The Mahjong for Two

A revised game for two now, with the rules being, adjusted to fit our playing requirements, to help our minds stay active during old age, translated…

My wife and I are both retired, and, the retired elderly had nothing on their hands.  On most nights after supper, we’d both sat in front of the television and checked our LINE messages on our cell phones, it’s damaging to our eyes; and, watching the primetime soaps, our times became, tied up; and, if we watched the political commentaries, we’d gotten into arguments, our blood pressures would rise, seeing how our country is about to get killed, it’s not healthy; watching the entertainment programs, in the end, we’d both, dozed off, and get watched by the television.

The experts said, that playing mahjong is a most fitting activity for the elderly.  If you want to win, you need to use your brains, which can reduce the risks of dementia; clearing the tables of the mahjong tiles, cutting the blocks, it can reduce the possibility of Parkinson’s.  But, we’d needed four players for the games to get played, and, it wasn’t convenient, inviting friends over all the time, besides, we’d needed to prepare the fruits, and the snacks if we invited people over to play mahjong with us, it’s too troubling.  And so, my wife and I started our own game of two, we could play it at any time.

the game usualy have four players…photo from online…

So, how do we play as a twosome?  We’d shuffled the blocks as if we’re playing with others, sat face to face, with the rules of calling, and not taking the blocks, that way, the games wouldn’t be over too soon.  The book of instructions said, that “seventy-percent of the game was on luck, thirty on skills”, the skills, I don’t think, have that much of an effect on winning or losing, but in order to prevent one of us, keep taking all the games, we’d added new rules: the dealer can only win by playing all the blocks on the hands, you can’t beat the opponent; and, when we’d won three consecutive times, as the dealer lost, the dealer still needed to pay up, and, we’d made the bids, if we’d called each other’s games, and so, there’s no way either of us will win four times in a row.  In order to prevent sitting for long hours, we’d gotten up to shuffle the tiles, and to cut the tiles too.

The mahjong for two, for the sake of playing, no money was at stake, so, there’s no sore losers, and, we’re free, to play as many rounds as we wished to.  We’d played on for almost two years now, it’s fun, and healthy.  Are you moved yet?  Do take model after us, and set up your games right now.

but two will do too!  Photo from online…like this???

So, this, is the altered game of mahjong, because, in the original games, with only three players, the games wouldn’t even make it, but these two individuals altered the rules, to fit their needs of playing, of keeping their minds active as they age, and, they’d had a lot of fun, playing the games too.