Chapter 11 of 12 · Section 1 of 2
All 16 steps of this section, written out on one page. The pictures and activities aren’t included: to see them, open a step in the lesson.
Your goal: Pick a line you can finish, and have a reason for each discard, from your tiles and the table.
In Chapter 6: Choosing a Hand, you scanned the card for candidate lines and kept a lead line and a backup. This chapter shows how to choose between them during play, and then how to discard safely.
A higher value printed on the card is tempting, but it pays nothing unless you complete the hand. So first ask how many tiles each line still needs, and whether the natural tiles it is missing can still come to you.
Even Craks, worth 25, uses 12 of your tiles and needs 2 more. Another line, worth 50, needs 6 more. The tiles each line still needs are drawn faintly above your rack.
Count them yourself. Below, each group of both lines holds the tiles from this rack that fill it, and each dashed box is an empty place.
3 × 2 Crak
3 × 4 Crak
3 × 6 Crak
3 × 8 Crak
2 × Flower
Fits nothing
12 places filled. Needs 2: an 8 Crak, which a Joker could also fill, and a natural Flower.
2 × Flower
4 × 2 Crak
4 × 4 Crak
2 × 3 Bam
2 × Green Dragon
Fits nothing
8 places filled. Needs 6, and 4 of them must be natural, because a Joker can’t fill a pair: a Flower, a 3 Bam and 2 Green Dragons.
Even Craks fills 12 places and needs 2. The other line fills 8 and needs 6, and 4 of those 6 must be natural tiles. Lead with the line you can finish.
Jokers fill places only in groups of 3 or more identical tiles, never in singles or pairs. Being close to a line helps only if its missing places can still be filled.
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Some lines are harder to finish because of their rules, not their tiles. A Singles & Pairs line has no group of 3 or more, so no Joker can fill any of its places: all 14 tiles must be natural. On a C line (concealed), you can’t call a discard to expose a group; you may claim one only when it completes all 14 tiles.
A pair of 2 natural 5 Dots.
A 5 Dot and a Joker is not a pair. Jokers never fill singles or pairs, so all 14 tiles of a Singles & Pairs line must be natural.
You can’t call this 7 Dot to expose a pung.
You may claim it only when it completes all 14 tiles: here, your last pair.
What each kind of line allows. Green check: allowed. Red cross: not allowed. Amber diamond: only to win.
Beginners may play these lines. Choose one when your tiles already fit it well, and count these limits before you do.
On every turn you take a tile, then discard one. Before you discard, ask the same 4 things, in this order:
Your lines. Which tiles fill your lead line and your backup? Where can a Joker fill a place?
The table. What do the exposures and the old discards show?
Your choice. Which tile fits none of your lines, and which is least likely to help another player?
Your discard. Say only its name, for example “3 Bam,” as you place it. Keep your reasons in your head.
The 4 questions, with the tiles each one looks at.
Step 9 works through them on a table, and Section 2 shows how to read the table for question 2.
Question 1 of 4
Your 14 tiles. Gold outlines mark the 11 your lead line uses; only another line would use the 5, 7 and 9 Dots.
You have just drawn, so you hold 14 tiles. Your lead line covers 11 of its 14 places, and the natural tiles it still needs can come to you. Another line would use only your other 3 tiles, and none of them help the lead line. What makes sense?
What should decide whether you narrow down your candidate lines?
A Joker can fill any place in a group of 3 or more identical tiles: a pung, a kong, a quint or a sextet. It can never fill a single or a pair.
A pair: a Joker can’t fill its second place.
A pung: a Joker may fill a place.
A kong: Jokers may fill places, as in a quint or a sextet.
A Joker in each kind of group. Green check: allowed. Red cross: not allowed.
Jokers on the sloping face of your rack are concealed, so they stay flexible: you can move one from group to group as your plan changes. Once a Joker is in an exposure, that group is fixed, and on their own turn another player may exchange the matching natural tile for it.
Your concealed Joker (with the 2 Bams) can still move. Your exposed Joker (in the 5 Dot pung) can be exchanged.
You drew a third 2 Bam, so your concealed Joker moved to fill the 6 Bam pung. You may regroup concealed tiles at any time.
Back to the first rack: Right exchanged a natural 5 Dot for your exposed Joker. Your pung is still complete.
An exchange takes your Joker, not your group. Before you expose a Joker, be sure of the exact group and its size, and ask whether you would rather keep the Joker.
Question 1 of 3
Your line needs a pair of Red Dragons, and you hold one Red Dragon plus one Joker. Is that pair complete?
Which missing place can a Joker not fill?
Here are the 4 questions from step 3 on a table. You have just drawn, so you hold 14 tiles and must discard one. Your lead line is Even Craks.
The 4 questions, in order: your lines (1), the table (2), your choice (3) and your discard (4).
1 Your lines: 12 of your tiles fill places in Even Craks.
2 The table: Right’s exposure, a pung of 2 Dots.
2 The table: the old discards, drawn faded.
3 Your choice: the 3 Bam and the West fit no group.
The same tiles, close up.
A tile you don’t need may still be the tile an opponent needs to win. “Off my line” is about your hand; it doesn’t prove the tile is safe. Section 2 shows how to compare the risk.
Each numbered tile, Wind and Dragon has 4 natural copies. A copy that isn’t on your rack, in the old discards or in an exposure is unseen: it may be in the wall or in another player’s hand.
You need a pair, and the other 3 copies are old discards: no natural 5 Bam is left.
The same count, but you need a pung: Jokers may fill its other 2 places.
Only 1 old discard: the 2 face-down copies are unseen.
Try a pair when 3 old copies have been discarded, then switch to a pung. Say why a Joker changes one answer but not the other.
You hold one 5 Bam. Change the number of other copies in old discards; those can’t be called anymore.
1
In your hand
0
Old discards
3
Unseen copies
When you know nothing about your opponents’ hands yet, tiles that fit none of your lines are sensible discards. As your lead line gets stronger, a weaker backup may have to go too.
3 × 2 Crak
3 × 4 Crak
3 × 6 Crak
3 × 8 Crak
2 × Flower
3 × 2 Crak
3 × 4 Crak
3 × 6 Crak
3 × Red Dragon
2 × Flower
First to go: tiles that fit none of your lines.
Next, once your lead line is clearly stronger: a tile only your backup uses.
Keep: your lead line still needs it.
Your lead line, your backup, and the order your tiles go in.
A tile’s family alone doesn’t make it safe: no rule makes every Wind, Flower or end number safe. An earlier discard of the same tile is a clue, not protection: the newest copy can still be called.
Even when the other 3 copies are old discards, the last copy can still help someone: as the last single of a winning hand, or in a group whose other places are Jokers. Section 2 comes back to this.
Another player may call your 6 Dot and expose it with 2 Jokers: a pung.
It may be the last single of someone’s hand, claimed to win.
Two ways the last 6 Dot can still help another player. Green check: may be called. Amber diamond: only to win.
Put the 4 questions from step 3 in order. It’s a way of thinking, not a ranking of safe tile families that fits every game.
Pick the first action, then the next.
You have just drawn, so you hold 14 tiles. Before you choose a discard, check all 14 against the whole line. This step shows only your rack, not the table.
3 × 2 Crak
3 × 4 Crak
3 × 6 Crak
3 × 8 Crak
2 × Flower
Fits nothing
12 of your 14 tiles fill places. The line still needs 2 more 8 Craks, or Jokers.
Each group of Even Craks, with the tiles that fill it. Empty places are dashed.
Now pick one of the 2 tiles that fit nothing.
A teaching example, not a line from the current NMJL card. X means exposures are allowed. You need all 14 tiles.
3 × 2 Crak
3 × 4 Crak
3 × 6 Crak
3 × 8 Crak
2 × Flower
Even Craks: pick a tile to discard.
Your line, again
Your 14 tiles · shown in rows to fit the screen
0 of 1 selected
Each rack has just drawn its 14th tile, so pick one tile to discard. These racks show no table, so judge only how each tile fits your lines; at a real table, also compare the risk.
Practice 1 of 5
A teaching example, not a line from the current NMJL card. X means exposures are allowed. You need all 14 tiles.
3 × 2 Crak
3 × 4 Crak
3 × 6 Crak
3 × 8 Crak
2 × Flower
Even Craks again, with a new rack: pick a tile to discard.
Your line, again
Your 14 tiles · shown in rows to fit the screen
0 of 1 selected
Answer without looking back at the examples first. Each answer comes with an explanation, and you can revisit a lesson or practice the questions you missed.
Question 1 of 6
A 50-point line needs 6 more tiles. A 25-point line needs 2 tiles that are still available. Which should get your attention first?
Before you discard at a real table, run through the 4 questions in your head: what the tile does for your lines, what it might do for an opponent, and why you prefer it to the other choices. Then say only the tile’s name as you place it.
Your lines. Which tiles fill your lead line and your backup? Where can a Joker fill a place?
The table. What do the exposures and the old discards show?
Your choice. Which tile fits none of your lines, and which is least likely to help another player?
Your discard. Say only its name, for example “3 Bam,” as you place it. Keep your reasons in your head.
The 4 questions to ask before every discard.
During play, your reasons stay in your head. You say only “3 Bam.”
Saying your reasons out loud is good practice, but do it after the hand, or at a practice table where everyone has agreed to talk openly (Chapter 10, Section 1: Etiquette & Table Culture). During play, strategy talk can coach the other players (Chapter 10: Keep strategy thoughts to yourself). The next section adds the defense side of that comparison.
Opening this recap doesn’t complete exercises you haven’t tried. A quiz score is feedback on your practice, not proof that you’re ready for a real table.
Chapter 10 · At the Table: Etiquette, Mistakes & Recovery
Start Section 2 · Defense & Wall Awareness