During childhood, I used to encounter mahjong only during Chinese New Year. As a child and adolescent, I would pick one corner of the mahjong table and sandwich myself between two relatives to play the role of a spectator. Many a time, I would imagine being told to take over one of the players and spar against the seasoned veterans. Unsurprisingly, it remained a fantasy because obviously none of the players would have wanted an inexperienced kid to mess up the gameplay and end up losing money. Although I was not taught how to play mahjong, I picked up some patterns of the gameplay over the years as I observed my relatives play mahjong .
As I entered adulthood, I started playing mahjong occasionally with friends, thus allowing me to gain some experience and improve my skills as a beginner. At the same time, my siblings also started to play more mahjong and we eventually established ourselves as worthy opponents of our grandparents. In recent years, whenever we visited our grandparents, we would spar against them and give them a run for their money.
In medical school, we learn different approaches to various symptoms that the patient presents with and each approach has some form of algorithm to help us make a diagnosis. Examples include approach to chest pain and approach to shortness of breath. Here, I would like to share my algorithm and thought process when it comes to mahjong. I am definitely not an expert in mahjong, but I would like to share some methods to maximise your chances of winning. Who knows, maybe you will get to impress your mahjong kakis during your next game!
1. Do I have at least 1 point from animal or flower tiles?
If yes, then I am safe. Minimally, I will be able to win with a 1 point hand if I simply Eat and Pong. Normally, I will try to gain more than 1 point by employing some of the strategies listed below. On occasions where my opponents have already accumulated 3 points and above, I may try to win as fast as possible to deny them. Beware that your opponents will label you as a “One Point (一台) Warrior” if you choose to employ this strategy, because you are effectively denying them of winning more money.
If no, then things get more complicated.
2. What can I do to maximise my chances of getting at least 1 point from my hand?
If I have any animal or flower tile which does not give me any point, I can try to form a “Smelly” Eat Sets Only (臭平和) that is worth 1 point.
If I do not have any animal or flower tiles at all, I will try to form Eat Sets Only (平和), which is worth 4 points normally. Frequently, I will end up drawing an animal or flower tile mid-game. I will curse myself and lament my bad luck because it automatically downgrades my hand to a “Smelly” Eat Sets Only (臭平和), which is very unfortunate as it is only worth 1 point.
If I have at least 2 “big tiles” (大牌) (e.g. table wind, seat wind, or any of the 3 dragon tiles such as 红中, 发财 or 白板), I can possibly try to Pong this set of “big tiles” to get 1 point (or 2 if the table wind is also my seat wind). Depending on my risk appetite for that game, I may forgo this 1 point to win a potential 4 point game. This means that I will need to sacrifice these “big tiles” to try to form Eat Sets Only which is worth more points. This is because I cannot form Eat Sets Only with any “big tiles” in my hand that are worth points.
If I have at least two pairs in my hand, I can restrict myself to Pong Sets Only (碰碰和) which is worth 2 points. Some house rules permit 7 Pairs (七对子), which is considerably harder to achieve as I will have to draw all my tiles without Eat or Pong.
If more than half of my tiles are of the same suit, I can try forming a Pure Suit (清一色) which is potentially worth 3 or 4 points depending on house rules.
If I have a mix of “big tiles” and tiles of the same suit, I can go for a Mixed Suit (半色) which gives me 2 point.
If my tiles are really poor and I have at least 8 of the 14 tiles needed for 13 Wonders (十三幺), then I will go for it. Even though I have yet to see it happen in my limited career, this is definitely worth a shot because it can be worth more than the maximum number of points (normally 5) and some house rules may mandate an immediate cash payout once 13 Wonders is obtained.
If I have no points at all, I may be tempted to Eat and Pong different suits during the game. For example, I can Eat a set of bamboo suit (索) and Pong another set of circles (筒). However, I rarely do this as it drastically limits my chances of winning. If I do this, then the only way that I can get at least 1 point (needed to win the game) is to draw the winning tile (自摸), or an animal or flower tile (that is worth 1 point) during the game, which depends solely on my luck.
There are many other combinations that you can form to gain more points, but the ones listed above are the more common ones that I come across. I hope this helps, huat ah!
Kaiser 