Squeeze Play (Overexposed Redux)

(Cartoon credit:  Gary Larson - the Far Side)

I can recall two occasions in my mahjongg career when I fell victim to a squeeze play.  Squeeze play is a baseball term which describes a situation where a runner is on third, in scoring position; there are two outs.  The batter bunts and either the runner will score if the batter gets on base or if the batter gets tagged out the inning is over.  The pitcher must decide where to throw the ball - to home plate where the scorer can be tagged out or to first base where the batter will be thrown out.   

My mahj squeeze plays resulted from being over exposed - in one game I had no choice, but in another I did.

The first time it happened I was playing  FFFF 1111 2222 DD, the second time I was playing FF 3333 6666 9999.   In the first situation  I had four flowers, four 1s and four 2s exposed, leaving me set with one green dragon in my hand.  In the second, I had four 3s,  four 6s and four 9s exposed, leaving me with one flower in my hand.   The only difference between these two situations was that in the second game I didn't have to expose the sixes.  Before I exposed I had 1 flower, three sixes and a joker in my hand.  But I wanted a jokerless win, so I called the six and threw the joker. 

In both cases the stage was set - the hands were obvious, but had I not exposed the 6s, it would have been less obvious what I needed - a six or a flower?  If I let the six go, did it mean I was covered or did it mean I was short?

So anyway, what were the upshots?  Well, in both cases it was late in the game.  Other people had exposures out.  In game 1, a player had 1111 2222 out when I picked a flower.  There was one flower on the table.   The squeeze play was on, I had to either throw the flower or break my hand. I threw the flower and it went uncalled.  Whew.  

The second game was a tighter squeeze.  One player had 444 666 exposed and another player had 5555 6666 exposed.  I had one flower in my hand and then picked a 2 dot.  The squeeze came in the form of - do I throw the 2 dot to an obvious hand or do I throw the flower to a less obvious hand and break up my hand.  Ack!  Player 1 might have needed a 4 bam or 8 craks as well.  Player 2 may have had her flowers, she may have been going for a consecutive hand...but maybe not.  Ack!  Why did I expose those six craks??? I could have thrown the joker and been safe.  But, no!  Do I throw home or to first?  Risk taker than I am, I threw the 2 dot,  only to hear "Mahjongg" from someone other than myself.

Now, the situation could easily have been reversed and my exposures could have forced another player into a squeeze play if they had picked my flower or my green.  A more careful decision about over-exposing could have turned this "squeezee" into a "squeezer" and the "Mahjongg" might have been mine.

The moral of the story?  Be careful when you expose, especially when it leaves you with only one tile in your hand - if you pick hot, you'll be feeling that squeeze for sure.

Eeek! I'm exposed!

 

If you want to call a tile, you must expose - that is the price you pay.  In the little war that is a mahjongg game, exposing one's self can lead to victory on the battlefield or sudden death.  Exposures reveal your position, your strength and your weakness.  Who here hasn't faced the humiliation of having three exposures and throwing out joker after joker because the pair just wouldn't come?  Other players are too polite to laugh out loud, but inwardly they are thinking you're not getting my flower, uh-uh, no sir!

What kind of exposer are you?  Are you the reckless kind, the kind that grabs the first tile thrown to make a pung that you could have waited for?  Are you the cautious kind, the kind that says Wait! and then thinks and thinks and hems and haws, weighing all the options, making other players drum their fingers on the table and sigh?  Why do we play with her?  She takes forever to make a decision...Now I've forgotten what I'm playing...  

A good general plans ahead, lines up her ducks so that when the first soldier falls she knows another one will come out.  She has plan B in her mind.  Seven and four is eleven.  I can call the fours and the flowers.  If the seven goes out I'll switch to all fours, since I have two fours in two other suits.  Yes, I'm ready.  Go ahead, throw it!

There are two ways to look at an exposure.  One is as a necessary reveal, an exposure in the literal sense.  It leaves you open to attack.  Indeed, how many times have you exposed four five dots only to hear: five bam, five crak, three dot, soap, one dot, etc. etc.  One by one other players are discarding your tiles, eroding your hand, hoping you don't call.  But an exposure can also in itself be an attack.  An ambiguous exposure like four flowers leaves other players guessing.  You have made a definitive statement about your hand.  I know what I'm playing but I'm not really telling you anything...This kind of exposure has less of a cost than the more obvious one.  So the trick is to expose without really exposing anything.

Sometimes even the best of plans go awry - that is when a certain tomfoolery comes into play.  Here is a good rule:  When you have nothing - expose something.  Something big and scary like five dragons.
Yes, a good bluff gets results.  You will hear the sucking in of breath and see the fear in their eyes.  Aha!  She picked a flower and is afraid to throw it.  Is she...yes! she's breaking up her hand!  MWAHAHAHAHAHAH......Only you know that the rest of your hand is vintage random tile generator.  Remember, in a wall game nobody wins, but you don't lose.

The beginner will look at an exposure and then at the card.  Four seven craks.  What hand is she playing?  Could be seven plus four is eleven, could be all sevens, could be five, six, seven, could be six, seven, eight, could be, could be, could be...and then her tile goes out and she doesn't hear it.  A more experienced player looks at the table.  Four sevens.  All the one craks are out, so it can't be that.  Laura has six craks exposed so that takes care of that.  Can't be, can't be, can't be....This elimination process can whittle down the possibilities rather than bloating them.  It is a matter of reading the discards, taking attention away from your own hand, your own little problems, and seeing what is out there in the whirlpool of tiles that have had their brief moment of glory when they were thrown but are now sucked into oblivion, fallen into disuse, that is until the next game.  Try it.  When Pearl exposes four soaps, check the table.  What's out?  What's not?  What's hot?  Then draw conclusions about what she is playing.  Of course, you could be dead wrong and go down in flames when you throw what you think is an innocuous 2 crak.  After all, three are on the table.  How were you to know she would have three jokers?  Ah, mahj, you cruel game...

The ideas in this post were inspired by R.F. Foster's Foster on Mah Jongg, 1924.  He stated, in part:

Skill [in mah jongg] depends on the powers of observations, judgment and inference, tempered by the individual's courage or timidity; his optimism or fear of disaster.  Exposures are a litmus test of these traits - to which do you subscribe?

L'shanah tovah