Tag Archives: mahjongg

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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I’m looking forward to many comments from all of you regarding the following situation. My “sista” Johni and I had a long discussion about this and we were both in agreement that this was a valid Mah Jongg. But this could be looked at differently and not deemed to be valid. What do you think?

A Player had an exposure of three South’s and a Joker to complete the kong.  Someone threw an East and she declared Mah Jongg. As she put up her tiles, she exchanged a South she had in her rack for her own exposed Joker, then put that Joker with three North’s that were in her rack to expose a kong which was needed to complete the Mah Jongg hand. The hand being played was NNN E W SSSS 2015. Was this a valid Mahj?

Two prior rulings by Ruth Unger are key to the discussion here. 

#1 You are able to re-sort your hand into a valid Mahj if you have the correct 14 tiles.

Player calls Mahj and displays her hand, however she has placed the Joker in the incorrect spot in her hand and exposes a pung, pung, kong, kong, instead of a pung kong pung kong. Ruth stated that since she HAD the correct 14 tiles in her hand, it is a valid Mah Jongg, and could simply be arranged correctly. She ruled that you are allowed to rearrange your hand if you have the correct 14 tiles in your hand. 

*This supports the contention that our player has Mah Jongg when she calls the East and is simply rearranging her exposed 14 tiles as allowed.

 #2 You already “own” the Joker if the tile it is used for is on your rack. 

Ruth calls this a “finesse” move. A player holds back a tile that can be replaced on another player’s rack. She waits until her 13th tile is thrown, calls it for exposure, then replaces the tile on the other player’s rack and that Joker gives her Mah Jongg. She is then entitled to a self-picked bonus. Ruth ruled that this does NOT apply if you exchange a tile exposed on your own rack because all you are doing is simply rearranging your own tiles. In essence, you already own the Joker. No self-picked bonus is then allowed.

*This supports the contention that our player already owned the Joker since she had the South tile in her own hand and is allowed to call the single East.

Back to our example …the calling of the single East obviously would not be allowed if she had to exchange a tile from ANOTHER player’s rack, but since it was on her OWN rack, it is allowed. If we apply either one of Ruth’s prior ruling that “any 14 tiles that can be arranged correctly is a valid Mahj,” or that you already “own” the Joker if you have the replaceable tile in your hand, this would mean she would be able to call that single East for a valid Mah Jongg. Both of her rulings seem to support this Mahj being valid. If you don’t agree, please explain.

UM…THE MOST AMAZING MAHJONG TABLE?

I had a good laugh while watching this “commercial” for “the most amazing Mahjong table” so I decided to share it with you. I hope you will get as big a kick out of it as I did. And this posting never would have been possible without the perseverance and wonderful techie skills of my fabulous friend, Jan E!!!

KEEP PLAYING!

I know I posted some similar articles last year but recently Johni Levene posted this on her new “Mah Jongg, That’s It” Facebook site (be sure to join – it’s really wonderful) and so I thought it might be time to post it again to remind us all that not only is our beloved Mah Jongg fun but it’s good for us too!

The Effects of Mahjong

By Erica Dreisbach, eHow Contributor
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Mahjong can have powerful effects on improving memory.

Mahjong is the Chinese word for “sparrow,” and is a game of strategy and skill played with tiles featuring Chinese characters. It resembles the English card game Rummy. Four players construct a wall from tiles that is 18 tiles wide and 2 tiles high. Dice rolls determine the play order and each player takes 13 tiles from the wall into his hand with an extra tile for the east player, then collects and discards tiles in order to build sets of three. Mahjong is mental exercise that, according to recent psychiatric and cognitive behavioral studies, can have powerful effects on improving memory and reducing dementia. Mahjong is thus a highly effective and low-cost therapy that can be integrated into the daily routines of most institutions.

  1. Reduced Dementia

    • Hong Kong researchers found in a 2006 study that participants with a median age of over 83 years who met a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) diagnosis of dementia significantly improved after playing mahjong twice or four times per week over the course of 16 weeks. This was true for players in both experimental groups, regardless of the frequency of play. The study also showed that the effects lasted even a month after mahjong play stopped, demonstrating that the positive cognitive effects of mahjong are powerful and long-lasting after participants have reached a certain threshold of improvement.

    Lower Risk of Dementia

    • Mahjong not only reduces dementia already affecting patients, but additional studies show that mahjong reduces the risk of ever developing it in the first place. Research on different varieties of cognitive games demonstrates that those who regularly do crossword puzzles or play strategic and mentally stimulating games like bridge and mahjong have a far lower risk of developing dementia compared to their peers who perform non-stimulating activities like watching television.

    Verbal Memory

    • Mahjong is a visual game, and players need not be able to read or understand the Chinese characters written on the playing tiles in order to benefit from its positive cognitive effects. Interestingly, though mahjong does not necessarily involve reading or speaking, playing it improves verbal memory for players of all nationalities. Verbal memory refers to the ability to remember words and other abstracted concepts from language (like syntax). The 2006 Hong Kong study found that verbal memory was improved moderately to significantly for participants who played mahjong on a regular weekly basis.