A phrase in text "waiting for the number of tiles" means TOTAL number of possible tiles, NOT different tiles.
Maximum number of different tiles a hand can be waiting for is known -- 9 ("9 Gates").
Dr. Watson’s Soccer Dream
- Details
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 November 2012 18:00
- Written by Vitaly Novikov
Dr. Watson returned tired to Baker Street 221 B after he had played soccer. Refusing to play mahjong, he went straight to bed.
The next morning, he told Sherlock Holmes and Mrs. Hudson about a very strange dream he had had, a mixture of soccer and mahjong.
He told that some psychic came to him in a dream and began to talk:
“… and the 4th bird would fly to you
… and this bird would call a tile from the wall
… and your one-suited hand would be waiting for the number of tiles equal to the number of players in two soccer teams at field
… you would win!”
“Oh, it’s rather elementary that hand might be called ‘a younger brother of’…” – said Holmes.
Question 1: What was Dr. Watson’s hand?
Question 2: (for experts): What was Sherlock Holmes talking about?
Comments (6)
1Thursday, 14 June 2012 14:31
Vitaly
2Thursday, 14 June 2012 16:33
Bert
Actually the maximum seems 13 to me: 13 orphans and waiting on one of the 13 tiles.
3Thursday, 14 June 2012 19:57
Vitaly
Bert! You are definitely right, maximum is 13.
Since Dr.Watson's hand is one-suiter I was writing in my comment about "suited" waits but did not pointed that clearly..
Since Dr.Watson's hand is one-suiter I was writing in my comment about "suited" waits but did not pointed that clearly..
4Friday, 15 June 2012 05:22
yongsing
The hand is a Full Flush of bamboo tiles as follows:
1113334567888
A one bamboo tile was discarded, resulting in a Melded Kong. After the Kong, the hand looks like this:
3334567888
Now we have a wait for 8 different tiles (2 to 9 bamboos). This is like a younger brother of Nine Gates.
The maximum number of possible tiles waiting for this hand is 22, the number of players in two soccer teams. They are as follows:
2222
3
444
555
666
777
8
9999
1113334567888
A one bamboo tile was discarded, resulting in a Melded Kong. After the Kong, the hand looks like this:
3334567888
Now we have a wait for 8 different tiles (2 to 9 bamboos). This is like a younger brother of Nine Gates.
The maximum number of possible tiles waiting for this hand is 22, the number of players in two soccer teams. They are as follows:
2222
3
444
555
666
777
8
9999
5Friday, 15 June 2012 10:20
Vitaly
Yongsing,
Your answer is correct, this hand is in "official" solution (to be provided later).
Is there any other brother of Nine Gates?
Author
P.S. For some reasons your answer was published 5 times. Redundant copies were removed.
Your answer is correct, this hand is in "official" solution (to be provided later).
Is there any other brother of Nine Gates?
Author
P.S. For some reasons your answer was published 5 times. Redundant copies were removed.
6Friday, 15 June 2012 10:32
Vitaly
Numbers 2222 3 444 555 666 777 8 9999 look like tactical schemes ("formations", see Wiki): 3-3-1-4 Figures stand for the number of "roles": Forward, Halfback, Back etc.
It is difficult to judge the difficulty of problems, but some did take me some time to solve.
I especially enjoyed the '32nd of December' and its fourth question.
Thanks to Vitaly for the problems, to Martin for hosting the "venue" and congrats to Sylvain and Scott for their success.
A: two kongs of the same suit (i.e. 8 one-suit tiles) and a kong of wind
So... winds are now suit tiles?
And they are in every suit?
Wow!
Looks like I've misunderstood the question and it was actually an easy one!
Was it because I was the only one to answer the question within the allotted time?
Just curious.
Thanks.
At first, it looks like each player had three pure melded kongs, two of them separated by two numbers (e.g. 1 and 4), and that their left-side neighbour is waiting for these two said kongs with a ryanmen (e.g. _23_).
But it turns out there are not enough tiles for that.
So, here's the trick:
Watson had: melded: 1111m 4444m 5555m, concealed: 23s EE.
Lestrade had: melded: 1111s 4444s 5555s, concealed: 23p SS.
Holmes had: melded: 1111p 4444p 5555p, concealed: 78m WW.
Mrs. Hudson had: melded: 6666m 9999m, concealed: RRRR(concealed kong) 23m NN, and erronously melded as flowers: 2223m.
It certainly "cut off all conceivable scenarios".