‘Europeans have got this badly wrong’

During the UK Riichi Open, the formal EMA riichi mahjong scoresheet will be used. Yet, during riichi tournaments where English riichi players participated, the others players sometimes were puzzled by the English way of counting, adding ‘bam bam’. What does this bam bam mean? An explanation for the ‘Guildford goers’ .

GUILDFORD, Surrey, England - ‘Bam bam’ is the two free doubles (fan) you get for going out (making mahjong) in riichi mahjong. EMA uses different terminology, but, says EMA-vice president Tina Christensen: “It's the same scoring.” In EMA tournaments, i.e. in Denmark and the Netherlands, tables are used instead.

But, as Ian Fraser of the Guildford riichi mahjong club insists, the Europeans “have got this badly wrong, reducing scoring to a question of looking up tables that have no underpinning logic.”

He explains: “Far more important than these two free doubles for winning, it is precisely these extra doubles that make sense of the scoring. How on earth does a hand score of 30 mini-points and only one Yaku/Fan/Double/Hand Point attract a score of 1000 by discard, or 1100  (500 +300+300) for a non-East win by self draw?

Coherence

“Thirty mini-points doubled once becomes 60.  So what?  But 30 mini points doubled three times (i.e. including bam bam) becomes 240.  This 240 is the hand value due to be paid by each opponent, (and double by East).   240+240+480= 960 becomes 1000, when paid by a single player, whoever he is.   240 becomes 300, and 480 becomes 500, giving 300+300+500 = 1100 when a hand is completed by self draw (non-East, of course) but has only one yaku.”

Ian Fraser thinks that the addition of bam bam, (“‘bun bun’, or whatever it is meant to be”) lends mathematical coherence to the proceedings.  “Because East always plays for double stakes, another way of looking at the generation of scores is that a non-East winner is entitled to a score of four times his Hand value:  1x the value from the non-East players, and 2x from East. An East winner is entitled to 6x his Hand value (2x the value from each of the others).  You can't do any of that without bam bam.”

Tina Christensen confirms that also in EMA-riichi the two extra fan are added. “But for quick reference and daily terminology, we don't bother to mention them. When we compiled the rules, it was my impression that this is the modern terminology in Japan, and it was what we were used to both in Denmark and Holland. I agree with Ian that it is important to remember the logic and origin of the scoring system.”

Memory

John Wood, a local Guildford player of thirty years standing, who learned the game in Japan back in the nineteen-seventies, recalls: “At the time, it was referred to "inflation mahjong" rather than "riichi mahjong".  I rather liked that description because it is true that everything is rounded up - for example 32 points becomes 40 and a score of 980 becomes 1,000.   

“The Japanese also introduced "ban ban" to make the scoring higher.  Ian is absolutely correct in what he says in that without this method the scoring tables are meaningless - they are just a series of figures.  

“With ‘ban ban’ added, you can work out how the scoring is achieved.  Without it you are not able to do so.  This is why the higher scores should be 7,700 and 11,600 rather than the 8,000 and 12,000 which is sometimes used.”