You Can Pong. But Should You?

Hi friends! Someone throws a tile. You look down. You have two of those!

“PONG!”

Your mouth has made the decision. Your brain will be joining us shortly.

It's a very satisfying call. You got to participate! You get a tile that works in your hand, maybe even skips some people's turns in the process, and it allows you to put a finished set on the table. You feel like your hand is finally going somewhere. Sometimes it is! Sometimes you've just made the rest of the hand harder, and now everybody gets to watch you figure that out. You silently go grumble grumble. 

In the 5 Mistakes post, I mentioned calling pong and chow too eagerly. Let's spend a little more time on pong, because “don't call so much” isn't especially helpful when the tile is sitting right there and you have a limited amount of time to take it before the next player draws.

For this post, we are talking about Hong Kong mahjong, with the scoring rules of whichever table you're playing at. Chicken League and a table with a faan minimum can give you very different reasons to want the same tile.

First, Look Past the Pair

Before you call, look at what you'll have after the pong. Which tile will you discard? Where is your pair going to come from? Can the remaining tiles still get you to a legal win?

You don't need to calculate your entire future. But you should be able to picture the next version of your hand.

Once those three tiles are exposed, they're staying together. They're going to stay forever friends. You can't borrow one back later because you've had a better idea. And if you're building a hand that needs to stay concealed for its scoring, calling changes that plan too.

Let's look at three situations.

1. Yes, This Pong Has a Job

You have two red dragons. You also have another pair you can keep, some useful suit combinations, and a loose tile you already know you'd discard. Someone throws the third red dragon.

The full hand is shown before and after the call. Your red dragons become an exposed pong, the 9-circles stay as your pair, and West is your planned discard. Check the risk of throwing West before you call.

That's a call worth considering. The dragons cannot become a chow, so you are not breaking up a possible run by using them together. The pong contributes faan, you still have a pair, and you know what to discard next.

If you've checked the rest of your scoring and this fits your route to the table's minimum, lovely. Call it.

Notice how much more we know than “I have two red dragons.” We know what the call does for the whole hand. That's what makes it useful.

Also, please don't hear “dragon pong” and mentally translate it to “I can definitely win now.” At a table with a minimum, you still need enough faan altogether. The dragons are helping. 

2. Wait. Those Tiles Were Already Busy

Look at this little section of your hand, all circles. Someone has just discarded a 5-circle.

4 · 5 · 5 · 6

If you pass: the 4-5-6 can form a chow, with one extra 5. All four tiles stay concealed, so you can still rearrange them.

If you pong: the three 5s become an exposed set. The 4 and 6 stay in your hand. Only one other 5 exists to fill that gap.

When someone discards a 5-circle, you can pong! But before you reach for it, notice that you already have a 4-5-6 chow in there, plus an extra 5.

If you use both of your 5s for the pong, you're left with a 4 and a 6. Those can still connect through another 5, but three of the four 5-circles will now be sitting in your exposed set. There is only one other copy, and you don't know who has it.

That doesn't automatically make the call wrong. Maybe you're building all pongs. Maybe the rest of your hand gives the 4 or 6 another use. But “two matching tiles” wasn't the whole story, was it?

This is why I want you to look at the tiles around your pair. Sometimes the pair is doing several useful things. Calling pong makes it do exactly one.

And if those two tiles were your only pair, check where your new pair will come from. A table full of exposed sets can look very impressive while the tiles in your hand are quietly asking for help.

3. You Got Faster. Can You Actually Win?

You're playing at a table with a faan minimum. Your hand has a mixture of suits, a couple of chows, and no clear scoring plan yet. Someone offers you a pong of 8-bamboo.

It would complete another set. Wonderful. Where are your faan coming from?

I'll wait.

An ordinary suited pong doesn't, by itself, solve that problem. You can get very close to a complete hand and still be unable to call mahjong under your table's rules. Worse, exposing another set can leave you fewer ways to change course.

In Chicken League, completing that set might be exactly what you want. At a points table, you need to check what the finished hand will score. Same tiles, different decision.

Before you call, try finishing this sentence: “This pong helps me win because…”

“Because I can” needs a little more work.

And What Are You Throwing Afterward?

There's one more part of the call that's easy to forget when you're excited: the discard.

You claim the tile and then you have to put something out. If the only discard that keeps your plan moving looks dangerous, that risk belongs in the decision before you call.

Especially late in the game, look out into the pond. Check the exposed sets and the discard pile. Is this really a hand you want to keep pushing? Or did somebody wave a matching tile at you and distract you from everything else happening at the table?

It happens. The matching tile is very persuasive.

A Little Homework for Your Next Session

When you see a possible pong, practice looking at the tiles you'll have left and choosing your next discard before you call. Keep it to a quick check within your table's calling window; nobody needs an intermission. Don't be the person yelling "Pause."

After the hand is over, if you're still wondering about a call, ask your table to look at it with you. “Should I have taken that?” is a much easier question to talk through when we can see what else you were holding.

And please don't take this as an instruction to pass every pong. A useful call deserves an enthusiastic pong! 

See you at the table!

Want to practice these decisions with some help? Take a look at our Hong Kong lessons and strategy workshop. We'd love to see you.