Gemma Collinge’s Macau Diary - Day 1

Gemma Collinge of ReachMahjong.Com is in Macau for the riichi competition of the World Series of Mahjong. But in her second contribution which she writes as a correspondent to Mahjong News, she tells about her adventures in the main event: the battle for the one million Hong Kong dollar prize pool.

MACAU - The World Series of Mahjong 2010 kicked off on August 20th in the Venetian Hotel, Macau. Over 200 players have travelled from all over the world to do battle and hopefully win a share of a HK $1,000,000 prize pool.

The main event of the WSoM uses a rule-set that is a sort of lingua-franca of rules. Its simplicity means that people from all mahjong backgrounds should have no difficulty in picking it up quickly.

I was already in Macau helping run the Riichi event of the series and the World Gaming Magazine kindly offered to sponsor me and eight other players into the event.

Spectacular

The setting of this year’s WSoM is fantastic. The room for the main event is spectacular and the Venetian has almost everything under one roof. There is also a feature table which is being filmed and can be watched from screens in the player’s lounge.

This year’s format is different to previous events. All players get to play the first two days with only the top 16 going to the final day. The buy-in is also much more achievable for those of us who are not lucky enough to be film stars. I think a combination of this new format and the new venue have created a really positive atmosphere.

The first two days have three sessions per day with two tables per session so there are plenty of games eliminating some of the luck factor.

Duties

Unfortunately, as with the last WSoM, I didn’t get a chance to practice the world series’ rules because of my duties the day before on the riichi event. Although simple and with few differences in hand patterns, it is still a significant departure strategically from riichi.

For example, this year a no-point (or chicken hand) is permitted, meaning that there are even more chances for that monster hand to be robbed from you. Open pinfu (peace hand) being permitted has also flummoxed me, along with an open kong being basically worth the same as menzen (closed hand) and there are so many more like this.

I guess that really the issue is the different weighting of certain patterns and emphasis on ‘going for it’. You really can’t sit there patiently waiting for your closed pinfu hand. It simply won’t be worth many points. Defence isn’t as effective either as if someone else throws a player’s winner, we all still have to pay. I’ve really struggled with this and my points have suffered for it. Still, I’m doing yards better than I did last time I played. Although not spectacular my growth is evident.

Strategy

These issues I raise are not to say the rule-set is any less valid, rather a new way of playing. I’ve always found that changing rule sets can really help you see where you’ve been overlooking things in your normal play and it’s a great way to improve your strategy.

My ReachMahjong.Com colleagues Jenn Barr and Garthe Nelson are also doing really well; Jenn in particular. Sometimes I think it’s even more fun to see your friends do well as you can enjoy their success without having any of the inevitable stress that comes with being at the top of the rankings!

The event as a whole on the first day has been amazing. I’ve met some great people at the tables. Despite the language barrier, mahjong has managed to unite us all. There are some etiquette points that seem to get lost in translation but everyone is patient and is excited to be involved.

Rumours

However, I have heard some vicious rumours that after the first rankings were released after the second session, some of the players just decided to leave. If so, that would be very disappointing. Mahjong is one of those games where there are winners and losers but poor sportsmanship is far, far worse than losing. Anyway, these are still only rumours and I’ll try to clarify what happened tomorrow!

See also the press release about the WSoM main event