The Chinese Association at Stony Brook recently held a Mahjong and Chinese Poker Tournament at the Student Activities Center . The event started off a half hour late, but that didn’t affect the outcome of the event, which was simply to have fun. The Mahjong tournament was divided into advanced and beginning players, and separated into different tables to play. Mahjong is played with four players at a table. The game involves skill, strategy, observation, and a little luck, which might turn the game to your favor. The object of the game is to build complete suits - or melds - usually of threes, from either 13 or 16 tiles. The first person to achieve this goal wins the game. The winning tile completes the player's set of either 14 or 17 tiles. Mahjong is a very time-consuming game. In fact, one could see the players’ faces change as they became more stressed from trying to win this difficult game. However, they continued to talk to each other, sharing laughs and enjoying themselves. The winner of the event would go on to win a nice Mahjong set.

         The Mahjong tournament was superb, but we can’t forget about Chinese Poker! I remember it being one of my most highly-played games in high school. One would be waiting for lunch time, and then plunge into the lunchroom having lunch and enjoying a game of Chinese Poker. At the CASB event, many people played Chinese Poker with chips, and whoever had the most chips would win the game and a prize bag filled with goodies.

          The winners of both the Mahjong and Chinese poker tournament were very ecstatic as they got up on stage, shaking hands with the President of CASB, Derrick Tan, and having their photos taken. The whole event was a huge success thanks to CASB members and non-members alike, all of whom helped to plan this event for many students on campus. We also can’t forget about the people participating in this event who made it very lively. CASB continues to provide all these events and opportunities to Stony Brook students, so people are able to see what the group is all about. Thanks to all of CASB’s efforts into this Mahjong and Chinese Poker tournament, it began the first of many upcoming events that CASB has in plan for this semester.