Neil's Birthday Mahjong Bash...

Neil, a former Lang Education Center English language teacher who now works as a roving Japanese translator and resides in the nether regions of Kyushu, emerged from his self-imposed exile and returned to Hiroshima to celebrate his thirty-somethingth birthday with a night of mahjong at Kodama jansou.

L to R: Nobu, Neil, Jaime, Noda

Noda held on to the starting Oya of the first game long enough for David to finish his chow and take the fourth seat. Noda rampaged through the first game scattering all opposition.
Nobu joined us in time for the second game, which Noda also won while Neil seemed to be suffering from mahjong collywobbles and turned into a serial tile-snatcher and then forgot which tile he'd taken out of turn and was awarded a special birthday Chombo.

As well as bringing along his 2009 Mahjong Duck Nobu had got himself a natty plastic miniature year-of-the-tiger tiger in a "lucky" sake box which sat on display alongside the duck on the corner of the mj table for the duration of Nobu's game (see photo above). Nobu declared his determination not to end 2010 on the bottom...

So how did Nobu do?

• Nobu finished the first game with his Yakitori tessera stuck firmly to the table.
• Nobu finished the second game with his Yakitori tessera stuck firmly to the table.
• Nobu broke the "lowest score" record for the year so far.

Meanwhile, Tim joined us and  he and David (who sat out of the second game) chewed the fat about the virtues of the Amazon Kindle.

Noda won again and called it a night on +152 - the best result so far this year.

Seats were reallocated for the third game, and with all parties in the mire it seemed an appropriate moment to present Neil with his birthday present, supplied by Jaime. It was a Carp baseball team official's happi jacket, reputed to bring good luck to the wearer. Or was that what we told Neil to persuade him to try it on? Anyway, he popped it on and began to concentrate on getting lucky (see photo)...

 

Happi Birthday Neil!

The result was disconcerting at first as he pretty quickly managed to commit a second Chombo for the evening. He didn't carp and from that point on his luck was markedly happier, but just as the old text says that it is better to give than to receive,   

beatius est magis dare, quam accipere...

and that the ox should not be muzzled as he tramples out the grain,  

non alligabis os bovi trituranti...

so it proved tonight as Jaime grazed to his heart's content for much of the rest of the evening.


The chief victim was Nobu who bore up well for the most part, but was gutted to get trapped with a single tile wait - I mean he only had one tile left in his hand after ponning all the triples - only to see Jaime win another big hand at his expense!

 

Nobu grimaces at his unhappi luck.

David also completed his worst performance so far this year so Noda goes back on top, with David still in the black on +19 for the year so far. Neil came in on a creditable -9, while reduced his deficit and opened up a gap of 109 points between himself and bottom-placed Nobu.

Noda +99, +53, --, --, --, -- = +152
Jaime -34, -12, +63, +23, -16, +25 = +49
===
Neil -27, -12,* +31,* -5, +37, -33 = -9

David -38, --, -39, +1, -21, +8 = -89

Nobu --, -29,** -55,** -19, --, -- = -103

* Chombo
** Yakitori

David Hurley
Japanese-Mahjong.com
 

Friday 1st February: Jaime Back On Top!

Nobuhiro spent his free last week boning up on the rules of mahjong. He joined the four of us at Kodama midway through the evening. 

Midway. Hmm, an apposite allusion considering how the evening went for the Poor Little Cypriot. His aircraft scored some early hits, but unfortunately, his aircraft carriers were all sunk, and one of Kenyon's went down too. Noda went on a huge Oya-run in the second game, and Jaime, avoiding that assault, came in second on +45! Second! on +45!! At the end of the carnage TWO Yakitori tesserae were still sat on the table top - The Poor Little Cypriot's and the Young American's. 

The second game was the decisive game of the evening, but Jaime went on to win the third and fourth and gained a clear lead over Noda both for the evening and on the Grand Accumulated Results Table (+160 against +106).

We agreed to play a practice game to get Nobuhiro started. The game would not count on the GAR Table and there would be no exchange of shekels.

Kenyon and David therefore decided to adopt an all out offensive strategy, reasoning that it would probably lead to disaster, but best to get the bad luck over and done with at this stage and be ready for the turn of the tide in the fourth game! 

Nobuhiro had some of the best beginner's luck ever and won three or four hands on the trot, so David and Kenyon were quite happy with the way things were unfolding.

Then, a bit later on, in the third or fourth hand of his tenureship of the Oya, David had collected Shosangen and was Tenpai. Kenyon, seeing one Chun on the table threw the other and was surprised when David went out with Daisangen! As you can see from the photo, Kenyon has just handed David a large number of score sticks, yet it is Kenyon who has the smile on his face and David who looks pained to have gone out on Daisangen in a game that doesn't count on the score card!

Nobu did not fair too badly in the final game of the evening that got him onto the scorecard. He finished on -7, which puts him above both Kenyon (-19) and David (-30), oh and Ray too (-210)!!

Jaime -25, +45, +41, +30 = +91

Noda -9, +75, -32, -- = +34

===

Nobu --, --, --, --, -7

Kenyon -4, -34,* +3, -13 = -48

David +38, -86,* -12, -10 = -70

*Double Yakitori!!