Gemma’s Journal #6 – Missed Win Rule
So Missed Win means that if I’ve already discarded a tile that could have completed my hand, even if that’s not the tile I eventually want to win on, then I can’t Mahjong on it.
I got an email from Walter this week with evidence that the puzzle that we had last week can occur in real life!
This was a picture from the Mahjong Montreal Winter Tournament
An amazing wait of 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 bamboo. (He quaded the 8 because it was a Drag (Lucky Tile)!)
However, if he wasn’t careful and had previously discarded one of these tiles then his hand would have become a lost hand. It’s this Missed Win (or Lost Hand, a.k.a. Sacred Discard) rule that I wanted to look at in this entry. Mostly because it’s really upsetting me and catching me out A LOT recently. (If you’re not understanding the terms I just used because you know the Japanese one etc, you clearly have not checked out Jenn’s great new glossary! Made lovingly for you! http://reachmahjong.com/en/rules/glossary.html)
So Missed Win means that if I’ve already discarded a tile that could have completed my hand, even if that’s not the tile I eventually want to win on, then I can’t Mahjong on it. Unless I pull it myself. Woah, that’s a complicated sentence! To make it a little clearer I’ll use some pictures!
My hand is this:
My discards look like this:
My wait is 6-dot, 9-dot… But oh no! There’s the 6-dot in my discard pile! That’s a Lost Hand for me…
That’s quite a simple one to see but that’s when those horrible waits start to catch you out. When you (more specifically me) don’t calculate correctly your wait and then realise to your horror after you’ve reached that unless you pull it yourself you’re lost – it’s really annoying!
That’s why these puzzles are so good! So that we can get used to the patterns that come up and see what we’re waiting on better. Certainly something that I need more practice on if my recent performance is anything to go by!
And with that here’s my puzzle for you! Actually I have two this week. Perhaps they may be a little too easy for the more experienced but I hope they’ll be fun nonetheless.
What’s my wait?
And this is a hand I actually got playing ron2 this week. Can you see what my wait is? Also try and guess which tile I’d discarded that made this hand fall foul of the Missed Win rule!
If anyone else has some more puzzles that they think might be fun and interesting, please email them to me! Or maybe you had a really exciting hand last week and want to share it with us? I know I always get confused whilst playing as to what I might be waiting on, so I jot down my hand and then look at it at my leisure later. Anything like that then email me!
Or just send me fanmail! I like to feel loved! heehee
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