Pung Chow Part 2

SETTLING THE SCORES

When the first player to complete his hand calls "_Mah-Jongg_" the game is ended, and all players expose their hands and count up their scores.

The winner of the game collects full value of his score from each of the other players and throwing his hand into the discard is thru for that game.

The remaining three players then settle among themselves the _difference_ of their scores, the high hand of the three collecting the difference between his score and each of the remaining two players. Then throwing his hand into the discard, leaves the remaining two to settle their scores, the highest hand of which collects the difference.

It must be remembered here that East Wind (or banker) pays or collects double, if he loses or wins.

Scores are most conveniently settled by the use of the counters which are furnished with the sets. These are spotted to denote different denominations and at the end of every hand the actual scores or differences in scores are settled between players by the exchange of these counters. There are several styles of counter sets. The one in most common usage contains counters valued as follows:

Points

1 Gold dot 1,000

5 Black dots 500

1 Black dot 100

10 Red dots 10

2 Red dots 2

SUGGESTIONS FOR CAREFUL PLAYING OF HANDS

In a game of this nature where every hand is different from the preceding one and so much depends on the draw, it is very hard to lay down any specific rules of how it should be played. There are, however, a few points which would help if kept in mind during the play. A player should study his original hand and after the first few draws and discards form a general plan of what he is going to try and fill in his hand and decide on how high a score he will have a good chance of making. This will be decided by:

1. The condition of his own hand.

2. The discards of the other three players.

If he has an exceptionally strong hand in any one suit he will play for that suit regardless of the other players. If he has a well-divided hand, by watching the other players' discards, he will be able to form a fairly good opinion of what they are doing with their hand.

After judging his hand, visualizing the sort of hand that he is to try to fill, he should use his own judgment in drawing and discarding, constantly watching his own hand for opportunities and his opponents'

discards for disclosures, and upon the slightest suspicion that one of these opponents is nearing the completion of his hand, should immediately forego any thoughts of a higher hand himself and seek to complete his own hand as quickly as possible.

Summing this up; a player should plan and play to win at all times with as high a hand as possible, then as the wall grows shorter and the probability of one of the opponents completing his hand grows larger, the player should reconsider, and

1. If he has at that stage an exceptionally good hand which will win back for him from the other two players that which he loses to the winner, should go on improving his hand and take the chance of another player winning.

2. If he has just an ordinarily good hand he should stop playing to improve his hand and start to complete it as quickly as possible, i.e., form sequences and mix suits, in order to win before the other players and save himself.

3. If his hand has not improved at all or very little since the beginning of the game and he has small chance of completing his hand in any way before some other player does, his only plan is to hold the tiles which he thinks would help the other players and discard only those which he is sure they will not pung. These tiles can be ascertained by carefully searching the discards in the center of the table and the sets already exposed by the other players. By playing this way he may be able to cause the game to be a draw.

There are a few other points which are taken up in the last four layouts in Part I.

USE OF THE MANDARINS

(Flowers and Seasons)

The _Mandarins_, also called _Flowers_ and _Seasons_, are eight in number, two for each of the four winds. They may be eliminated from the set and are not usually used in the play, as they add a large element of chance into the game.

If they are used, each side of the wall is increased by two tiles, making each side a double tiered row of 18 tiles side by side.

Then, if a player draws one of his own _wind mandarins_, he exposes it on the table and draws a "loose tile," the _mandarin_ of his own wind permitting him to double his score once. If then he draws the other _mandarin_ of his own wind he repeats the above process and may double his total score again. Where "_Seasons_ and _Flowers_" are used instead of _mandarins_ the numbers on them, 1, 2, 3 and 4, represent _East, South, West and North winds_ respectively. The red numbers are the "_Seasons_" and the green numbers are the "_Flowers_." They are used exactly as are the _mandarins_, i.e., One's own "_Season_" will double the value of his hand, as _will_ his own "_Flower_." Both of them will double the value twice.

SCORE CARD

It will be seen at a glance that the scoring values are divided into three parts. First, the bonus scores which only the winner can use; secondly, the combination scores which all four players can use; finally the doubling honors which all four players may use, so it is that in settling the scores the winner starts at the top with twenty (20) points for "_Mah-Jongg_" or for winning and goes down the list scoring ten points, if he has no sequence in his hand and so on thru the bonus scores, adding to these whatever scores he obtains from combinations in his hand or on the table and doubling the sum as many times as he has doubling honors.

In the bonus scores for the winning hand only there are six items:

1. "_Mah-Jongg_" which gives 20 points for winning the hand.

2. _No sequence in hand or on table._ This is a bonus of 10 points given to a player if he wins without use of sequences.

3. _Drawing the winning piece._ This is a bonus of 2 points given to the winning player if he _draws_ the tile which completes his hand from the wall. Of course _punging_ the winning tile will forfeit this bonus.

4. _Filling the only place to win._ This is a bonus of 2 points given to a player who fills the only possible place to win, i.e., winning by matching the pair or drawing the middle tile of a sequence.

5. _Winning on a draw from a loose tile._ This of course is a bonus of ten points given to the winning player if any of his loose tile draws have been fortunate enough to complete his hand.

6. _No other score than "Mah-Jongg" in hand or on table._ This is a bonus of ten points given to the winning player having only 20 points for "_Mah-Jongg_" as his score, and is a hand made up of four sequences and a pair in which there is no score, a sequence having no scoring value whatsoever. Of course even drawing the winning piece will forfeit this bonus as can easily be seen.

In the combination scores exposed sets are those on the table; face up to the right of the player, concealed sets are those which are in his hand at the time of winning. As will be seen by the score card, concealed sets having been made up by the player without the a.s.sistance of a pung or chow score twice as much as the same set would if it were on the table. This together with the fact that sets of ones, nines, winds or dragons score twice as much as sets of twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, sevens and eights should be helpful in memorizing the score which is essential to the careful playing of each hand.

As for the doubling honors, each set or combination doubles the total score once, and if there are five _doubling honors_ in a hand, the total score should be doubled five times--for example: a player goes _Mah-Jongg_ or _Mah-Diao_ having 32 points in bonus scores, 18 in combination scores, making his total score 50. Then if he has five _doubling honors_ his final score is 1,600 points, i.e., 50-100-200-400-800-1,600.

EXAMPLE OF HANDS AND HOW THEY ARE SCORED