MJT Tip: Timing is Everything
MJT Tip: Timing is Everything
On Saturday, the last table of the last round was running out of time. A bevy us were watching - hoping against all odds that they could finish in time (which they would not, too many tiles left). I'm in the chat counting down with them!!! When I started counting, they still had almost 3 walls to go through. Just as a good estimator, a fast pace will need 3 minutes a wall. They had 6 minutes when I started alerting them.
6 minutes. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 30 seconds.
Truth be told, I was simultaneously cheering and yelling at the table. Puppy ran under the bed. Hubs threw pieces of chocolate toward me, much like they throw meat to the lions in the zoo.
Penny/Pupsmom had squeaked by into first place until .... with 20 seconds - TWENTY - left, Marlene/Marlinka pulled her mah jongg! She won the tournament and $145! Had that table not finished, everyone would have gotten a 0 for that game and Marlene would have finished 3rd and only received $75.
Now it was an amazing tournament - don't get me wrong! Not only an exciting finish but our top 3 players were all 1st time players with us. And here is the kicker - Marlene and Penny are long time MJT players but our 3rd place finisher, Lorie - was new to online tournaments in MJT. What a day!!!
But back to the topic at hand.
Timing is important. Really important. Definitely for you if you are in the money. But if might impact others at your table moreso than you.
Which is why I am always reminding players about playing a fast paced game here. We play the same 55 minutes that they play in national tournaments - except we don't need to do table set up so we actually get a benefit there.
If you have wall games, obviously that slows you down. One wall game - you should be able to compensate for that. Two? Now you need to play a bit quicker. But doable, especially if players mahj'd quickly in the other two games.
Just as an FYI, in the final round, the table speeds (not in table order) were 40, 44, 44, 47, 52, 53, and 55 minutes.
Tables with a single wall game took 44, 47, 52, and 55 minutes.
One table had TWO wall games and finished in 52 minutes.
So lessons learned on Saturday. Timing is everything!
And thank you to Table 4 for providing us spectators an exciting finish!!!
