ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCORE SETTLING

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In the four layouts following, the illustrations represent all the hands together as they are laid down after one of the players wins. They serve to clear up "settling" of the scores and also bring out important points in the playing of the hands. In each case the score of the four players is given in total and practice in the calculating of scores can be obtained by beginners by scoring these hands and comparing their results with the given scores.


West Wind 400; South Wind 64; East Wind 608; North Wind 16


West Wind 400; South Wind 64; East Wind 608; North Wind 16

East Wind "Mah-Jongged" with a total score of 608 points. He collects double this amount from each of the other three winds because he is East Wind, and winning, collects double. This makes 1216 from each player or a total of 3648. He then throws his hand into the discard and the other three players settle, the high hand collecting the difference between his hand and the remaining two. In the illustration, West Wind is the high hand and he collects 336 from South Wind and 484 from North Wind, the difference between his hand and those of South and North Winds, respectively. He then discards his hand and leaves the South and North Winds to settle. They do this by South Wind collecting 48 points from North; both discard their tiles, and the scores are settled. It might be best here to analyze the above layout to see how the play went. East Wind's hand appeared harmless enough because he had most of it concealed, only exposing two sets. On this account, none of the other opponents would hesitate about discarding the eight of bamboo which allowed him to Mah-Jongg. North and South Winds having poor hands themselves might have held the eight of bamboo and not have taken a chance on it "putting him out" if they had been warned how near he was to winning, for West Wind had an exceptionally fine hand with the best part of it concealed and he won back from North and South Winds more than half of his payment to East, the winner.

North and South Winds fell in a conflict of suits, one of the most frequent occurrences of the game and one which spoils a great many otherwise good hands. They were both attempting to complete "all dot" hands and each has two conflicting pairs, namely, 5 and 6 of dots. Either of them to win can only have one pair in their hand, and each was holding the other from any chance of winning.

When two players play for the same suit, it is best for both to give up any idea of obtaining all of one suit, and fill in the hand with one or two sets of winds or dragons. Very often one can get three doubles in this way when it would be impossible to complete a hand of all one suit.


West Wind 2816; South Wind 8; East Wind 4; North Wind 22

NORTH WIND MAH-JONGGS

North Wind Mah-Jonggs with 22 points as his total score. He collects 22 points apiece from North Wind and South Wind. East, however, must pay him double or 44, being banker and losing. This gives North Wind a total of 88. The other three then settle. West Wind with a total of 2816; collects the difference between his hand and East Wind's which is 2814, doubled because he won from East Wind and East Wind must pay double when he loses. This gives West Wind 5628 from East Wind, and just the difference in their hands from South Wind which is 2808. Then South Wind in settling with East Wind collects the difference, 4, double or 8. This layout demonstrates the point that it is not always necessary to Mah-Jongg or win, in order to take in the highest number of points. North Wind "Mah-Jongged" and collected only 88 points, whereas West Wind collected a total of 8,436 points. What evidently took place in this hand goes as follows: West Wind was exceptionally fortunate in the draw and soon had three sets of winds and dragons exposed, or on the table. The other three players seeing in this a dangerous hand, "ran for cover," this consisting of gathering all the sequences possible together, and mixing the suits. By doing this a player can very quickly complete his hand and win, although his score will be low when he does win. However, the one who does "Mah-Jongg," no matter how low his score may be, collects that amount, and escapes any exceptionally high scoring hands which the other players may hold. In this case it was North Wind who won out and avoided paying many points to West Wind by doing so.


West Wind 64; South Wind 10; East Wind 56; North Wind 416

NORTH WIND MAH-JONGGS

In the above layout, North Wind winning, scores 416; West Wind 64; South Wind 10, and East Wind 56; North Wind then takes 832 from East Wind, and 416 from West and South Winds. West Wind collects 54 from South Wind and 16 from East Wind; East Wind then collects 46 doubled or 92 from South Wind.

In this game both North and West Winds played for all dot hands; North Wind foreseeing this early in the game filled in his hand with winds and dragons, in this way winning out over West Wind; East Wind starting with a pair of green dragons kept them until he had all characters except the pair. Then came the time for him to decide on whether he would discard the pair and try to fill an all character hand, or use the dragons. He decided on the latter because looking at North Wind's exposed tiles he saw that North Wind was dangerously near to winning. He filled his dragons and attempted to win as quickly as possible, almost succeeding and needing only one tile to complete his hand.


West Wind 64; South Wind 48; East Wind 80; North Wind 152

NORTH WIND MAH-JONGGS

North Wind "Mah-Jongged," collects 304 from East and 152 from West and South respectively. Then—East Wind collects 16 doubled or 32 from West and 32 doubled or 64 from South. West Wind wins 16 from South who is the loser all around. East Wind's difficulty above was that he decided on all bamboo hand at the start of the game without having a sufficient number of pairs in that suit. The result was that by the time that he drew the pairs and was ready to pung discards the other players had already discarded a number of tiles which he needed in his hand. They were then dead. The result of all this can be seen in his hand above; he has still two pairs and a sequence to fill and the particular tiles needed to do this (the 4, 5 and 8 of bamboo) have probably all been discarded early in the game by the other players. The point thus illustrated being: It is not advisable to attempt the completing of a suit which all the other players are discarding unless sufficient pairs are held from the start to withstand their attacks.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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