The Lone Player
Tina Christensen and Morten Anderson held an amazing riichi mahjong seminar this month after the Copenhagen Open. The first one of its kind in Europe and I hope something that will set a precedent for more…
It was especially useful for players such as myself that are alone in their hobby. I rarely get to speak with others about mahjong and certainly not peers. I certainly need criticism regarding my play style.
But not having a club or people to play with and discuss strategy has made me curiously closed about my tactics. I’m not sure why; I’m not very secretive about anything usually.
Of course, this isn’t healthy. I think I’d even be anxious to allow someone to watch a whole game of mine. I don’t know what I feel like I’ve got to hide…
Maybe it’s because I’m actually worried people will realize what a donk I am. I’ve improved my game a lot over the past year. I was really struggling to work out how to play my hands and I had a lot of crushing defeats. Of course, I still have those days but I also have the good days. Unfortunately, I still think those good days are down to pure luck rather than skill.
Am I selling myself short? Perhaps… After an impressive fail at the World Series of Mahjong I spent a lot of time playing and reading strategy books that I imported from Japan. I guess something must have gone in… The reason that I’m not feeling confident is because I don’t have the support of a club again.
This lack of friends is working against me in two ways! One is I’m not getting enough criticism from others and I’m also not getting enough support to be confident in my own strategy.
I guess the answer would be to set up my own club. It just seems so daunting to get all the materials together (sets, table, space) and potentially a bunch of complete beginners to teach (my teaching skills leave much to be desired).
Where is this article going… The moral is for those of you with clubs, make sure you appreciate them! They’re your key to success in mahjong!
