Event Reports

June 2, 2012

9 players, with a couple new faces. Looking forward to more players and a "regular" time.

January 22, 2012

11 players, and a good day for mahjong. We had a couple players new to the group, and everyone else pretty much jumped right into the game. The weather was awful, and that kept at least a few players home. Here's to better weather next time.

October 30, 2011

11 players, and an excellent time! Brand new to mahjong: Nancy. New to us: Matthew and Isabella. Returning: Me, Julia, Diane, Arnette, Marilyn, Mary, Dan and Pat.

We had two tables going, and after a couple warm up hands, one table kept score and got in seven hands. In that very last hand, we didn't let Arnette go out without points, so she showed us. She got three similar triplets off Dan's discard, bumping her into first place, and knocking Dan down to third!

I'm really glad to see the increased confidence players have now that they have the game mechanisms down. I can't wait for the next session.

October 16, 2011

21 players this time, and with short notice. Beginners: Milind, Pat, Marilyn, Kong. New to us but not to mahjong: Henry, Allen. Renee, Dale, and Aaron were still pretty new, and the rest are comfortable players: Me, Julia, Diane, Arnette, Nikki, Liz, Jim, James, Ben, Jennifer, Patti, and John.

One table played riichi, and four others played Zung Jung, and one of those kept score. More players are getting comfortable with scoring, which is great because the games will become more competitive, and there will be more people who feel comfortable enough to help out new players.

I'm looking forward to another session.

July 31, 2011

This time we had exactly 15 players. Five were brand new to mahjong. Two had not played in a while, and had never played by Zung Jung style, six of us had played many times before, and two new players got a riichi game going for the whole evening.

Three Zung Jung tables were going, but so many new players meant we didn't keep score. I think the new folks got the basics down and will be ready to learn scoring soon. I hopped between two tables so one didn't have to play three-handed all day.

The riichi table kept score, and one of the new players got right back into the game.

We hope to see all of you again very soon!

June 26, 2011

Just three weeks since last time, and we had around 15 players. Dan brought three new players to us, but not new to the game, so they all fit right in. A big welcome to Jenna, Nicole, and Tammy! Therese and Kate also joined us again, so with me, Julia, Margaret, Diane, Arnette, Belinda, Reiko, Patti and Jon, well that was exactly 15. We had three full tables going for a while too, with a three-player table to keep everyone busy.

June 5, 2011

This time we had 13 players. Not bad for just a couple days' notice, I think.

Three brand new players: Maja, Belinda, and Christina. A hearty welcome to them! We welcomed back Ben (who RSVPed within seconds of the announcement), Nikki, Margaret, Arnette, Diane, Reiko, Cara, and Krista.  Last but certainly not least was Linda, who had not played in over 20 years, and had never played Zung Jung, and got a 140 point hand! (Yes, we only counted 110 at the time, but it really was 140.)

We had three tables going for over three hours, and everyone had a very nice time.

I hope to give more advance notice and have even more people next time. The Davanni's in Edina is a lovely place to play as well. Their party room is large, and has plenty of square tables.

March 26, 2011

We had 14 players this time. Not bad for a new location and only two weeks after the last game.

Three brand new players: Tom, Martin, and Linda. Well, Linda claimed to forget everything she knew about mahjong after playing 25 years ago. I taught and played the whole time with them, and by the end they pretty much had it down. The last hand went very quickly. Ruthi, Diane, Don, and Kim (I think) had only played once before. They seemed to get right back into things. Arnette was back again too. Elizabeth, Jennifer, Krista, John, and Patti rounded out the session.

The afternoon flew by, and 4:00 snuck up on us quickly. Thank you to everyone who played.

March 6, 2011

About 30 people played today! We had many absolute beginners, quite a few who needed refreshing, and a few who jumped right back in. One table played riichi style for a while, and even MCR for one hand, but the other five kept to Zung Jung style, and no scorekeeping, but points were calculated for most hands. Mike, one of our newest players, got 150 points in one hand for three similar pungs and all pungs, while Pat learned how much it hurts to discard a big winner tile.

Six tables of mahjong for nearly four hours. Awesome!

Many thanks to Julia for teaching and collecting players of similar skill. Thanks to Jennifer, Krista, Patti, John, Reiko, Arnette, and Ben for teaching Zung Jung, and to Naoto and Johnathan for teaching riichi!

Because of our demeanor and welcoming attitude, the manager today said we could spread out of the party room if we needed to. Davanni's enjloys our business and welcomed us to set up a regular time.

Here's to next time!

February 5, 2011

A great big thank you to all thirty (or so) of you who came to play today. It was by far the biggest and most fun of the open play sessions we've had. Julia and I both had a very good time, and we hope all of you did too.

We had five tables going for at least two solid hours. Several people had never played at all before, many had played a little, and a few were old hands. All three levels of play were going on, so people could find opponents to match their skill, and could come and go as necessary, and there were people to keep the games going.

Julia did an awesome job of mixing us up, and having us try new things. Four tables played our regular Zung Jung style, but one table played riichi (modern Japanese) style for a good while. Jennifer was a really good sport for jumping right in and giving riichi a solid try. Reports of Jen crying cannot be confirmed at this time.

We did not completely fill the party room, and we could probably get six games going at once. The restaurant had a small lunch rush, but they never got packed and we think that if needed, we could spill out into the main room a little. I think we'll use this site until we really can't fit any more. That being said, if you want to have a game closer to you, I'm happy to look at other places too. Please send suggestions, or offer to host a game in your part of town.

Even though I won exactly one hand all day, there was a ton of awesome mahjong going, and I'm thrilled to be a part of making that happen.

I hope the next game is even more fun, and perhaps a bit larger too.

Chris