Left to right: Vicky Ferraresi, Valerie Speed, Susan Gildea, Anne Ratterman (seated), Diane Brzozowski, Karen Ramberg. Not Pictured: photographer JungSuk Mallen.
Vicky Ferraresi
Interested residents of Unit 46 meet every Tuesday at my home for a fun-filled session playing California Mahjong. This variant of Hong Kong New Style Mahjong is easy to learn, and I have taught them all how to play. On Jan. 28 we welcomed Anne Ratterman (who had never played before) to our group. She observed two rounds of play and then with my sister, Valerie Speed, assisting her, Anne won the round with a Seven Pillows (Seven Twins) hand! (Seven Pillows consists of seven pairs of tiles.) This hand is very difficult to complete; experienced players advise trying to complete it only if you are dealt five pairs. Seven Pillows allows the player to double their score three times! Anne achieved a score of 448 on this round (three doublings of her base score of 56). On the next round her score was 12. A typical score for a Mahjong win without a special hand in California Mahjong is 24 to 150 or so (achieving mahjong is worth 20 points).
PebbleCreek Mah-Jongg players may not realize that there are dozens, if not more, versions of this fun game such as Classical Chinese, Hong Kong Old Style, Hong Kong New Style, Shanghai Style, British Mahjong Association Rules, Sichuan Style, Japanese Classical, Riichi (Japanese Modern), Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Taiwanese, and Malaysian/Singaporean. Even the name of the game has variations—for example Mahjong versus Mah-Jongg (or Mah Jongg). The American version uses a card that must be purchased with permitted legal hands. Other versions do not use a card. Instead, the game is directed by the players’ use of strategy added to the luck of the tiles they receive and knowledge of how to maximize their final point total. Jokers are not used and there is no trading of tiles in California Mahjong.
In California Mahjong there are 16 special hands that can double the Mahjong winners’ score from one to four times. Chinese Classical has 80, Hong Kong New Style has 61, and Korean has 28. Other special hands in California Mahjong are all tiles the same suit no Winds or Dragons (three doublings), 2-8 runs only and a pair without Winds or Dragons (two doublings), sets only with no runs (one doubling), Going Out with the Gods (mahjong on the dealt hand) for four doublings and more.
Very few life-long Mahjong players have been able to achieve what Anne did in her first game. We are all looking forward to our next Mahjong get-together where we strive to achieve something similar but nonetheless have a good time trying.
References:
Mahjong. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong Edited Feb. 9, 2025. Accessed Feb. 10, 2025.
Larry Kistler. Mahjong Secrets for Beginner to Expert. How to Play and Create Winning Strategies! Self-published, 2023.