah-Jong Zone (photos), and Mahjong News (photos).
To mahjong enthusiasts, WMC 2007 is truly exciting in some ways. Mahjong may not be a very well-regarded game (perhaps due to its negative image as a gambling game, especially in Asia), and is probably not very exciting to watch (unlike many sports). However, it is a source of great pleasure for many people who play the game. It is a fascinating game, with its elements of randomness and strategy. It is certainly not an easy game, especially in rule-heavy variants like MCR and Japanese riichi mahjong. WMC 2007 affirms that mahjong can be played seriously and legitimately as a sport, especially since it does not have a hefty registration fee to justify a big prize structure like the Macau World Series of Mahjong (this was discussed in an earlier post).
No doubt most Singaporeans who play mahjong now, play it with small-stake gambling in mind. Yet, moving on to play mahjong at a gambling-free competitive level is not so big a leap. I believe MCR as a ruleset is interesting and complex enough to entice players to play without the excitement of gambling. With a goal like a world championship to work towards, it can be possible to build a culture of mahjong-playing Singaporeans aiming to be the best, yet not losing the pleasure in playing a intellectually stimulating and mentally rewarding game.
With the next WMC planned for 2010, there is time for preparation. Who knows, there might just be a Singaporean team participating at WMC 2010!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Mahjong Magic (A Straits Times Article)
This Straits Times (ST) article appeared almost a month back, on December 2nd 2007. As some of you may have noticed, the writer of the article, Sandra Leong, left a comment on an earlier post. Following that, JT and I decided to do an interview with Sandra because we were intrigued by the direction the proposed ST article could take. Although the interview and the newspaper article came at a bad time, I am glad that we participated in the writing of this article.
The article Mahjong Magic explores the state of mahjong in Singapore now. Mahjong is predominantly regarded as a gambling activity and is thus banned from being played in public places. Alas, due to this, mahjong tournaments (of whatever variant/style) are also banned. Even mahjong using Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR) would be suspect. Mahjong is thus typically played in the privacy of one's home, and is a highly popular pastime among the Chinese, whether for small stakes or for more high-stake hardcore gambling.
There has been a renewed interest in mahjong, and this may be attributed to the buzz created by the Integrated Resorts (IRs) slated to open in 2009. The building of the IRs marks the relaxation of gambling restrictions in the form of legalised casinos in Singapore (well-known for its clean and boring image). No doubt, the recent World Series of Mahjong held in Macau contributed to the buzz. Since this increased interest is due to the gambling aspect of mahjong, it is unlikely to improve the image of mahjong as a serious game.
However, there are positive developments as well. There is a greater interest in mahjong not as a tool for gambling but as a tool for mental stimulation, especially among the elderly, with support from medical research. There is a possibility that mahjong will be allowed to be played publicly (in community centres, for example) as a means to let senior citizens keep mentally active (see Mind Games to While Time Away in an NTUC article on wellness). Across different demographics, interest in mahjong is rising. Non-Chinese are learning how to play this interesting game; more young people are picking up because of the mental challenges, association with gambling notwithstanding; and we (JT and I) represent those who are taking it as a serious mindsport. Mahjong is good for things other than gambling after all, and there are people who recognise this!
Anyway, the ST article was basically a chance for us to advertise MCR in Singapore. We are passionate about mahjong, and we want to show the rest of Singaporeans how fun and challenging mahjong can be, without the stigma of gambling. Well, we are still trying to assess the impact of the article on this particular aspect, but JT is already a little miffed that people apparently did not read the article carefully or at all, judging from their uninformed comments. She had written about her thoughts and reactions in Mahjong Article on ST Life and Further Reactions on the ST Article on her blog JT's Life Snippets.
Although we have received some rather snide and uninformed comments, there are some perhaps positive outcomes. There have been some tentative requests to know about the game, and we are most glad to share more about MCR. It will be good to spread the MCR ruleset as an alternative to the local variant ("Singapore Style"), and to meet fellow mahjong enthusiasts and make some new friends in the process. The long-term impact is harder to gauge, but at least we have moved one step, albeit a tiny one, closer towards our goals of seeing mahjong tournaments and serious participation in mahjong as a mental sport in Singapore.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
December Update
Some interesting things have happened since the previous blog entry, such as the World Mahjong Championships in Chengdu and the ST article on mahjong, and I will be trying to catch up with posts on these things. Work had been tiring and hectic, and had left me little time for blogging, but this will be rectified.
On the playing front, things have been a little slow as well. We had few games in the past two months, due to players having scheduling problems, but hopefully, the new year will bring some better opportunities for playing.
| EP | 71 | +2415 | 28 |
| JT | 69.5 | +2687 | 27 |
| WJ | 22 | -1296 | 18 |
| AJ | 21 | -877 | 16 |
| KP | 11 | -209 | 8 |
| AW | 6.5 | -831 | 8 |
| SJ | 2 | -1319 | 8 | EL | 0 | -570 | 3 |
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Rankings Update for October 2007
It has been a while since this blog has been updated. However, that does not mean there has been no activity. Mahjong is still being played. In fact, we have one new member in our little group! Welcome, SJ!
| EP | 62 | +2259 | 24 |
| JT | 57.5 | +2028 | 23 |
| WJ | 22 | -956 | 16 |
| AJ | 16 | -807 | 13 |
| KP | 11 | -209 | 8 |
| AW | 6.5 | -831 | 8 |
| EL | 0 | -570 | 3 | SJ | 0 | -914 | 5 |
Monday, September 17, 2007
Life Snippets of a Mahjong Player
JT has set up her own blog JT's Life Snippets to blog about her mahjong play in MCR and other snippets of her life! She has already posted some blogs about her recent big wins and analysed her approach.
As JT's blog focuses on the details (especially of her own winning hands), it is most complementary to this blog, which is more of an overview of the MCR games we play. Like Benjamin Boas' blog, JT's blog will help fill the gap in viewpoints and information on mahjong playing (albeit MCR), with some serious analysis of hand development and defence.
Here's wishing JT all the best in her blogging and mahjong playing (as well as the analysis that follows)!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Big Wins Continued
After all the excitement in the preceding few weeks, it seems as if the streak of high-scoring hands was continuing, as there were two big wins in the 25th August session. Still, there were no major changes to the rankings, as everyone remains firmly in their positions. While JT obtained 6 table points from two games to advance her position, EP also took 6 table points to stay tantalisingly ahead!
| EP | 41 | +1585 | 16 |
| JT | 36.5 | +1451 | 15 |
| AJ | 15 | -699 | 12 |
| WJ | 14 | -1179 | 12 |
| KP | 9 | -8 | 5 |
| AW | 3.5 | -580 | 5 |
| EL | 0 | -570 | 3 |
Session Report for 25 August 2007
The first game was full of interesting starting hands. For EP, these most unlikely hands turned into winning ones. From many unpromising-looking hands, he managed to fashion several winning hands to win the first game. AJ was most unfortunate, for not only did she almost not win any hand, she discarded the winning tiles six times, four of which went to EP, letting EP amass so many contest points!
One of the more interesting hands won by EP happened early in Game 1. He was basically attempting to make an All Fives hand, but it seemed that hand was going to end in a draw. On the very last tile, WJ discarded a 2d (2 Dot) which appeared to be a safe discard, especially since it was the last 2d. EP took one look and quickly claimed it for a Last Tile Claim win coupled to a Last Tile. Together with a few other fan, it turned out to be a sizeable 19-point hand! No All Fives, but still a good win!
+winning+(2-rowed).jpg)
The lesson: the last tile discard is always a potential winning tile for ready hands, since the Last Tile Claim fan has enough points for any ready hand to win, whatever the composition of that hand. So, it would be best to scrutinise the discards to see which tile is really safe. In this case, 2d was not truly safe. Although there were three 2d tiles already discarded, the tiles adjacent to 2d were not all discarded, meaning that there were players still holding onto nearby dot tiles (most probably as sequences). EP did and indeed won with the 2d, which completed a sequence of 2d-3d-4d.
Besides interesting starting hands, the kinds of hands won were also interesting to observe. For example, there was a string of Lower Four hands won by three different players. There was also a string of Pure Straight hands, but this is not as surprising as the players are all rather oriented towards chow-based hands.
The second game started out well for WJ, who won three of the first five hands. The sixth hand, South 2, was a turning-point, for JT. JT had received a very good starting hand.
+starting.jpg)
The fan was obvious: go for Triple Pung of the nines, and All Terminals and Honours was also possible. However, the hand was very drawn-out. JT managed to draw a GD, and melded that when one was discarded. Almost to the end of the hand, she had not managed to meld any other sets, but she was actually ready. On JT's right was WJ, striving to make a Melded Hand. She had come to a point when she was ready, with a single concealed tile, with the rest melded on the table. When she had to discard one of the two tiles after drawing, she decided to discard the 9d as she figured she had more chance of winning with the other tile. 9d had not been discarded at all, so she figured someone else was keeping all the others (which was true). JT melded the 9d for a melded kong, then drew a replacement tile, which turned out to be a winning tile for her. The results: All Terminals and Honours, Triple Pung, Out with Replacement Tile and a few others for a total of 64 points. It was heavy damage, considering this was a self-drawn win. With this, JT overtook everyone else comfortably by collecting 216 points, and she maintained the lead all the way to the end of the game.
+winning.jpg)
For this hand, WJ's Melded Hand basically left her with little defensive alternatives. As JT's hand was mainly concealed, it was hard to predict the dangerous tiles to discard, although the lack of discards of the nines was a good clue. Discarding a terminal tile so late in the hand was therefore very dangerous! WJ admitted she did not read the discards carefully, and it was a painful lesson for her, since she was in the lead initially. If JT had directly won with the 9d discard, she still would not have made such a big gain, but it turned out to be an Out with Replacement Tile win instead.
As a consolation, WJ managed to win with a hand including an All Terminals and Honours fan, worth a total of 38 points, in the very last hand (North 4), but was not able to get enough points to get 2nd place. WJ at least managed to take back 2 table points for this session, while AJ had none at all!
| EP | 4 | +331 | 9 (2) | 2 |
| JT | 2 | +109 | 4 (2) | 1 |
| WJ | 1 | -153 | 2 (0) | 3 |
| AJ | 0 | -287 | 1 (0) | 6 |
| JT | 4 | +191 | 4 (2) | 4 |
| EP | 2 | +68 | 5 (1) | 2 |
| WJ | 1 | -67 | 5 (0) | 4 |
| AJ | 0 | -192 | 2 (0) | 3 |
Friday, August 24, 2007
Big Wins Galore!
Everyone seems to be doing well at the mahjong table recently, more or less. JT obtained her highest ever score in a single game, +567 points, although EP holds the group record of +596. We have also seen a few high scoring hands (details below). With such interesting hands, some discussion about strategy had surfaced, and we all learnt more as we played.
| EP | 35 | +1186 | 14 |
| JT | 30.5 | +1151 | 13 |
| AJ | 15 | -220 | 10 |
| WJ | 12 | -959 | 10 |
| KP | 9 | -8 | 5 |
| AW | 3.5 | -580 | 5 |
| EL | 0 | -570 | 3 |
Session Report for 04 August 2007
It has been a while since KP and AW played. With KP and AW, the overall game strategy changes. There are usually very few chow-based hands due to KP's playing style (he favours pung-based and semi-pure hands). With pungs happening everywhere, chow-based hands get affected, and players (especially players who favour chow-based hands like JT) are sometimes forced to abandon such hands.
In fact, for this game, there were fewer chow-based winning hands compared to other occasions. There were only four hands with All Chows, and none with Mixed Triple Chows or Mixed Shifted Chows, although there were five hands with Pure Straight, one Pure Shifted Chows and one Mixed Straight. The fact that there are chow-based hands not in combination with All Chows showed that pungs were made very often to complete hands.
KP was rather unlucky in this game as he did not win many hands. He was also Robbed of a Win in one hand, because JT happened to be sitting above him. JT herself was Robbed by EP in a later hand. Such was the turn of fortune.
Early in the game, AW managed to make a beautiful hand, consisting of Three Concealed Pungs, Mixed Shifted Pungs, All Pungs, All Simples, Concealed Hand and a Double Pung, worth a total of 36 points. Had AW drawn the winning tile herself, she would have gotten Four Concealed Pungs. Because of her wait, her hand was potentially worth a Triple Pung (instead of the Mixed Shifted Pungs).
Just a couple of hands later, EP managed to win with an All Terminals and Honours hand, courtesy of JT's discard. EP had melded pungs of 1D, WW and EW when JT discarded a WD (rather uneasily, seeing EP's threatening melds on the table). AW soon followed with a discard of WD, and then she threw out NW, which EP prompted melded. So, on the table, there was four melded pungs indicating a possible All Terminals and Honours hand, as well as a possible Melded Hand. Unluckily for JT, she thought WD was safe because there were already two discards on the table, so she discarded WD, only for EP to win with that very discard. The crucial point was the melding of NW which made EP's hand ready with a single wait (a cunning or desperate WD, depending on your viewpoint), which JT did not realise. Sadly for EP, the hand was undervalued because he forgot to count in Big Three Winds. Nonetheless, he made enough points to obtain 4 table points for this game.
| EP | 4 | +210 | 5 (2) | 3 |
| AW | 2 | -24 | 3 (1) | 1 |
| JT | 1 | -53 | 4 (2) | 3 |
| KP | 0 | -133 | 2 (1) | 1 |
Session Report for 18 August 2007
This was an exciting session, where many high-scoring hands were attempted, and several hands were drawn-out affairs, almost ending in draws. Ultimately, JT emerged most triumphant, with an emphatic win of +567 points in Game 1. Although she did not do as well in Game 2, the results of Game 2 is not consequential as it was incomplete, with only 12 hands played due to lack of time.
Interestingly, this session also saw many self-drawn wins — 14 hands out of a total of 27 winning hands were self-drawn! JT made 5 self-drawn wins out of a total of 8 wins in Game 1 alone, which contributed greatly to her high score. The other players were simply no match for her in Game 1. In Game 2, all the hands in the entire West round were won with self-drawn tiles (two each by EP and JT).
Now, to the high-scoring hands made in this session. The first was made by JT in the middle of the West round. By this point in time, JT was already leading with +282 points to the second-placed EP's +31. JT managed to self-draw a winning tile to obtain Four Pure Shifted Pungs with Full Flush and a few other small fan to win some 255 points from the rest of the players, putting her in an unstoppable lead!
The second high-scoring hand was made by WJ in Game 2. Earlier in Game 1, WJ had a potential Little Three Dragons, having two tiles each of RD and GD. For some reason, she discarded WD when she drew it, even though no dragons had been discarded at this time. So, later, WJ melded RD. EP then gave her the GD, as there was already no danger that she would win with a Little Three Dragons since she discarded the WD herself. Unfortunately for WJ, she drew WD again, and saw the wasted Little Three Dragons. The consensus during the discussion after the hand was that WD should have been kept in hand, since no dragons had been discarded yet, meaning there was a good chance of completing a Three Dragons fan, Big or Little.
Well, WJ had a second chance in Game 2! Again, she got a starting hand with two pairs of dragons. She had a complete triplet of RD and she melded a kong with it. Up to this point, there was no other indication that she was attempting another Three Dragons fan, although there were no other dragons discarded at all. WJ continued to meld a WW and then a bamboo sequence. After some time, WJ managed to self-draw a WD to complete a Little Three Dragons! Having missed one earlier, WJ refused to let go of her single WD this time round (she had a concealed triplet of GD). This winning hand was worth some 79 points for the basic score, and she jumped into the lead with the 261 points she collected from the other players.
Unfortunately, the next few hands saw her lose ground, and she dropped to second place overall. It is a pity this game was not completed and thus did not count towards the group rankings. All in all, there was plenty of excitement and fun this session. Big wins sure are fun!
| JT | 4 | +567 | 8 (5) | 1 |
| EP | 2 | -137 | 3 (1) | 3 |
| AJ | 1 | -161 | 3 (2) | 3 |
| WJ | 0 | -269 | 1 (0) | 0 |
| EP | (4) | +167 | 5 (2) | 0 |
| WJ | (2) | +141 | 3 (2) | 3 |
| JT | (1) | -108 | 3 (2) | 2 |
| AJ | (0) | -200 | 1 (0) | 1 |
