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Originally Posted by dad604 Quote: |
Originally Posted by chipper57AA I've seen the colorful tiles with Mahjong but haven't ever seen anyone play that with chips. Could someone post a pic of someone playing Mahjong with chips? | I think what you mean is the Mah Jong game provided with Windows. That is not Mah Jong, just a make up game using the tiles.
The real MJ game is similar in some ways to gin rummy. Basically you need to up 4 sets using 3 (or 4)of a kinds or runs of 3's and one pair. There different points for different kinds of hands when you go out. It is play with 4 people playing individually, not partnership. Depending on stake size, I have seen games session win/loss running from a few dollars to thousands of dollars.
Again like holdem, you can learn the mechanic of the game very fast but take a lifetime to master. It is the most popular game in the Chinese community, equal or surpassing bridge and poker in western society.
The strategy need is just too much too explain in a simple post. A person can write books on it. ie, just like poker you need to read the other 3 hands, you need to discard what other player do not need while balancing the need of yourself, the value of your hand vs other hands, etc. etc. |
There should be a set of "chips" that comes with a real maj-johng set, and also a "dealer button" that shows which wind it is. You are trying to make the best possible hand, and each hand has a value based on 1-4 with some doubling involved. The money paid to the winning hand is 2 to the power of the value (1-4) on the hand, times whatever is decided as the minimum value (similar to the blinds). Using poker chips would be ideal, but like I said, a number of chips should already be included in the set.
There are also other ways to get points (when you show four of a kind, for example, that's normally worth one small bet) and one hand -- running numbers -- usually has its own value in between a 2-3 value hand.
There's a lot of different strategy based on how long the game is going, what is showing, etc. At some point when someone is showing a big hand, it becomes very cautious -- if a person then throws a discard that would result in a win or a double, he has to pay for every losing hand at the table. At that point its important to be able to read the other players to see what they're going for.
One other nice wringle is that in Asia at least, different hands are worth different amounts each year. There was an association in Kong Kong that would put out an annual ranking of the hands. Sometimes, too, they would decide hands were no longer good that year. There were sepcialized hands worth the big bucks (e.g., A hand with a set of three or better of the winds, plus a set of dragons). You'd pore over these for days after it was published. It's been years since I played and now that Beijing is asserting more authority over Hong Kong affairs, I'm not sure it's still published (mah-jong is illegal in China).
Whoever said they were thinking about looking into getting a mah-jong set, man that's a slippery slope if you're already in this forum. There's the whole issue of collecting sets, with all the issues you'd be familiar with from poker chips -- materials, size, colors, and even sounds. Actually, one of the things I liked most about living in Southeast Asia was walking through apartment blocks at night and hearing all the tiles being shuffled...
Then there's the holy grail of mah-jong sets: made out of ivory with bamboo backs and in a teak chest with five drawers. The wind counter, chips and dice are also made of wood. A friend of mine had one from his great grandmother that I used to drool over. Not only are they ungodly expensive, but because of the ban on trade in ivory, like the game in China, they're also illegal.
Maybe you can tell I used to be a mah-jong junkie. Thought I had that monkey off my back. Thanks to whoever mentioned that game and poker chips.....
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