It seems like forever and a day since I last joined the OMs for Mah Jongg Wednesday but today brought a few of us back together. We were supposed to go to S1’s but she came down with a nasty cold and had to back out for today. D was kind enough to invite us to her club for lunch and then an afternoon of Mah Jongg and we happily accepted her lovely invitation. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay for the full afternoon but I did get a few hands in during the short time I was there. For some unknown reason, we had a lot of wall games today – one of them was purposely created by me when I saw that my remaining tiles needed were all discarded and I couldn’t possibly win; I set up a situation with two exposures where everyone was sure about what hand I was playing and they all went into defensive mode resulting in a wall game…my strategy worked!
Here is one hand where I did successfully declare Mah Jongg:
A CONSECUTIVE RUN hand of 444 5555 666 7777. I was very happy with this hand because after the Charleston I didn’t have any tiles that worked together except for two 6 Bams. I was very surprised when the hand came together.
But then, I really messed up.
I was so very, very proud of myself for declaring Mah Jongg on this WINDS-DRAGONS hand of NN 77 SSS 777 7777.
However, I had exposed the 7777 earlier before the hand came together. When the N was discarded, I called for it and declared Mah Jongg – everyone was so impressed because this is a tough hand. BUT…then D noticed that it was a closed hand – I had totally ignored that C on the card! So, I was dead and the game went on (it resulted in yet another wall game) but even though I made a fatal mistake by not noticing that it was a closed hand, I still was secretly proud of myself for (sort of) completing this hand!
Those of you who read this blog know that I have made this mistake before and I finally highlighted in yellow all closed hands. But I had somehow lost that card (how did that happen?) and never got around to highlighting the closed hands on this replacement card. LESSON LEARNED!!!
Mah Jongg and Me 
Ann , remember to keep that highlighter close by since the yellow fades so quickly.
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Oh that’s happened to me also….grrr
Last week we played 8 games and 7 of them went to the Wall….yesterday we played 8 games and there was only one Wall! (I declared Mah Jongg four times – all hands I haven’t had before…..I’m a happy MahJer….
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That Winds with matching numbers is tricky, you need jokers, and it is closed, I haven’t been successful either :-(. Oh well that is Mahj
Hoping this one does not return in the new card
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Ann, We have a really good player in our group, who just happens to be a man. He uses a red highlighter on his card. It doesn’t fade out as quickly as the yellow.
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So maddening when at the end you realize it was a closed hand…I am glad to hear that it happens to other “seasoned” players as well!
How nice of you to share…..
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Happens to all of us, Ann!
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