curious cat

[or2az]

The sight of this cat looking over the hand for something to discard made me curious too.
I can see why he (or she) is having problems. It doesn't look like a very good hand considering there are at least 40 discards scattered all over the table, and he (or she) is probably trying to figure out whats going on here.
Anyway, seeing this picture also made me wonder about a couple of things.
(1) Is the hand set up like that, with the gaps and separated white dragons, in order to prevent opponents from guessing what you have.
I assume that in a live game that this might not be a bad idea, but that it can also get very confusing.
(2) Are the face-down tiles in the center of the table moved from the perimeter so one does not have to reach across the table to draw a tile and is this standard practice in a live game.
These are things that you don't have to think about in computer games.

Oh, by the way, the cat has decided to toss the dots and go for a half flush although he (or she) does seem a bit concerned about having only one of each of the wind tiles!

[Iapetus]

This is American mahjong, where "4 melds and a pair" does not exist. Every hand is irregular, listed on a card you have to buy again every year. By interpreting the hakus as 0, you can see the hand as 11 2007 2007 ESWN. It's one of those years hands, telling this picture is from 2007.

The wall is pushed to the center to make drawing easier for everyone. Since American mahjong does not order discards like Riichi does, it can be put straight in the middle of the discard pile. In Riichi, you can't be as extreme, but you can still do it to some degree. It is considered polite.

[Barticle]

Crucially in the example above the winds are also spelling out the word "NEWS" (there aren't many other words you could spell with those letters!). The American combinations (yaku) are very different to other forms of mahjong - and those annual cards (see example here) must be quite the money-spinner for the national league! ($8 apiece x 4 players)

Other distinctive features of the American game are wildcard joker tiles (which make possible an exotic "quint" set of five identical tiles) and the "Charleston" phase where players swap tiles with each other before starting each hand. There's no furiten or riichi/ippatsu so there's no need for the discards to be ordered. Flower tiles (see cat pic), tile racks and circular points chips are usually used.

Some veteran players can play comfortably with a completely random unsorted hand. I've only seen this option in a couple of video-games (one time it was a mandatory round of a challenge mode).

Sometimes the four sides of the wall will be arranged to give a sort of windmill shape (see example here).

PS I'm not a fan of US mahjong, but very cute pic.

[or2az]

American Mahjong. Have not seen one of those cards in quite a while. I can remember watching people play this game back in New York when I was a kid.
Metal racks with metal coins stacked on the side, flowers as part of the hand, a talkative game, if I remember right, sort of like when you play Monopoly.
That's where I first heard the words, cracks, bams, and dots,.....and it stuck, to the point of when I later rediscovered mahjong.
Didn't know at the time that there were other versions of mahjong. Riichi seems the best, for me anyway. Involves more complex reasoning.