Hi all,
One of my friends who is a often to be seen at our mahjong table,
seems to have but one goal in life: making Thirteen Unique Wonders
(Thirteen Orphans). We dispute a lot about this, since I consider this
as a complete waste. Almost every night, he tries to complete this
hand one, two or three times. Until now he never has succeeded, but he
always reports: 'I had just one tile to go'. 'Two tiles away from the
Thirteen Unique Wonders!'
The other night he tried again. When I deprecated again, he said: 'But
I had 11 tiles in the third turn already'. Which made me think he
might have been right this time, although after those 11 tiles he did
not get one extra tile.
Personally - although far from being a champion - I don't think I have
tried for the 13 Orphans more than two or three times. Still, it might
be advisable sometimes.
Kanai and Farrell write in Mah Jong for Beginner (p46) that there is
a Chinese proverb 'Dragon tiles should not be discarded when one of
each of these Dragon tiles are found at the first drawing but one
should give up the intention to Go Out'. If that is true, this might
be start of trying for the Ultimate Combination.
Generally, in the fifth or the sixth round one should decide what to do with ones hand. How many Orphans should you have then to go for it and consequently forfeiting other possible combinations, i.e. Seven Twins?
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From: mrep@telekabel2.nl (Martin Rep)
>Personally - although far from being a champion - I don't think I haveI've tried only twice, both times in the past two months.
>Generally, in the fifth or the sixth round one should decide what toI always try to decide well before that, when playing Japanese style anyway. I never heard of this guideline before.
>How many Orphans should you have then to go for itIn the Modern Japanese game this seems to have been clearly decided. If you have 14 tiles (you're the dealer) and you have exactly 9 odd honors & terminals (or if non-dealer has 13 tiles. Of which exactly 8 are odd honors & terminals), you are allowed to request a redeal. The reasoning, I am quite sure, is that if you have this many you have a very poor chance of turning the hand into either a normal hand OR a 13 Orphans hand.
Tom
On Mon, 2 Aug 1999 14:24:43 -0700, "Tom Sloper" <actsearch@aol.com> wrote:
>>Generally, in the fifth or the sixth round one should decide what to
>>do with ones hand.
>
>I always try to decide well before that, when playing Japanese style anyway.
>I never heard of this guideline before.
Perlmen/Chan suggests it (pag 118)
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On Mon, 2 Aug 1999 14:24:43 -0700, "Tom Sloper" <actsearch@aol.com> wrote:
>In the Modern Japanese game this seems to have been clearly decided. If you
>have 14 tiles (you're the dealer) and you have exactly 9 odd honors &
>terminals (or if non-dealer has 13 tiles. Of which exactly 8 are odd honors
>& terminals), you are allowed to request a redeal. The reasoning, I am
>quite sure, is that if you have this many you have a very poor chance of
>turning the hand into either a normal hand OR a 13 Orphans hand.
According to my knowledge, the correct rule is that one can 'enforce' a redeal if one has 9 /or more/ different honor/terminal tiles among his 14 hand tiles after his first draw.
"Live life with Heart." - Alan Kwan / tarot@notmenetvigator.com
http://home.netvigator.com/~tarot (hard-core game reviews)
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13 Orphans is an irregular hand which cannot make use of claiming discards until the hand is calling (ready). A universal feature of such hands is that the closer you are to calling, the more difficult it is to advance your hand because there are fewer tiles that will advance the hand when drawn. For example,
B-12349 EE S W N R G Wh
This hand can be improved by drawing a C1, C9, D1 or D9.
But, after several turns,
B-129 C-19 EE S W N R G Wh
Now this hand can only be improved by drawing a D1 to D9. It's almost as hard to get the next tile as it is to get the last 2 tiles combined.
Thus the hardest part of making 13 Orphans is not in collecting the first 7 or 8 terminals; it's in finding the second last. 10 terminals are not 10/13 of the hand, but rather say 1/2 or so.
It's a rather complicated thing whether one should try for the pattern in a given hand. But one should understand that success is more dependent on future luck than what one already has in his hand. I'd say that a good rule of thumb is to look at the prospects of the hand towards the /regular/ hand. If the hand is terrible material towards a regular hand, one might as well give the limit pattern a try.
On Mon, 02 Aug 1999 19:00:00 GMT, mrep@telekabel2.nl (Martin Rep) wrote:
>One of my friends who is a often to be seen at our mahjong table,This applies to Classical mj (only). In HK Old Style, a faan or 2 from dragon tiles are no big deal.
>Generally, in the fifth or the sixth round one should decide what to"Live life with Heart." - Alan Kwan / tarot@notmenetvigator.com
http://home.netvigator.com/~tarot (hard-core game reviews)
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In article <37a6b1fd.991541@news.netvigator.com>,
tarot@notmenetvigator.com (Alan Kwan) wrote:
[ whether one should plan to proceed for the "13 Orphans" hand ...]
> It's a rather complicated thing whether one should try for the patternI agree. In addition, one may also consider the following factors as well:
- Luck is most important. Ask yourself if you feel lucky in the Event of play. If the answer is YES, go ahead with it! Good things (dreams) always come your way if you are in good mood. On the other hand, if you are extremely bad luck in the play, try this once for a while as well - It might kick your bad luck away if you could win a high scores hand once or twice. (In time during the Game, you might find yourself in a situation getting more and more "Pung" sets of the "Honours" and "Terminals" in your concealed hand, thus giving you a direction to plan for an "All Pungs" hand with many "Honours" and "Terminals", and win with a high scores.)
- Do not show yourself off that you are building the "13 Orphans" hand - Otherwise other player(s) will discard all "Honours" and "Terminals" in the early stage and you get less chance to win on "13 Orphans" hand.
- Whether the "Agreed Highest Rank" is set to a high scores or just a low scores. If the highest Rank allowed is up to 3 or 6 Folds, rather than 10 Folds or higher, you better forget the plan in the early stage.
The above are just few of the hints and one should find much more in some books about mahjong strategies.
COFA TSUI
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