Mahjong

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Florida to visit Paul's family. It was a 9 day trip filled with good food, great company and some hard core mahjong.

If you've never played, I highly recommend it. It's a bit complicated at first. There are several different tile types and many different to win. One series of tiles features the Chinese characters for 1-9, which I rarely play because so far I've only memorized 1-6. You'd think it wouldn't matter because it's all fun and games, but think again because the Yu family plays for cold hard cash. Is it any wonder we get along so well? If you know me, you know I love me some gambling.

The down of mahjong? You can't really control how much money you lose. Unlike poker where you lose only what you wager, you won't know how much you're going to lose until the hand is over because the winnings are calculated by the type of win it is. For example, a hand with all pongs (3 of the exact same tiles) and the same suit with a self-pick last tile will get you $7.50 from each of the other 3 players. But a hand with pongs and chows (sequence tiles) of mixed suits will only get you $1.50. Feels great on the winning end, but not so much when you're losing.

Thanks to help from Connie, Didi and Paul, I did much better this time than in the past. Win or lose though, mahjong is one of my favorite's when visiting Paul's family.