THE MIDWEEK DRAW
By Sindusha Nimmagadda
Welcome to The Midweek Draw—a quick Mahjong challenge designed to test how you read the table.
This week, you have three Taiwanese Mahjong hands and three discard decisions. Each puzzle uses the common 16-tile structure of five melds and a pair. Flowers and scoring variations are excluded.
Commit to an answer before moving to the next puzzle.
Puzzle 1 — Easy
It’s early in the game. Your hand is concealed and there are no immediate threats.
What would you discard?
A. 9 Bamboo
B. 7 Circles
C. 3 Bamboo
Puzzle 2 — Medium
Four parts of your hand are already complete. The remaining Bamboo tiles can be arranged in more than one way.
What would you discard?
A. 3 Bamboo
B. One 5 Bamboo
C. 6 Bamboo
Think beyond completing a single sequence. Which discard leaves the greatest number of ways to win?
Puzzle 3 — Hard
This time, the tiles visible on the table change the best decision.
You can already see:
Three other 4 Bamboo tiles in the discard piles
Two other 7 Bamboo tiles in the discard piles
No visible 3 Bamboo
No visible 6 Bamboo
What would you discard?
A. 3 Bamboo
B. 5 Bamboo
C. 7 Bamboo
Both ends of the five-tile Bamboo run may look equally useful—but the visible tiles tell a different story.
How did you do?
0–1 correct: You’re warming up.
2 correct: You’re reading the hand well.
3 correct: You saw beyond the tiles in front of you.
Now compare your choices with the answers.
Puzzle 1 — The answer
Best choice: 9 Bamboo
The 9 Bamboo is isolated. It does not connect with any other tile in the hand, while both remaining incomplete shapes are open at either end:
6–7 Circles can improve with 5 or 8 Circles.
2–3 Bamboo can improve with 1 or 4 Bamboo.
Keeping both shapes gives the hand several ways to move closer to completion. Drawing another 6 or 7 Circles, or another 2 or 3 Bamboo, could also create the pair the hand still needs.
Discarding 7 Circles would break the useful 6–7 shape. Discarding 3 Bamboo would do the same to 2–3 Bamboo.
When one tile is isolated and the others form flexible sequences, remove the isolated tile first.
Puzzle 2 — The answer
Best choice: One 5 Bamboo
After discarding one 5 Bamboo, the remaining tiles are 3–4–5–6.
Another 3 Bamboo produces 3–3 as the pair and 4–5–6 as the final meld.
Another 6 Bamboo produces 6–6 as the pair and 3–4–5 as the final meld.
Discarding 3 Bamboo or 6 Bamboo leaves a hand that relies on drawing another 5 Bamboo. That reduces the hand to a single winning tile type.
The central pair may look valuable, but keeping both 5 Bamboo tiles limits the hand’s flexibility.
Sometimes breaking a pair creates a stronger and wider wait.
Puzzle 3 — The answer
Best choice: 7 Bamboo
Discarding 7 Bamboo leaves 3–4–5–6. The hand can then win with:
3 Bamboo, forming the pair 3–3 alongside 4–5–6.
6 Bamboo, forming the pair 6–6 alongside 3–4–5.
No 3 or 6 Bamboo tiles are visible. Since the hand contains one of each, as many as six winning tiles remain unseen.
Discarding 3 Bamboo leaves 4–5–6–7, apparently waiting for another 4 or 7. But three other 4 Bamboo tiles and two other 7 Bamboo tiles are already visible. That leaves only one unseen winning tile.
Discarding 5 Bamboo breaks the connected run without leaving the hand ready to win.
Don’t count only your waits—count how many copies are still available.
Put the lesson into play
Every discard changes the shape of your hand—but the strongest choice also depends on the tiles already visible around the table.
The next time you play, pause before discarding and ask:
Which shapes am I preserving?
How many different tiles improve my hand?
How many copies of those tiles remain unseen?
That short check can turn an automatic discard into a much stronger decision.
Want to examine a completed hand and understand its points?
How many puzzles did you solve correctly? Reply with your score: 0, 1, 2 or 3.
See you at the table. 🀄