Archive for the ‘In Garthe’s Hands’ Category
In Garthe’s League
Jul 11th, 2011
by garthe
Well, it was another long night of happiness on Saturday leading straight into league play on Sunday.
I played tight and smart to win the first game and decided to switch it up at the beginning of the second game. My first hand, dealer, I won with this hand:
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
In Garthe’s Hands:
Jun 20th, 2011
by garthe
I won my first game of the study session last night. And then lost the last 3. It was perfectly representative of why my results have been so haphazard lately.
In the first game I played pretty tight, giving up many hands early because they just didn’t seem likely to win, and not reaching with my semi-expensive tenpai hands. For example, the last hand of the East round, Setokuma was dealer and I was in the East seat with this Ready hand (tenpai):
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
Why is s/he playing?
Jan 24th, 2011
by garthe
Man have I played a lot of mahjong lately. And actually, results on the whole haven’t been so bad recently too. I was feeling pretty good about my play until I ran into the same comment a couple times, once directed to me, once to someone else, and both with unveiled disgust for their target. It has definitely been food for thought.
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
Continue winning! Blech!
Dec 16th, 2010
by garthe
What? Continuing to win is a bad thing? No. But needing to win to continue is. Why does Garthe hate everything, you may ask. I don’t. Name one thing, you order. Tenpai-renchan! I say.
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
Who are you fooling?
Nov 5th, 2010
by garthe
This is part of my continuing series on dumbing my play back down because I’ve gotten so good I can’t stop winning any more. Ok, of course the problem is that my play has gotten so smart I can’t win at all anymore. There are a lot of tricks we learn along the way to help us win games in this situation or that. But it’s easy to trick yourself right out of winning if you overuse them.
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
Final Destination?
Oct 1st, 2010
by garthe
Sometimes when my game is a little bit off and I stop and think about why I’ve been losing lately instead of being my normal non-stop winning self, one of the things I find is that I’ve been over-reaching, pun executed!
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
Luck Revisited
Mar 29th, 2010
by garthe
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, (which I’ve also said before and will again too probably) Mahjong is a lifelong study. At least I expect it will be for me. There are several things I think that will always be mysteries or at least will always be parts of my game which need improvement. One of those is the Japanese concept of “tsuki” or “nagare”, often translated as “luck” and “flow”. I’ve written of my disdain for the idea before. But the more I play and try to fly in the face of the idea, the more I seem to be done in by it. Let’s look at a couple series of hands from some recent games.
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
In Garthe’s Hands: Tsumo
Feb 20th, 2010
by garthe
Is your basic strategy to reach pretty much any time you have a ready hand? It’s certainly an aggressive way to play. And we all know that aggression generally tends to get us more than passive resistance. At least in Mahjong.
But what happens when the other players start to realize that you reach with anything? They’ll probably start coming back at you with just about anything too. While that may be to your advantage when you happen to have a monster, you can’t always have a big hand. Sometimes you’re going to end up paying big to someone who might have given up his hand in fear of your reach.
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
Delicious Sanshoku – Garthe’s Back!
Jan 10th, 2010
by garthe
Greetings, Happy New Year, long time no write and all that!
Yes it’s been a while since I’ve written here at Reachmahjong.com. I’ve been slogging it out in the trenches, trying to figure out how the heck to play this silly game and I think I may finally have some new insights to share with you.
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
Still Drawing? Time to Fold?
Apr 16th, 2009
by garthe
I’ve been playing a lot of Badugi lately in my ongoing quest to be a better gambler. Of course, that could also be read as my just trying to find a game, some game, any game, that I can win. Sometimes I write notes to myself and hope that you guys will find them interesting. How about one of those notes today?
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Posted in Columns, In Garthe's Hands |
