Date:  April 12, 2020

During CBM (Circuit Breaker Measurement) for Singapore or MCO for Malaysia, you not suppose to meet up your friend or friends.  Any party meeting that is > 1 person is considered an offence.

That means, no more Mahjong!  Boyfriend and Girlfriend (2 pax) can’t even be together, you think Mahjong (4 pax) can be together??  hahahaha

No choice, you have to go online.  That is the only where.  4 people play online mahjong together.

Of course, there are some Tiktok video about a man playing mahjong with 4 person using 3x mobile phones and 3x tripod.  That is kind of stupid.  Right?  The host need to do all the work, and shout.  Hahahaha, and I am very sure, they cannot see what cards each other throw before, they will need to have strong memory too.  So, don’t do this!  Waste of time.

Here is a recommendation for you… Enjoy!

What you need?

You will need 2x devices.  i.e. iPhone and iPad.  (or Android phone and Android touch pad).  Or 2x phones or 2x iPads.  Up to you.

Zoom Video Conferencing – Talk Cock and Chatting

You can use one of the phone or iPad/touchpad as Zoom Video Conferencing.  So that all four or you can talk to each other and see each other.  Of course not facing the iPad that is using for Mahjong.  So, when you do online mahjong you can still can talk cock.

Zoom has a lot of problem, but as long as you look after your own password, and we are really using it for talking cock.  So I guess there isn’t much big issue.  Hahahahaha

https://zoom.us/

The Best Online Mahjong (IMHO) To be used for Mahjong with your friends

You can download this app from the IOS App Store.  It is free!

https://apps.apple.com/hk/app/開心鬥一番-好友約局埋位啦/id1263330630

As for Android users, you can download this from Google Play store.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.boyaa.enginexgxianggangqp.main&hl=zh

Why This App (开心斗一番) is Good?

• Not only you can play mahjong, you can also 锄大地，斗地主, play Texas Poker.
• Most importantly, you can “open a room” (开房-约局功能)!!!!!!!!!!  Yes, open a room, and invite your friends to play Mahjong and other games with you.  This is the most important feature.

How it works?  Demo Please.

After you install the 开心斗一番 App, please create an account for yourself.  It is free.  Don’t need to buy anything extra.  Unless you want to play mahjong with unknown people online.

You can click on the left top corner to edit your photo and others personal info.

Edit your photo, change the name too something your friend will recognise.  Otherwise, using random name, your friend don’t know who you are.

For online mahjong with your friend, you click or select this 约局 option at the bottom menu.

So inside the 约局 page, you can Open a Room (创建房间).  And once you obtain a room number, then, all three of your mahjong kakis can click on the Enter The Room 加入房间 button.

We are going to play Hong Kong style mahjong.  Only 144 cards I think.  Without the Animals.

So, you can set the minimun “Tai” for your game.  For demo, I set you must have minimum 1x Tai.

You can set how many games to play.  In the demo, we set 8.  Means play 8xtimes.  If you win on your win, you don’t get to “Diao Zhuang”.

After setting this, let’s Open the Room 开房.

All you need to do, is to tell all your 3x friends the room number.  Which is displayed on the top left corner.

In this example, the Room number is 7664.

If you press “Invite” button, it will show you the same thing.  Here you got option to invite Facebook or WeChat friends.

So, all your friends need to do, just key in the number 7664.

And you are good to go.  Once you are in the room, just press “准备” to indicate you are ready to go.

The interface is very simple.  Touch and go.

If you need to Eat 上/吃, it will show you the option.

One thing is bad is, if you throw a card, and there is a pause, that means, some one screen will have the Pong 碰 or Gang 扛 option.  So, you know some one has a pair out there.  hahaha  So, there will be no miss-Pong or miss-Gang or miss-Hu 糊.

There is a timer.  If you did not Pong, Eat or Hu, then, life goes on.  The App will throw the card for you or pass for you.

Actually it is quite pleasant.

Very easy game play.  And it is played by four real person, so it is as good as a real mahjong.

I am playing with my highschool friends at the moment.  And I got a chance to play Same Color 清一色.

And Self-Drawn 自摸！！！！！So I quickly press the Hu 糊 button.

Wow, 9x Tai.  Win 297 credits.  Each of them lost 92 because of Self Drawn.

I was actually sitting on my Massage chair.  And for this two rounds of game, we did not setup Zoom as two of my frined was playing on their phone.  So, no other devices to do Zoom video conferencing or skype call, etc.

Playing at your comfort zone.  Haha, I was doing massage on the Oto Massage Chair while playing.

First 8 games ended at 2:30pm.  I won every one.

Second Game, takes only 38 minues and ended at 3:08pm.  2 rounds takes about 38 minutes.  I win again!

As a conclusion:

1. It is just a plain mahjong app for 4 real person to get together to play.  You can set the rules.  But it will go according to Hong Kong Mahjong rules.  You can set only the minimum Tai and the number of games/rounds.
2. It is free!  Once you downloaded, all you need to do is 开房进房.  That’s it.
3. There are some chat function.  But I suggest use Video Conferencing such as Zoom, Skype of HouseParty or even the Voice conferencing.  Don’t type.  You are slowing down the game play.
4. Oh one good thing, the App will Tell you what cards each player playing by annoucing it.  So, you can listen.
5. Don’t forget to call me when you 三缺一.
6. Enjoy!  Please don’t go out.  Please wear mask.  Please, it is so boring during the CBM.  So please don’t let the government to extend the CBM.  Please.