Maybe the commonest hand to be Mah Jong is 14 tiles: 4 pungs or 3 kongs and a pair.
There are many traps on the way. For example, you can overcook your hand by getting two pairs.
Refresh your knowledge of the rules (British).
Remember to call “Fishing”.
When a player needs only one tile to complete a mah-jong hand he s/he is said to have a ‘ready’ hand and must declare that s/he is ‘fishing’ . This
alerts the other players to the fact that a player is about to go out and that they should discard with caution to avoid letting off a cannon or letting the player win.
When you have 2 pairs of tiles as well as Pungs or Kongs, you only need one tile to convert a pair to make a mah-jong hand and you need to declare you are fishing.
Once a player has declared that s/he is fishing, the hand should be scored as a mahjong hand but without the 20 point bonus for going ‘mah-jong’ if that player should subsequently not win the hand.
In the case of a special hand the player receives one fifth of the limit score for a halflimit hand, or two fifths if the special hand merits a limit score. Doubles are also counted as if the player had called ‘mah-jong’ (e.g. for a clean, i.e. one suit hand).
A major advantage of this rule is that the player who is working towards a special hand can still claim a score for his/her efforts (e.g.knitting, all pair honours, etc.,)
If we were strict, Letting off a cannon – if a player discards any of the following when a player is ‘fishing’ and
just waiting for one tile
(1s 9s green tiles)
Penalty is to reimburse the other 2 players what they had to pay the winner as well as his
own debt to him. No further settlement between the players.
A tile of the same suit when 9 tiles have been exposed
A tile of the 4th wind when 3 pungs of winds have been exposed