Things Aren’t Always as They Seem

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Have you ever been convinced you saw something a certain way for a long time, only to find it wasn’t what it seemed? This happened to me this past week. I played the first hand in the 2468 category.

22 444 FFFF 666 88

When I first received the 2015 card I studied it for changes from last year’s card. Even after holding the 2014 and 2015 cards side-by-side I had convinced myself that this hand did not change from last year. So when I called “Mah Jongg” and exposed all my tiles, imagine my surprise to be told my hand was dead. I was at first convinced that everyone was mistaken- of course my hand was valid; it matched the one on the card! It was only after it was explained that I had used DDDD instead of FFFF that I realized my error.

22 444 DDDD 666 88

2015-09-08 11.42.57

 

 

 

 

 

What was even worse was knowing I had discarded three Flower tiles during the game. I had thrown away a “Mah Jongg” for sure. It was the first time I have had a hand called Dead in a few years.

My mind was so accustomed to seeing patterns on the card that I failed to realize that this hand required DDDD last year and FFFF this year. I have looked at this card dozens of times over the past few months and never saw any difference in that hand. In my mind, the Flowers were Dragons; there was no doubt about it! Our minds work in mysterious ways, that is for certain.

Has this ever happened to you? Tell us about it!

 

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Comments

  1. tilelady  September 8, 2015

    Did not happen to me but a player in our game called for the consecutive FF 11112222 DDDD only using last years card

    when the 2015 card came out

  2. Faye  September 9, 2015

    We received this comment from a reader (A. Kessler):
    “Your most recent post hit home. It is my belief our error would never have happened if the card had been printed FFFF 22 444 666 88.
    Of course, last years card should have been printed 22 444 666 88 DDDD. My concern is that players may start to print the card making many “sensible” changes. For beginners it would be a big help to print the card in colors other than red and green. 2015 should be printed with spaces 2 0 1 5. NNNNN DDDD 11111 changed to NNNNN 11111 DDDD. Should sense and functionality win out over tradition?”

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