Please Would Somebody Shoot Noda!

All is doom and gloom among the foreign contingent of the Cock’s-Eye 3-Player Mahjong Club this year.

Last Friday was another episode of Noda beating up the foreigners, especially in the second game when the Poor Little Cypriot, who was quite happy finishing the first on zero, suddenly found himself looking at an empty tray and racking up the debts to Noda and also to Jaime.

Mind you, there was one enjoyable moment when Noda committed an elementary Chombo by going Riichi and claiming a tile that Jaime threw after checking Noda’s discard pile! Of course, Jaime happened to have a hand with numerous bonuses with should have, could have, if-only-he-hadn’t-would-have raked in a large pile of score sticks. That game was the only point in the evening when anybody (Jaime) apart from Noda was in the black.

So, Noda commits his second September Chombo. Perhaps we should not have laughed and whooped so much, because he went on to win the next game +57

For the Poor Little Cypriot, the most irritating point of the evening was not losing the second game -99, but getting caught by Noda at some point during the last game of the evening. Noda went Riichi after about three tiles, yet again. He discarded Coin after Coin, and both foreign players avoided giving anything away for a while. But, near the end of the hand, the PLC had run out of safe Coins to discard. Noda’s discard row showed ONLY Coins. The PLC had 10 x dodgy looking Bamboo, a North bonus (when three were already out), and a pair of dodgy 1-Characters, with none showing on the table. The PLC chose not to expose the fourth North, and rather than throw a Bamboo, threw one of the dodgy Characters.

“RON!”

Of course, Noda had been waiting with a vicious double head of 9-Coins and 1-Characters, as Oya, with a stack of bonuses, for a total payout of 28,000 points.

If mechanical mahjong tables were not so heavy, the PLC would have cheerfully turned the table upside down and emptied the contents on Noda’s head. But they are, so he didn’t. He ordered another beer instead.

Noda jumps from the +1,100s to the +1,300s while the foreigners sink deeper into the mire.

I seem to remember that that Vladimir Lenin fellow wrote a book called “What Is To Be Done?” Perhaps we ought to start reading it.

Noda +39, +99, -28,* +57 = +157
===
Jaime -29, 0, +35, -40 = -34
David 0, -99, -7, -17 = -123

* Noda Chombo! (Claimed Jaime’s 9-Bamboo discard, despite having discarded one himself.)

David Hurley
Japanese-Mahjong.com

1 Comment

  1. Good lord, that score chart is embarassing. We’re getting flat out crushed. How can I be top foreigner yet more than -200 in the red?

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