Hmmm, that makes sense.
by the way, I still don’t really get how you came to the conclusion of Legion from Crazynuto’s Fisherman advice, could you explain?
i think mine was pretty fire
your mom is so fat assassin couldn’t kill her
I hardclaim autistic
2 Likes
Intensify has died!
1 Like
Joking
I wish I wasn’t
WORTH IT
1 Like
that reminds me of really good fisherman advice that was “you can take one of two of three sides”
which pointed straight at me as the demon because i knew that me, my minion, and the lunatic, were sat in a perfect equilateral triangle
and i tried to say “that makes no sense we should kill the fisherman”
1 Like
DON’T TELL THEM THAT
2 Likes
We were having a productive game relevant conversation
2 Likes
how do you dislike a post
2 Likes
In the last BotF I accidentally reported myself for spam because I meant to take a screenshot of the report menu as a joke
1 Like
TBF I posted all of Riichi Book One
this was also funny beucause i hardclaimed widow ping and artist publicly first thing d1
and my minion walks up to me and is like “im the widow and ive been bluffing artist”
at least they self-poisoned lmao
Summary
Riichi Book I
A Mahjong Strategy Primer
for European Players
Daina Chiba
Riichi Book I
A Mahjong Strategy Primer for European Players
Version 13
Daina Chiba
Copyright © 2016–2020 Daina Chiba.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute, and/or modify this document un-
der the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0
Unported License, available at Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported — CC BY-NC 3.0.
Cover photo © 2015 Katarína Mózová, Courtesy of Riichi Mahjong Slovakia.
The original form of this book is LATEX source code. Compiling this LATEX
source has the effect of generating a device-independent representation of
a manuscript. The LATEX source for this book is available from https://
GitHub - dainachiba/RiichiBooks: A book on riichi mahjong strategies.
About the Author
Daina Chiba is a political scientist and an applied statistician working as a
lecturer at the University of Essex in England. He has been playing riichi
mahjong for almost 20 years. He can be reached at daina.chiba@gmail.com.
Preface
When I moved to England in 2013, I was pleasantly surprised to
learn that riichi mahjong (modern Japanese mahjong) is quite popu-
lar in Europe. In the past two years, I have had the pleasure of play-
ing riichi in London, Guildford, Kent, Oxford, Aachen, Copenhagen,
Prague, and Vienna, along with players from Austria, China, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, the UK, and the
United States.
European players have been remarkably successful in organizing
tournaments open to anyone who plays the game. These tourna-
ments — held at least once a month somewhere in Europe — are run
by local mahjong players in each country under the auspices of the
European Mahjong Association (EMA).1 Founded in 2005, EMA has
been doing a fantastic job in maintaining common rule sets,2 keep-
ing a player ranking system, and doing many other useful things to
promote the playing of mahjong across Europe.
Although I have come across a few good players in Europe, I came
to realize that a lot of players here are not very well-versed in the
basic principles of competitive mahjong strategies. Of course, play-
ing competitively is not the only way to enjoy the game. I am also
1 http://mahjong-europe.org/
2 EMA’s official rule book for riichi mahjong is available online at http:
//mahjong-europe.org/portal/images/docs/Riichi-rules-2016-EN.pdf
(last revised in 2016). At the time of writing this book, EMA is in the process
of revising the rule book. Explanations of EMA rules in this book are based on
the revised rules. New rules will come into effect from April, 2016.
iv PREFACE
not claiming that I know the magic formula to win because there is
no such thing. Nevertheless, there is a set of basic principles worth
learning for any aspiring players. I believe the level of sophistication
among European players could be much improved if these princi-
ples are more widely shared. Unfortunately, however, learning re-
sources currently available for non-Japanese audience are somewhat
limited.3
I have thus decided to write a book on riichi mahjong strategies
for European players, primarily with beginners and intermediate play-
ers in mind. I then ended up splitting the book into two volumes;
Book I is intended for beginners and intermediate players (Tenhou
rank of 四段 or below), while Book II is meant for more advanced
players. The two books are not intended for complete novices who
do not know how to play riichi mahjong.4 The target reader is any-
one who has played riichi mahjong before and wants to improve their
skills further.
I have three main goals in preparing these books. First, I will in-
troduce a set of English terminology of riichi mahjong. “In beginning
was Word,” scripture tells us. Knowing the names of particular tile
combinations, situations, and strategies will allow us to be conscious
of them and to be able to talk about them with our fellow players
after the game.
My second goal is to introduce the principles of tile efficiency.
Book I and Book II both cover tile efficiency, but at different levels.
3 There are already a few English books for beginners. There are also several
excellent blog posts on technical details about mahjong strategies. However,
there appears to be a huge gap between these two sets of resources. Introduc-
tory books do not cover strategies extensively, whereas blog posts tend to be
too advanced even for intermediate players.
4 If you want to learn how to play riichi, I’d recommend Barr (2009).
v
Book I offers an introduction to tile efficiency, covering very basic
mechanisms only. I plan to cover more advanced materials in Book
II. My third goal is to introduce a set of simple strategies regarding
critical judgements such as whether or not to call riichi, whether to
push or to fold, and whether or not to meld.
A lot of the materials covered in the books were introduced to
me through the writings of a notable Japanese mahjong player and
manga author, Masayuki Katayama. Mr. Katayama is an accomplished
riichi player and arguably the best mahjong manga author in the
world. Some of the strategies introduced here are unabashedly stolen
from Mr. Katayama’s masterpiece manga storybook U tahime Obaka-
miiko (『打姫オバカミーコ』). I strongly encourage you to read it
yourself if you read Japanese, although I realize that you would not
be reading my book if you understood Japanese.
Another Japanese author whose work has been influential in the
writing of Book I is Makoto Fukuchi. Mr. Fukuchi is also a distin-
guished riichi player and the best-selling author of mahjong strategy
books. A part of the exposition of the five-block method in Chapter
4 is based on Mr. Fukuchi’s skillful explanation in his books.
I am also indebted to a lot of friends I have become acquainted
with through mahjong in Europe. Philipp Martin has read an early
draft of the book and provided me with valuable comments and
encouragement. I am also grateful to Gemma Sakamoto, who has
been hosting a monthly mahjong get-together in London. Finally,
my thanks go to Ian Fraser, one of the founders of the UK Mahjong
Association. Without the efforts of Ian and his team, I would not
have been able to get to know so many fellow players in the UK and
in Europe.
vi PREFACE
The cover photo (© Katarína Mózová) is from the 2015 Bratislava
Riichi Open Tournament. I thank Katarína and Riichi Mahjong Slo-
vakia (especially Matej Labaš) for giving me their permission to use
it.
After I made the book publicly available in January 2016, a lot of
people have given me feedback on various aspects of the book. Based
on their feedback, I corrected some terminology inconsistencies and
typos. In particular, I thank David Clarke, Aaron Ebejer, Nicolas Gi-
aconia, Grant Mahoney, Ting, Chris Rowe, Mike Liang, and Max Lu
for their valuable inputs.
Daina Chiba
London, UK
January 10, 2016
(updated on September 14, 2020)
vii
Plan of the book
To improve your mahjong skills, you need not only to learn the
theories but also to practice what you learn by playing lots of games,
preferably with players who are stronger than yourself. Before the
advent of online mahjong platforms, however, doing so was not very
easy if you live outside of Japan.
Thanks to the recent development of online mahjong platforms, it
is now feasible for you to play hundreds or thousands of games with
serious opponents while living outside of Japan. On these websites,
you can easily find fellow players to play with 24/7. Most platforms
keep the record of all the games players have played and a replay
function that allows you to reflect on your past plays. You can also
take a look at player statistics, which gives you important clues as to
what skills you need to work on.
I thus recommend you practice mahjong skills by playing online
while you study the strategy principles with this book. You do not
need to wait until you finish reading everything covered in the book
before you start playing. Go ahead and play games first, then come
back to the book and study the relevant parts of the book.
This book is divided into four parts. Part I provides an intro-
duction to an online mahjong platform called Tenhou (天鳳). The
website is in Japanese, but I will walk you through the account regis-
tration process and show you how to play games in Chapter 1. There
already exist several excellent online resources that explain how to
play Tenhou, including:
• Arcturus’s Tenhou Documentation
Tenhou Documentation
viii PREFACE
• Complete Beginner’s Guide to Online Mahjong (Osamuko)
Complete Beginners Guide to Online Mahjong
• Playing Online: Tenhou (Reach Mahjong of New York)
Playing Online: Tenhou – Reach Mahjong of New York
If you have already read either of the three before, you can skip Chap-
ter 1 of this book, for there is not much new information there for you.
Chapter 2 explains some advanced features of Tenhou, which you can
also skip when you read this book for the first time.
Parts II and III are the “meat” of the book. Part II covers basic
tile efficiency theories that allow you to maximize the speed and/or
hand value of your hand. After introducing basic terminology in
Chapter 3, I discuss the five-block method in Chapter 4 and provide
some tips on how to pursue several yaku in Chapter 5. Part III covers
strategy principles, including score calculation methods (Chapter 6),
riichi judgement (Chapter 7), defense judgement (Chapter 8), meld-
ing judgement (Chapter 9), and so called “grand strategies” to win
a game (Chapter 10). Finally, Appendices include a chapter on eti-
quettes for offline playing (Chapter A) and another chapter on fur-
ther readings (Chapter B).
Numbers and letters shown in this color as well as each entry in
the Contents section below are hyperlinked; clicking on one will take
you to the pertinent page.
Contents
Preface iii
I Playing Riichi Online 1
1 Introduction to Tenhou (天鳳) 3
1.1 Why play online? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Setting up an account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 The main page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Playing a game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.6 Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2 Advanced features of Tenhou 30
2.1 Rank and rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2 Four rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3 Reading the statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.4 Viewing games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
II Basic Tile Efficiency 46
3 Riichi mahjong basics 48
3.1 Learning strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.2 Basic building blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.3 Complex shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.4 Waits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
ix
x CONTENTS
3.5 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4 The five-block method 84
4.1 Finding a redundant tile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.2 Alternative configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.3 Selecting tile blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.4 Building a block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5 Pursuing yaku 110
5.1 How to get sanshoku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.2 How to get ittsu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.3 How to get pinfu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.4 How to get honitsu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.5 How to get toitoi / chiitoitsu . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
III Strategy Principles 138
6 Scoring 140
6.1 Three steps in score calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
6.2 Basic scoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.3 Advanced scoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.4 Scoring tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
7 Riichi judgement 163
7.1 To riichi or not to riichi? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
7.2 Insta-riichi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7.3 When not to riichi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.4 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
8 Defense judgement 189
8.1 To push or to fold? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
CONTENTS xi
8.2 Defense basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
8.3 Defense against riichi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
8.4 Defense against open hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
8.5 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
9 Melding judgement 216
9.1 To meld or not to meld? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
9.2 Melding choice: examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
9.3 Calling kan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
9.4 Miscellaneous tips for melding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
10 Grand strategies 235
10.1 What to do in South-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
10.2 What to do by South-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
10.3 Tables for induced point differences . . . . . . . . . . 247
Appendices
A Manners for offline playing 250
A.1 Dealing tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
A.2 Drawing and discarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
A.3 Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
A.4 Winning a hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
B Further readings 260
B.1 Books on riichi mahjong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
B.2 Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Part I
Playing Riichi Online
1
Chapter 1
Introduction to Tenhou (天鳳)
1.1 Why play online?
Playing mahjong online is an excellent way to practice your mahjong
skills. You don’t need any mahjong equipment to play; you don’t
need to coordinate with your mahjong friends to find the time and
place that work for all four of you. You can simply open your com-
puter and access one of many online mahjong platforms. As long
as you have an internet connection, you can play mahjong any time,
anywhere, and for any length of time.
Another advantage of online playing is that you can easily keep
the record of your playing history and obtain detailed statistics from
all the games you play. Analyzing these statistics will help you iden-
tify what skill sets you need to work on. You can also show your
game record to your friends and ask for their opinions about partic-
ular choices you’ve made in a game.
天鳳 (Tenhou) is arguably the
most popular online mahjong plat-
form in the world. As of December,
2015, there are over three hundred
thousand active players on Tenhou.1
A lot of professional mahjong play-
ers from Japan now play Tenhou.
There are also some Tenhou players who have later become profes-
sional after practicing their skills on Tenhou. It has become a common
1 To be exact, it has 304,534 active players and 3,566,353 registered players as of
20 December, 2015.
4 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
understanding among players in Japan that your rank and rating on
Tenhou are one of the most reliable indicators of your mahjong skill
levels. To get you started, this chapter explains how to set up an ac-
count on Tenhou and provides a basic operation manual.
1.2 Setting up an account
One of the challenges for European players in setting up an ac-
count on Tenhou would be that almost everything is written in Japanese.
However, you will only need a minimal level of Japanese to get by,
and this chapter will walk you through the process.
First, go to the Tenhou webpage (http://tenhou.net/).
Scroll down and click either the PLAY button (to play in a pop-up
window) or a link just below the button (to play in the current win-
dow) that reads このウィンドウで開く.
Click here to play
in a pop-up
window.
Click this link to
play in the
current window.
1.2. SETTING UP AN ACCOUNT 5
Then, on the next page (either in a pop-up window or in the cur-
rent window), you’ll see something like the following:
Flash version Web version
The bottom line will initially read LOADING… / 再読み込み, but
in a few seconds it will change into »Flash 版サーバに接続 | Web 版
β サーバに接続. Then, click on the Flash サーバに接続 link if you are
accessing from a flash-capable device such as your PC; alternatively,
click on the Web 版 β サーバに接続 link if you are accessing from a
smart phone or tablet. If it doesn’t change into »Flash 版サーバに接
続 | Web 版 β サーバに接続 within 10 seconds or so, you may want
to click on the 再読み込み link right next to LOADING, which will
prompt the browser to reload the page. Clicking on either of the
Flash/Web サーバに接続 links will take you to the log-in entrance of
Tenhou. Explanations below are based on the Flash version.
6 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
Registration ID field (likely to be blank at first)
When you first visit this page, the ID field right next to the 新規
ID 登録 button is likely to be blank, as shown in the picture above.
This is because you haven’t registered an account. In order to create
an account, click on the 新規 ID 登録 (New ID Registration) button
on the left.
A pop-up message will show up, warning you that whatever ID
that is currently shown in the ID field (if any) will be overwritten
with a new ID and that you may want to copy and paste the current
ID (if any) into some text file or similar. Do so if you do see an old
ID in the ID field, just to be safe. If the ID field is blank, just click the
Yes button, which will open yet another pop-up message.
1.2. SETTING UP AN ACCOUNT 7
It is telling you the following:
• You can create a player ID for free, and doing so is necessary if
you want to earn a rank (kyuu / dan) and rating.
• Some characters or character combinations are not allowed in
player names.
• Once you register, you cannot register another account for a
given period (7 days).
• If you don’t play for 180 days, your ID may be deleted.
• A player name must have 1-8 characters.
Type in a player name you’d like to have (8 characters or fewer)
into the blank field at the bottom and click OK. You cannot change
your player name later, so choose wisely. If the player name you type
in is already taken by another player, it gives you an error message,
as follows:
This player name is taken.
Click OK, and type in another name. If successful, you’ll see a
new message asking you to confirm that you want to register an ac-
count with the player name provided.
8 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
Click Yes and you’ll see another message as follows:
The 19-digit alpha-numeric code that starts with “ID” (shown in
white on a black background) is your unique player ID (it is ID12345678-
ABCDEFGH in the picture above). I suggest you save your ID in a
text file or something so that you don’t lose it. They cannot re-issue
your player ID (unless you have a paid membership and hold a rank
of 七段 or higher).
Clicking OK will take you back to the log-in entrance page, but
this time you should see your player ID in the ID field.
1.2. SETTING UP AN ACCOUNT 9
Your player ID Choose 男 (male voice) or 女 (female voice)
Can choose
プレミアム or
エコノミー.
You can make several choices before entering the main page. First,
you can choose male or female voice (for pon / chii / riichi, etc.) by
clicking on the button right next to the ID field. You can choose a
different gender each time you log in to the main lobby. Second, you
can choose プレミアム (premium) or エコノミー (economy) version.
The premium version has better graphics, so I suggest you choose
the premium version.
If you are happy with your choices, you can enter the main page
by clicking on the OK button on the right.
10 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
1.3 The main page
Here is what the Tenhou main page looks like when you first log
on in. The right half of the main page shows your statistics (currently
all the fields are blank because you haven’t played any games), and
the left half shows the games you can play and some other features.
Menu Cancel (to cancel a reservation)
Main tabs
Sub tabs
In the second line of the left hand side, you see three numbers. In
the example above, they are 1857, 915, and 118 (the numbers will be
different on your screen). These numbers show that 1857 players are
currently online, 915 players are waiting, and 118 players are about
to finish their games.
Below these three numbers, there are six main tabs, which read 段
位戦, 雀荘 β, 技能 β, 観戦, 牌譜, and ヘルプ. The 段位戦 tab is the main
lobby where we play games (段位戦 reads dan-i-sen in Japanese; it
means ranking matches). Under the 段位戦 tab, there are four sub
tabs, which read 一般, 上級, 特上, and 鳳凰, corresponding to four
1.3. THE MAIN PAGE 11
different rooms. At first you can only play at tables in the 一般 room.
Let’s first go to the 段位戦 tab, and choose the 一般 sub tab.
Making reservations
In each of the four rooms (i.e., 一般, 上級, 特上, and 鳳凰), there
are 12 different variants of riichi mahjong games you can choose from.
Games in the left column (under 東風戦 tonpusen) are East-only
games,2 and games in the right column (under 東南戦 tonnansen)
are more standard East-South games that have both East and South
rounds.3
Closed tanyao
Open tanyao
With red fives
Fast
Three-player
Fast (3p)
East-only East–South
1 player waiting
44 players playing
Games in the first row (喰断ナシ kuitan nashi) are unusual games
where open tanyao (All Simples) is not allowed; you have to have
a concealed hand to claim tanyao.4 There are no red fives in these
games, either. Open tanyao is allowed in all the other games. Games
2 In a special circumstance where no player gets 30000 or more points by the end
of East-4, the game continues into the South round.
3 Just like East-only games, when there is no player who has 30000 or more points
by the end of South-4, the game continues into the West round.
4 kuitan means “open tanyao” and kuitan nashi means “without kuitan” in
Japanese.
12 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
in the second row are more standard games with open tanyao, but
they do not have red fives. Games in the third row have three red
fives. This is arguably the most standard type of riichi mahjong game
played in Japan as of now. Games in the fourth row have the same
rule as those in the third, but the time limit on each action is more
strict. Games in the fifth and sixth rows are three-player games,
where open tanyao and red fives are both allowed.
The set of numbers delimited by a colon in each cell represent
the numbers of players currently waiting and playing the game, re-
spectively. For example, the first row in the left column shows 3:24,
which means that 3 players are waiting in queue after signing up for
a game, and 24 players are currently playing East-only, closed tanyao
games. As it happens, East-South games with red fives are usually
the most popular on Tenhou, followed by East-only, fast games.
To sign up for a game, click on the 予約 (reservation) button in
the corresponding cell. You can make as many reservations as you
want; you will be given a seat at a table that first becomes available. If
you make multiple reservations, other reservations will be automat-
ically canceled when you start playing at another table. To cancel all
the reservations at once, click on the キャンセル (Cancel) button at
the bottom right of the left-hand side of the main page. The cancel
button becomes active (clickable) only after you make a reservation.
1.4. PLAYING A GAME 13
1.4 Playing a game
Once a slot becomes available for
you, you will be taken to a game ta-
ble along with three other players. A
black pop-up screen (see right) will
appear. The game will start in 10 sec-
onds (if all the four players click on
the OK button, the game will start
immediately). Each player is ran-
domly assigned to East, West, South, or North. In the example above,
my initial seat wind is North (北).
The Tenhou interface is quite intuitive so you won’t need much
instruction. Once a hand begins, tiles are dealt automatically. You
also automatically draw a tile when your turn comes. In each turn,
click on the tile you want to discard.
Each action is timed. At a standard (non fast) table, you have 5
seconds to discard a tile. In addition, you are given a total allowance
of 10 seconds in each hand. That is, even when you use up the 5 sec-
14 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
onds allocated to you in a particular turn, you will be given the max-
imum 10 additional seconds (minus the seconds you have already
used up in previous turns in the hand). For example, when you use
5 + 4 seconds in the first turn, the remaining allowance reduces to
10 4 = 6 seconds in this hand. Therefore, the next time you use
up the first 5 seconds, you will be given only 6 more seconds. The
allowance will increase by 1 second (up to 10 seconds) each time you
make your discard choice in less than 1 second. The allowance will
revert to 10 seconds when the next hand begins. At fast tables, each
action must be done in 3 seconds, with a total allowance of 5 seconds.
1.4.1 Calling / melding
When a call becomes available, a box with a call name will show
up to prompt your reaction. The call prompts are written in Japanese.
The good news is that they are relatively simple and easy to guess
from the context. It would be enough to memorize the following
eight mahjong words in Japanese.
- リーチ riichi [r´I:tS]
You can call riichi when you have (1) a closed ready hand, (2) at
least 1000 points left, and (3) at least one turn left to draw. When all
of the three conditions are met, a translucent box that reads リーチ
in white letters will pop up in your turn.
If you want to riichi, you must click on the リーチ box first, then click
on the tile you want to discard. Once you click on the リーチ box, you
cannot call it off. Clicking on the リーチ box also makes it impossible
to discard a tile that does not make the hand ready. In the above ex-
1.4. PLAYING A GAME 15
ample, tiles other than ȷ will become unclickable once you
click on the リーチ box. If you do not want to call riichi, just click on
the tile you want to discard. - ロン ron [r´ON]
A ロン box will pop up whenever you can legitimately declare
ron on an opponent’s discard. In other words, chombo is made im-
possible on Tenhou. For example, when you are furiten, a ロン box
will not pop up because you cannot legally ron with a furiten hand.
Whenever your hand is in a furiten status, it is indicated with a フ
リテン (furiten) sign in small translucent letters below your hand
that looks like: . If you don’t click on the ロン box in time
(i.e., in 5 or 3 seconds + allowance), it is assumed that you pass. - パス Pass (do nothing)
Whenever a ロン box pops up, another box that reads パス (pass)
will accompany it.
Click on the パス box immediately if you don’t want to declare ron
on a discard. You would not want to pause for too long because that
can look suspicious. A パス box will also pop up when other calling
actions become available. - ツモ tsumo [ts´umo]
A ツモ box will pop up when you can legitimately declare tsumo
with your draw.
16 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳) - ポン pon [p´ON]
When calling pon becomes available, a ポン box will pop up right
above the tiles in your hand with which to call pon. A パス box will
also pop up. If you want to call pon, mouse over the tiles in your
hand with which to call pon. Then the candidate tiles will stick out,
as follows:
Click on them to call pon. If you click on the パス box or don’t do
anything in time, it is assumed that you pass. - チー chii [tS´I:]
Chii calls are done in a similar way. When it becomes available,
a small sign that reads チー will pop up right above the tiles in your
hand with which to call chii.
When you have multiple sets of tiles with which to chii, as is the
case in the above picture, mouse over the candidate tiles to choose.
In the picture above, the left player discarded a and you can chii
it with either , , or . If you want to chii it with ,
mouse over the then the and the will stick out so you can
click on them. If you want to chii it with , mouse over the
then the and a will stick out so you can click on them. Finally,
if you want to chii it with , mouse over the left then the
and the will stick out so you can click on them.
1.4. PLAYING A GAME 17 - カン kan [k´2N]
Calling kan on a discard is similar to calling pon. Calling kan by
extending a melded pon may be a little bit confusing at first. When
you have a melded pon and there is the fourth tile in your hand
(newly drawn or previously drawn), a small sign that reads カン
will appear below the pon upon your turn. If you want to extend
the melded pon, mouse over the melded pon then the fourth tile will
stick out. Click on the melded pon to extend the pon. To call a con-
cealed kan, mouse over the four tiles you want to kan then the tiles
will stick out, accompanied by a small sign that reads カン below
them. Click on them to call kan. - 九種九牌 Kyuushu Kyuuhai
When you have nine different terminals and honors after the first
draw in an uninterrupted first set of turns, you can declare an abortive
draw. When this becomes available, a box that reads 九種九牌 will
pop up. Click on it if you want to declare an abortive draw. If you
wish to continue with the hand, just click on the tile you want to dis-
card.
Multiple boxes
Sometimes you have multiple choices as to what to do with a
given discard of your opponent. In the following example, you have
a ready hand waiting for -, and the left player discarded a .
You will be given the following three choices:
Ron Pass
Chii
18 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
• Call ron
• Call chii
• Pass (do nothing)
To call ron on the discarded , click on the ロン (ron) box that pops
up above your hand. If you want to do nothing, click on the パス
(pass) box right next to the ロン box. Alternatively, if you want to
call chii, mouse over the two tiles you want to chii with (in this
case ) and click on them.
1.4.2 Buttons
The buttons at the bottom right corner allow you to toggle on/off
some calling-related features. Each feature is turned off at the begin-
ning of a new hand.
Auto call win
Auto discard draw
No call Picture (画)
Sound (音)
自動和了 (Auto call win)
If you turn this on, you will automatically win a hand when possi-
ble without clicking on ロン or ツモ boxes. In other words, the option
of passing is unavailable when this is turned on. Keep in mind that
this can be problematic at times when you intend not to win your
hand from a particular opponent or on a particular tile. When this
is turned on, the word 自動和了 is shown in white; when it is turned
off, it is translucent. In the picture above, it is turned on.
ツモ切り (Auto discard draw)
If you turn this on, you will automatically discard whatever tile
you draw. Turn this on when you have to go to toilet or somewhere
1.4. PLAYING A GAME 19
but don’t want to quit the game entirely. When you riichi, this feature
is automatically (and implicitly) turned on. In the picture above, it
is turned off.
鳴かない (No call)
If you turn this on, you will not be prompted to call chii, pon, or
kan. This feature is useful for hiding information about your hand’s
tile composition from your opponents. If you pause every time some-
one discards a certain tile you can call, your opponents might be able
to guess what pairs of tiles you have and don’t have. Drawing a de-
duction from such time lags constitutes an important skill in Tenhou.
However, in order not to disadvantage players waiting to call chii /
pon too much, time lags will also occur randomly (i.e., even when no
one can call pon / chii on the discarded tile).
画 (Picture) and 音 (Sound effect)
You can change the appearance of the tiles and/or mat or resize
the window with the Picture button. You can turn on/off the sound
effect (for riichi, chii, pon, etc.) with the Sound button.
20 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
1.4.3 Scoring
When a player wins a hand, the score will be calculated auto-
matically. A scoring board will pop up that shows the hand, dora
(and ura dora if riichi was declared), yaku names and the associ-
ated number of han, minipoints, and the total hand value.
In the example above, the left player dealt into my hand that is worth
60 符 (fu; minipoints) 13 飜 (han) = 32000 点 (points). Yaku names
will be shown in Japanese along with han counts. Table 1.2 at the end
of this chapter lists all the yaku names Tenhou recognizes.
1.4. PLAYING A GAME 21
1.4.4 Indicators
The black rectangular board in the middle of the screen provides
information about the proceeding of the game.
Number of
riichi bets
Counter
We can see that this is South-4, there is 0 counter and 0 riichi bet,
and it is the North player’s turn. The West player is leading (44000
points), followed by the East player (26800), the North player (17400),
and the South player (11800). Each player’s rank (kyuu / dan) is
shown right next to their points.
If you mouse over the middle board, you will see the current
point differences between you and each of your opponents. In the
present example, the West player has 44000 26800 = +17200 more
points than I do. If you are leading against another player, the point
difference will be negative. For example, the South player has 11800
so the point difference is 11800 26800 = 15000.
22 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
It is important to pay close attention to these point differences, es-
pecially in the South round or when one of your opponents is at the
risk of bankruptcy. In the current example, if the East player wins a
12000 hand from the South player, South will go bankrupt and the
game is terminated. Notice that East is currently ranked second, hav-
ing 17200 points fewer than West. In this case, winning a 12000 from
South is not ideal for East because East will still be ranked second
and the game is over.5
You can also see the type of game you are currently playing on
the board. Just below the wall opposite to you is an indicator that
looks like this: .
• The first letter indicates the room: 般 for 一般 (ippan), 上 for 上
級 (joukyuu), 特 for 特上 (tokujou), 鳳 for 鳳凰 (houou). See
Chapter 2 for explanations of these.
• The second letter indicates if it is an East-only game (東) or an
East–South (南) game.
• The third letter indicates if open tanyao is allowed: 喰 (with
open tanyao) or 無 (without open tanyao)
• A fourth letter (赤) is added if there are red fives.
• A fifth letter (速) is added if it is a fast game.
5 As we will see later, avoiding the fourth place is more important in Tenhou rules
than it is in other rules. However, this does not mean that it is your only priority;
you would still want to improve your placement in a game when doing so is a
realistic possibility.
1.4. PLAYING A GAME 23
1.4.5 Ending of a game
A game can end in several different ways.
• One or more player goes bankrupt (below 0 points).
• South-4 (East-4 in East-only games) ends and at least one player
has 30000 or more points.
• West-4 (South-4 in East-only games) ends.
• At any point in the West round (South round in East-only games),
at least one player has 30000 or more points.
When a game ends, final scores are calculated as follows.
• In cases of a tie, the player sitting closer to the first dealer wins.
• Oka (winning premium) is 20000. That is, although every player
is allocated 25000 points at the beginning of a game, they have
to return 30000 at the end of the game, meaning that 30000 will
be subtracted from the final raw scores. The residual points of
20000 = (30000 25000) 4 are awarded to the winner of the
game.
• Uma (placement bonus) is 10-20. That is, 1st player gets +20000,
2nd player gets +10000, 3rd player gets 10000, and 4th player
gets 20000.
• Each score is then scaled by dividing it by 1000 and rounding it
off.
It appears that European players are not very familiar with the
oka system (possibly because there is no oka in EMA rules), so let
me explain this with an example. Suppose that players A, B, C, and
24 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
Table 1.1: Final score calculation on Tenhou
Player Raw score Before uma After uma After oka
A 39000 9000 29000 49000
B 25100 4900 5100 5100
C 22900 7100 17100 17100
D 13000 17000 37000 37000
D hold the following raw points at the end of a game; 39000, 25100,
22900, and 13000, as shown in Table 1.1 below.
The first numerical column shows the raw scores. Then, 30000 is
subtracted from each of the raw scores (second column). Then, we
add uma to each score based on placements (third column). Finally,
we add oka to the winner’s score to obtain the final scores (fourth
column).
The final scores after adding
uma and oka and scaling will be
displayed along with the place-
ments and raw scores. In the ex-
ample to the right of this text,
I (私 means “me”) came in 1st,
earning 50100 points (60.0 with
uma and oka), 2nd player (C さん,
which reads Mr. C) earns 46000
points (+ 26.0 with uma), 3rd
player earns 6700 points (33.0
with uma), and 4th player went bankrupt (2800 points, 53.0 with
uma).
1.4. PLAYING A GAME 25
bababababababababababababababab
Notes on placement
It is important to keep in mind that your rank and rating on Tenhou
depend solely on the placement in a game and not on how many
points you earn in a game, before or after adding uma and oka.
In other words, there is absolutely no difference between getting
1st place with 30000 points and getting 1st place with, say, 80000
points in terms of their contributions to your rank and rating.a
This feature adds an interesting strategic element to the game.
That is, it makes it clearer that the goal of mahjong is not to win
a hand per se but to have a better placement at the end of a game.
Winning a hand is just one of several means to securing a good
placement. On occasion, you may find it beneficial to assist one
of your opponents instead of trying to win a hand yourself. Inten-
tionally dealing into an opponent’s hand can sometimes be a good
tactic when it serves the purpose of securing your own placement.
In my impression, many European players are lacking the appreci-
ation of this aspect of mahjong. I hope you will learn to appreciate
it through playing lots of games on Tenhou.
a You might wonder why they still calculate the final scores with uma
and oka in Tenhou if they are irrelevant; I honestly have no idea.
26 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
1.5 Troubleshooting
At times, you may get disconnected from the Tenhou server (pos-
sibly because of poor internet connection on your end or problems
on the server).6 When a player gets disconnected from the server
during a game, the game still continues. The “auto discard draw”
will be turned on for the disconnected player, so they will be simply
discarding anything they draw until they return. The player name
will turn into dark red once a player is disconnected.
When you get disconnected,
you may get a warning mes-
sage shown above, asking you
if you would like to get con-
nected again. Click Yes if you
want to. However, a warning
message does not always show up when you get disconnected. When
a screen freezes during a game for more than 15 seconds, you should
suspect that you are disconnected. You may want to hit the refresh
button on your browser to get connected to the server again.
You can create more than one accounts on Tenhou, but you will
have to wait for 7 days unless your IP address changes. If you at-
tempt to create a second account from the same IP address within
7 days, you will get an error message shown below, telling you that
you cannot create a new account from your IP address in 7 days.
6 You will notice that players sometimes get disconnected on purpose to quit
playing, especially when they are losing badly.
1.6. RULES 27
1.6 Rules
Here is a summary of the rules on Tenhou.
• Three red fives (one in each suit) in games with red fives.
• No kuikae (swap-calling). That is, you cannot discard an iden-
tical tile after pon or chii. You cannot discard the tile from other
end of the run, either.
• “Sudden death” rule when no player has 30000 or more points
after South-4 (East-4 in East-only games).
• A game is terminated when a player goes bankrupt.
• Automatic agariyame rule (i.e., the game is automatically ter-
minated if the dealer is leading after the end of South-4, even if
he won a hand in South-4).
• One-han minimum all the time (i.e., no two-han minimum even
after five counters).
• Abortive draw in the following situations:
– 九種九牌 (nine terminals / honors)
– 四家立直 (four riichi’s)
– 三家和了 (three players call ron on a discard)
– 四風子連打 (four players discard the same wind)
– 四槓散了 (four kan by different players)
• 流し満貫 (nagashi mangan) is allowed. You can declare it even
when you have called pon / chii. You cannot declare it if one
or more of your discards has been called by others.
28 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO TENHOU (天鳳)
• Up to two players can win on a discard. riichi bets and counter
bonus go to the player sitting closer to the player who discarded
the winning tile. The dealership remains if the dealer is one of
the winners.
• The following are recognized as yakuman: 天和 (Tenhou; Bless-
ing of Heaven) / 地和 (chihou; Blessing of Earth) / 大三元 (daisangen;
Big Three Dragons) / 四暗刻 (su anko; Four Concealed Pungs)
/ 四暗刻単騎 (su anko tanki; Single-Wait Four Concealed Pungs)
/ 字一色 (tsuiisou; All Honors) / 緑一色 (ryuiisou; All Green)
/ 清老頭 (chinroutou; All Terminals) / 国士無双 (kokushi muso;
Thirteen Orphans) / 国士無双 13 面 (Thirteen-wait Thirteen Or-
phans) / 大四喜 (daisushi; Big Four Winds) / 小四喜 (shosushi;
Little Four Winds) / 四槓子 (su kantsu; Four Kongs) / 九蓮宝燈
(churenpoutou; Nine Gates) / 純正九蓮宝燈 (junsei churenpoutou;
Nine-wait Nine Gates).
• Yakuman can be combined. For example, 大三元 (Big Three Drag-
ons) can be combined with 字一色 (All Honors), 四暗刻 (Four
Concealed Pungs), and either of 四槓子 (Four Kongs), 天和 (Bless-
ing of Heaven) or 地和 (Blessing of Earth), producing a quadru-
ple yakuman (128000 points).
• There is no double yakuman unless different yakuman are com-
bined. For example, 国士無双 (Thirteen Orphans) and 国士無双
13 面 (Thirteen-wait Thirteen Orphans) are both single yakuman.
• You cannot call pon / chii / kan on the last discard in a hand.
• Sekinin barai: a player who feeds the third Dragon pon / kan
to an opponent with two melded Dragon pon / kan must pay
the full value of the hand in case Big Three Dragons is made on
a self-draw. In case another player deals into it, the two share
1.6. RULES 29
the payment equally. The same rule applies to Big Four Winds,
but not to rinshan kaihou (After a Kong).
Table 1.2: List of yaku names
Yaku Pronunciation EMA name Han (open)
門前清自摸和 (menzen-) tsumo Fully Concealed Hand 1 (NA)
立直 riichi Riichi 1 (NA)
一発 ippatsu Ippatsu 1 (NA)
槍槓 chankan Robbing the Kong 1
嶺上開花 rinshan kaiho After a Kong 1
海底摸月 haitei (-moyue) Under the Sea 1
河底撈魚 houtei (-raoyui) Under the River 1
自風 jikaze Seat Wind 1
場風 bakaze Prevailing Wind 1
役牌 yakuhai / fanpai Dragon Pung 1
断幺九 tanyao All Simples 1
一盃口 iipeiko Pure Double Chow 1 (NA)
平和 pinfu Pinfu 1 (NA)
混全帯幺九 chanta Outside Hand 2 (1)
一気通貫 ittsu Pure Straight 2 (1)
三色同順 sanshoku (-doujun) Mixed Triple Chow 2 (1)
三色同刻 sanshoku doukou Mixed Triple Pungs 2
両立直 double riichi Double Riichi 2 (NA)
三槓子 san kantsu Three Kongs 2
対々和 toitoi All Pungs 2
三暗刻 san anko Three Concealed Pungs 2
小三元 shousangen Little Three Dragons 2
混老頭 honroutou All Terminals and Honors 2
七対子 chiitoitsu Seven Pairs 2 (NA)
純全帯幺九 junchan Terminals in All Sets 3 (2)
混一色 honitsu Half Flush 3 (2)
二盃口 ryanpeiko Twice Pure Double
Chow
3 (NA)
清一色 chinitsu Full Flush 6 (5)
流し満貫 nagashi mangan – mangan
ドラ dora Dora
赤ドラ aka dora Red five
裏ドラ ura dora Ura dora
Chapter 2
Advanced features of Tenhou
2.1 Rank and rating
Tenhou has two different player Rank N Rank N
天鳳位 9
十段 15 １級 7780
九段 130 ２級 5849
八段 592 ３級 6481
七段 1830 ４級 6383
六段 3140 ５級 6971
五段 5968 ６級 9964
四段 9957 ７級 16606
三段 14436 ８級 14509
二段 18174 ９級 28283
初段 15046 新人 132411
Table 2.1: Player distribution
rating systems — rank (kyu / dan)
and R (rate). The kyu / dan rank-
ing system is similar to the one com-
monly used in Japanese arts, games,
and martial arts. The kyu (級) ranks
are shown in arabic numbers, go-
ing from 9 級 to 1 級 in descending
order. After passing 1 級, you enter
the dan (段) ranks, shown in kanji
numbers, going from 初段 (一段;
first dan) to 十段 (tenth dan) in as-
cending order. Everyone starts with
新人 (newbie; no rank), and if you pass the 十段 rank, you are awarded
the highest rank called 天鳳位 (Tenhoui). Since the inception of Tenhou
in 2006, there have been only nine players who have achieved 天鳳位
at the time of writing this book. Table 2.1 shows the distribution of
active players holding each rank as of 20 December, 2015.
2.1.1 kyu / dan rank
To advance your kyu / dan rank, you need to earn points (called
“pt” or “段位 pt” on Tenhou). For example, to proceed from the 新
人 (newbie) status to the 9 級 (kyu) rank, you need to earn 30 points.
Required amount of points for promotion gets greater and greater as
you move further up. For example, to proceed from 六段 (sixth dan)
2.1. RANK AND RATING 31
to 七段 (seventh dan), you need to earn as many as 1200 points.
To find out how many more points you need to earn to advance
to the next rank from the current rank, see the top right part of the
main page.
Your current
rank (7 級)
pt you have /
pt you need
Your R
In this example, the player currently holds the rank of 7 級. The part
that reads “30 / 60 pt” means that he has earned 30 points since he
became 7 級 and that he needs 60 points in total to be promoted to
6 級.
When you rise or fall in rank, your points will be reset to a default
value. For kyu rank players, the default value is 0 points. For dan
rank players, the default value is different depending on ranks. For
example, the default points for 六段 players are 1200 points. When
they get 1200 more points and reach 2400 points, they get promoted
to 七段. When they lose all the initial 1200 points and reach 0 points,
they get demoted to 五段.
The amount of points you earn or lose in each game depends on
your placement (but not scores with uma and oka), the type of game
(East-only or East–South), the room in which the game is played (一
般, 上級, 特上, or 鳳凰), and your current rank.1 You gain positive
points only if you come in first or second place. If you come in first
place, you will gain the following points regardless of your rank.
1 Points you earn or lose in East-only games are two-thirds of those in East–South
games.
32 CHAPTER 2. ADVANCED FEATURES OF TENHOU
• 45 points in the 一般 (ippan) room
• 60 points in the 上級 (joukyu) room
• 75 points in the 特上 (tokujou) room
• 90 points in the 鳳凰 (houou) room
If you come in second place, you will gain the following points re-
gardless of your rank.
• 0 points in the 一般 room
• 15 points in the 上級 room
• 30 points in the 特上 room
• 45 points in the 鳳凰 room
You don’t gain or lose points if you come in third place. The points
you lose when coming in fourth place depend on your rank but not
on the room. When your rank is 3 級 or below, you lose 0 point. How-
ever, each time your rank rises above 3 級, the points you lose get big-
ger by 15 points. That is, 2 級 players lose 15 points if they come in
fourth place; 1 級 players lose 15 2 = 30 points; 初段 players lose
15 3 = 45 points, … , and 十段 players lose as many as 180 points if
they come in fourth place.
Notice how severe the punishment is for coming in fourth, and
it gets more and more severe as your rank goes up. This is one of
the distinctive features of Tenhou. Avoiding the fourth place tends to
be players’ top priority in Tenhou games. This is in contrast to stan-
dard mahjong games, where the reward for coming in first usually
outweighs the cost of coming in fourth, thanks to the oka system.2
2 Recall that, although Tenhou does adopt the oka system, it is the placement,
not the scores, that determines the points you earn or lose. In this sense, EMA
games are actually more similar to Tenhou games than to standard games. Since
there is no oka in EMA games, the reward for coming in first is much smaller
than that in standard games.
2.1. RANK AND RATING 33
To easily find out how many
points you earn / lose for each place
in a given type of game for your rank,
mouseover the 予約 button in each
cell on the left-hand side of the main
page. Then, you will see something
like the picture above on the right-hand side of the main page. Under
the second bullet point, we see that, for this player’s rank (五段), the
point reward is: +75 for first place, +30 for second place, 0 points for
third place, and 105 for fourth place.
When you earn enough
points for promotion in a game,
a new rank is awarded after
the game. A certificate mes-
sage like the picture to the
right of this text will pop up af-
ter the game.
Since you never get negative points in games until you reach 2 級
and there is no demotion until you reach 初段 (first dan), it should
be relatively easy to reach 初段. In fact, even without studying the
contents of this book, you can perhaps reach as high as 四段 (fourth
dan) if you play a few hundred games or so. However, moving fur-
ther up will probably require that you study basic strategies and tile
efficiency theories.
2.1.2 Rate (R)
In addition to the kyu / dan rank, Tenhou gives each player an-
other rating called R. The initial value of R is 1500, and higher-rank
players tend to have a higher R. For example, the average R among
34 CHAPTER 2. ADVANCED FEATURES OF TENHOU
the 天鳳位 players is 2248.
While kyu / dan rank remains relatively stable, R can change af-
ter each game. R is calculated based on your placement in a game,
but it also depends on the average R of the players you play with. A
change in R after a game, ∆R, is calculated with the following for-
mula:
∆R = (P + R) G
where
• P is based on your placement in the game: + 30 for first, +10
for second, 10 for third, and 30 for fourth;
• R is an adjustment that reflects how strong your opponents are,
calculated as (Average R in the game your R) / 40; and
• G is an adjustment based on n, the number of games you have
played before. If n 400, G is equal to 1 0.002 n. If n > 400,
G is set equal to 0.2.
R initially fluctuates a lot, as the scaling factor G is very close to
1 until you play many games. R may go up or down by 30 or so for
each of the first 100 games or so. As you play more games, however,
the fluctuation gets smaller and smaller as G approaches to 0.2.
Notice what the adjustment R does. This factor is positive when
you play against players who are “stronger” than you (i.e., have a
higher R than you) while it is negative when you play against play-
ers who are “weaker” than you. Therefore, when you win against
stronger players, your reward will be bigger than when winning against
weaker players. Likewise, when you lose against weaker players,
your punishment will be severer than when losing against stronger
2.2. FOUR ROOMS 35
players. Because of these features, one might say that your R better
reflects your skill levels than your kyu / dan rank.
2.2 Four rooms
As we have seen, there are four different rooms where ranking
matches are played. Qualifications to play in each room are based
on your rank and R. - 一般 (ippan; lower-level room)
This is the only room where you can play initially. Players with
an R higher than 1800 and a rank higher than 四段 are not allowed to
play here, however. Games in this room can sometimes be a bit ran-
dom, even chaotic at times. Some of the players in this room probably
do not understand the rules very well. You very rarely come across
strong players here. - 上級 (joukyu; upper-level room)
You can play here if (1) your rank is 1 級 or higher or (2) you buy
a two-month membership (¥ 1080 = e 8 = £ 6).3 Players with an R
higher than 2000 and a rank higher than 七段 are not allowed to play
in this room, however.
Games in the joukyu room are more reasonable than those in the
lower-level room, but you still see many players who do not defend
at all, do meaningless dama / unreasonable riichi, and make serious
mistakes in maximizing tile efficiency. In my impression, games at
EMA tournaments most resemble games in the ippan and joukyu
rooms.
3 If you want to pay for the membership, click on the link that appears when you
click the 上級 sub-tab. Keep in mind that you need to buy 60 days’ worth of
membership. Choose “60 日分を購入 (1080 円)” in the payment page.
36 CHAPTER 2. ADVANCED FEATURES OF TENHOU - 特上 (tokujou; advanced room)
Requirements to play in this room are pretty demanding. You
have to have a 四段 or higher rank and a 1800 or higher R. The latter
requirement is particularly difficult to satisfy for intermediate play-
ers. As I wrote above, achieving the rank of 四段 is not that difficult,
but satisfying the R 1800 condition requires that you take mahjong
rather seriously. Since weak players are shut out from the tokujou
room, games in tokujou are qualitatively different from those in the
joukyu and ippan rooms. Games in this room feel similar to those
you’d experience at regular フリー (furii) mahjong parlors in Japan. - 鳳凰 (houou; phoenix room)
This is the highest-level room in Tenhou. In order to play in this
room, you have to have all of the following: (1) a 七段 or higher rank,
(2) a 2000 or higher R, and (3) a paid membership (¥ 540 yen = e 4
= £ 3 per month). Satisfying the first two conditions can be really,
really challenging.
This is arguably one of the highest-level mahjong locales in the
whole world. It is not uncommon for you to come across a houou-
level player at a regular mahjong parlor in Japan. However, you usu-
ally play against at most one houou-level player at a table, and the two
other players at the table are either tokujou- or joukyu-level players.
What is remarkable about games in the houou room is that you will
be surrounded by three other houou-level players. It would be safe
to say that no other public mahjong locale in the world — whether it
is online or offline — could offer a comparable experience.4
4 Perhaps the highest-level leagues in professional mahjong associations in Japan
have players who are of comparable quality, but you have to become a profes-
sional player to play at such leagues. Even after becoming a professional, you
will need at least a few years to reach the highest league.
2.3. READING THE STATISTICS 37
2.3 Reading the statistics
After you play 30 games or so, you may want to start paying atten-
tion to the statistics shown on the right-hand side of the main page.5
The upper half of the player statistics shows your statistics for the
entire period, whereas the bottom half shows your statistics in the
present month for a given type of game in a given room.
2.3.1 Overall statistics
The picture below show my old player statistics (upper half) back
from when I had a 二段 rank. Let me explain how to read these statis-
tics.
Entire period (4-player games)
first place
second place
third place
fourth place
bankruptcy
win rate
deal-in rate
call rate
riichi rate
Below a player name is the expiration date of my premium mem-
bership (17 November, 2015). When I started playing Tenhou on 17
September, 2015, I bought a 60-day membership so I can play in the
joukyu room. If you have just created a Tenhou account, the expira-
tion date will be shown as today’s or tomorrow’s date, since we are
given a 1-day premium membership when we open an account.6 Af-
ter a day or two, it will turn into “—-/–/–” meaning that you do not
have a premium membership.
5 There is really no point in reading too much into the statistics when you have
played only a few games; the sample size is too small to be meaningful.
6 You need to have a premium membership to use Tenhou’s Windows client.
38 CHAPTER 2. ADVANCED FEATURES OF TENHOU
The box below the expiration date that reads 全期間 / 段位戦 4 人
打ち indicates that the statistics below are for the entire period (not
just this month) and for 4-player games (not 3-player games). Below
that, we see that I had a 二段 rank, 565 points (the initial 400 points
plus 165 points earned after I became 二段) out of the 800 points I
need for promotion, and an R of 1987.
Three columns below these display my statistics. The first col-
umn shows my placement rates. I had come in first place 50% of the
games, second place 32.5%, third place 7.5%, fourth place 10 %, and
gone bankrupt 7.5% of the games. Ideally, you’d want your first place
rate to be greater than your second place rate, your second place rate
greater than your third place rate, etc.
The middle column provides the following information. First, 対
戦数 shows the number of games you have played. At this point, I had
played 40 games. Second, 平均得点 shows the average score (with
oka and uma) from all the games I have played. As I said before, this
does not influence your R nor rank. Third, 平均順位 shows the aver-
age placement. If you have obtained each of the four places equally,
the average placement would be 2.5 ( 1n+2n+3n+4n
4n = 2.5). Therefore,
any values below 2.5 indicate that you are, on average, winning more
than losing. The two rows that follow (shown in light gray) are rel-
evant only if you play games in private rooms. Since I have only
played ranking matches, they are left blank.
The third column shows my statistics based on hand-level perfor-
mance. First, 和了率 (houra rate; agari rate; win rate) is the number
of hands you have won divided by the total number of hands you
have played in all games.7
7 The denominator includes hands where no one won.
2.3. READING THE STATISTICS 39
Second, 放銃率 (houjuu rate; deal-in rate) is the number of times
you have fed the winning tile to an opponent’s hand divided by the
total number of hands you have played. You would want this rate to
be lower, but keep in mind that (1) sometimes you would be better
off dealing into an opponent’s hand to secure your placement, and
(2) sometimes you need to discard dangerous tiles (which would in-
crease your deal-in rate, on average) in order to increase the chance
of winning your hand (which would increase your win rate, on av-
erage). The rule-of-thumb is that the difference between your win
rate and deal-in rate (win rate - deal-in rate) should be at least 10
percentage points. That is, if you have a high deal-in rate, you need
your win rate to be higher. Likewise, if you have a low deal-in rate,
it is OK to have a lower win rate as well.
Third, 副露率 (fuuro rate; call rate) is the number of hands where
you have called chii / pon / kan divided by the total number of hands
you have played. Finally, 立直率 (riichi rate) is the number of riichi
calls you made divided by the number of hands you have played.
The ranking page on Tenhou8 has a table that summarizes the av-
erage values of these statistics among players with different ranks
(under the heading that reads 段位戦４人打ち平均戦績). You may
want to compare your statistics with the average values among play-
ers who share your rank or those who have higher ranks than you do.
Figure 2.1 summarizes the average values of hand-level performance
statistics for players in different ranks.
We can see some interesting patterns here. The left-hand side
panel compares average win rates (和了率) and deal-in rates (放銃
率) for different ranks. Notice that the average win rate is relatively
8 オンライン対戦麻雀 天鳳 / ランキング
40 CHAPTER 2. ADVANCED FEATURES OF TENHOU0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
新人
９級
８級
７級
６級
５級
４級
３級
２級
１級
初段
二段
三段
四段
五段
六段
七段
八段
九段
十段
天鳳
Player rank
Average rates
stats
deal-in
win0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35
新人
９級
８級
７級
６級
５級
４級
３級
２級
１級
初段
二段
三段
四段
五段
六段
七段
八段
九段
十段
天鳳
Player rank
stats
call
riichi
Figure 2.1: Average hand-performance statistics
Note: These graphs show the hand-performance statistics reported in a table on the
ranking page (オンライン対戦麻雀 天鳳 / ランキング) as of 20 December, 2015.
constant across different ranks; once you pass the 新人 rank, it stays
around 20-22 %.
On the other hand, the average deal-in rate is steadily decreasing
after players move from the kyu ranks into the dan ranks. It is around
15% for almost all kyu rank players (except for 新人 and 1 級), but it
keeps going lower and lower as players rise in the dan rank. The
fact that high-dan players have lower deal-in rates on average is re-
markable, considering that they are facing stronger opponents than
low-dan players do. This pattern signifies the importance of defen-
sive skills.
Another interesting thing to notice on the left-hand side panel
is that the average scores deteriorate once you move from 2 級 to 1
級 (i.e., average win rate gets lower, and average deal-in rate gets
higher).
I can think of two reasons for why this happens. First, 1 級 is
where most players start playing in the joukyu (upper-level) room,
2.3. READING THE STATISTICS 41
where average player skills are much higher than those in the ippan
(lower-level) room. If a player who belongs to the lower-level room
plays in the upper-level room, their performance will necessarily go
down, making it look that 1 級 players are worse than 2 級 players
even if they are not. Second, if you keep losing as a 初段 (first dan)
player, you get demoted to 1 級 but you will never be demoted to 2
級. This means that 1 級 players might actually be worse than 2 級
players, on average.
The right-hand side panel shows the average call rates (副露率)
and riichi rates (立直率) for different ranks. The former is increasing
as rank goes up, while the latter is decreasing, but the changes are
rather gradual for both rates.
42 CHAPTER 2. ADVANCED FEATURES OF TENHOU
2.3.2 Monthly statistics
The bottom-right part of the main page shows monthly statistics
from games you have played in a given room. The box is a pull-
down menu that lets you choose the room (一般, 上級, 特上, 鳳凰)
and game type (East-only, East–South, with or without open tanyao,
red fives, etc.). In the example below, the box reads 月間 / 上南 喰ア
リ赤, which means the following: 月間 means monthly, 上 is short for
上級 (joukyu)9, 喰アリ赤 means with open tanyao and red fives.
Cumulative Average
Scores
Placement
first place
fourth place
Below the box, you see the raw placement scores. In this example,
17+11+3+4 = 35 戦 means that I have played 35 games this month,
and I came in first place in 17 games, second place in 11 games, third
place in 3 games, and fourth place in 4 games. R shown here (1987)
should be the same as the R you see in the top part. 3382 位 means
that R=1987 puts me in 3382nd place among all the active players on
Tenhou.
Two columns follow, where the left column shows the monthly
cumulative values and the right column shows the monthly average
values. In the first row that reads 得点 shows the monthly cumula-
tive or average scores from 上南 喰アリ赤 games (after adding oka
9 Likewise, 般 is short for 一般 (ippan), 特 is for 特上 (tokujou), 鳳 is for 鳳凰
(houou).
2.4. VIEWING GAMES 43
and uma). In this example, my cumulative score is 727 from the 35
games I played, which puts me in 106th place among players who
have played 30 or more 上南 喰アリ赤 games this month. Similarly,
my average score is 20.7 (= 727/35), which puts me in 5th place.
Your placement for average scores will not be shown unless you have
played 30 or more games of a given type in a given room in a given
month.
In the second row that reads 順位 shows cumulative and average
placement from games. The cumulative placement is based on place-
ment values (+30, +10, 10, or 30), whereas the average placement
is based on raw placement (1, 2, 3, or 4). The 総合 (total) score is the
sum of four placements: cumulative 得点, cumulative 順位, average
得点, and average 順位. In this example, I earn 106th, 80th, 5th, and
3rd places for these scores, so my total score is 106+80+5+3 = 194
(the lower, the better), which puts me in 12th place among all the
players who have played 30 or more 上南 喰アリ赤 games this month.
At the bottom, you see トップ率 (first place rate), ラス率 (fourth place
rate), and 連対率 (first or second place rate) for 上南 喰アリ赤 games
this month.
2.4 Viewing games
2.4.1 Game replay (牌譜)
Tenhou keeps the record of all the games played there, giving each
game a unique URL. You can easily take a look at any of the last 40
games you have played on the 牌譜 (haifu; game record) tab on the
main page. Click on any of the 牌譜 link shown in the 牌譜 tab to start
a replay of the game. You can choose to view the game from any of
the four players’ viewpoint, not to show the hands of the other three
players, or to go back and forth between turns / hands, etc. When we
44 CHAPTER 2. ADVANCED FEATURES OF TENHOU
play mahjong, we often wonder what the opponents are doing (e.g.,
what are their waits? are they doing honitsu?, etc.). You can find
out the answers to these questions after the game by taking a look at
the game record.
If you would like to have someone take a look at a particular game
you played to ask for their opinions, you need to find the unique URL
assigned to the game you want to show. You can find out the URLs of
the last 40 games by going to the 牌譜の管理 menu from the メニュー
pull-down on the main page. Clicking on 牌譜の管理 will open a new
pop-up screen.
You can choose to open a game replay in the current window (こ
のウィンドウで開く), in a new pop-up window (新しいポップアッ
プで開く), or in a new window (新しいウィンドウで開く) from the
pull-down menu above. Once you are happy with your choice, click
on the 再生 (replay) link next to the game you want replayed. You
will be taken to a page that looks like the one you saw after clicking
on the Play button on the top page of Tenhou. You can now find out
the URL assigned to the game in the URL field of your browser.
To start a replay, click on a link that reads » Flash 版牌譜ビューアで
開く shown at the bottom of the page. Clicking on the HTML+JS 版
牌譜ビューアで開く link will also work, but this one is the low-quality
picture version with limited options.
2.4. VIEWING GAMES 45
2.4.2 Spectating games (観戦)
You can watch games played in the 特上 (tokujou; advanced)
and the 鳳凰 (houou; phoenix) rooms in quasi-real time (with a five-
minute delay). Click on the 観戦 (kansen; spectating) tab from the
main page and you will see the list of games you can watch. Click
on one of the player name links to start spectating the game from the
chosen player’s viewpoint.
Part II
Basic Tile Efficiency
46
Chapter 3
Riichi mahjong basics
3.1 Learning strategies
Mahjong is a game of skill and luck. There is a set of strategy
principles you can learn to improve your skills, but acquiring skills is
neither necessary nor sufficient to win a game. On the contrary, with
luck, an unskilled player can easily defeat strong players in mahjong.
At least in the short run, game outcomes are governed more by luck
than by skills.1 However, learning strategy principles is crucial to
improve your performance in the long run. Moreover, you will be
able to enjoy the game in greater depth once you understand these
principles.
Because of the probabilistic nature of the game, making the best
choice does not always lead to the best outcome. The best choices
are those that lead to the best outcome, on average. An evaluation of
our choices thus requires a probabilistic (i.e., statistical) assessment of
different options. For example, consider the following hand.
a $$L
What would you discard?
This hand becomes ready to win if you discard or . Let’s com-
pare the two choices.
1 An interesting question would be: how short is the “short” run here. That is,
how many games do we need in order to discern a strong player from weak
players? Studies show that we would need at least 100 games or so to have a
reliable estimate of our skill levels. Given that EMA tournaments usually have
only 8 games, winning at these tournaments requires quite a bit of luck.
3.1. LEARNING STRATEGIES 49
• Discard ) you wait for (2 kinds–8 tiles)
• Discard ) you wait for (2 kinds–4 tiles)
Which discard choice is better? Although both of the two choices
yield a 2-way wait, waiting for is much better than waiting
for , probabilistically speaking. With the wait, there are
four tiles of and another four tiles of to win on, leaving at most
eight winning tiles.2 With the wait, on the other hand, you
have already used up two tiles of and two tiles of yourself,
leaving at most four winning tiles. It is clearly better to choose the
wait over the wait, because that will give you a higher
probability of winning this hand.
It is possible that, after you decided on the wait, your op-
ponents end up not discarding or at all, while discarding lots of
. This is the kind of thing that will happen often in mahjong (or
in any game of luck, for that matter). When things like this happen,
do not think that you made a bad call; you didn’t. You made the right
choice, but you were just unlucky. When we experience this kind of
bad luck, we just need to keep calm and carry on.
Before discussing a practical method of maximizing tile efficiency
in the next chapter, I will discuss some basic principles of tile effi-
ciency in this chapter. In doing so, I introduce several key terms we
use in later chapters. I will also provide the original Japanese term
for each (shown in this font). I do so because you may find these
Japanese terms used in some online strategy discussions in English.
2 Of course, the number of winning tiles could be smaller than eight if some of
them have already been discarded.
50 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
3.2 Basic building blocks
3.2.1 Tiles
Mahjong tiles can be classified into two categories — number tiles
and honor tiles.
Number tiles
Number tiles
Cracks (characters) Manzu ȷff
Dots (circles) Pinzu
Bamboos Souzu a
We further classify number tiles into simples (tanyao hai; tiles be-
tween 2 and 8) and terminals (yaochu hai; 1 and 9). They are dif-
ferentiated because they serve different yaku and generate different
minipoints (fu).
It has become quite common to include some red five tiles. For
example, most games on Tenhou have one red five tile in each suit,
. These tiles are included in place of regular fives; we have
three regular fives and one red five in each suit. Red fives are treated
as dora regardless of the dora indicator. When a 4 in a given suit is
the dora indicator, the red five in that suit will be a double dora tile.
3.2. BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS 51
Honor tiles
Honor tiles
Dragon tiles # $ %
White (haku) Green (hatsu) Red (chun)
Wind tiles ffl ! "
East (ton) South (nan) West (sha) North (pei)
Some honor tiles are value tiles (fanpai / yakuhai); we get one han
if we collect three identical value tiles. All dragon tiles are value tiles
regardless of the round and seating. On the other hand, the value
status of wind tiles depends on the round and the seating. East tiles
are value tiles for everyone during the East round, and South tiles are
value tiles for everyone during the South round. In addition, each
player gets their own seating wind as a value tile. For example, West
tiles are value tiles only for the West player, but they are valueless
wind tiles (otakaze) for other players.
52 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
3.2.2 Group (mentsu)
One of the major goals in playing mahjong is to win a hand.3 To
win a standard hand, we need to complete four groups (mentsu) and
one head (atama; final pair).4 Groups can be classified into two kinds
— run and set.5
• Run (shuntsu; chow / sequence) is a set of three consecutive
number tiles: e.g., ff, .
• Set (kotsu; pung / triplet) is a set of three identical tiles: e.g.,
, $$$.6
3.2.3 Ready and n-away
We say a hand is ready (tenpai) when the hand can be complete
with one more tile. For example, the following hand is ready.
Ready hand
a%%%
This hand becomes complete with either or . We say that this
hand waits for .
3 Another important goal is not to deal into an opponent’s hand. See Chapter 8
for discussions of defense strategies. However, the most important goal of all
is to win a game. Winning a hand and playing defense are merely two means
to this end. See Chapter 10 for more discussions of this.
4 There are three exceptions to this; chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs), kokushi musou
(Thirteen Orphans), and nagashi mangan (All Terminals and Honors Discard)
do not require four groups and one head.
5 EMA rules refer to run as “chow” and set as “pung.” I realize that my use of
different terminology here might be confusing at first, but I hope you will get
used to it soon.
6 Technically speaking, there is a third type of groups, namely quad (kantsu;
kong), a set of four identical tiles. We treat quads as a variant of sets. See
Section 9.3 for discussions on this.
3.2. BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS 53
We say a hand is 1-away from ready (1-shanten) when the hand
can become ready with one more tile. For example, the following
hand is 1-away from ready.
1-away hand
a%%%
This hand becomes ready if you draw any of . We say
this hand accepts (5 kinds–16 tiles) as any of them can
make this hand advance from 1-away to ready. Tile acceptance (ukeire)
refers to the kinds and the number of tiles a hand can accept. Other
things being equal, having a 1-away hand with greater tile acceptance
is better than having one with smaller tile acceptance.
More generally, we say a hand is n-away from ready (n-shanten)
when the hand can be ready with n more steps. For example, the
following hand is 2-away from ready.
2-away hand
aa%%%
This hand accepts all the tiles that the 1-away hand above accepts
(), plus seven additional kinds of tiles a.7
The hand will become 1-away if any of these tiles gets drawn.
A hand can also be 3-away, 4-away, 5-away, or 6-away from ready.8
In practice, however, there is not much point in distinguishing 3-
away hands from 4-away (or worse) hands. You thus need to be able
7 will make this hand 1-away for chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs).
8 6-away happens when a hand has no pair, in which case it takes 6 more tiles to
make it ready for chiitoitsu.
54 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
to distinguish between four kinds of hands — ready hands, 1-away
hands, 2-away hands, and 3-away or worse hands.
Tile acceptance shrinkage
As n gets smaller and the hand gets closer to completion, the
kinds and the number of tiles it can accept will necessarily get smaller.
Consider the three stages of a hand we have seen above.
• When 2-away, it accepts: a.
• When 1-away, it accepts: .
• When ready, it waits for: .
Tile acceptance is minimized when the hand is ready. Note also that
it is virtually minimized when it is 1-away. This is because with a
ready hand you can utilize not only the tiles you draw but also the
tiles discarded by others to complete the hand. With n-away hands,
however, you have to rely (almost) solely on the tiles you draw your-
self to advance your hand.9 Therefore, in choosing a discard from a
2-away hand, we should try not to make for a 1-away hand with too
small tile acceptance.
Advancing your hand
To win a hand, we need to advance our hand by reducing the n of
an n-away hand until it is ready. When a hand is 2-away, we should
aim to make the hand 1-away. When a hand is 1-away, we should aim
to make the hand ready. For example, consider the following hand.
9 Melding (calling pon / chii) is not always possible. For example, the 2-away
hand above can accept if you draw one, but you can neither pon nor chii .
3.2. BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS 55
2-away vs. 1-away
ȷffff a $$$
What would you discard?
Discarding makes the hand 2-away, whereas discarding either ff
or makes the hand 1-away. You should thus discard ff or to
make the hand 1-away. Reverting a 1-away hand to 2-away makes
sense only in some exceptional cases where tile acceptance at 1-away
becomes unbearably small (i.e., fewer than 2 kinds). With this hand,
the hand will be able to accept (3 kinds–12 tiles) when it
becomes 1-away.
3.2.4 Protoruns (taatsu)
Of the two kinds of groups, it is easier to complete a run than
to complete a set. There are only four identical tiles, and complet-
ing a set requires that you collect three out of the four identical tiles.
Therefore, we usually prioritize runs over sets in advancing a hand.
A pair of tiles that can become a run with one more tile is called a
protorun (taatsu). There are three types of protoruns, summarized
in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1: Types of protoruns
Name Japanese Example Wait Acceptance
side wait ryanmen - 2 kinds–8 tiles
closed wait kanchan 1 kind–4 tiles
edge wait penchan a 1 kind–4 tiles
As we can see in the table, a side-wait (ryanmen) protorun can
56 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
accept twice as many tiles as a closed-wait (kanchan) protorun or
an edge-wait (penchan) protorun can. Therefore, building side-wait
protoruns is the key to advancing a hand. Winning tiles of side-wait
protoruns are often denoted with a hyphen in the middle, such as
- or -.10
Closed wait vs. edge wait
There is no difference in the kinds and the number of tiles ac-
cepted by closed-wait and edge-wait protoruns; they both accept 1
kind–4 tiles. However, closed-wait protoruns are superior to edge-
wait ones because they can more easily evolve into a side-wait pro-
torun.
A closed-wait protorun can evolve into a side-wait protorun in
just one step. For example, a protorun can become a side-wait
one if you draw and discard .
)
draw
On the other hand, it requires two steps for an edge-wait protorun to
evolve into a side-wait protorun. For example, a protorun can
become a side-wait one if you draw first and then .
) )
draw draw
Value ranking of protoruns
side wait > closed wait > edge wait
10 Note that - wait means the winning tiles are and , not through .
3.2. BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS 57
Tile versatility
Some tiles are more versatile than others. For example, number
tiles are more versatile than honor tiles because honor tiles can never
form a run. Moreover, we can rank order the versatility of number
tiles based on the types of protoruns they can form.
Number tiles between 3 and 7 are the most versatile. This is be-
cause each of them can form a protorun with four kinds of number
tiles. For example, can form a protorun with , , , and .
Two out of the four resulting protoruns will be side wait.
2 and 8 are less versatile. They can form a protorun with only
three kinds of number tiles. For example, can form a protorun
with , , and . Only one out of the three resulting protoruns is
side wait.
Terminals (1 and 9) are the least versatile. They can form a pro-
torun with only two kinds of tiles. For example, can form a pro-
torun only with and . Neither of the two resulting protoruns is
side wait.
Versatility ranking of tiles
3–7 tiles > 2, 8 tiles > 1, 9 tiles > honor tiles
Applying the same logic, we can also rank order the versatility of
closed-wait protoruns. For example, a closed-wait protorun
can become a side-wait one only if we draw . Likewise, a closed-
wait protorun can become a side-wait one only if we draw .
However, a closed-wait protorun can become a side-wait one if
we draw or . Clearly, is more versatile than or .
58 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
Versatility ranking of closed-wait protoruns
35, 46, 57 > 13, 24, 68, 79
3.2.5 Pairs (toitsu)
A set of two identical tiles is called a pair (toitsu). Pairs can per-
form several different roles. A pair can be the head (final pair) of a
hand, a protoset (a candidate for a set), or a component of chiitoitsu
(Seven Pairs).
Building the head
Any hand — including Thirteen Orphans and Seven Pairs — re-
quires the head to be complete. Since building the head is much eas-
ier than building a group, we usually don’t worry too much about
the head. For example, consider the following hand.
Hand with no head
ff a
This hand currently lacks the head and the wait is not very good.
The hand is complete only with a (1 kind–3 tiles). However, if we
draw any of ȷ (12 kinds–41 tiles), the
wait will be significantly improved. For example, if we draw and
discard a, the hand becomes:
ff
This hand is now waiting for - (3 kinds–9 tiles). When a
3.2. BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS 59
hand is missing the head, it is often the case that the wait gets signif-
icantly improved quite easily.
3.2.6 Pairs and sets
Another important role a pair can play is to work as a candidate
for a set. Especially when a hand has two pairs, we can count on
one of the two pairs to become the head while the other becomes a
set. In other words, the value of pairs is maximized when there are
two (and only two) pairs in a hand. Let’s see why this is the case by
comparing hands with one, two, and three pairs.
- Hand with one pair
a"
This 2-away hand has one pair: . This pair is not very useful as
a candidate for a set for two reasons. First, if we draw another ,
we will complete a set but then we will lose the head at the same
time. The hand will still be 2-away from ready after all. Second, the
probability of drawing another is not very high because there are
only two tiles left.
What if a hand has two pairs? Suppose we drew and discarded
", as follows. - Hand with two pairs
a
This hand is also 2-away, but it has two pairs: and . Each
of these pairs is now functioning as an effective candidate for a set.
Whenever one pair becomes a set, the other pair becomes the head.
Drawing or will advance this hand from 2-away to 1-away.
60 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
Moreover, whereas the hand with one pair was able to accept two
tiles of , the hand with two pairs can accept four tiles (two of
and two of ). The probability of drawing any one of four tiles
is obviously higher than the probability of drawing any one of two
tiles. In general, for each additional pair in a hand, tile acceptance
increases by two.
What if a hand has three pairs? Suppose we draw , as follows. - Hand with three pairs
a Draw
If we keep the second and discard the a or the , the hand has
three pairs. However, keeping three pairs in a hand is inefficient. Re-
call that each additional pair increases tile acceptance by two tiles. In
this case, keeping a pair of means that the hand can accept two
additional tiles of . However, doing so comes with a cost. Keep-
ing three pairs by discarding the a means the hand can no longer
accept (2 kinds–8 tiles). The net tile acceptance gain will be
negative (2 8 = 6). Similarly, keeping three pairs by discarding
the means the hand can no longer accept (4 tiles). Therefore,
discarding a to maintain two pairs is the most efficient.
What we have seen so far is generalizable beyond the current ex-
amples. As long as we intend to keep the hand closed (i.e., not calling
pon or chii), we should avoid having three pairs in a hand. Having
three pairs makes for the weakest form, whereas having two pairs
makes for the strongest form.11
11 What if there are four or more pairs? Whenever a hand has four pairs, it is
2-away from ready for chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs). It may be faster to pursue
chiitoitsu than pursuing a standard hand in such cases.
3.2. BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS 61
Value of pairs: closed hand
2 pairs > 1 pair, 4 pairs > 3 pairs
Open hand
There is an important caveat to the above rule. When we intend
to call pon, having three pairs is actually better than having two pairs.
This is because the hand will become a two-pair hand after we call
pon once. For example, consider the following hand.
Two pairs vs. three pairs
a %% %Dora
What would you discard?
We would definitely intend to call pon on %. Anticipating that, we
should discard to keep three pairs in this case rather than dis-
carding to have two pairs. After calling pon on %, we will have a
choice between discarding or .
a %M%
a %M%
In either case, the hand will have two pairs after calling pon.
Value of pairs: open hand
3 pairs > 2 pairs
62 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
3.2.7 Perfect n-away
Perfect 1-away
When a 1-away hand has two side-wait protoruns and two pairs,
it is called perfect 1-away.
Perfect 1-away
a###
The hand above is an example of perfect 1-away. It is called “perfect”
because this hand can become ready either by calling chii, calling
pon, or drawing a tile to complete a run or a set, and no matter how a
hand becomes ready, you will always have the option to choose side
wait as the final wait.
Perfect 2-away
One step prior to achieving perfect 1-away, we may get a perfect
2-away hand. Perfect 2-away is made up with three side-wait pro-
toruns and three pairs, as follows.
Perfect 2-away
aa###
When a perfect 2-away hand becomes 1-away, it can always be perfect
1-away (unless you choose not to, for some reason). However, not all
perfect 1-away hands evolve from a perfect 2-away hand.
3.2. BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS 63
3.2.8 Putting things all together: an example
Let’s see some hand examples that illustrate how we can apply
the tile efficiency logics we have learned so far. Consider the follow-
ing 2-away hand.
Advancing a hand 1
ff
Draw
What would you discard?
The hand now has three pairs, and we should avoid it. In order to re-
duce the number of pairs in this hand from three to two, our discard
candidates should be , , or . Which one should we choose?
Recall that a closed-wait protorun of 57 is stronger than a closed-
wait protorun of 24 or an edge-wait protorun of 89. Therefore, it is
OK to cut down the ff shape to ff by discarding . This is
because ff can become a side-wait protorun relatively easily. On
the other hand, the shape and the shape are both
weak; the first can become a side-wait protorun only if we draw ,
and the second one will never become a side-wait protorun in one
step. Therefore, both and should be kept as a can-
didate for the head or a group rather than making them into weak
closed-wait protoruns.
Let’s say we discard , and then we draw , resulting in the
following hand.
Advancing a hand 2
ff
Draw
What would you discard?
64 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
Now that we have a side-wait protorun ff, we should discard .
Let’s say we draw a, resulting in the following hand.
Advancing a hand 3
ff a
Draw
What would you discard?
This hand is now 1-away from ready, and our discard choice is be-
tween and . Both tiles are equally useless from our perspective,
and so we will eventually discard them both. The question is which
one we should discard first. Recall that a 4 is more versatile than an - This means that in this hand may later become dangerous for
the opponents; we should thus discard now rather than later.
Let’s say we draw after that, resulting in the following hand.
Advancing a hand 4
ffa
Draw
What would you discard?
The hand is now ready. We should discard and call riichi. If we
win on , we can claim riichi, pinfu, and sanshoku (Mixed Triple
Chow), giving us 7700 points.12
12 We will discuss scoring and yaku more extensively in later chapters.
3.3. COMPLEX SHAPES 65
3.3 Complex shapes
The three basic types of tile blocks we have covered so far —
groups (runs and sets), protoruns (side wait, closed wait, and edge
wait), and pairs — form the basis of any standard mahjong hands.13
When a hand has some tiles that do not constitute any of these three
shapes, we treat them as floating tiles. For example, and in
the following hand are both floating tiles.
Hand with floating tiles
In addition to these basic blocks, we often come across complex
shapes that are made up of two or more groups, protoruns, pairs,
and floating tiles combined. It is useful to comprehend such com-
plex shapes as they are rather than breaking them up into smaller
parts. We will discuss three-tile complex shapes and four-tile com-
plex shapes in turn.
3.3.1 Three-tile complex shapes
There are two kinds of three-tile complex shapes — double closed
shape and protorun plus one shape.
13 Standard hands are those with four groups and one head. Non-standard hands
are chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs) and kokushi musou (Thirteen Orphans).
66 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
Double closed (ryankan) shape
When two closed-wait protoruns are combined, we have a dou-
ble closed (ryankan) shape. There are five different patterns in each
suit, as follows.
a
a
Each shape accepts as many as 2 kinds–8 tiles. For example,
accepts (4 tiles) and (4 tiles). This is twice as many as the
number of tiles an isolated closed-wait protorun can accept.
Sometimes a double closed shape is embedded within a tile block,
making it difficult to detect it. For example, consider the following
1-away hand.
Hand with a double closed shape
Red
ffaa Draw
What would you discard?
Before drawing , the hand was already in a very good shape. It was
perfect 1-away, accepting any of ȷa (6 kinds–19 tiles).
The question is whether we should keep and discard instead.
Notice that, if we keep , we have a double closed shape .
This is because the block can be split into
and . If we keep and discard , the hand is still 1-away
from ready, accepting ȷ (5 kinds–19 tiles). The benefit of
discarding to keep the double closed shape is that the hand can
3.3. COMPLEX SHAPES 67
always be pinfu when it is ready. On the other hand, discarding
means that the hand may become a yaku-less hand when drawing
or a.
Double closed shapes are particularly useful when a hand is rel-
atively far from ready (2-away or worse). As a hand advances, how-
ever, its usefulness diminishes because this block requires three (not
two) tiles even though it is not a complete group. Moreover, it will
ultimately become a single closed-wait protorun when this block re-
mains incomplete when the hand is ready. Therefore, we should not
rely too much on a double closed shape. For example, consider the
following two hands.
%% Draw
ff Draw
Both hands are 1-away from ready and both contain a double
closed shape in souzu (bamboos) tiles. Maintaining the double closed
shape in these cases will not be ideal. It is true that, if the hand be-
comes ready by drawing or first, each of the hands makes for
a good-wait ready hand. However, if the first hand becomes ready
by calling pon on % or the second hand becomes ready by drawing
or first, they only make for a closed-wait ready hand.
Therefore, when we draw a tile next to the head, creating a side-
wait protorun, we should keep it and break the double closed shape
instead. In the first example above, as we draw that creates a side-
wait protorun , we should keep it and discard the instead.
68 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
In the second example above, as we draw that creates a side-wait
protorun , we should keep it and discard instead.
Protorun plus one shape
As we saw with the first example in Section 3.2.8, we often come
across a tile combination such as ff that is made up with one
protorun plus one floating tile (ff + ).14 Depending on the type
of protoruns, we can classify protorun plus one shapes into three
types, as summarized in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2: Types of protorun plus one shapes
Name Example Wait Acceptance
side wait +1 - 3 kinds–10 tiles
closed wait +1 2 kinds–6 tiles
edge wait +1 a 2 kinds–6 tiles
A protorun plus one can accept two additional tiles that an iso-
lated protorun cannot. This is because these blocks can now be a
candidate for a set as well as for a run.
Breaking a protorun plus one can be inefficient. For example, if
we break a closed wait plus one shape into an isolated pair (i.e., dis-
card from ), the tile acceptance decreases from 6 to 2; it
can accept only (1 kind–2 tiles). Similarly, if we break it into an
isolated protorun (i.e., discard from ), the tile acceptance
decreases from 6 to 4; it can accept only (1 kind–4 tiles). With this
in mind, consider the following hand.
14 Alternatively, we can think of these combinations as a pair plus one + ff.
3.3. COMPLEX SHAPES 69
Protorun plus one
ffa
Draw
What would you discard?
Discarding or ff to break the protorun plus one ff is ineffi-
cient here. Discarding decreases tile acceptance by two, and dis-
carding ff decreases tile acceptance by four. Moreover, discarding
ff leaves three pairs in this hand, which should be avoided. Discard-
ing is much more efficient.
Sometimes we have to make a choice between multiple protorun
plus one shapes, just like we did in examples in Section 3.2.8. Con-
sider the following hand. What would you discard?
Multiple protoruns plus one
ȷ ""
What would you discard?
There are two protorun plus one shapes in this hand: ȷ and
. We have to break one of the two into either an isolated Pair
or an isolated protorun, because the other parts of this hand are more
or less self-sufficient. Which one should we choose?
When choosing between which protoruns plus one to break, pri-
ority should be given to the weaker one. Since the side-wait pro-
torun is much stronger than the closed-wait protorun ȷ, we
should prioritize the latter and maintain ȷ. In other words, the
side-wait protorun is so strong that we do not need to provide
a cover by maintaining the “plus one” tile, . On the other hand,
the closed-wait protorun ȷ is weaker so we should cover it by
keeping another as a back-up. You should thus discard .
70 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
3.3.2 Four-tile complex shapes
Among several different kinds of four-tile complex shapes, we
will focus on those that are made up of one group and one floating
tile. There are three variants of this kind — stretched single, bulging
float, and skipping.
Stretched single (nobetan) shape
A set of four consecutive tiles such as is called a stretched
single (nobetan) shape. Stretched single shapes are very useful both
when a hand is ready and when a hand is 1-away or worse.
When a stretched single shape is in a ready hand, that part forms
the wait of the hand. For example, the following hand is ready, wait-
ing for .
Ready hand with a stretched single shape
%%%
In a ready hand, the stretched single shape can be thought of as a
candidate for the head ( or ) and a candidate for a run (
or ). For example, if we win this hand on , then becomes
the head, and becomes a run. On the other hand, if we win
this hand on , then becomes the head, and becomes a
run.
Another important role that a stretched single shape can play is
to work as a candidate for two runs. When a hand is 1-away or worse,
we can count on a stretched single shape to produce two runs. For
example, consider a stretched single shape . If we draw ,
we will have a side-wait protorun in addition to a complete run
3.3. COMPLEX SHAPES 71
. Similarly, if we draw , we will have a side-wait protorun
in addition to a complete run . Moreover, if we draw
or , we will have a 3-way side-wait shape (waiting for
--) or (waiting for --).
There are six patterns of stretched single shapes, from 1234 through - Table 3.3 summarizes the tiles each shape can accept to produce
various waits.
Table 3.3: Types of stretched single shapes
Shape 3-way 2-way 1-way Pair Acceptance
ȷ 6 kinds–20 tiles
ȷ ff 7 kinds–24 tiles
ȷ ff ȷ 8 kinds–28 tiles
ȷff ȷ ff 8 kinds–28 tiles
ȷff ȷ ff 7 kinds–24 tiles
ȷff ff ȷ 6 kinds–20 tiles
As we can see, the middle two ones — 3456 and 4567 — are the
most versatile. They can accept two different tiles to produce a 3-way
wait (27 or 38), two different tiles to produce a 2-way side wait (45 or
56), and two different tiles to produce a 1-way wait (18 or 29 to pro-
duce a closed wait). The 3456 and 4567 shapes are the most valuable
of all four-tile shapes, and we should not lightly break such shapes
when a hand is far away from ready. With this in mind, consider the
following 2-away hand.
72 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
2-away hand with a stretched single shape
ȷ a
What would you discard?
It is true that discarding or ȷ would lead to the greatest tile ac-
ceptance (7 kinds–24 tiles) temporarily. However, doing so is too my-
opic. If we do that, all the remaining protoruns will be closed-wait or
edge-wait ones. We should rather discard to keep the 3456 shape,
which we can expect to produce two side-wait protoruns later. The
resulting tile acceptance (6 kinds–20 tiles) is not much smaller, either.
Four-tile complex shapes 1: nobetan
Try to keep a stretched single shape if a hand has one. In partic-
ular, 3456 and 4567 should be kept until the hand becomes ready
or 1-away from ready.
Bulging float (nakabukure) shape
When we have a floating tile in the middle of a run (e.g., ),
we have a bulging float (nakabukure) shape. Bulging float shapes
are quite good at producing side-wait protoruns. Any bulging float
shapes from 2334 through 6778 can accept four kinds of tiles to pro-
duce a side-wait protorun and a complete run. Take , for
example. It can produce a side-wait protorun and a complete run if
we draw any of ȷ . With this in mind, consider the following
2-away hand.
3.3. COMPLEX SHAPES 73
Hand with a bulging float shape
What would you discard?
Discarding to break the bulging float shape is not ideal. Although
doing so increases tile acceptance temporarily, the hand will be filled
with closed-wait protoruns. Alternatively, you should discard to
maintain the bulging float shape.
That being said, when this shape remains as is when a hand is
ready, it does not make for a good wait. For example, consider the
following ready hand.
Ready hand with a bulging float shape
"%%% Draw
What would you discard?
Discarding " to keep the bulging float shape makes the
wait of this hand pretty bad. It is waiting for , but we are already
using two of it in the hand, leaving only two winning tiles. We should
rather discard to wait for “.
Four-tile complex shapes 2: nakabukure
Try to keep a bulging float shape until a hand becomes 1-away.
74 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
Skipping shape
When we have a floating tile two tiles away from a run, we have
a skipping shape. For example, in a shape ȷff , is floating
two tiles from a run ȷff. in a skipping shape is more valu-
able than isolated , because it increases the kinds of tiles the hand
can accept to produce a protorun or a 3-way side-wait shape. Table
3.4 summarizes all the skipping shapes and the tiles each shape can
accept.
Table 3.4: Types of skipping shapes
Shape 3-way 2-way 1-way Pair Acceptance
ȷ 4 kinds–14 tiles
ȷ ff 5 kinds–18 tiles
ȷff 6 kinds–22 tiles
ȷff ȷ 6 kinds–22 tiles
ff ȷ ff 5 kinds–18 tiles
ȷ ff 5 kinds–18 tiles
ȷ ff ȷ 6 kinds–22 tiles
ff ȷ ff 6 kinds–22 tiles
ȷ ff ȷ 5 kinds–18 tiles
ȷff ff 4 kinds–14 tiles
Bearing in mind that of ȷff is more valuable than iso-
lated , consider the following hand.
3.3. COMPLEX SHAPES 75
Hand with a skipping shape
ffa%%% Draw
What would you discard?
We should keep and discard instead. This is because is a
part of a skipping shape , but is an isolated floating tile.
As we can see in Table 3.4, skipping shapes with a terminal tile
(1345 and 5679) are also valuable. The 1 of 1345 and the 9 of 5679 can
accept more tiles than an isolated 2 or 8 (let alone than an isolated 1
or 9).
76 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
3.4 Waits
There are five basic wait patterns, as summarized in Table 3.5.
More complicated wait patterns can emerge when some of these five
basic patterns are combined.
Table 3.5: Five basic waits
Name Japanese Example Wait Acceptance
side wait ryanmen - 2 kinds–8 tiles
dual pon wait shanpon 2 kinds–4 tiles
closed wait kanchan a 1 kind–4 tiles
edge wait penchan 1 kind–4 tiles
single wait tanki 1 kind–3 tiles
As we can see in the table, side wait is the strongest of all the basic
waits in terms of the kinds and the number of tiles to win on. Single
wait appears to be much worse than others, but single-wait hands
tend to have many possibilities of improving the wait and/or scores
further. Moreover, single wait of an honor tile has a relatively high
chance of winning it by ron.
Stretched single wait and semi side wait
Table 3.6 summarizes two wait patterns, each of which can be
thought of as a combination of some basic wait patterns. As I men-
tioned before, a stretched single shape in a ready hand forms a 2-way
single wait. It is a decent wait pattern, as the number of tiles to win
on (2 kinds–6 tiles) is twice as big compared with a regular single
wait.
3.4. WAITS 77
Table 3.6: Stretched single wait and semi side wait
Name Example Waits Acceptance
stretched single wait 2 kinds–6 tiles
semi side wait - 2 kinds–6 tiles
However, stretched single wait should not be confused with side
wait for a few reasons. First, the number of tiles a 2-way stretched-
single-wait hand can win on is at most 6, whereas it is 8 for a 2-way
side-wait hand. The difference between 6 and 8 is non-trivial. Sec-
ond, stretched single wait is still a variant of single wait, which means
two things. On the one hand, we cannot claim pinfu when the wait is
stretched-single wait. For example, the following hand has no yaku
and hence we cannot win it by ron without calling riichi.
ȷ
On the other hand, we get 2 minipoints (fu) with a stretched single
wait. For example, if we win the following hand by drawing , we
get 40 minipoints (20 base minipoints + 8 for a concealed set of honor
tiles + 2 for self-draw + 2 for single wait = 32, rounded up to 40).15
ȷ %%%
When we have a side-wait protorun right next to a pair (e.g., 1123,
2234, 7899, etc.), we call it semi side wait. We distinguish this from
regular side wait for two reasons. First, the number of tiles to win
on is smaller (6 rather than 8) because we are already using 2 of the
15 We will discuss methods of scoring and minipoints calculations extensively in
Chapter 6.
78 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
8 winning tiles in our hand. Second, we can treat this wait pattern
either as single wait or as side wait, depending on which interpre-
tation gives us a greater score. For example, consider the following
hand.
ȷ
We will treat the wait in this hand as side wait because that will give
us pinfu. However, consider the following hand that has the exact
same wait pattern: .
ȷ %%%
If we win this hand by drawing , we will treat the wait as single
wait: + , which will give us 40 minipoints. If we treated
the wait as side wait: + , we would get only 30 minipoints.
Of course, if we win this hand on , we cannot think of the wait as
single wait (because it is not). Similarly, if we win it by ron, it does
not make a difference if it is side wait or single wait (either way we
get 40 minipoints).
3.4. WAITS 79
3-way side wait
When a side-wait protorun is combined with an adjacent run, we
get a regular 3-way side-wait pattern. There are only three of this
kind, summarized in Table 3.7.
Table 3.7: Regular 3-way side wait
Example Wait Acceptance
ȷ --ff 3 kinds–11 tiles
-- 3 kinds–11 tiles
a -- 3 kinds–11 tiles
When we have a stretched single shape or semi side-wait shape
combined with an adjacent run, we also get a 3-way wait pattern.
Table 3.8 summarizes some examples.
Table 3.8: Some irregular 3-way waits
Example Wait Acceptance
ȷff ff 3 kinds–9 tiles
- 3 kinds–9 tiles
a -- 3 kinds–9 tiles
Notice that the number of tiles to win on in each pattern is smaller
than those for the regular 3-way side waits, although the kinds of tiles
to win on are the same (either 1-4-7, 2-5-8, or 3-6-9). This is because
we are already using some of the winning tiles within the hand.
80 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
Notice also that not all the wait patterns qualify as side wait, so
claiming pinfu is not always possible (similarly, claiming single wait
is not always possible). For example, the first pattern in Table 3.8 is
essentially a 3-way stretched single shape; none of the waits embed-
ded in this shape qualifies as side wait. In the second pattern, if we
win on , the wait must be interpreted as single wait; if we win on
, the wait must be interpreted as side wait; and if we win on ,
we adopt whichever interpretation that generates the higher score.
In the third pattern, winning on allows us to claim single wait if
doing so gives us a higher score.
Complex waits
When a set is combined with a floating tile nearby, we get some
complex wait patterns with multiple waits. Table 3.9 summarizes a
few examples of irregular waits that involve a set and a floating tile.
Table 3.9: Some irregular waits (set and a floating tile)
Example Combination Wait Acceptance
single and edge 2 kinds–7 tiles
single and closed 2 kinds–7 tiles
single and side - 3 kinds–11 tiles
When a set is combined with a protorun, pair, or a four-tile shape,
we get even more complicated waits. Table 3.10 summarizes only a
few representative examples.
3.4. WAITS 81
Table 3.10: Some irregular waits (set and a protorun, pair, or a four-tile shape)
Example Wait Acceptance
3 kinds–5 tiles
3 kinds–5 tiles
”" " 3 kinds–6 tiles
ȷff - 3 kinds–7 tiles
- 3 kinds–9 tiles
- 3 kinds–9 tiles
ȷff 3 kinds–10 tiles
3 kinds–11 tiles
82 CHAPTER 3. RIICHI MAHJONG BASICS
3.5 Glossary
Simple tiles (tanyao hai) are tiles between 2 and 8.
Terminal tiles (yaochu hai) are 1 and 9.
Honor tiles (jihai) are non-number tiles (dragon tiles and wind
tiles).
Value tiles (fanpai / yakuhai) include dragon tiles, seat wind tiles,
and prevailing wind tiles. We get one han for a set of value tiles.
Valueless wind tiles (otakaze hai) are wind tiles that are neither
a prevailing wind tile nor a seat wind tile.
Run (chow / sequence; shuntsu) is a set of three consecutive num-
ber tiles.
Set (pung / triplet; kotsu) is a set of three identical tiles.
Quad (kong; kantsu) is a set of four identical tiles.
Protorun (taatsu) is a set of two tiles in the same suit that can be-
come a run when one more tile is added.
Pair (toitsu) is a set of two identical tiles.
Ready (tenpai) is when a hand is ready to win.
1-away (1-shanten) is when a hand can be ready with one more tile.
Perfect 1-away is when a 1-away hand has two side-wait protoruns
and two pairs.
Tile acceptance (ukeire) refers to the kinds and the number of tiles
a hand can accept.
3.5. GLOSSARY 83
Stretched single (nobetan) shape is a set of four consecutive num-
ber tiles.
Bulging float (nakabukure) shape is a four-tile shape that is made
up with a run and one floating tile in the middle of the run.
Skipping shape is a four-tile shape made up with a run and one
floating tile located at two tiles away from the run.
Chapter 4
The five-block method
In introducing basic building blocks of riichi mahjong in the pre-
vious chapter, I have also touched upon a number of important tile
efficiency principles — e.g., superiority of side-wait protoruns, the
value of having two pairs in a hand rather than three, and the value
of stretched single or bulging float shapes, to name a few.
These principles are all important, but trying to take all of the
important principles into consideration at once could be a daunting
task. We have to make our discard choice in a limited amount of
time,1 and tile efficiency is not the only factor we need to consider in
making a discard choice. Moreover, some of the tile efficiency prin-
ciples can at times clash with one another, requiring us to make a
judgement call about which principle to follow. For example, we may
at times wonder whether to retain a bulging float shape or to retain
two pairs in a hand, when we have to discard one of the two.
The five-block method I introduce in this chapter will help us
prioritize between competing principles and find the most efficient
discard choice quickly.2 The core idea of the five-block method is
deceptively simple; we first identify five tile blocks in a hand — four
groups + one head, or their candidates — and try to complete each
block.
1 Recall that, on regular (slower) tables on Tenhou, each discard choice must be
made within 5 seconds. In offline games, we should make choices even faster
so as not to irritate your fellow players.
2 As I mentioned in the Preface, the exposition of this chapter is based on Makoto
Fukuchi’s books. In particular, I am indebted to Makoto Fukuchi 2015 Haik-
ouritsu Nyumon Doriru 76, Yousensha. ISBN978-4-8003-0634-0.
4.1. FINDING A REDUNDANT TILE 85
4.1 Finding a redundant tile
We all understand that a standard hand must have five blocks of
tiles — four groups and one head — to win. The five-block method
encourages us to be always conscious about five tile blocks in a hand.
Consider the following hand. What would you discard and why?
ff %%%
To figure out which tile is the least useful in this hand, let’s divide
the hand into tile blocks, as follows.
|{z} ff|{z} | {z } | {z } %%%| {z } (4.1)
Notice that, although we do not know which block is going to be the
head and which blocks are going to be four groups at the moment,
the hand already has five tile blocks. This means that there is no need
to increase or decrease the number of blocks from here.
Looking at each of the five blocks, the pair of , the protorun
ff, and the set of % are all self-sufficient; we keep them as they
are. Our discard choice should thus be from the third or the fourth
blocks, or . Let’s now compare these two closed-
wait blocks. While is being useful within the block it belongs to,
enabling the hand to accept , is completely redundant; the hand
can accept without having . Therefore, the ideal discard here is
.
There are two key points to remember in applying the five-block
method. First, we should not make any one of the five blocks “too
86 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
weak.”3 In the current example, if we discard , the block
becomes an isolated closed-wait protorun, which is too weak com-
pared with the other blocks. Likewise, if we discard , this block
becomes a pair of . Since this hand already has two other pairs,
having a third pair makes all the pairs in the hand too weak.
Second, each of the five tile blocks should ideally have three tiles.
In the current example, the block has exactly three tiles and
so we should not choose a discard from this block. On the other hand,
the block currently has four tiles so we should discard one
from this block to make this a three-tile block.
Five-block method
Identify five tile blocks in a hand. Try to make sure:
(1) there is no block that is too weak; and
(2) each block has at most three tiles.
3 Basically, any block that is weaker than a side-wait protorun is a weak block.
4.1. FINDING A REDUNDANT TILE 87
Let’s see another example.
ff## #Dora
We can easily see that there is one block in manzu (cracks), two blocks
in pinzu (dots), and a pair of white dragons, giving us four blocks.
This means that we need to have only one more block in souzu (bam-
boos). Therefore, we divide the hand as follows.
ff| {z } | {z } |{z} | {z } ##|{z} (4.2)
Since we should not create a block that is too weak, discarding or
ff is not an option. Notice that the block in souzu (bamboos) has
four tiles. We should thus discard one from this block. In case the
pair of white dragon later becomes a set, we should keep the pair
of , leaving or as a discard candidate. Given that has a
higher chance of creating a side-wait protorun, we should discard
. Then, none of the five blocks is too weak, and each block has at
most three tiles.
In the two examples we saw above, you might have been able
to identify the redundant tiles without really thinking too hard. If
so, that was probably because you have implicitly and unconsciously
applied the five-block method in your mind. The goal of this chapter
is to train our mind further, so that it becomes our second nature to
identify five tile blocks in a hand.
88 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
4.2 Alternative configurations
Consider the following hand. What would you discard and why?
ȷ %%%
Let’s first divide the hand into five tile blocks.
ȷ| {z } |{z} | {z } |{z} %%%| {z } (4.3)
This makes it clearer that, just like the previous example, ȷ is
creating a redundant closed-wait protorun, so we should discard it.
Also, discarding ȷ makes this a three-tile block.
However, there is an alternative way to divide this hand into five
blocks, and situational changes may call for such an alternative con-
figuration. Suppose that your opponents have already discarded all
four tiles of . Suppose also that seems live in the wall. Or, sup-
pose -ȷ tiles seem too dangerous to discard against an opponent.
Then, we might want to divide the hand in the following way instead.
|{z} ȷ|{z} | {z }
2
%%%| {z } (4.4)
That is, we aim to make the pair of the head of this hand, and
we seek to have two runs in pinzu (dots). If we discard , this block
becomes . Recall that a block like this can be split into
4.2. ALTERNATIVE CONFIGURATIONS 89
+ (recall the discussion of double closed shape in
Section 3.3.1). Therefore, this block can accept as well as -
to make two runs in pinzu. The block in pinzu will have six tiles, but
this is OK because this block is worth two.
To master the five-block method, we need to be able to instanta-
neously envision the first block configuration (4.3) the moment we
see this hand. However, that is not enough. We should also be able
to imagine an alternative configuration (4.4) at the same time. In the
game of mahjong, situations change very quickly each time a new
tile gets drawn or a new tile gets discarded. Therefore, the ideal
five-block configuration would also change accordingly as situations
evolve. We thus need to develop our skills to picture many possi-
ble five-block configurations and to prepare for possible situational
changes that would call for a change in the configuration.
I provide several exercises in the following pages. The answer
key to each exercise is provided on the next page. Try not to look at
the answers before you actually derive your own answer.
Exercises: finding a redundant tile
Exercise 1
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
ȷȷ aa Draw
90 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
Answer 1
|{z} ȷȷ|{z} | {z } aa| {z }
2
With the draw of , we now have a 3-way side-wait block in
souzu (bamboos). or a could be our back-up candidate for
the head, in case we draw another ȷ. Since there is a potential
for sanshoku (Mixed Triple Chow) of 345, we discard .
Exercise 2
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
ff
Draw
4.2. ALTERNATIVE CONFIGURATIONS 91
Answer 2
ff|{z} | {z } | {z } |{z} | {z }
Before we drew the third , the pinzu (dots) tiles were
- + , so the was simply a floating tile. Now
that we have another , the five-block configuration changes ac-
cordingly. The ideal discard is , as this has become redundant.
Exercise 3
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
ȷȷff a Draw
92 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
Answer 3
| {z } ȷ ȷff| {z } |{z} |{z} a| {z }
There are two “side wait plus one” shapes, and a,
that might later become the head or a run. At this point, how-
ever, we cannot determine which one will be which, so we should
keep them as they are. One of the two ȷ has become an obvious
redundancy so we should discard one.
Exercise 4
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
ȷ" Draw
4.2. ALTERNATIVE CONFIGURATIONS 93
Answer 4
ȷ| {z }
2
|{z} |{z} | {z } "
The " is obviously redundant, but is also useless. Without
, the hand can accept . Since honor tiles can be used as a
safety tile (see Chapter 8), we discard first.
Exercise 5
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
ffff a
Draw Dora
94 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
Answer 5
|{z} ffff| {z } | {z } |{z} a| {z }
This is a bit difficult, as there are so many closed-wait protoruns.
Recall that each tile block should have at most three tiles and that
pairs are most valuable when there are two of them in a hand.
The block in pinzu (dots) has four tiles, so we discard one from
this block. Since is dora, we discard , leaving the double
closed shape around dora: .
Exercise 6
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
Draw
4.2. ALTERNATIVE CONFIGURATIONS 95
Answer 6
| {z } | {z }
2
| {z }
2
Finding the best discard by actually comparing tile acceptance
counts for each possible discard candidate is super tedious. The
five-block method simplifies the process quite a bit. Since we
have two blocks in pinzu (dots) and two blocks in souzu (bam-
boos), we only need one block in manzu (cracks), hence one is
redundant. If we discard , the hand can be made ready with
11 kinds–34 tiles. If we discard or , the hand can be
ready only with 6 kinds–19 tiles.
Exercise 7
What would you discard?
ff a Draw
96 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
Answer 7
|{z} ff | {z } | {z } a| {z }
2
Do not discard the just because it forms a closed wait or
because discarding it gets us tanyao (All Simples). Avoiding
closed wait too much and being hung up on tanyao are two
pathologies common among intermediate players.
The block in souzu (bamboos) is actually not too bad; this is a
stretched single plus one, which can become either two runs im-
mediately (if we draw ), one run plus one side-wait protorun
(if we draw any of ), or one run plus the head (if we draw
or a). Note also that we need both and , because this
part may become the head if we get two runs in souzu (bam-
boos); when we get the head in souzu (bamboos), we will treat
this part as a side-wait protorun. We thus discard ff.
4.3. SELECTING TILE BLOCKS 97
4.3 Selecting tile blocks
All the hands we have seen so far in this chapter already have
five tile blocks. In practice, however, this is not always the case. A
hand can sometimes have fewer or more tile blocks. Since we need
to have exactly five blocks to win a hand, we will need to bump up
tile blocks by using a floating tile when we have fewer of them or to
discard some blocks entirely when we have a plethora of them.
In selecting which tile blocks to keep and which ones to discard,
we focus on a combination of the following three criteria:
- tile efficiency;
- hand value;
- the safety of tiles to be discarded.
As we will see below, we can sometimes find a block to discard based
on all the three criteria. Consider the following hand. How do we
divide the hand into tile blocks, and what would you discard?
Red
a Draw
We can see that the hand currently has six tile blocks, as follows.
| {z } | {z } |{z} |{z} |{z} a|{z}
Since the first two tile blocks are already complete and the third block
is the head, our discard choice should be from the last three tile
blocks, , , or a.
98 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
From a perspective of tile efficiency, discarding the block
means that we lose the ability to accept both and . On the other
hand, if we discard the a block, we only lose the ability to accept
; because of the block, we can still accept . We should thus
choose between the two blocks in souzu (bamboos). Keeping the
is desirable from a perspective of hand value (it is a red five) as
well as safety (discarding a is much safer than discarding ,
generally speaking). Therefore, the three criteria collectively suggest
that we should discard a.
In practice, however, satisfying all three criteria may not be fea-
sible. A common tradeoff we face is between speed and hand value.
That is, maximizing tile efficiency to gain speed often entails giving
up possibilities of pursuing an expensive hand. Consider the follow-
ing hand.
ffff
Let’s divide the hand into tile blocks. There are several ways to do
this. One way to do this is to split it into the following blocks.
| {z } ffff|{z} |{z} |{z} |{z} |{z}
If we simply maximize tile efficiency, we discard , as we already
have six tile blocks and we won’t need any more floating tile.
However, as it stands, the hand has no yaku and it is likely to be
a very cheap riichi-only hand. Moreover, the hand has three pairs,
which is not ideal as we saw in the previous chapter. Therefore, we
4.3. SELECTING TILE BLOCKS 99
might want to split the hand into the following five blocks.
ffff| {z } |{z} |{z} |{z} |{z}
We count the floating as an independent block, hoping it to grow
into a run. We also treat the tiles in manzu (cracks) as a single block,
hoping to get at least one group or the head out of it. We thus discard
one now, then another in the next turn. Depending on what
tile gets drawn, our five-block configuration will be different.
For example, suppose we draw and then . We will then have
the following.
ffff| {z } |{z} |{z} | {z } |{z}
We will discard the as a first step toward reducing the number of
tiles in the manzu (cracks) block to three. We can now see that this
hand has a potential of getting sanshoku of 345 as well as pinfu and
tanyao.
On the other hand, if we draw ȷ and then , we can expect to
have two groups in manzu (cracks) so we will discard .
ȷffff| {z }
2
|{z} |{z} |{z}
In selecting tile blocks, we should try to achieve the best balance
between speed and hand value. Don’t fantasize too much about get-
ting an expensive hand. At the same time, don’t fixate too much
100 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
about tile efficiency at the cost of hand value. This is, of course, easier
said than done; it is quite difficult even for advanced players.
Exercises: selecting tile blocks
Exercise 8
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
ff Draw
4.3. SELECTING TILE BLOCKS 101
Answer 8
| {z } ff|{z} |{z} |{z} |{z} | {z }
The hand currently has six blocks so we need to get rid of one.
The block is the weakest – it is the only closed-wait pro-
torun – so we should get rid of this one. We should discard
first; if we draw we will discard to leave the possibility of
pinfu. If not, we discard next, and then .
Exercise 9
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
a##
Draw
102 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
Answer 9
| {z } | {z }
2
|{z} a|{z} ##|{z}
We were planning to discard the block because this was the
weakest block among the six blocks in this hand. However, now
that we drew another , the block is now the weakest. We
thus discard .
Exercise 10
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
ȷff a"" Draw
4.3. SELECTING TILE BLOCKS 103
Answer 10
|{z} ȷff| {z } |{z} | {z } a|{z} “”|{z}
The hand currently has six blocks so we need to get rid of one.
Comparing the two closed-wait blocks and , the
block is more valuable because it is adjacent to a run. If we draw
, we will get a 3-way side-wait block. On the other hand, the
block will only become a 2-way side-wait block when we
draw . We should discard first, not , because if we draw
next, we will discard the block.
Exercise 11
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
ff a
Draw
104 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
Answer 11
ff|{z} | {z } |{z} |{z} a| {z }
2
Now that we have a 3-way side-wait block in souzu (bamboos),
we should get rid of one block. Comparing a closed-wait block
ff and two pairs and , we should value the closed-
wait block. This is because the hand has three pairs already so we
should get rid of one of them. Since we see a (remote) possibility
of sanshoku of 567, we should discard .
4.4 Building a block
When a hand has fewer than five blocks, we need to build a new
block, possibly from a floating tile we already have in the hand. In
Summary
doing so, we should envision the kind of yaku that the hand is going
to have eventually. Consider the following hand. Suppose you are
the dealer and this is East-1. What would you discard?
ȷffff a %"
As usual, we will split the hand into blocks. Notice that the hand
has at most four blocks only.
ȷffff| {z }
2
| {z } a| {z } % "
We should thus compare the four floating tiles % " in terms
4.4. BUILDING A BLOCK 105
of their relative capabilities to grow into an independent block. Of
these four tiles, is the strongest candidate, because it can form a
side-wait protorun with two kinds of tiles, and . Any simple tiles
between 3 and 7 are a strong floating tile because of their ability to
form a side-wait protorun. Terminals (1 and 9) will never become
a side-wait protorun, and 2 and 8 can become a side-wait protorun
when paired with only one kind of tiles (3 or 7). However, number
tiles are still stronger than honor tiles because honor tiles can never
form a run.
We should thus choose between the two honor tiles, % and ".
Which one should we discard? Notice that this hand is clearly a
pinfu hand and that it is currently lacking the head. Since value tiles
can never be the head of a pinfu hand, we should discard % rather
than ".
We may want to choose a discard from an existing block rather
than discarding a floating tile in order to enhance the hand value.
Consider the following hand.
ȷȷ a
From a pure perspective of tile efficiency, the discard choice should
be either a or , for discarding either of the three will maximize
tile acceptance. The block configuration behind such a decision is as
follows.
ȷ|{z} ȷ|{z} | {z } |{z} a| {z }
However, doing so makes it almost inevitable that the hand ends up
having a low score and/or a bad wait. Alternatively, we can expect
106 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
the stretched single shape a to produce two runs, to form
a run, and the tiles in manzu (cracks) to produce one run, as follows.
ȷȷ| {z } | {z } |{z} a| {z }
2
We should thus discard the for now, anticipating to discard the
pair of eventually. That way, we can expect to have tanyao, pinfu,
and possibly sanshoku.
Exercises: building a block
Exercise 12
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
Red
a
4.4. BUILDING A BLOCK 107
Answer 12
| {z } |{z} | {z } | {z } a| {z }
If we were to simply maximize tile acceptance, the discard choice
should be either or . However, that would make the block
in manzu (cracks) too weak. Breaking the or is
not ideal, as these blocks are very strong. We should therefore
discard the to get rid of this edge-wait block. This will tem-
porarily reduce the number of blocks from five to four, but we
can expect to get back to five soon with this hand.
Exercise 13
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
Red
a
108 CHAPTER 4. THE FIVE-BLOCK METHOD
Answer 13
|{z} |{z} | {z }
2
| {z } a| {z }
Discarding or will make this hand 1-Away, so our choice is
between these two options. Notice that the block is weaker
than the other four. As a back up, we should keep two to
maintain the bulging float block in pinzu (dots) for now, hoping
to get two runs out of it. If we draw - or - first, we will
get rid of the block. We should thus discard . If we draw
any of , we should do insta-riichi.
Exercise 14
What would you discard?
How do you divide the hand into tile blocks?
Red
a
4.4. BUILDING A BLOCK 109
Answer 14
| {z }
2
| {z } |{z} a| {z }
As we drew another , the block in manzu (cracks) is now a
decent shape. This can become one group and the head with a
draw of . Therefore, we should discard to break
the bulging float shape.
Chapter 5
Pursuing yaku
As we saw in the previous chapter, we often face a tradeoff be-
tween speed (tile efficiency) and hand value. In modern riichi mahjong,
the value of pursuing expensive yaku is much diminished because of
red fives. For example, ryanpeiko (Twice Pure Double Chow) is a
beautiful three-han yaku, but it is extremely difficult to make this
yaku. We can achieve the same hand value more easily with riichi +
dora + one red five. We thus tend to think of expensive yaku as some-
thing that emerges in a hand (almost) by chance, not something we
actively pursue. Given that we can get high scores also from ippatsu,
ura dora, and tsumo, getting the hand ready for riichi is generally
more important than pursuing expensive yaku.
That being said, always trying to maximize tile efficiency with-
out regard for yaku is not the best strategy, either. We should thus
design a five-block configuration with an eye to possible yaku we can
reasonably get. Moreover, sometimes situations call for an expensive
hand. For example, when you are ranked fourth in South-4, and the
player who is currently ranked third has 10000 more points than you
do, you should aim for mangan tsumo or haneman ron to improve the
placement (more on this in Chapter 10), which will require that your
hand has some yaku other than just riichi and dora.
In this chapter, I will discuss some tips to get the following five
set of yaku.
5.1 sanshoku (Mixed Triple Chow) 5.2 ittsu (Pure Straight)
5.3 pinfu (Pinfu) 5.4 honitsu (Half Flush)
5.5 toitoi (All Pungs) and chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs)
5.1. HOW TO GET SANSHOKU 111
5.1 How to get sanshoku
Sanshoku (Mixed Triple Chow) is an elusive yaku. Even when
we make our hand ready for sanshoku, we may lose it at the very last
minute. For example, suppose we manage to get the hand ready for
sanshoku of 345, and we have a side-wait protorun as the final
wait. We will get sanshoku only if we win the hand on ; if we win
on ȷ, we will lose sanshoku.
On the other hand, it is possible to have a confirmed sanshoku,
but doing so often entails a significant loss in tile efficiency. For ex-
ample, if our wait were a closed-wait protorun instead, sanshoku
is confirmed; but, a closed wait of is not very good. As long as
we seek to utilize side waits to maximize tile efficiency, sanshoku be-
comes difficult to achieve. I will discuss the following seven methods
to capture this elusive yaku.
5.1.1 Floating 5.1.2 Switching
5.1.3 Double closed shape 5.1.4 Stretched single
5.1.5 Lining pairs 5.1.6 Golden
5.1.7 Crashing a meld
112 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
5.1.1 Floating
Sanshoku 1
ȷ a "
What would you discard?
in this hand is essentially a redundant floating tile from a pure
tile efficiency perspective; we do not need it to accept . However,
if we keep it and discard " instead, we can hope to get sanshoku of
345. The best case scenario is to draw first, after which we discard
ȷ.
That being said, keeping a floating tile this way is risky. What if
an opponent calls riichi after we discard "? We will have to discard
either or ȷ against the riichi’ed player when this hand becomes
ready. To make things worse, if we draw first, we will have to
discard the potentially dangerous (instead of ") with no benefit
of getting sanshoku.
Moreover, when we draw first, a difficult question arises. Con-
sider the following hand.
ȷ a Draw
Should we discard ȷ and have a closed-wait hand in hopes of getting
sanshoku, or should we discard and give up on sanshoku in pur-
suit of tile efficiency? If a hand has at least one dora or tanyao (All
Simples), we should discard to choose a side wait pinfu hand.
Only when there is no other yaku or dora in a pinfu hand, it is OK
to choose closed-wait sanshoku over side-wait pinfu.1
1 We will talk more about a tradeoff of this kind in Chapter 7.
5.1. HOW TO GET SANSHOKU 113
5.1.2 Switching
Sanshoku 2
ȷȷ Draw
What would you discard?
The hand already has five tile blocks and all the blocks are strong;
in fact, this is a perfect 1-away hand.2 It is thus OK to discard
we just drew. After all, that is the best discard from a tile efficiency
perspective.
However, if we need an expensive hand, we can keep and dis-
card instead. The resulting loss in tile efficiency is not very big,
as we would still have a strong 1-away hand with two side-wait pro-
toruns: and . In addition, serves as a floating tile to
approach sanshoku of 234. Keep in mind that we should give up on
sanshoku and do insta-riichi if we draw any of first (un-
less you absolutely need mangan or above to improve the placement
in South-4).
On the other hand, if we draw or first, the hand will be 1-
away from ready for sanshoku. For example, with a draw of , the
hand becomes the following.
ȷȷ Draw
We should discard and then to aim for sanshoku of 234. We
are switching from one protorun to another protorun to
approach sanshoku.
2 For the definition of perfect 1-away, see Section 3.2.7.
114 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
The key here is that we are keeping the hand 1-away through-
out the entire process of switching from a perfect 1-away hand to a
sanshoku 1-away hand. You should not pursue sanshoku if switching
requires reverting a 1-away hand to 2-away.
5.1.3 Double closed (ryankan) shape
Sanshoku 3
ȷ a Draw
What would you discard?
As we have two blocks in manzu (cracks) and another two blocks
in pinzu (dots), we only need one block in souzu (bamboos). Our
choice is thus between (a) keeping a side-wait protorun to max-
imize tile efficiency and (b) keeping a double closed shape a
in hopes of getting sanshoku of 567.
If the hand has at least one dora or some yaku (such as tanyao),
we should give up sanshoku and discard a. Only if the hand has
no other yaku or dora, it is OK to discard to aim for sanshoku.
Keep in mind, though, that pursuing sanshoku with a hand like
this is risky, even compared with the floating method we discussed
in 5.1.1. We will end up with a bad-wait yaku-less hand if we draw
first. If we give up on sanshoku sooner and choose the side-wait
protorun , we can at least get pinfu.
5.1. HOW TO GET SANSHOKU 115
5.1.4 Stretched single (nobetan) shape
Sanshoku 4
ȷff a
Draw
What would you discard?
Notice that this hand has two possibilities of sanshoku, 567 or 678,
and we do not know at this point which one we can get. An excellent
way to aim for sanshoku with a hand like this is to discard to have
a stretched single shape ȷff that contains both 567 and 678.
If we draw any of first, we discard to aim for sanshoku of
567.
ȷff a
Draw
If we draw or first, we discard to aim for sanshoku of 678.
ȷff a
Draw
Either way, you get sanshoku without any loss of tile efficiency.
116 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
5.1.5 Lining pairs
Sanshoku 5
a
Draw
What would you discard?
As we have one block in manzu (cracks) and two blocks in souzu
(bamboos), we need to have two blocks in pinzu (dots). More specif-
ically, we need the head and a group (preferably a run) in pinzu. We
therefore view the tiles in pinzu not as a collection of three pairs but
as a collection of one pair and two side-wait protoruns +
.
From a pure tile efficiency perspective, discarding and dis-
carding are equally good, and they are better than any other dis-
cards. However, there is a clear difference between the two from a
perspective of hand value. Suppose we discard first. If we then
draw , we will get the following hand.
a
Draw
Discarding makes this hand ready, but it is just a pinfu-only hand.
On the other hand, suppose we had discarded before drawing .
a
Draw
We can make this hand ready for pinfu and sanshoku of 456 by dis-
carding .
5.1. HOW TO GET SANSHOKU 117
Note that pre-committing to sanshoku of 456 by discarding
before drawing is massively inefficient. If we do that, the hand
becomes a very weak hand as follows.
a
This hand relies too much on the possibility of drawing first. If
we draw any of ȷ first, the hand will be a yaku-less and/or
bad-wait hand.
118 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
5.1.6 Golden
Sanshoku 6
a
Draw
What would you discard?
If we keep and discard , the hand becomes what is known as
golden 1-away, as follows.
a
It is called “golden” because the hand is 1-away from ready for sanshoku
and 1-away from ready for ittsu (Pure Straight), two of the most
popular two-han yaku in riichi mahjong. Drawing or makes
the hand ready for ittsu, whereas drawing ff or makes the hand
ready for sanshoku of 789. The following are examples of golden 1-
away.
ff$$
ȷff
5.1. HOW TO GET SANSHOKU 119
5.1.7 Crashing a group
Sanshoku 7
ȷ Draw
What would you discard?
Notice that the hand can be made ready for pinfu if we discard .
However, that gives us a pinfu-only hand. If we need an expensive
hand, we could take a rather high-handed approach and crash an
already complete run by discarding . This might sound crazy, but
look how good a 1-away hand it becomes.
ȷ
If we draw or , the hand becomes ready for tanyao + pinfu +
sanshoku + iipeiko (Pure Double Chow). Drawing a also gets us
tanyao + pinfu + sanshoku, and drawing any of gets
us at least tanyao + pinfu, and possibly iipeiko as well.
120 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
5.2 How to get ittsu
Ittsu (Pure Straight) is another popular two-han yaku. As we
will see below, even when ittsu appears to be a possibility, it is not al-
ways worthwhile to pursue this yaku at the cost of tile efficiency. We
will see several instances where pursuing ittsu is and is not worth
the cost.
5.2.1 Two non-overlapping runs
The key to getting ittsu is to pay attention to two non-overlapping
runs in a given suit. For example, suppose a hand has two non-
overlapping runs such as the following.
+ȷff
+
+a
Then, as soon as we draw another non-overlapping tile in the same
suit, ittsu is almost around the corner. Consider the following hand.
Ittsu 1
ȷff Draw
What would you discard?
From a pure tile efficiency perspective, the best discard choice is .
However, doing so means giving up on ittsu and poking our way
toward a bad-wait yaku-less hand. That is not a very good path to
take even if we are ahead of the game in South-4 and don’t need an
expensive hand.3
3 We would still want to have at least one yaku in a hand so that we can win it
5.2. HOW TO GET ITTSU 121
We should rather treat as a treasure; we now have a realis-
tic possibility of getting ittsu. Let’s apply the five-block method to
figure out an alternative discard.
| {z } ȷ|{z} ff|{z} | {z } | {z }
We are hoping to get three blocks in manzu (cracks) to have ittsu,
so we need one block in pinzu (dots) and another block in souzu
(bamboos). Recall the principle that each block should have at most
three tiles, which suggests we discard one tile from the block in souzu
(bamboos). The choice now boils down to discarding or . Re-
call also that the value of pairs is maximized when there are two pairs
in a hand. We should thus discard .
5.2.2 Six-tile block with intervals
Consider different six-tile configurations where we have a chunk
of six tiles with a few intervals among them. For example, consider
the following six-tile blocks.
+ȷ+ff
++
++a
We do see ittsu on the horizon with each of these tile chunks, but
aiming for ittsu with these blocks is not very realistic. Take the first
six-tile block in manzu (cracks), for example. Even when we draw ,
we would want to discard to have a double closed shape ȷ
without calling riichi.
122 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
and a run ff rather than trying too hard to pursue ittsu. With
this in mind, consider the following hand.
Ittsu 2
a Draw
What would you discard?
Although we see a remote possibility of ittsu in souzu (bamboos),
pursuing it requires we fill in three closed-wait protoruns in souzu:
, , and a .
It would be more practical to discard and then ; we would
consider the tile blocks in souzu as a collection of two side-wait pro-
toruns: and a + two redundant terminal tiles: , rather
than considering it as a collection of three closed-wait protoruns.
5.2.3 Run + side-wait protorun
At one step prior to getting two non-overlapping runs, we may
have one run and a non-overlapping side-wait protorun in a given
suit. The following blocks are examples of such run + side-wait pro-
torun combinations.
+ff
+
+a
When we have a combination like these, a draw of or (left ex-
ample), or (middle example), or (right example) gener-
ates a realistic probability of getting ittsu. Below are the resulting
5.2. HOW TO GET ITTSU 123
tile blocks in each instance. You can pursue ittsu with any of these
blocks.
+ +ff + + ++a
+ +ff ++ ++a
However, if the protorun is instead a closed-wait or an edge-wait
one, the chance of getting ittsu is much diminished. The follow-
ing blocks are examples of such run + closed- or edge-wait protorun
combinations. You may not want to pursue ittsu with these blocks.
+
+
+a
If the run becomes a bulging float block, you may want to give up on
ittsu and discard the closed- or edge-wait protorun part. With this
in mind, consider the following 2-away hand.
Ittsu 3
## Draw
What would you discard?
Now that we drew a tile that creates a bulging float block in manzu
(cracks), it is about time to give up on ittsu. Discarding allows
124 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
the hand to accept 9 kinds–25 tiles; if we stick with ittsu and discard
, the hand can accept only 4 kinds–10 tiles.
Moreover, although the hand is 2-away from ready, it is 3-away
from ittsu. Pursuing ittsu with a hand like this is not very practi-
cal.
5.2.4 Ittsu vs. side wait
As we saw with sanshoku hands, we often face a choice between
pursuing yaku and keeping a side-wait protorun. Consider the fol-
lowing 1-away hand.
Ittsu 4
ȷff
Draw Dora
What would you discard?
If we discard we drew, the hand is a perfect 1-away hand; the final
wait can always be side wait. On the other hand, if we discard ,
we have a confirmed ittsu hand. Which option should we choose?
If we compare tile acceptance counts for the two scenarios, the
option of confirming side wait is slightly better (6 kinds–18 tiles vs.
5 kinds–16 tiles). However, doing so means we give up on ittsu.
Moreover, giving up on ittsu means that we can never call pon or
chii with this hand because there is no yaku in the hand. On the
other hand, the second option allows us to call pon on or call
chii on . Even though the kinds and the number of acceptable
tiles are smaller, the second option would be more efficient if we take
melding into account.
5.3. HOW TO GET PINFU 125
5.3 How to get pinfu
Although pinfu is only worth one han, the requirements to claim
pinfu are rather demanding. The key to getting pinfu is to build
side-wait protoruns even at the cost of tile efficiency. Consider the
following hand.
Pinfu 1
Draw
What would you discard?
We already have five tile blocks in this hand. From a pure tile effi-
ciency perspective, discarding one of the two floating tiles or
is the best. However, doing so significantly reduces our chance of
getting pinfu. If we aim for pinfu we should discard the edge-wait
protorun and keep the two floating tiles, which we hope may
grow into a side-wait protorun.
Suppose we discarded , then we drew , after which we dis-
carded . Now the hand is 1-away again, this time with two side-
wait protoruns. Suppose further that we drew !.
Pinfu 2
!Draw
What would you discard?
We should keep ! as a safe tile and discard . It is true that keeping
has an advantage; if we draw , we will get a 3-way side-wait
block in souzu (bamboos). Even a draw of a improves this hand
slightly. This is because having and is not very efficient
due to the overlap of the waiting tiles; both blocks wait for . It
126 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
would be better to have a and , rather than having
and .
However, keeping comes at a cost. Even when we draw ,
we will then have to discard or , possibly against an op-
ponent’s riichi. Therefore, once we get a 1-away with two side-wait
protoruns (side & side 1-away; ryanmen-ryanmen 1-shanten), we
should try to keep a safety tile in the hand.
Even when we draw a tile that makes a hand perfect 1-away, we
may still want to have a safety tile. For example, drawing any of
makes the hand above perfect 1-away. Although perfect
1-away is better than side & side 1-away in terms of tile acceptance, a
perfect 1-away hand can end up not having pinfu because a set can
emerge in the hand.
There is one exception to this, however. If the floating tile leaves
a possibility of enhancing the hand value by at least three han, it is
OK to keep it instead of a safety tile. Consider the following hand.
Pinfu 3
ff !
Draw Dora
What would you discard?
Keeping ! is safer, but keeping leaves the possibilities of getting
ittsu and having dora, possibly at the same time. In this case, we
would rather discard !.
5.3. HOW TO GET PINFU 127
Building the head
To claim pinfu, the head must be a pair of number tiles or val-
ueless wind tiles. Therefore, try not to discard terminals or valueless
wind tiles lightly when having a pinfu hand. Keep this in mind espe-
cially when a hand is lacking any pair. Assuming you are the South
player in the 1st turn in East-1, consider the following hand.
Pinfu 4
ȷ a!$
What would you discard?
The hand has a potential to have pinfu, so we should not discard any
of ! at this point. All of these three tiles may appear useless,
but they can be the head of a pinfu hand when any of them grows
into a pair. On the other hand, the value tile $ cannot be the head
of pinfu. We should discard $ in this case.
128 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
5.4 How to get honitsu
Going for honitsu (Half Flush) can be a good way to achieve high
hand values. As we can combine honitsu with many other yaku,
including fanpai, toitoi, chanta (Outside Hand), ittsu, among
others,4 we can aim for mangan relatively easily. The fact that honitsu
is worth two han even when we open our hand means we can also
enhance the speed by melding without making our hand too cheap.
5.4.1 Conditions to go for honitsu
When judging whether to go for honitsu or not, we should con-
sider two factors — five-block potential and hand values with and
without honitsu.
- Five-block potential
The most important factor to consider is whether or not your hand
has five tile blocks or block candidates (i.e., floating tiles) necessary
for honitsu. Assuming you are the South player in the 6th turn in
East-1, consider the following hand.
Honitsu 1
fffflffl!%%
Would you go for honitsu?
In order to figure out if it is practical to pursue honitsu with this
hand, let’s apply the five-block method.
|{z} ff|{z} fflffl|{z} %%|{z} !|{z}
4 Technically speaking, honitsu can be combined with chiitoitsu, shousangen
(Little Three Dragons), honroutou (All Terminals and Honors), pinfu,
iipeiko, ryanpeiko, san ankou (Three Concealed Pungs), and san kantsu
(Three Kongs) as well.
5.4. HOW TO GET HONITSU 129
We can count on the two pairs of fanpai, fflffl and %%, to be two
tile blocks, a pair of and a protorun ff to be another two
blocks, yielding four blocks in total. In addition, we can reasonably
expect either of the two floating tiles ! to produce the fifth block.
Therefore, you can go for honitsu with this hand.
In addition, the tiles that are made redundant in the hand if we
choose honitsu are an isolated and a closed-wait protorun .
Keeping these tiles would not make this hand particularly more effi-
cient anyway, so we can go for honitsu without much hesitation.
Even when we have a side-wait protorun or a pair to discard, we
may still want to go for honitsu. For example, with the following
two hands, you should go for honitsu even though doing so means
you have to discard a side-wait protorun or a pair.
!###
ffl "% - Hand value
Another factor to consider is hand value comparison with and
without honitsu. If your hand does not have any yaku potential (e.g.,
pair or set of fanpai) other than honitsu, you may end up getting
a honitsu-only hand, which is very cheap (2000 or 2600 points). In
such situations, you should not aim for honitsu; you should try to
make the hand ready without melding and go for riichi. Assuming
you are the South player in East-1, consider the following hand.
130 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
Honitsu 2
ȷaa!!""
Would you go for honitsu?
Since West and North are both valueless wind tiles, this hand is likely
to become honitsu-only if you decide to go for honitsu. Although
this hand has five tile blocks necessary for honitsu, you should not
go for honitsu.
At the same time, when the hand value is sufficiently high (
- without honitsu, you should not go for honitsu at the cost of
tile efficiency. Assuming you are the South player in East-1, consider
the following hand.
Honitsu 3
Red
ff $$$! H
What would you discard?
This hand is worth 5200 points without honitsu (Seat Wind + Green
Dragon + red five), so you should discard ff to maintain a side &
side 1-away status. If were not your seat wind, you should go for
honitsu.
5.4. HOW TO GET HONITSU 131
5.4.2 Discard
When pursuing honitsu, pay attention to the order of your dis-
cards. Consider the following hand. You called pon on # just now,
deciding what to discard.
Honitsu 4
ȷ""% ##K
What would you discard?
You should pursue honitsu, so are your discard candidates.
You will discard all three of them eventually, but you should discard
them in a way that looks less obvious that you are collecting tiles in
manzu (cracks). If you discard first then next, the opponents
might (correctly) guess that you are doing honitsu with manzu tiles.
In particular, the Left player may stop discarding tiles in manzu that
you could call chii on. You should thus discard first then
next, so that the opponents cannot know if you are collecting manzu
or pinzu (dots). They will eventually find out that you are collecting
manzu, but you should delay that as much as possible.
132 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
5.4.3 Melding
When you start melding with a honitsu hand, try to leave the
possibility of achieving the maximum hand value. Assuming you
are the South player in the 6th turn in East-1, consider the following
hand.
Honitsu 5
!""$$
Which tile would you call?
With this hand, do not start melding with a chii of or a pon of
" if you are playing without red fives; you may end up with a very
cheap (2000 points) honitsu-only hand. Suppose you managed to
call pon on $, resulting in the following hand.
!"" $L$
Calling chii on or pon on " is still not ideal. The only melding
you should do is to call chii on to have the following hand.
!"" 3 $L$
Notice that the two floating tiles ! allow us to envision two
possibilities of getting a 7700 hand. On the one hand, if you draw
! or call pon on “, you get honitsu + Green Dragon + chanta
(Outside Hand), as follows.
!!”" 3 $L$
5.4. HOW TO GET HONITSU 133
! ““J 3 $L$
On the other hand, if you draw or , the hand will be ready
for honitsu + Green Dragon + ittsu.
”” 3 $L$
"" 3 $L$
134 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
5.5 How to get toitoi / chiitoitsu
5.5.1 Toitoi vs. chiitoitsu
When pursuing chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs), you may find your-
self standing at a crossroad between chiitoitsu and toitoi (All
Pungs). Specifically, what should we do when one of the pairs in
a 1-away chiitoitsu hand becomes a set? Assuming you are the
South player in the 6th turn in East-1, consider the following hand.
Toitoi vs. chiitoitsu
ffff a$$" Draw
What would you discard?
If we discard that we drew, the hand is 1-away from ready for
chiitoitsu, accepting a" (3 kinds–9 tiles). On the other hand,
if we keep it and discard a instead, the hand is still a 1-away chiitoitsu
hand, albeit with smaller tile acceptance. However, doing so makes
the hand also 2-away from ready for toitoi and possibly su anko
(Four Concealed Pungs).
Judgement criteria for a choice of this kind are summarized as fol-
lows.
Toitoi vs. chiitoitsu
Choose chiitoitsu in the following situations.
- There is a futile pair in your hand.
- There is no pair of value tiles in your hand.
- There are three or more pairs of simple tiles between 3 and
7 in your hand.
5.5. HOW TO GET TOITOI / CHIITOITSU 135
The first condition is by far the most important one. With the current
hand example, if the opponents have already discarded two tiles of
ff, the pair of ff in the hand is a futile pair (dead pair) that will
never become a set. If there is one or more futile pair in your hand,
you must stick with chiitoitsu. If not, you can go for toitoi.
In addition, you may also want to take into account the second
and the third conditions. Specifically, without having a pair of value
tiles (fanpai), you may end up with a toitoi-only hand (2600 or
even 2000 points). With one pair of value tiles, you can aim for 5200
with toitoi; with two pairs of them, you can aim for mangan.
The third factor to consider is whether there are not three or more
pairs of simple tiles between 3 and 7. Consider the following hand.
ȷffff##$%
Suppose you start melding by calling pon on #,5 then get another
pon on , resulting in the following hand.
ffff% * #K#
Since the remaining three pairs are all simple tiles between 3 and 7,
the hand advancement often stops here. Because of their high versa-
tility, simple tiles between 3 and 7 are very likely to be used by the
opponents.
5 Calling pon on # makes this 1-away chiitoitsu hand 2-away from ready for
toitoi. Doing so would be acceptable if the remaining pairs were not simple
tiles between 3 and 7.
136 CHAPTER 5. PURSUING YAKU
5.5.2 Standard hand vs. chiitoitsu
Another kind of crossroad is between chiitoitsu and standard
hand. Assuming you are the South player in the 6th turn in East-1,
consider the following hand.
Pinfu vs. chiitoitsu
ȷȷa""
Draw
What would you discard?
As we draw , we now have five pairs in the hand, making it 1-away
from ready for chiitoitsu. However, the hand is also 2-away from
ready if we interpret this hand as a standard hand.
When a hand has this many side-wait protoruns, it makes more
sense to view it as a standard hand rather than as a chiitoitsu hand.
To figure out what tile to discard, let’s apply the five-block method.
ȷȷ| {z }
2
|{z} |{z} a| {z } “”
Since we already have five tile blocks in simple tiles, the pair of " is
redundant. Discarding " means we are giving up on chiitoitsu,
but we are maximizing tile acceptance to make the hand ready for
tanyao as soon as possible. Doing so leaves a decent chance of getting
pinfu and iipeiko as well. The expected hand value will actually be
higher if we give up on chiitoitsu.
On the other hand, when a hand has few side-wait protoruns but
has several pairs, you should pursue a pair-based (set-based) hand
5.5. HOW TO GET TOITOI / CHIITOITSU 137
rather than a run-based hand. Assuming you are the South player in
the 6th turn in East-1, consider the following hand.
Run-based hand vs. set-based hand
ffl # #
Draw
What would you discard?
Although the hand has one side-wait protorun, we would not be very
happy if it were to evolve into a complete run; we may end up with a
very cheap hand with a bad wait. Alternatively, you should pursue
chiitoitsu or toitoi with a hand like this. Let’s apply the five-block
method to figure out what tile to discard.
|{z} |{z} |{z} ##|{z} ffl
Since we intend to build four blocks using the four pairs in the hand,
we only need one more block from the rest of the tiles: ffl .
Of these six tiles, ffl are clearly more valuable than others be-
cause of their low versatilities. On the other hand, are less
useful for you because these tiles have high versatility for the op-
ponents. We should discard or first, keeping just in case
we draw a red (in which case the hand is 1-away from ready for
chiitoitsu).
Part III
Strategy Principles
138
Chapter 6
Scoring
The scoring system in mahjong is quite complex. Getting profi-
ciency in score calculation requires a lot of practice. The good news
is that scoring is automatically done once you win a hand when you
play online. Even when you play offline, you can usually count on
your fellow players to help you get the correct score once you win a
hand.
However, you often need to calculate the (potential) scores of
your hand before you win the hand. This is because a lot of impor-
tant judgements you make during the game — riichi judgement, de-
fense judgement, and melding judgement, among others — depend
on the potential scores of your hand. Therefore, developing ability
to calculate the scores correctly and quickly without any help of oth-
ers is of utmost importance. I introduce some efficient methods of
score calculation in this chapter before we discuss riichi, defense, and
melding judgements in the subsequent chapters.
6.1 Three steps in score calculation
Every rule book of mahjong has comprehensive scoring tables
(similar to Tables 6.10 and 6.11 at the end of this chapter) that show
all possible scores for all possible minipoints (fu). Although such
tables are a good reference to have, it is not very efficient to try to
memorize everything in such tables.
A more practical approach would be to focus on a small number
of frequently observed patterns of scoring and memorize them cor-
rectly, while ignoring other, less important ones. Before introducing
6.1. THREE STEPS IN SCORE CALCULATION 141
some shortcuts to do efficient scoring, let’s first review the three re-
quired steps in score calculation, summarized in a box on the next
page.
Three steps in score calculation
Step 1: Count the number of han.
First, you need to figure out how many han a hand has. If
a hand has five or more han, skip Step 2 and go directly to
Step 3. If not, proceed to Step 2.
Step 2: Figure out the minipoints.
When a hand has four or less han, you then need to know
the hand’s minipoints. This does not mean, however, that
you always need to do some maths to get the correct mini-
points. We will discuss some practical shortcuts below.
Step 3: Get the score.
Based on the number of han (and possibly minipoints), you
get the score. You will have to memorize some score pat-
terns.
In the remainder of this chapter, I will first introduce basic meth-
ods of score calculation in Section 6.2. The basic methods involve
using some shortcuts in Step 2 above. Once you master the basic
methods, you will be able to calculate scores correctly most of the
time.1 When you master the contents of Section 6.2, you may skip
Section 6.3 and proceed to the next chapter. Section 6.3 covers more
advanced methods of score calculation, which would be necessary
1 In my impression, roughly 75 % of the hands we encounter can be covered by
the basic methods.
142 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
only in exceptional cases. This involves an exact calculation of mini-
points in Step 2 above.
6.2 Basic scoring
- Counting the number of han
Step 1 in score calculation is counting the number of han in a
hand. This is the most important part in score calculation, and there
is no useful shortcut here. You need to be able to identify all the yaku
in a hand as well as the associated han counts for each.
A good way to practice this is to try to beat the automatic score
counting on Tenhou. Whenever someone wins a hand, Tenhou dis-
plays all the yaku and the associated han counts one after another in
a few seconds. Try to identify all the yaku of your opponent’s hand
before they get displayed automatically.
Scores for limit hands
When a hand has five or more han, the hand is a limit hand.
Scores of limit hands do not depend on minipoints so we can go di-
rectly to Step 3. To get the score for a given han count, we utilize Table
6.1. This is something you need to memorize.
As you can see, there are some regularities and redundancies that
make it relatively easy to memorize this table. The most important
score of all is 8000 (mangan ron for non-dealer). This is the basis of
all the other scores in this table. For example, haneman scores are
1.5 times mangan scores, baiman scores are two times mangan scores,
sanbaiman scores are three times mangan scores,2 and yakuman scores
are four times mangan scores. In addition, scores for dealer are exactly
2 Since bai means “twice” or “double” in Japanese, baiman literally means dou-
ble mangan in Japanese. Similarly, sanbai means “triple,” so sanbaiman literally
means triple mangan.
6.2. BASIC SCORING 143
Table 6.1: Scores for limit hands
Han Name Ron Tsumo
Non-dealer Dealer Non-dealer Dealer
5 mangan 8000 12000 2000-4000 4000-all
6–7 haneman 12000 18000 3000-6000 6000-all
8–10 baiman 16000 24000 4000-8000 8000-all
11–12 sanbaiman 24000 36000 6000-12000 12000-all
13+∗ yakuman 32000 48000 8000-16000 16000-all
∗ A hand with 13+ han is scored as a sanbaiman with the revised EMA rules.
1.5 times the corresponding scores for non-dealer in all limit hands.
Finally, scores for tsumo (self draw) cases are simple and straight-
forward; the dealer pays one half of the total, and each of the two
non-dealers pays one fourth of the total. For example, in the case of
mangan tsumo (8000), the dealer pays 4000 and non-dealers pay 2000
each. - Figuring out the minipoints
When a hand has four or less han, you have to know the mini-
points. As I pointed out earlier, this does not mean that you always
have to count all the minipoint contributions from all the melds and
wait in a hand. Such a calculation is required only in special cases.
Instead, you can use the chart in Figure 6.1 that summarizes the six
most frequently observed patterns you need to memorize.
You can use this Figure as a flowchart. You first check if the hand
is a chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs) hand. If it is, it is always 25 minipoints.
If it is not, you then check if the hand has one or more quads (kongs).
If it does, the hand is out of the scope of the basic methods. Ask for
help from more experienced players after winning the hand. Ad-
vanced methods we discuss in Section 6.3 will cover this exceptional
144 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
Shortcut for minipoint calculation - chiitoitsu ) always 25 minipoints
- A hand has one or more quads ) Don’t bother.
- toitoi ) almost always 40 minipoints
- Pinfu
• ron ) always 30 minipoints
• tsumo ) always 20 minipoints - Closed hand without pinfu
• ron ) almost always 40 minipoints
• tsumo ) almost always 30 minipoints - Open hand ) almost always 30 minipoints
Figure 6.1: Six most observed patterns
case. Third, you check if the hand is toitoi (All Pungs).3 If it is, it’s
almost always 40 minipoints unless it is a tanyao toitoi hand that
is likely to have 30 minipoints.
Once you rule out the first three cases (chiitoitsu, quads, and
toitoi), the last three are the most important ones; the great major-
ity of hands you see will be one of these three. Here, you check two
things. First, check if it is a pinfu hand. If it is, it’s always 30 mini-
points (ron) or 20 minipoints (tsumo). If it is not pinfu, you then
check if it is a closed hand or an open hand. If it is a closed hand, it
3 Note that we are only talking about open toitoi here. A closed toitoi does
not require a minipoint calculation under any circumstance. If you win it by
tsumo, it’s yakuman (su anko; Four Concealed Pungs); if you win it by ron, it’s
at least mangan (toitoi and san anko).
6.2. BASIC SCORING 145
is almost always 40 minipoints (ron) or 30 minipoints (tsumo). If it
is an open hand, it is almost always 30 minipoints whether you win
it by ron or tsumo.
Because of the importance of the cases 4, 5, and 6 (pinfu, closed,
and open hand), we will first discuss these three cases. We will then
discuss cases 1 and 3 (chiitoitsu and toitoi), which are way more
exceptional.
What do we mean by “almost always”?
Before getting to score calculation, let me explain what we mean
when we say something is almost always X minipoints in cases 5 and
6 in Figure 6.1. With a non-toitoi hand without quads, check if the
hand has one or more concealed set of terminal/honor tiles or its
equivalent. Recall that one concealed set of terminal/honor tiles is
equivalent to two open sets of terminal/honor tiles or two concealed
sets of simple tiles in minipoints. Therefore, what we check is whether
a hand has any of the following:
• at least one concealed set of terminal/honor tiles;
• at least two open sets of terminal/honor tiles;
• one open set of terminal/honor tiles and one concealed set of
simples;
• at least two concealed sets of simples.
When none of the four above exists in a non-toitoi hand without
quads, a hand is always 40 minipoints if closed and always 30 mini-
points if open. Therefore, there is really no need of an actual calcu-
lation of minipoints with hands like the following.
a %M%
146 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
Gfflffl ?
ffa
With these hands, we can simply check if it is a closed hand or not to
determine if each hand has 40 minipoints (closed) or 30 minipoints
(open).
In addition, so-called “open pinfu” hands such as below 4 are
always 30 minipoints. This is one of the two exceptions to minipoint
calculation. For minipoint calculation, see Section 6.3.
a ?
On the other hand, if a hand satisfies any of the four conditions
above, we need to calculate the minipoints by actually counting and
summing all the minipoint contributions from all the melds, the head,
and the wait to determine the minipoints of a hand. We will discuss
this in Section 6.3. - Getting the scores
As Figure 6.1 makes clear, the case of 30 minipoints is the most
important pattern. We thus start with this pattern. We will then
proceed to the cases of 40, 20, and 25 minipoints.
30 minipoints
You get 30 minipoints when you get:
4 Of course, one cannot claim pinfu with an open hand. What we mean by “open
pinfu” here is that the hand shape satisfies the conditions for pinfu.
6.2. BASIC SCORING 147
• pinfu ron (always);
• closed hand tsumo (almost always); or
• open hand ron / tsumo (almost always).
Scores for 30 minipoints are summarized in Table 6.2.
Table 6.2: Scores for 30 minipoints
Han Ron Tsumo
Non-dealer Dealer Non-dealer Dealer
1 1000 1500 300-500 500-all
2 2000 2900 500-1000 1000-all
3 3900 5800 1000-2000 2000-all
4 7700 11600 2000-3900 3900-all
5+ limit hand
Compared with the limit hands table (Table 6.1), the regularities
in the 30 minipoints table are less precise. For example, scores for
dealer are only roughly 1.5 times those for non-dealer; tsumo scores
are sometimes slightly bigger than the corresponding ron scores. For
example, one-han tsumo (300-500) gives you 300 + 300 + 500 = 1100,
which is slightly bigger than one-han ron (1000).
Therefore, it would be more efficient if we just memorize these
patterns as they are, rather than trying to simplify them. Japanese
players tend to memorize Table 6.2 column-wise, as follows:
148 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
Scores for 30 minipoints
• ron (non-dealer): 10, 20, 39, 77
• ron (dealer): 15, 29, 58, 116
• tsumo (non-dealer): 3-5, 5-10, 10-20, 20-39
The benefit of memorizing this score table column-wise is that scores
get (roughly) twice as big for an additional han. Moreover, if we
memorize the tsumo scores for non-dealer, we can easily derive those
for dealer. When I was trying to memorize these, I used to recite these
sequences a number of times so that they get beaten into my head.
40 minipoints
You get 40 minipoints when you get:
• non-pinfu closed hand ron (almost always); or
• toitoi ron / tsumo (almost always).
Scores for 40 minipoints are summarized in Table 6.3.
Table 6.3: Scores for 40 minipoints
Han Ron Tsumo
Non-dealer Dealer Non-dealer Dealer
1 1300 2000 400-700 700-all
2 2600 3900 700-1300 1300-all
3 5200 7700 1300-2600 2600-all
4+ limit hand
Just like we did with scores for 30 minipoints, I recommend you
memorize this column-wise.
6.2. BASIC SCORING 149
Scores for 40 minipoints
• ron (non-dealer): 13, 26, 52, mangan
• ron (dealer): 20, 39, 77, mangan
• tsumo (non-dealer): 4-7, 7-13, 13-26, mangan
The good news is that the ron score sequence for non-dealer —13,
26, 52— is a geometric progression; 13 2 = 26, and 26 2 = 52.
Also, the ron scores for dealer —20, 39, 77— should look familiar to
you if you have already memorized the 30 minipoints ron scores for
non-dealer —10, 20, 39, 77.
20 minipoints (pinfu tsumo)
Scores for 20 minipoints are summarized in Table 6.4. This table is
special in the sense that it does not have the ron score component
nor the one-han row. This is because you get 20 minipoints only
when you get pinfu + tsumo (hence we have at least two han). Even
though this is a special case, pinfu + tsumo is far from a rare occur-
rence. It is thus important to know how to get the correct scores for
this case.
Table 6.4: Scores for 20 minipoints
Han Tsumo
Non-dealer Dealer
2 400-700 700-all
3 700-1300 1300-all
4 1300-2600 2600-all
5+ limit hand
Notice that there is an interesting similarity between the 20 mini-
150 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
points table (Table 6.4) and the 40 minipoints table (Table 6.3). The
scoring patterns are almost identical, except that the required num-
ber of han to get a certain score is one han smaller for 40 minipoints
than for 20 minipoints; that is, to get 400-700, we need 2 han with 20
minipoints, whereas we only need 1 han with 40 minipoints.
This is not a coincidence. In general, when we double the mini-
points, we need one less han to get the same score. For example, a
3 han–30 minipoints hand and a 2 han–60 minipoints hand have the
same score (3900 for non-dealer; 5800 for dealer); a 2 han–25 mini-
points hand and a 1 han–50 minipoints hand have the same score
(1600 for non-dealer; 2400 for dealer). Therefore, once you memo-
rize scores for 30 minipoints, we can easily deduce scores for hands
with 60 minipoints. Similarly, we can deduce scores for hands with
50 or 80 minipoints once we memorize scores for 25 or 40 minipoints,
respectively.
25 minipoints (chiitoitsu)
The final case we cover as part of the basic scoring is scores for a
chiitoitsu hand. As chiitoitsu is a rather exceptional yaku, it is
given exceptional minipoints — 25 minipoints. Scores for 25 mini-
points are summarized in Table 6.5.
Table 6.5: Scores for 25 minipoints
Han Ron Tsumo
Non-dealer Dealer Non-dealer Dealer
2 1600 2400
3 3200 4800 800-1600 1600-all
4 6400 9600 1600-3200 3200-all
5+ limit hand
6.2. BASIC SCORING 151
Since chiitoitsu is itself a two-han yaku, the scoring table only
starts with two han for ron and three han for tsumo. Again, we mem-
orize this table column-wise.
Scores for 25 minipoints
• ron (non-dealer): 16, 32, 64, mangan
• ron (dealer): 24, 48, 96, mangan
• tsumo (non-dealer): 8-16, 16-32, mangan
All the sequences are a geometric progression, making it rela-
tively easy to memorize.
Practice, practice, practice
This completes the basic methods of score calculation. Memoriz-
ing all the scores for limit hands as well as the cases of 30, 40, 20, and
25 minipoints should be more than enough. Of course, no one will
be able to master this method just by reading and understanding the
materials in this chapter. You would need to actually practice what
you have learned, and you will have to do so repeatedly.
152 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
bababababababababababababababab
Notes on pinfu tsumo
One of the common mistakes that beginners tend to make is to
claim 1000-2000 for riichi + pinfu + tsumo (mistaking 3 han–
20 minipoints for 3 han–30 minipoints) or claim mangan for ri-
ichi + pinfu + tsumo + dora (mistaking 4 han–20 minipoints for
4 han–40 minipoints). If you have trouble wrapping your head
around why pinfu + tsumo hands are given lower minipoints,
knowing the origin of this rule might be helpful.
The yaku pinfu is realized when a hand has no component that
generates an additional minipoint. A pinfu hand cannot have a
set, edge wait, closed wait, single wait, or a pair of value tiles be-
cause they all generate an additional minipoint. Recall that tsumo
also generates 2 minipoints. Therefore, logically speaking, pinfu
cannot be claimed when you win it by tsumo. In fact, some tradi-
tional mahjong rule sets do not allow a combination of pinfu and
tsumo. Under such rule sets, when you win a pinfu-only hand
by tsumo, you are allowed to claim tsumo only, giving you 1 han–
30 minipoints (20 base minipoints + 2 minipoints for tsumo = 22,
rounded up to 30 minipoints), which gives you 300-500.
However, some people thought that this is a bit unfair, claiming
that a pinfu tsumo hand should be given a higher score than a
tsumo-only hand. At the same time, they recognized that the score
for pinfu + tsumo should be lower than that for a “proper” 2-
han tsumo hand (e.g., tanyao + tsumo). Therefore, they decided
that pinfu + tsumo should be placed in between these two —
1 han–30 minipoints (tsumo only; 300-500) and 2 han–30 mini-
points (tanyao + tsumo; 500-1000) — giving it the score of 400- - Therefore, the score for riichi + pinfu + tsumo (3 han–20
minipoints; 700-1300) is higher than riichi + tsumo (2 han–30 mini-
points; 500-1000) but lower than riichi + tanyao + tsumo (3 han–
30 minipoints; 1000-2000).
6.3. ADVANCED SCORING 153
6.3 Advanced scoring
As I mentioned in the previous section, a hand with one or more
concealed set of terminal/honor tiles (or its equivalent) or quads
may have unusually high minipoints, calling for an actual calcula-
tion of minipoints.
6.3.1 Minipoint calculation
Let’s first review the basics of minipoint calculations. All stan-
dard hands (i.e., hands with melds) have the base 20 minipoints.
Then, we add the following minipoints depending on how we win
the hand:5
• tsumo (open or closed, except for pinfu): 2
• ron (closed): 10
• ron (open): 0
We add further minipoints for each set and quad in a hand depend-
ing on whether it is a concealed one or an open one. Table 6.6 sum-
marizes minipoint contributions from a set and a quad.
Table 6.6: Minipoint contributions from a set and a quad
Tile Minipoint
Open Concealed
set simple 2 4
terminal/honor 4 8
quad simple 8 16
terminal/honor 16 32
5 As mentioned, there are two exceptions to this calculation rule. First, it is de-
cided that pinfu tsumo is always 20 minipoints. Second, the so-called “open
pinfu hand is always 30 minipoints whether ron or tsumo.
154 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
Finally, we add 2 minipoints for each of the following, if any.
• Pair of dragon tiles
• Pair of seat wind tiles
• Pair of prevailing wind tiles
• Closed, edge, or single wait
When the head of a hand is of seat wind and prevailing wind
(e.g., ffl for the East player in the East round), we get 2 + 2 = 4 mini-
points.6 If the wait is either side wait or dual pon wait, we don’t get
any minipoint for it. As we saw when we discussed wait patterns
in 3.4, we may get different minipoints depending on which of the
multiple winning tiles to win on. For example, consider the follow-
ing hand.
ȷ%%% +
The hand is waiting for -. If we win by ron on , we get no
minipoints for the wait and so this hand has 30 minipoints (base 20
- 8 for a concealed set of honors + 2 for an open set of simple = 30).
However, if we win this hand on , we get additional 2 minipoints
for closed wait. This is because ȷ can be thought of as
+ ȷ. Therefore, the hand has 40 minipoints in that case
(30 + 2 = 32, rounded up to 40).
6.3.2 Scores for 50 minipoints or above
When a hand has one or more concealed set of honor tiles, the
hand may have 50 minipoints or above. You may want to memorize
6 This is the case with EMA rules and Tenhou rules, but this is not a universally
adopted rule.
6.3. ADVANCED SCORING 155
the case of 50 minipoints, summarized below. If you are a perfection-
ist, you may also want to memorize the cases of 70 and 110 minipoints
as well, but I can assure you that it would not be worth the effort.
50 minipoints
Scores for 50 minipoints are quite easy to memorize if you have al-
ready memorized scores for 25 minipoints (chiitoitsu), summa-
rized in 6.5. Recall that the score for a 1 han–50 minipoints hand
should be the same as that for a 2 han–25 minipoints hand.
Table 6.7: Scores for 50 minipoints
Han Ron Tsumo
Non-dealer Dealer Non-dealer Dealer
1 1600 2400 400-800 800-all
2 3200 4800 800-1600 1600-all
3 6400 9600 1600-3200 3200-all
4+ limit hand
70 minipoints
Hands with 70 minipoints do not appear very often (probably once
in 20 games or so). Table 6.8 summarizes scores for 70 minipoints.
If you would like to memorize the table, notice that it is sequential
(until the end): 23 (non-delaer) ! 34 (dealer) ! 45 (non-dealer) !
68 (dealer).
110 minipoints
For the sake of completeness, Table 6.9 summarizes scores for 110
minipoints.
156 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
Table 6.8: Scores for 70 minipoints
Han Ron Tsumo
Non-dealer Dealer Non-dealer Dealer
1 2300 3400 600-1200 1200-all
2 4500 6800 1200-2300 2300-all
3+ limit hand
Table 6.9: Scores for 110 minipoints
Han Ron Tsumo
Non-dealer Dealer Non-dealer Dealer
1 3600 5300 — —
2 7100 10600 1800-3600 3600-all
3+ limit hand
110 minipoints occur only in extremely rare occasions. Consider
the following hand.
fflffl%% ffiffi ffi ffi
Suppose you are in the East round. If the dealer wins this hand by
ron on %, he gets 20 (base) + 10 (closed hand ron) + 4 (pair of seat &
prevailing wind tiles) + 4 (open set of honors) + 32 (concealed quad
of terminals) + 32 (concealed quad of terminals) = 102, rounded up
to 110 minipoints. The score for 1 han–110 minipoints is 5300.
If he wins by ron on ffl, on the other hand, he gets more han
(set of seat & prevailing wind) but lower minipoints. This is because
the minipoint contribution of the pair of % (2) is smaller than that
of the pair of ffl (4). Since the score of 2 han–100 minipoints hand is
the same as that of 3 han–50 minipoints hand, he obtains 9600 points.
6.3. ADVANCED SCORING 157
6.3.3 Examples
Let’s see how scores change as we advance a hand. For each of
the examples below, try calculating the scores for different winning
tiles and for tsumo and ron.
Scoring 1
%%%
What are the scores?
If you win this hand by ron, the hand has 1 han (Red Dragon) and
40 minipoints: 20 (base) + 10 (closed hand ron) + 8 (concealed set
of honors) = 38, rounded up to 40, so you get 1300 points.
If you win it by drawing , the hand has an additional yaku,
menzen tsumo (Fully Concealed Hand), with 30 minipoints: 20 + 8 - 2 (tsumo) = 30. You thus get 500-1000 tsumo = 2000 points.
However, if you win it by drawing , you get 40 minipoints be-
cause of the additional 2 minipoints for
closed wait: . You thus get 700-1300 tsumo = 2700 points.
Let’s say you draw . What would you discard?
%%% Draw
If you discard , the wait is - (2 kinds–7 tiles). If you discard
, however, you get a 3-way wait: - (3 kinds–7 tiles). Let’s
say you choose the latter, resulting in the following hand. Now, let’s
think about the scores for each winning tile.
158 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
Scoring 2
%%%
What are the scores?
If you win this hand on , the hand is still 1 han–40 minipoints =
- However, if you win on or , the three tiles of within
the hand are treated as a concealed set, giving you 4 additional mini-
points: 20 (base) + 10 (closed ron) + 8 (set of %) + 4 (set of ) =
42, rounded up to 50 minipoints. You thus get 1 han–50 minipoints
= 1600 points. If you win by tsumo, you get 40 minipoints so you will
get 700-1300 = 2700 points.
Let’s say you draw . What would you discard?
%%% Draw
If you discard , the wait is -. Let’s think about the scores for
each winning tile.
Scoring 3
%%%
What are the scores?
If you win the hand by ron on , you get an additional yaku, iipeiko
(Pure Double Chow), giving you 2 han–40 minipoints = 2600 points.
If you win the hand by tsumo, the minipoints are now lower than
before because you have side wait and only one concealed set; we
6.3. ADVANCED SCORING 159
cannot think of the three tiles of as a set any more. You get 2 han–
30 minipoints if you draw (500-1000 tsumo = 2000), whereas you
get 3 han–30 minipoints if you draw (1000-2000 tsumo = 4000).
Let’s say you draw . What would you discard?
%%% Draw
Discarding is the best option. To understand why, let’s think about
the scores.
Scoring 4
%%%
What are the scores?
Notice that the wait and the potential han counts did not change at
all. However, you get increased minipoints because you now have
the concealed set of back again. You will get 2 han–50 minipoints
= 3200 points if you win by ron on . If you draw , you will get
3 han–40 minipoints, giving you 1300-2600 tsumo = 5200 points.
Let’s say you draw another . What would you discard?
%%% Draw
The best discard is , which makes this hand a toitoi (All Pungs)
hand, as follows.
160 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
Scoring 5
%%%
What are the scores?
The hand has three concealed sets already, giving you at least san
anko (Three Concealed Pungs) in addition to toitoi and Red Dragon.
Now you no longer need any tedious minipoints calculation. If you
win this hand by tsumo, it is yakuman (su anko; Four Concealed Pungs).
If you win it by ron, you get five han (toitoi, san anko, and Red
Dragon); it is mangan regardless of minipoints.
6.4. SCORING TABLES 161
6.4 Scoring tables
Table 6.10: Scores for non-dealer
Minipoints 1 han 2 han 3 han 4 han
20 — — — —
— (400-700) (700-1300) (1300-2600)
25 — 1600 3200 6400
— — (800-1600) (1600-3200)
30 1000 2000 3900 7700
(300-500) (500-1000) (1000-2000) (2000-3900)
40 1300 2600 5200 8000
(400-700) (700-1300) (1300-2600) (2000-4000)
50 1600 3200 6400 8000
(400-800) (800-1600) (1600-3200) (2000-4000)
60 2000 3900 7700 8000
(500-1000) (1000-2000) (2000-3900) (2000-4000)
70 2300 4500 8000 8000
(600-1200) (1200-2300) (2000-4000) (2000-4000)
80 2600 5200 8000 8000
(700-1300) (1300-2600) (2000-4000) (2000-4000)
90 2900 5800 8000 8000
(800-1500) (1500-2900) (2000-4000) (2000-4000)
100 3200 6400 8000 8000
(800-1600) (1600-3200) (2000-4000) (2000-4000)
110 3600 7100 8000 8000
— (1800-3600) (2000-4000) (2000-4000)
Note: Numbers in parentheses are tsumo scores.
162 CHAPTER 6. SCORING
Table 6.11: Scores for dealer
Minipoints 1 han 2 han 3 han 4 han
20 — — — —
— (700) (1300) (2600)
25 — 2400 4800 9600
— — (1600) (3200)
30 1500 2900 5800 11600
(500) (1000) (2000) (3900)
40 2000 3900 7700 12000
(700) (1300) (2600) (4000)
50 2400 4800 9600 12000
(800) (1600) (3200) (4000)
60 2900 5800 11600 12000
(1000) (2000) (3900) (4000)
70 3400 6800 12000 12000
(1200) (2300) (4000) (4000)
80 3900 7700 12000 12000
(1300) (2600) (4000) (4000)
90 4400 8700 12000 12000
(1500) (2900) (4000) (4000)
100 4800 9600 12000 12000
(1600) (3200) (4000) (4000)
110 5300 10600 12000 12000
— (3600) (4000) (4000)
Note: Numbers in parentheses are tsumo scores.
Chapter 7
Riichi judgement
7.1 To riichi or not to riichi?
Riichi is a really powerful tool in riichi mahjong. Once you riichi,
the opponents would have to slow down their attacks or even com-
pletely fold to avoid dealing into your hand. Therefore, one of our
top priorities in playing riichi mahjong is to try to make the hand
ready as fast as possible and call riichi before anyone else does.
At the same time, however, there are situations where you should
keep dama (i.e., not calling riichi when having a closed ready hand).
If you have played mahjong long enough, you must have come across
many instances where you wondered if you should call riichi or keep
dama. Knowing when to call riichi is one of the most fundamental
elements of mahjong strategies, yet it appears this is not very well
understood among European players. Let’s first review the pros and
cons of calling riichi.
Obvious downsides of calling riichi can be summarized as fol-
lows.
Demerits of riichi
• You have to pay 1000 points as a riichi bet.
• The opponents may play defense and may not discard your
winning tiles that they would otherwise discard.
• You cannot change your hand any more; you cannot play
defense nor improve the wait / scores.
However, there are many more upsides as well.
164 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
Merits of riichi
• You get one yaku to win.
• You can expect to increase the score with ippatsu and ura
dora.
• The opponents may completely fold or play more defen-
sively than otherwise. As a result, the opponents may fail
to make their hand ready, in which case:
– you will have more opportunities to draw tiles;
– you are less likely to deal into the opponents.
• When your previous discards make it look that your win-
ning tile is safe, riichi may actually increase the chance that
the opponents discard your winning tile.
Comparing these pros and cons, it should be evident that calling ri-
ichi is a low-risk & high-return offense tactic. Moreover, riichi could
also work as a defense tactic. If you riichi before the opponents do,
it may prevent them from building a ready hand, which obviously
reduces your chance of dealing into their hand. Although calling ri-
ichi means that you can no longer play defensively by choosing safe
tiles to discard, it poses less of a problem if your defensive skills are
not very good.
Riichi judgement criteria I recommend are summarized as fol-
lows.
7.1. TO RIICHI OR NOT TO RIICHI? 165
Riichi judgement
Choose riichi over dama if at least one of the following three con-
ditions is met. - Your hand has at least one han other than riichi.
- Your hand has a good wait.
- You are the dealer.
This means that you should call riichi if
• your hand has a bad wait but has one han or more (including
dora) other than riichi;
• your hand is riichi-only but with a good wait, or;
• your hand is riichi-only with a bad wait, but you are the dealer.
In other words, the only type of riichi that these criteria prohibit is a
bad-wait riichi-only hand by a non-dealer.
166 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
7.2 Insta-riichi
Keep in mind that, when you call riichi you should do so immedi-
ately when your hand becomes ready (insta-riichi). There is usually
no point in waiting for a few turns to have the “right” moment to
riichi.
Let me describe a few frequently seen examples where you should
do insta-riichi. In all the examples that follow, we assume that you
are the South player in the 6th turn in East-1.
7.2.1 Examples of insta-riichi
Pinfu-only hand
ff a "
Dora
You should do insta-riichi with a pinfu-only hand. It is true that this
hand will have tanyao if you draw ȷ and discard , but waiting for
that to happen is simply inefficient. Even after you replace with
ȷ, you will lose tanyao anyway if you win the hand on . Getting
either ippatsu or one ura dora has a much higher probability than
drawing ȷ first and then winning on .
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Bad wait, one dora
ȷ"""! Dora
Since this hand has one dora, you should do insta-riichi. Do not shy
away from riichi even with closed-wait or edge-wait hands. It is true
7.2. INSTA-RIICHI 167
that the wait can be improved with as many as four kinds of tiles
(), but drawing one of those would take about eight more
turns, on average.1 Since this is a yaku-less hand, you cannot win
it by ron while waiting in dama. Moreover, even when the wait gets
improved, this hand will never become pinfu anyway, so the score
will not be improved.
) Insta-riichi, discarding ! !
1-away from sanshoku
Red
ȷa ""ffl
Dora
It is true that there are some tiles that can improve the scores and/or
the wait of this hand. For example, if you draw , the hand will
have sanshoku (Mixed Triple Chow). If you draw any of ,
the hand will have pinfu. However, since the hand already has one
han (red five), you should do insta-riichi.
) Insta-riichi, discarding ffl !
Unconfirmed sanshoku
"Dora
You would want to win this hand on (rather than on ) so that
you can claim sanshoku. However, waiting for without riichi is
absurd. The worst case scenario is to draw while waiting in dama,
1 This rough calculation is based on an assumption that the probability of draw-
ing an arbitrary tile is 1
34 = about 3%.
168 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
in which case you only get 400-700. If you riichi and draw , you
will get at least 700-1300. With one ura dora or ippatsu you will get
1300-2600.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Riichi-only hand
ff a ## "
Dora
This hand has no yaku or dora, but the wait is good. You can do
insta-riichi with a riichi-only hand as long as the hand has a good
wait.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Waiting for dora
a Dora
You should do insta-riichi even when waiting for dora.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
When you wonder whether or not you should riichi in a given situa-
tion, choose riichi. You will be correct most of the time.
7.2.2 Good wait vs. high scores
We have discussed in previous chapters the difficult tradeoff we
face between speed (tile efficiency) and high scores. In riichi judge-
ment, this tradeoff manifests itself as a choice between (a) having a
7.2. INSTA-RIICHI 169
good wait with lower scores and (b) pursuing higher scores with a
bad wait.
In the following examples, there are more than one discard candi-
dates to make the hand ready. I will discuss how to take a balance of
tile efficiency and hand value in calling riichi. Again, we will assume
that you are the South player in the 6th turn in East-1.
Cheap hand
ff a## "
Dora
Calling riichi by discarding makes for a good wait (-; 2 kinds–
8 tiles), but the hand becomes riichi-only. On the other hand, calling
riichi by discarding leaves the possibility that the hand has an ad-
ditional yaku (White Dragon), although the wait is not as good (
#; 2 kinds–4 tiles). Which one should we choose?
In cases like this, you should aim for high scores by discarding .
Discarding and winning on # would double the hand value (ri-
ichi + White Dragon = 2600 versus riichi-only = 1300), but the prob-
ability of winning on # would not shrink below half of the proba-
bility of winning on -.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Here is a simple rule of thumb: when the minimum (guaranteed)
hand value is below 5200 (when won by ron), you should value
scores over wait. When the minimum hand value is 5200 or above,
you should value wait over scores. We use 5200 as a cut-point be-
cause an additional han (roughly) doubles the hand value until it
reaches 5200.
170 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
More expensive hand
ff a##
Dora
This hand has one dora, but the minimum hand value is still be-
low 5200 (riichi + dora = 2600). Therefore, again, you should value
scores over wait.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Expensive hand
ff ###$$
Dora
With this hand, calling riichi guarantees 5200 (riichi + White Dragon
- one dora). Therefore, you should value wait over scores this time.
It goes without saying that riichi is better than going dama.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Good wait vs. sanshoku
aa "
Dora
Calling riichi by discarding gives you riichi-only with a good wait,
whereas calling riichi by discarding gives you riichi + sanshoku
with a bad wait. Since riichi-only is short of 5200, you should value
scores over wait.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
7.2. INSTA-RIICHI 171
Good wait vs. ittsu
ȷff "Dora
Calling riichi by discarding gives you only riichi + pinfu with a
good wait, whereas calling riichi by discarding gives you riichi - ittsu with a bad wait. Since riichi + pinfu is short of 5200, you
should value scores over wait.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Expensive pinfu hand
Red Red
ȷffff "
Dora
Discarding ff would give you a dama mangan hand with a bad wait.
That is not too bad, but it is much better to riichi by discarding
(riichi + pinfu + two red fives = 7700 with a very good wait).
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Let’s summarize what we have learned so far.
Good wait or high scores?
• Scores are more important than wait
when the minimum hand value is < 5200.
• Wait is more important than scores
when the minimum hand value is 5200.
172 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
7.2.3 Chiitoitsu waiting for dora
We will discuss riichi criteria for a chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs) hand
in this and the next sections.
Chiitoitsu 1
%%$$
Dora
You should not shy away from riichi with a chiitoitsu hand, es-
pecially when waiting for dora. Since dora of is something your
opponents wouldn’t lightly discard even if you keep dama, the chance
of winning this hand by ron is not very high anyway. Therefore, you
would rather riichi and aim to improve the score.
A two-dora chiitoitsu hand can be a game-deciding hand that
secures you the first place in a game. If you tsumo after riichi, it is at
least haneman and it can easily be baiman with ura dora (ura dora
always come in pairs with a chiitoitsu hand). Even when you win
by ron, it will be haneman with either ura dora or ippatsu.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Chiitoitsu 2
!%%$$ !
Dora
Dora in this example is a value-less wind tile, which may be easily
discarded by your opponents if you keep dama. Nevertheless, you
should still do insta-riichi by discarding . Aim for haneman or
baiman rather than being content with 6400.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
7.2. INSTA-RIICHI 173
Riichi criteria for chiitoitsu hands waiting for dora are really sim-
ple.
Riichi judgement for chiitoitsu
Riichi any chiitoitsu hand if waiting for dora!
7.2.4 Chiitoitsu not waiting for dora
Riichi criteria for chiitoitsu hands get a bit more complicated
when you are not waiting for dora, summarized as follows.
Riichi judgement for chiitoitsu
Do insta-riichi with chiitoitsu (not waiting for dora) if one or
more of the following holds:
• You are the dealer;
• You have tanyao;
• You have one red five, waiting for a regular five;
• The wait is a suji-trap wait;a
• The wait is any tile other than 4, 5, 6;
• The score without riichi is below mangan.
a An example of a suji-trap wait is: you are waiting for a 3, and a 6 in the
same suit is among your discards. See Chapter 8.
This means that the only two cases where you should go dama are (a)
when you are a non-dealer and you are waiting for 4,5,6, and (b) you
have honitsu (Half Flush) or chinitsu (Full Flush) chiitoitsu.2
2 It is also (theoretically) possible to have tsu iso (All Honors) chiitoitsu. Do
whatever you want with such a once-in-lifetime hand. I would riichi.
174 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
The criteria do not change when your hand already has two dora
and waits for a non-dora tile.
Chiitoitsu 3
!!$$ "Dora
If you make the hand ready for chiitoitsu, you will be waiting for
, a non-4,5,6 tile. riichi is better than dama in this case.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Chiitoitsu 4
ȷaa "
Dora
Waiting for a 6 is not ideal, but having tanyao justifies riichi. Aim for
6400 ron or mangan tsumo.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
Chiitoitsu 5
Red
%%$$ "
Dora
Likewise, waiting for a 5 is not ideal, but having a red five justifies
riichi.
) Insta-riichi, discarding !
7.2. INSTA-RIICHI 175
Chiitoitsu 6
a $$## "
Dora
Since you can get mangan ron or haneman tsumo without riichi, you
should keep dama with this hand (discard a).
Chiitoitsu 7
ȷ$$ "
Dora
With this hand, you should keep dama unless you are the dealer.
However, if you have already discarded & or & a, mak-
ing for a suji-trap wait, you can call riichi. You can also call riichi if
your wait is “cheap” in the board (more on this in the next section).
Why should we refrain from calling riichi with a single wait of
4, 5, 6? Because of the differences in versatility,3 some tiles make for
a better single wait than others. Specifically, valueless wind tiles are
the best candidate for a single wait, followed by value tiles, terminals
(1s and 9s), and then simple tiles. Among simple tiles, 2s and 8s are
better than 3s and 7s, and 4,5,6 tiles make for the worst kind of single
wait.
Since having 4,5,6 tiles is crucial to utilize red fives, your oppo-
nents are not very likely to discard them. Moreover, single waits of 4,
5, 6 are less likely to become a suji-trap wait before or after calling
riichi, compared with single waits of 1,2,3,7,8,9. A single wait of 4
requires both 1 and 7 to be discarded to become a suji-trap wait. A
single wait of 1, on the other hand, only requires 4 to be discarded.
3 Recall our discussions of tile versatility on in Section 3.2.4.
176 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
7.3 When not to riichi
Keeping a hand dama for no reason is one of the two biggest sins
in riichi mahjong (the other will be introduced in Chapter 9). Do not
ever do meaningless dama. To put it the other way around, it is OK
to keep dama if there is a reason to do so.
That said, there are not many instances where going dama is better
than calling riichi. It is thus useful to memorize all these exceptional
cases; then you should call riichi in all other instances. Here is a list
of five situations where dama is justifiable.
Reasons to keep dama
7.3.1 Bad wait and no dora 7.3.2 In the lead
7.3.3 Genbutsu wait 7.3.4 Expensive hand
7.3.5 Many possibilities of improving the hand
7.3.1 Bad wait
It is OK to go dama if the wait of your hand is really bad, especially
when your hand has at least one yaku without riichi so you can win
it by ron. The question then is, what is a really bad wait? The answer
depends on three things:
- the kinds and the number of winning tiles left;
- whether your wait is “expensive” according to your reading of
the board; and - whether your wait is likely to appear safe in the eyes of your
opponents.
7.3. WHEN NOT TO RIICHI 177 - The number of winning tiles left
The first factor to consider is the pure number of winning tiles
of your hand. The more tiles you can win on, the better the wait is.
Table 7.1 provides a list of representative waits (roughly) in the order
of desirability.
Table 7.1: Typical wait patterns
Name Example Wait Kinds & Number
side wait - 2 kinds–8 tiles
semi side wait - 2 kinds–6 tiles
stretched single - 2 kinds–6 tiles
dual pon wait 2 kinds–4 tiles
closed wait 1 kind–4 tiles
edge wait 1 kind–4 tiles
single wait 1 kind–3 tiles
In general, a wait is said to be good if there are at least two kinds
and more than four tiles left to win on. Therefore, dual pon wait,
closed wait, edge wait, and single wait are generally considered to
be bad waits.
In counting the kinds and the number of winning tiles for your
hand, keep in mind that you have to count the kinds and the number
of live tiles to win on. For example, if your opponents have already
discarded all the four tiles of somehow, a side wait of - es-
sentially becomes an edge wait of , leaving only 1 kind–4 tiles to
win on.
178 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT - Cheap / expensive waits
However, this is only a part of the picture. When judging whether
your wait is good enough, you should also take into account the sec-
ond factor; namely, whether or not your winning tiles are likely to
be used by other players in their hands. As we learned in discussing
chiitoitsu hands, middle simple tiles 4, 5, and 6 generally have a
high chance of being used by the opponents.
Judging whether certain tiles are likely to be used by the oppo-
nents also involves a bit of board reading. If your opponents have
already discarded a lot of tiles in souzu (bamboos), for example, we
say that souzu are “cheap” in the board. Cheap waits are good waits.
Suppose three or more of have already been discarded by your op-
ponents. In such situations, an edge wait of is not bad at all. This
is because the paucity of makes it rather difficult for anyone to
utilize in their hand. There is also a good chance that tiles are
live in the wall. Even when an opponent draws after you riichi,
they will have difficulty utilizing it in their hand; they have to either
discard or completely fold.
Applying the same logic, we can see why honor tiles make for a
good wait. For example, suppose % had already been discarded and
you now have a pair of % in your hand. Then, the opponents will
have difficulty utilizing the last % when they draw it. In a situation
like this, a dual pon wait of % (and another tile) is almost as good
as a side wait, despite the fact that the number of tiles to win on is
smaller.
On the other hand, when tiles in one suit are not being discarded
as much as those in the other two suits, that suit is being “expensive”
in the board. For example, suppose one or more opponents are pur-
7.3. WHEN NOT TO RIICHI 179
suing a flush hand (i.e., honitsu / chinitsu) in souzu. Then, even a
side wait of - can be bad. - Trap waits
The third factor you may want to consider is whether your wait
would appear safe in the eyes of your opponents. For example, when
you have a closed wait of and you have already discarded ,
there is a good chance that your opponent is tricked into thinking
that is safe. This is called a suji-trap wait (see Chapter 8). For
another example, suppose someone has a concealed quad of when
you happen to have a dual pon wait of and something else. Then,
the opponents may think that may be safe to discard even when
it is not.
That being said, reading the board requires some experience, and
reading the opponents’ thought is even more difficult. You may want
to concentrate more on advancing your own hand rather than spend-
ing too much time trying to read the board. Just keep in mind that
having a pair/closed/edge/single wait does not automatically mean
that the wait is bad. Here is a rule of thumb to simplify your decision
making.
A reason to keep dama: bad wait
• Call riichi if there are three or more winning tiles left in the
board.
• Go dama if there are only one or two simple tiles left to win
on.a
a When waiting for an honor/terminal tile, you can call riichi even when
only one tile is left in the board.
180 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
7.3.2 In the lead
The second case where going dama may be preferred to riichi is
when you are ahead of the game by much, and you just want to pro-
ceed to the next hand or finish the game while keeping your leading
position. This is especially the case towards the end of the South
round. For example, let’s say you are in South-4 and the scores are
as follows:
East (you) 39000 South 22900
West 13000 North 25100
You are currently in a safe lead because even the second ranked
player (North) cannot defeat you with a mangan tsumo. You can se-
cure your position even if you deal into a mangan hand by the South
or the West players. However, if you riichi, the North player can now
get the first place with a mangan tsumo, and the South player can get
the first place with a direct hit mangan ron from you. Do not run such
risks by calling riichi. Even when you get a ready hand with a really
good wait, you must go dama. For more discussions of what to do in
South-4, see Chapter 10.
7.3.3 Genbutsu wait
The third case where going dama is OK is when another player is
already getting a lot of attention from others (e.g., riichi, dora pon, or
honitsu) and one of your winning tiles is among his genbutsu tiles.
One player’s genbutsu tiles are all the tiles discarded by that player
and the tiles that are passed up by that player.4
For example, suppose the dealer has the following hand and dis-
cards in East-1.
4 See Section 8.2.1 for a more detailed explanation.
7.3. WHEN NOT TO RIICHI 181
Discards
!
ffiffiffiffi K## E fflfflG
Dora
This is a confirmed 7700 hand (seat & prevailing wind + White Dragon),
and the hand value can easily go up to haneman (18000) or baiman
(24000).5 In such a situation, everybody will be paying attention
to the dealer (as they should). Suppose further that you manage
to make your hand ready for pinfu, waiting for -. Then, you
should keep the hand dama, as is one of the dealer’s genbutsu
tiles. There is a good chance that the other two players fold against
the dealer completely and try to discard nothing but his genbutsu
tiles.
Keep in mind, though, that there is a bad kind of attention as well.
For example, suppose someone is doing the following.
ffi @ %%M 1 6
Suppose further he has already discarded dora. Then, he is getting
a lot of attention, but no one really cares about him, let alone folds
against him. In such a situation, you should call riichi even when
your winning tiles are among his genbutsu. Punish a player who
makes bad calls like this.
5 The hand can have (a combination of) the following yaku in addition to
what’s already visible: toitoi (All Pungs), Green Dragon, Red Dragon,
dora, honitsu, honroutou (All Terminals and Honors), and shousangen (Lit-
tle Three Dragons). With this hand, the maximum possible hand value is
sanbaiman (36000).
182 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
7.3.4 High scoring hand
When your hand is already expensive without riichi (minimum
of 7700 if playing with red fives; 5200 if playing without red fives), it
is OK to go dama. Let’s see a few examples.
Expensive hand 1
Dora
You should keep this hand dama because the hand is already expen-
sive (tanyao + three dora = mangan) and the wait is not very good.
) Keep dama, discarding !
Why should we discard , not (which will make for a suji-trap
wait)? This is to leave the possibility of improving the wait. If you
draw or call pon on or the fourth after discarding , the wait
gets significantly better, as follows:
Dora
.
5
Note that, to justify dama your hand has to have at least 7700 when
won by ron. This means that (1) your hand has to have at least one
yaku (without it you cannot win by ron) and (2) its value is at least
7700 when winning on a tile that gives you the lowest possible score.
7.3. WHEN NOT TO RIICHI 183
Expensive hand 2
Dora
This hand does not have yaku and so you cannot win by ron without
riichi. You should do insta-riichi with this hand by discarding .
Expensive hand 3
ȷȷ a "Dora
This hand is worth 7700 when winning on (tanyao + pinfu +
sanshoku), but the hand is worth only 2000 if winning on (tanyao
- pinfu). You should therefore do insta-riichi by discarding .
When you have an expensive hand, going dama is acceptable but
calling riichi is also an option, especially when you have a good wait.
Consider the following hand. Should we riichi?
Expensive hand 4
Red
ȷȷ a Dora
Discarding , we get a confirmed 7700 hand without riichi. I al-
ready said above that it is acceptable to keep dama when the mini-
mum hand value is 7700. However, would calling riichi be even bet-
ter?
Riichi criteria for hands like this are as follows.
184 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
Riichi judgement for an expensive hand
• Riichi if you are far behind from other players.
• Riichi if it is the 6th turn or before and the wait is 2-way
side wait or better.
• Riichi if it is the 10th turn or before and the wait is 3-way
side wait or better.
• Don’t riichi if the minimum hand value is haneman or better.
7.3.5 Many possibilities of improving the hand
It is OK to keep dama when there are many possibilities of further
advancing your hand. Keep in mind, however, that it is rather rare
that waiting in dama is worthwhile; doing insta-riichi is still better
in most instances even when there are some possibilities of advanc-
ing your hand. It makes sense to wait in dama only when both of the
following two conditions are met.
A reason to keep dama: improving the hand
• It is still an early turn (8th turn or before);
• There are at least six kinds of tiles that can improve the
scores and/or the wait,
or
there is at least one kind of tiles that can improve the score
by at least three han in one step.
Keep in mind that waiting in dama becomes less and less desirable
towards the end of a hand. After passing the 9th turn (the midpoint
7.3. WHEN NOT TO RIICHI 185
of the middle row of your discards), you’d better call riichi even if the
second condition is met. Remember that the probability of drawing
a particular tile is very small (roughly 3%).6
If you decide not to riichi, it often makes more sense to revert the
hand to 1-away rather than maintaining a ready hand. As we learned
in Chapter 3, a ready hand can accept fewer tiles than a 1-away hand
can. For example, consider the following hand.
ffa
Since calling riichi by discarding gives you riichi-only with a bad
wait, you may want to refrain from riichi. However, if you discard
, the hand can be improved only if you draw or . Moreover,
even when you luckily draw , the hand is still only riichi + pinfu,
albeit with an improved wait.
A more sensible choice here is to discard and revert the hand
to 1-away, as follows.
ffa
This is another example of golden 1-away. This 1-away hand is so
much better than the ready hand you’d get by discarding . Specif-
ically, there are four kinds of tiles that can improve the score by at
least three han.
• If you draw , the hand is ready for junchan (Terminals in All
Sets) + sanshoku — mangan without riichi and haneman with
6 As I mentioned before, when there are four kinds of tiles that can improve your
hand, it will take (on average) eight turns to draw one of them.
186 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
riichi. You may want to go riichi in this case because your pre-
vious discard of makes for a suji trap wait, although going
dama is also OK.
• If you draw , the hand is ready for pinfu + junchan + sanshoku
— haneman without riichi. You may still want to riichi. It would
be a shame to win this monster hand on , but doing so with-
out riichi is the worst.
• If you draw or ȷ, the hand is ready for pinfu + ittsu —
7700 with riichi. You should definitely riichi. Going dama with
this hand is absurd.
For another (less exciting) example, consider the following hand.
ȷa "Dora
Suppose this is the 5th turn in a hand. The choice is between (1)
discarding to make this hand ready or (2) discarding to revert
the hand to 1-away.
It is OK to choose either of the two in this case, but there is one
thing you should not do. That is discarding without calling riichi.
If, according to your reading of the board, a closed wait of is good
enough (e.g., none of has been discarded yet, but lots of other tiles
in souzu (bamboos) have been discarded), do insta-riichi. Waiting in
dama with a yaku-less hand is generally a bad move. If you discard
just to keep the hand ready, the hand cannot be won by ron, and
it can be improved only if you draw . It makes no sense to have
7.3. WHEN NOT TO RIICHI 187
such a hand.7
If you want to wait and improve the hand, you should discard
to revert the hand to 1-away. If you draw any of ff (5
kinds–15 tiles), both the wait and the scores get improved. If you
draw any of ȷ (4 kinds–11 tiles), at least the wait gets im-
proved. A basic rule of thumb with a yaku-less hand is as follows.
What to do with a yaku-less hand
• Riichi if you make the hand ready.
• Don’t make it ready if you don’t riichi.
Yaku-less dama
In some exceptional situations, it may make sense to wait in dama
while keeping a yaku-less ready hand.
a Dora
This hand has one dora with a bad wait (single wait of or ).
According to the riichi criteria given at the beginning of this chapter,
you could call riichi with this hand. In fact, if it is already the 9th turn
or later, you should definitely do insta-riichi. However, if it is the 6th
turn or before, waiting in dama by discarding or is an option. If
you draw any of (7 kinds–21 tiles), the hand be-
comes pinfu with a semi side wait. Moreover, with ȷ
7 Of course, if this were towards the very end of a hand (15th–18th turn), it
would make a lot of sense to have a yaku-less dama hand in order to avoid noten
penalty.
188 CHAPTER 7. RIICHI JUDGEMENT
(7 kinds–28 tiles) the wait will become a stretched single wait. When
there are this many possibilities of improving a hand (14 kinds–49
tiles), it is OK to go dama with a yaku-less hand.
7.4 Glossary
Insta-riichi is to riichi immediately when a hand becomes ready rather
than wait for a few turns to riichi. Basically, all riichi should be
insta-riichi.
Dama is not to riichi when having a closed ready hand. See Section
7.3 for cases where going dama might be better than riichi.
Yaku-less dama is when you have a ready hand with no yaku and
choose not to riichi. There are very few instances where doing
so is justifiable.
Genbutsu are tiles that are safe for a given player, either because they
were discarded by that player themselves or because they are
discarded by other players after that player called riichi. See
Section 8.2.1 in Chapter 8.
Chapter 8
Defense judgement
8.1 To push or to fold?
Knowing when to push and when to fold is another important
element of mahjong strategies. Push–fold judgement is a lot more
complicated than riichi judgement covered in the previous chapter.
In presenting defense strategies, I will first describe a very simple
principle that tells you when to be defensive and when to be offen-
sive, based purely on your hand. After understanding this principle,
the next step is to understand how to be defensive. The latter part of
this chapter introduces a set of defensive techniques.
8.1.1 A simple principle
A lot of variables can factor into our decision to push or to fold
against the opponents. You may want to consider, among other things,
whether or not you currently have a ready hand, the potential hand
value of your hand, the likely hand value of an opponent’s hand,
your current rank in the game, the opponent’s standing in the game,
just to name a few.
It is simply impossible to take into account these and other impor-
tant factors all at once in a limited amount of time. Instead, I suggest
you utilize the following shortcut for push/fold judgement.
190 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
Push/fold judgement
When another player has a ready hand,
Push if two of the following conditions are met:
- Ready hand;
- High scoring hand;
- Good wait.
Fold if two of the following conditions are met: - 1-away (or worse) hand;
- Low scoring hand;
- Bad wait.
Let me explain each component of this principle in turn.
8.1.2 Guessing if an opponent has a ready hand
First, you need to guess if another player has a ready hand or not;
if your opponent does not have a ready hand, there is no point in
playing defensive. Of course, knowing whether an opponent has a
ready hand can be difficult. Rather than spending too much time
trying to guess if they have a ready hand, let’s stick with rough but
simple shortcuts.
There are three possibilities to consider.
A. Riichi
This is the easiest case. You can be fairly certain that the op-
ponent has a ready hand. We will talk about how to defend
against riichi in Section 8.3.
B. Open ready hand
Knowing whether or not an opponent has an open ready hand
8.1. TO PUSH OR TO FOLD? 191
is a bit complicated. We will discuss this in Section 8.4.
C. Dama ready hand
We will completely ignore this case.
Assuming an opponent would not have a dama ready hand is ob-
viously not always correct. Nevertheless, this shortcut would be ac-
ceptable given that accurately guessing whether or not an opponent
has a ready hand is extremely difficult. Part of the reason why it is OK
to ignore the case of dama ready hand lies in the fact that riichi is such
a powerful tool in riichi mahjong that calling riichi is strictly better
than going dama in most instances; it is very difficult for your oppo-
nents to win a game if they keep choosing dama when they should
call riichi (and they are likely to know that).
8.1.3 Three conditions to push/fold
Note that, according to the principle laid out above, just because
(you think) an opponent has a ready hand, it does not automatically
mean that you must fold immediately. Specifically, you should still
push if two out of the three conditions specified above — ready, high
score, and good wait — are met.
The first condition is fairly straightforward. Just remember that
a clear, firm line should be drawn between having a ready hand and
having a 1-away (or worse) hand. Pushing with a 1-away hand is
acceptable only when both of the other two conditions are met.
The second condition is also straightforward. We say a hand is
a high scoring one if the minimum hand value is 7700; otherwise it
is a low scoring hand (recall the discussion in Section 7.3.4 from the
previous chapter).
192 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
The third condition (good / bad waits) needs some explanation.
When you have a ready hand, this is straightforward. You can decide
if the third condition is met simply based on the waits classification
discussed in Section 7.3.1 from the previous chapter. That is, wait is
good if it is at least as good as stretched single or semi side wait (2
kinds–6 tiles); dual pon wait, closed wait, edge wait, and single wait
are usually considered to be a bad wait.
The question then is: how do we judge if a hand has a good wait
when the hand is 1-away or worse? When a hand is 1-away or worse,
your judgement should be based on the best possible wait pattern you
can choose when the hand becomes ready in the worst possible man-
ner. An example will be helpful. Suppose you have the following
hand when another player calls riichi.
ȷȷ$$$" $Dora
This hand is not ready but has the minimum of 7700 point, so your
decision to push or fold depends on the third condition. Notice that
this is a perfect 1-away hand; no matter how this hand becomes ready,
you can always choose to have a side wait. In other words, the best
possible wait pattern you can choose when this hand becomes ready
is always a good one. If you draw or pon on ȷ or or chii -,
you can have a side wait of -. If you draw or chii -, you
can have a side wait of -. Therefore, you can push to the fullest
(zentsu) with this hand.
On the other hand, the following hand is also 1-away from ready
with a high scoring potential, but it will not always lead to a good-
wait ready hand.
8.2. DEFENSE BASICS 193
Red
"
Dora
Specifically, it will be a side-wait ready hand only if you draw first.
If you draw - first (which will occur with a much higher proba-
bility than drawing will), it will be a closed-wait hand. Therefore,
the best possible wait pattern in the worst-case scenario is not a good
one. Therefore, you should fold with this hand when you are fore-
stalled by an opponent.
For another example, consider a chiitoitsu hand. A chiitoitsu
hand will always have a bad wait. This means that you should in
principle fold if an opponent calls riichi when your chiitoitsu hand
is not ready, even if you have two or more dora in your hand.
8.2 Defense basics
Once you understand the criteria to fold, the next thing you need
to know is how to fold. There are three main ways to identify safe
tiles to discard.
8.2.1 Genbutsu and other absolutely safe tiles
I introduced the term genbutsu in the previous chapter. Strictly
speaking, genbutsu tiles of player X refer to those tiles discarded by X
himself. However, if X has called riichi, then all the tiles discarded by
anyone after riichi (and passed up by X) are also called X’s genbutsu
tiles.
Genbutsu tiles of player X are 100% safe against X, but not nec-
essarily safe against the other two players.1 There are three kinds of
1 Of course, a tile discarded by all three of your opponents is safe against all three
players.
194 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
tiles that are 100% safe against all of the opponents.
• The tile that was just discarded by your left player.
• A fourth honor tile when there is no possibility of Thirteen Or-
phans.
• An absolute “no chance” tile.
The first kind is fairly straightforward. Because of the furiten rule,
the tile just discarded by the left player is 100% safe for you to discard
in the present turn. That tile is not only genbutsu for the left player
but also a temporary genbustu for the right and the facing players.
Until their temporary furiten status is lifted, the right and the facing
players cannot call ron on it.
The second kind of absolutely safe tile is relatively simple. Sup-
pose all four of are visible to you (among the discards, in your
hand, or as a dora indicator). Then, none of your opponents can win
Thirteen Orphans unless you discard . In such situations, a fourth
honor tile is 100% safe. That is, ffl is 100% safe for everyone if all the
other three tiles of ffl are visible to you.
The third kind, absolute “no chance”, needs some explanation.
Let me just give you an example here. Suppose all four tiles of , all
four tiles of , and all three tiles of are visible to you. Then, the
fourth is 100% safe for everyone because this tile cannot be a part
of any set, run, or pair. I will explain more about “no chance” tiles in
Section 8.2.2 of this chapter.
Of course, it is not always possible to find tiles that are 100% safe
for the player who has called riichi (let alone for all three opponents).
Therefore, we need to know how to identify relatively safe tiles by
8.2. DEFENSE BASICS 195
relying on suji and kabe (blockade) theories. I will introduce these
two theories in turn.
8.2.2 Understanding suji
When someone calls riichi, the possibility you need to be wary
of first and foremost is that the opponent has a side-wait hand. It is
true that players will call riichi even when their wait is worse than
side wait. However, according to some statistics,2 about two thirds
of riichi hands have a side wait or better. This is partly because the
likelihood of choosing dama increases when the wait is bad. Another
reason is that players seek to retain side-wait protoruns over closed-
or edge-wait protoruns when choosing tile blocks to maximize tile
efficiency.
Suji defense is a defense tactic to avoid dealing into a side-wait
hand. A suji is a three-tile interval that corresponds to the wait of a
side-wait hand. For example, when a hand has a side-wait protorun
, the wait is or . This wait combination of and is
called - suji. There are 6 suji in each suit, giving rise to 18 suji
in total. All the six suji and their corresponding side-wait protoruns
are summarized in Table 8.1.
Table 8.1: Six suji
suji protorun suji protorun
1-4 suji 4-7 suji ȷ
2-5 suji 5-8 suji ȷff
3-6 suji 6-9 suji ff
When is among a player’s genbutsu, we say and ff are suji
tiles. Suji tiles are safer than non-suji tiles because the furiten rule
2 See, for example, Identifying Dangerous Suji.
196 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
Table 8.2: suji tiles
Genbutsu suji tiles
discarded and ff become safer
discarded and become safer
ȷ discarded and become safer
and ff discarded becomes safer
and discarded becomes safer
and discarded ȷ becomes safer
prohibits a player from calling ron on when is his genbutsu and
his wait is -. Likewise, when is among a player’s genbutsu,
and are suji tiles and thus they are safer than non-suji tiles;
when ȷ is among a player’s genbutsu, and are suji tiles and
thus they are safer than non-suji tiles.
Although makes a suji tile, the opposite is not true; in
itself does not make a suji tile. is no safer than other tiles just
because is among genbutsu. What negates is the possibility
of the - side wait, but the -ff side wait is still a possibility.
becomes safer only when both and ff are among a player’s
genbutsu. Table 8.2 summarizes combinations of genbutsu tiles and
tiles that are made safer by them.
Suji trap
Keep in mind that suji defense works only against side-wait hands.
Since players will call riichi even when their wait is worse than side
wait, we cannot rely too much on suji. When you wait for a tile
that is a suji tile of some tiles you have discarded yourself, we say
you have a suji-trap wait. In particular, when your wait is a suji
tile of the riichi declaration tile, we say it is an immediate suji-trap
8.2. DEFENSE BASICS 197
wait. An immediate suji-trap riichi is a rather common occurrence
in riichi mahjong primarily because of double closed shape (e.g., 135,
246, 357, etc.). Consider the following hand.
ȷ$$$
Dora
If you call riichi by discarding the ȷ, the hand waits for , which
is a suji tile of ȷ (immediate suji-trap riichi).
In general, the reliability of suji is higher for tiles discarded ear-
lier in a hand. That is, suji tiles of early discards tend to be safer,
whereas suji tiles of those tiles that are discarded later are more
dangerous. In particular, suji tiles of the tile discarded upon riichi
is at least as dangerous as non-suji tiles.3
For example, suppose an opponent calls riichi in the 7th turn with
the following discards.
"$ -
riichi
There are three tiles in the discard that create suji tiles.
• makes and ff suji tiles.
3 You might wonder about the reliability of suji for those tiles discarded after
riichi. There is in fact a big disagreement among professional players about
whether those tiles discarded after riichi make for safe or dangerous suji.
For example, 渋川 難波 (Nanba Shibukawa; NPM) argues that suji tiles of
those discarded after riichi are more dangerous than suji tiles of those dis-
carded before riichi, whereas 石橋 伸洋 (Nobuhiro Ishibashi; Saikouisen) ar-
gues the exact opposite. However, both schools of thought agree that the very
tile discarded upon riichi makes for dangerous suji. See http://osamuko.
com/identifying-dangerous-suji/ for some data analyses.
198 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
• makes and suji tiles.
• makes and suji tiles.
Note that and do not create any suji tiles on their own. Among
these three tiles , suji tiles of are relatively safe, whereas
suji tiles of are rather dangerous. The reason why suji tiles of
are dangerous is that players tend to keep double closed shape
such as a or until the hand becomes ready. Consider
the following 1-away hand.
Red
ȷff
We would discard rather than . Then, if we draw - first,
we do insta-riichi by discarding , creating an immediate suji-trap
wait. - Understanding tile blockade (kabe)
Another defense tactic to identify safer tiles is to utilize a tile
blockade (kabe; wall). When chunks of a number tile are visible
to you, we say these tiles form a blockade; they block a formation of
runs that contain that tile. Suppose all four of are visible to you,
either because they have been discarded, they are in your hand, or
they are used as a dora indicator. Then, none of your opponents can
have - suji wait, making relatively safe. This is because no
one can have a protorun in such a situation.
No chance
When all four of a number tile are visible, we say we have a “no
chance” situation, meaning that there is no chance that an opponent
8.2. DEFENSE BASICS 199
has a suji wait that contains the tile that forms a blockade. In the
example above, is a no-chance tile thanks to a blockade of .
No-chance tiles are safer than a non-suji tile, but keep in mind
that dual pon wait and single wait of a no-chance tile is still possible.
A nice thing about no-chance tiles is that their safety does not depend
on whether it is a suji tile or not. For example, when we have a block-
ade of , is safe regardless of whether is among genbutsu.
Note also that is not necessarily safe just because we have a block-
ade of , for -ff suji wait is still a possibility. Of course, when
all four of are visible to you and ff is among a player’s genbutsu,
then becomes safer for that player.
Table 8.3 summarizes possible blockades Blockade Safe tiles
None
ff
ȷ ff
ff
None
Table 8.3: Blockades
and the resulting no-chance safe tiles. No-
tice that each blockade can produce at most
two sets of safe tiles. It should be easy to
see how a blockade of 1 does not make any
tile safer, a blockade of 2 makes 1 safer, and
that a blockade of 3 makes 1 and 2 safer.
However, a blockade of 4 makes only 2 and
3 safer, as it negates 2-5 and 3-6 waits that
contain 4, but it does not make 1 any safer.
Similarly, a blockade of 5 makes only 3 and
7 safer, negating 3-6 and 4-7 suji waits.
A blockade can negate non-suji waits as well. For example, if all
four of and all four of are both visible, then a closed wait of
is impossible. An opponent has to have a dual pon wait or a single
wait if he is to win on . If, additionally, all three of are visible
to you as well, then the fourth is 100% safe. Waiting for in this
situation is simply impossible.
200 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
A blockade can also negate certain yaku, which decreases the
chance that an opponent has an expensive hand. For example, when
all four of are visible to you, then an opponent cannot have ittsu
(Pure Straight) in manzu (cracks). This information can help us de-
cide whether to discard a non-suji or a non-suji . The chance
of dealing into an opponent’s hand is equal, but the chance of deal-
ing into an expensive hand is lower with . A blockade of also
negates sanshoku of 123, 234, or 345. This information can help us de-
cide whether to discard a non-suji or a non-suji . Again, the
chance of dealing into an opponent’s hand is equal, but the chance
of dealing into an expensive hand is lower with .
One chance
When only three of a number tile are visible to you, we have an
incomplete blockade, making for what’s called “one chance” tiles.
One-chance tiles are generally safer than non-suji tiles, but not as
safe as no-chance tiles. The reliability of incomplete blockades de-
pends on two things.
First, relying on an incomplete blockade is effective in earlier turns
but not as much in later turns. Suppose that an opponent calls riichi,
and is among his discards. Then, because other players are likely
to discard if they have one, this tile may become an incomplete
blockade later on. However, an incomplete blockade formed this way
is not very reliable. When all three players have apparently folded
and the fourth is still invisible to you, then it is highly likely that
the riichi’ed player has it. One-chance tiles would become almost as
dangerous as non-suji tiles in later turns in situations like this.
Second, one-chance tiles are more reliable when the incomplete
blockade that makes for a one-chance tile is known only to you, thanks
8.2. DEFENSE BASICS 201
to a concealed set or a pair in your hand. On the other hand, one-
chance tiles that are created by an incomplete blockade in the discard
pool are not particularly safe. This is because an opponent is more
likely to choose riichi over dama when one of his winning tiles is a
one-chance tile and appears safe.
When we have two incomplete blockade of consecutive number
tiles, we say they form a “double one chance” situation. For example,
if three of and three of are both visible, an opponent has to
have the fourth and the fourth to have - suji wait, which
is highly unlikely. Therefore, double-one-chance tiles are safer than
single one-chance tiles.
Tile blockade: Safety ranking
No chance > Double one chance > One chance (earlier turns) >
One chance (later turns) ≃ Non-suji
Combining blockade and suji
When we have a blockade of and ff is among a player’s genbutsu,
we can deny not only - suji wait but also -ff suji wait,
making safe. Combining the blockade and suji theories like this
might seem a bit complicated at first, but you will get used to it as
you play more games.
202 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
8.2.3 Safety ranking
Based on what we have learned so far, Table 8.5 below provides
a ranking of tile safety.
Table 8.5: Safety ranking
Rank
100% Genbutsu
AAA Fourth suji terminal; Fourth honor tile
AA Third suji terminal; Third honor tile
AA- Second suji terminal
A+ Second valueless wind tile; First suji terminal
A Second honor tile
BBB Suji 4,5,6; No-chance tile
BB+ Suji 2, 8
BB- Suji 3, 7; One-chance tile (earlier turns)
B First honor tile
CC Non-suji terminal
C One-chance tile (later turns)
DDD Non-suji 2,8
DD Non-suji 3,7
D Non-suji 4,5,6
There is not much difference between ranks if they are given the
same alphabet. Tiles in the AAA ranking are dangerous only against
Thirteen Orphans. When Thirteen Orphans is not possible (i.e., there
are some terminals or honors that are already exhausted), they be-
come 100% safe. Fourth tiles mean that three of that tile have already
been discarded. Likewise, third, second, and first tiles mean that two,
one, or none of that tile have already been discarded, respectively.
There is a difference between 4,5,6 tiles, 3,7 tiles, 2,8 tiles, and ter-
minals (1,9) because of the difference in versatility. Non-suji 4,5,6
tiles are the most dangerous because they can be caught by two dif-
ferent suji waits. For example, 4 can be caught by a 1-4 suji and a
8.2. DEFENSE BASICS 203
4-7 suji, making it doubly dangerous. 3,7 tiles are more dangerous
than 2,8 tiles because 3,7 can be caught by an edge wait, whereas 2,8
tiles cannot. terminals cannot be caught by either an edge wait or
closed wait. Suji 4,5,6 tiles are safer than suji 2,8 tiles because 4,5,6
make for bad candidates for dual pon wait or single wait.
204 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
8.3 Defense against riichi
Putting together what we have learned so far, the defense strategy
against an opponent’s riichi can be summarized as follows.
Defense against riichi
• Do not discard Rank D tiles against an opponent’s riichi
until your hand becomes ready
(unless your hand has a really good wait and a really high
score).
• If you need to push when your hand is 1-away from ready,
you can discard Rank C or safer tiles. Only if your hand
has a guaranteed mangan, you can discard Rank D tiles.
• If you need to push when your hand is 2-away from ready
or worse, you can discard Rank B or safer tiles.
• If you cannot satisfy the above criteria, you must completely
fold (betaori).
8.3.1 What to discard when you get stuck
When you cannot identify safe tiles at all, rely on the following
and try to be as safe as possible.
Tile chunks
Discard pairs and concealed sets. Once you get one tile passed
against a riichi’ed player, you can be safe for the next turn or two.
Avoid dealing into expensive hands
If you discard terminals, you can avoid dealing into a tanyao (All
Simples) hand. Also, try not to discard the dora indicator tile (when
8.3. DEFENSE AGAINST RIICHI 205
dora is a number tile) and any tiles close to dora, as well as the dora
tile itself.
Tiles outside early discards
Tiles that are outside those discarded in “early” turns are rela-
tively safe. Consider the following riichi.
"$ aD
riichi
This opponent discarded in the 2nd turn, which is relatively early.
This suggests that he is not very likely to have - suji wait. If
he had a tile block , he would probably have kept it and dis-
carded something else. This line of argument is obviously not 100%
reliable. However, if you compare and in the current example,
is relatively safe.
8.3.2 Miscellaneous
Here are some additional factors you may want to take into ac-
count when deciding whether or not to be defensive, and how much
defensive you should be.
Your position in the game
You should be more defensive when you are ahead of the game,
while you should be more aggressive when you are behind. This
should especially be the case in the South round.
Turn
You can be more aggressive in earlier turns, whereas you need
to be much more defensive towards the end of a hand. Suppose an
opponent calls riichi in the 3rd turn, and your hand is 1-away from
206 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
ready. Since you have 15 more turns to draw, you still have a good
chance of making the hand ready. In such situations, it may be worth-
while to be a little bit aggressive against riichi. However, if you have
only three more turns to draw (i.e., in the 15th turn) and your hand
is still 1-away from ready, the chance of making a ready hand before
the hand ends is very low. It is not worthwhile to discard dangerous
tiles at this point.
Moreover, in earlier turns, there are many suji that are “alive”,
which diminishes the probability of dealing into an opponent’s side-
wait hands. For example, suppose an opponent calls riichi with the
following discard.
"$*
riichi
So far, only 2 out of 18 suji have been denied by the discards (ȷ-
and -), leaving 16 suji alive. Suppose you are considering
whether to discard . Assuming that the riichi’ed player has a side-
wait hand, the conditional probability of dealing into his hand with
is only 1
16 at this point.4
However, as the hand proceeds, the number of live suji waits
will decrease, making it more and more dangerous to discard a non-
suji tile. Suppose that the hand proceeds and the riichi’ed player’s
discard is as follows.
4 Since the riichi’ed player may not have a side-wait hand, the joint probability
that this is a side-wait hand and the hand waits for is even lower than 1
16 .
The total probability that the riichi’ed player is waiting for is a bit greater
than this joint probability because of the possibility of dual pon wait and single
wait.
8.3. DEFENSE AGAINST RIICHI 207
"$*
Since as many as 16 suji waits have already been denied, there are
only 2 suji waits that are “alive” ( - and -). Then, the con-
ditional probability of dealing into his hand with given that he has
a side-wait hand is now as high as 50%. This gives us an additional
reason to be more defensive towards the end of a hand.
Opponent’s style
If you know the type of opponent you are facing, you may want to
take that into account. For example, if you know that your opponent
is an old-fashioned player who calls riichi only when they have a
good-wait hand, you can rely heavily on suji theories.
However, if you know that your opponent understands the mod-
ern riichi strategies as described in the previous chapter, it is more
difficult for you to guess whether he has a good wait or a bad wait.
This is because he would not shy away from riichi even with a bad-
wait hand. You cannot rely too much on suji theories in such situa-
tions.
208 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
8.4 Defense against open hands
8.4.1 Guessing if an opponent has a ready hand
To defend against an open hand, we first need to know if an op-
ponent has a ready hand or not. Again, we will use some simple
shortcuts, which hopefully lead us to the right conclusion most (if
not all) of the time.
Defense against open hands
Assume an opponent has a ready hand in any of the following
situations. - He has three or more open sets / runs.
- When he is doing a flush hand, he starts discarding tiles in
the suit he is supposedly collecting. - He keeps discarding the tile that he draws.
8.4.2 Estimating the value of an opponent’s hand
The next thing you need to know is how expensive an opponent’s
hand is. Although it is practically impossible to infer riichi’ed player’s
hand value, we can often estimate the hand value of an opponent’s
open hand. If you can easily see that an opponent’s hand is tanyao-
only or fanpai-only, there is no need to be defensive.
Open hands with dora
An obvious case of an expensive open hand is one with dora tiles.
For example, if an opponent has an open set of dora, clearly he has
8.4. DEFENSE AGAINST OPEN HANDS 209
a four-han (or higher) hand. Also, if you play with red fives, scores
get expensive quite easily. For example, suppose the dealer has the
following open hand in East-1.
Red
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffi Gfflffl ,
Then, this hand has at least 5800 (seat and prevailing wind + red
five). Try not to push too hard against this player.
Flush hands
Flush hands (honitsu or chinitsu) tend to get expensive as well.
Red
ffiffiffiffi ) , .a
A hand like above has a minimum of 3900 and a maximum of haneman
if you deal into it with a souzu tile. You should fold when you draw
an unwanted souzu tile.
Value tiles
Open sets of value tiles also make for an expensive hand.
ffiffiffiffi K## E fflfflG
Dora
This is a pretty scary hand. You should not discard anything other
than genbutsu tiles.
210 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
Cheap hands
On the other hand, you can sometimes see that an opponent is
likely to have a cheap hand. For example, suppose an opponent is
doing the following.
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffi / 7
Dora
We can see that honitsu and ittsu are impossible and sanshoku is
unlikely. If all of the dora tiles and red fives are visible to you (in
your hand or among the discards), you can be pretty sure that this
hand is inexpensive. It is true that the following is still a possibility.
###$$$% / 7
Dora
But, you may be able to rule this out if you check what value tiles are
still alive in the wall.
8.4.3 Identifying dangerous tiles against open hands
You can’t win your own hand if you completely fold every time
an opponent melds. Unless an opponent has an obviously expen-
sive hand (e.g., three open sets of value tiles, etc.), we would want
not to fold completely but to discard some tiles that are not particu-
larly dangerous. It is therefore important to identify dangerous tiles
against open hands.
For example, consider the following.
ffiffiffiffi L$$ E 5
8.4. DEFENSE AGAINST OPEN HANDS 211
This opponent probably has a toitoi (All Pungs) hand (otherwise,
it would be cheap so you can ignore it). If it is toitoi, suji theories
and blockade theories are completely useless (remember, their pur-
pose is to avoid dealing into side-wait hands). Most dangerous tiles
in this situation are “raw” tiles (tiles that are completely invisible to
you). In particular, you should not discard raw value tiles. As sin-
gle wait is also a possibility, all honor tiles are generally dangerous
(unless they are the fourth tile).
For another example, consider the following.
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffi E .a
Dora
In a situation like this, one possibility is that the opponent has a dual
pon-wait hand with value tiles on the one hand and dora tiles on the
other, as follows.
$$ E .a
Dora
Especially when you are facing a “reliable” opponent, there would
be a good reason (such as having two dora tiles) why he rushed by
melding a side-wait protorun first.
212 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
8.4.4 Discard upon chii
We can sometimes identify tiles that are relatively safe or rela-
tively dangerous against an open hand by paying attention to what
an opponent discarded upon calling the last chii or pon. Consider
the following three cases.
Case 1 chii ! discard a tile in the same suit
An opponent who had an open set of $ called chii on and
discarded .
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 5 L$$
and discarded
In this case, it is unlikely that this opponent has a wait in the neigh-
borhood of , so pinzu (dots) tiles such as are rela-
tively safe.
Case 2 chii ! discard a tile in a different suit
An opponent who had an open set of $ called chii on and
discarded .
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 5 L$$
and discarded
In this case, this opponent’s wait is very likely to be in the neigh-
borhood of the the last discard, . In particular, - suji and
- suji are extremely dangerous, and a closed wait of a is also
8.4. DEFENSE AGAINST OPEN HANDS 213
a possibility.
Case 3 pon
An opponent who had an open set of $ called pon on and
discarded .
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 5 L$$
and discarded
In this case, this opponent’s wait can be in any suit; we cannot iden-
tify which tiles are particularly safe or dangerous.
What makes these differences? These readings are based on an
assumption that the opponent has a good 1-away hand before calling
the last chii or pon. In Case 1, the opponent has the following perfect
1-away hand before the last chii.
L$$
Then, after calling chii on the opponent discards , making the
neighborhood of relatively safe.
On the other hand, in Case 2, the opponent has the following
perfect 1-away hand before the last chii.
L$$
Summary
Then, after calling chii on the opponent discards , making the
neighborhood of dangerous. In this particular case, the resulting
214 CHAPTER 8. DEFENSE JUDGEMENT
wait is - suji. If the block were instead, the
resulting wait is - suji. If the block were , the
resulting wait is a.
Finally, in Case 3, the opponent has the following perfect 1-away
hand before the last pon.
ff L$$
Then, after calling pon on the opponent discards , making the
wait unrelated to . Notice that, if the opponent calls chii on ȷ
with this hand and discards , the neighborhood of the last discard
becomes dangerous (just like Case 2). Similarly, if the opponent calls
chii on with this hand and discards , the neighborhood of the
last discard becomes safe (just like Case 1).
Discard upon chii
• chii ! discard a tile in the same suit
) the neighborhood of the last discard is safe
• chii ! discard a tile in a different suit
) the neighborhood of the last discard is dangerous
• pon
) wait can be anything
8.5. GLOSSARY 215
8.5 Glossary
Zentsu is to push to the fullest, usually against an opponent’s riichi.
Betaori is to fold to the fullest.
Suji is a three-tile interval that corresponds to the wait of a side-
wait hand. There are six suji: 1-4, 2-5, 3-6, 4-7, 5-8, and 6-9.
See Section 8.2.2.
Suji tile is a tile that is made safe against side wait when a certain
tile(s) is among an opponent’s genbutsu. For example, when
is among genbutsu, and a are safe against a side-wait
hand.
Suji trap is when the wait is a suji tile. When this happens, the
wait is either dual pon wait, closed wait, edge wait, or single
wait.
Blockade (kabe; wall) is formed when three or four of a number
tile are visible to you. When all four of a number tile are visi-
ble, they form a complete blockade, making for no-chance tiles.
When three of a number tile are visible, they form an incom-
plete blockade, making for one-chance tiles.
No-chance tile is a tile that is made safe by a complete blockade.
There is “no chance” that an opponent has a protorun that in-
cludes a tile that is blocked.
One-chance tile is a tile that is made safe by an incomplete block-
ade. There is “one chance” that an opponent has a protorun
that includes a tile that is blocked.
Chapter 9
Melding judgement
9.1 To meld or not to meld?
Melding decisions — to call pon/chii or not to call — depend on
a lot of variables. The most important criteria of all are the following
two.
When not to meld
Do not meld if one of the following two holds.
- The hand is both cheap and far from ready.
- Melding significantly reduces the hand value.
I will discuss each of the two in turn, and then discuss exceptional
situations that justify melding even when the two conditions above
are satisfied.
Throughout this chapter, I assume that you are playing with rule
sets that allow open tanyao. Although older EMA rules did not al-
low it, revised EMA rules (effective as of April, 2016) now allow
tanyao to be an open hand. I will also assume that you are the South
player in the 6th turn in East-1 unless otherwise stated.
9.1.1 When not to meld 1: cheap and slow
Melding is acceptable only when your hand is either expensive or
fast. Melding with a cheap and slow hand is one of the two biggest
sins in riichi mahjong.1
1 As we learned in Chapter 7, the other big sin is meaningless dama.
9.1. TO MELD OR NOT TO MELD? 217
When we say a hand is “slow”, we mean that the hand is 2-away
or worse after melding (i.e., 3-away or worse before melding) and
with a bad wait. Let’s see a few examples.
Cheap and slow hand
ff ## Dora
An opponent discarded # just now.
You should not call pon in this situation. Even after calling pon, the
hand is still 2-away from ready with a couple of bad waits, as follows.
ff K## Dora
The probability of winning this hand any time soon is not very high.
What if an opponent calls riichi now? You will have nothing but sim-
ple tiles between 3 and 7 to discard. It is not worthwhile to discard
such tiles against riichi when you have a cheap 2-away hand. When
your hand is cheap and slow, you should worry more about keeping
safe tiles such as # than about winning the hand.
Slow but expensive hand
ff ## Dora
An opponent discarded # just now.
This time, you can call pon on # then discard . This hand is still
slow (after all, the hand shape is exactly the same as before), but it
has a potential to be 7700 (White Dragon + sanshoku + two dora)
even when you open it. When you see a high score potential, you can
meld even with a slow hand.
218 CHAPTER 9. MELDING JUDGEMENT
Cheap but fast hand
ȷ ##
Dora
An opponent discarded # just now.
Again, you can call pon on # then discard . This hand is cheap
and it will be 2-away after the pon, but all the remaining blocks have
a good wait. When you can expect to win a hand in no time, you can
meld even with a cheap hand.
Melding judgement 1
Don’t meld with a cheap and slow hand!
9.1.2 When not to meld 2: big gap in hand values
You should also refrain from melding when doing so significantly
reduces the hand value. More specifically, do not meld when the
hand value drops from 7700 or above to 2000 or below.2
Cheap but fast hand
ȷffff
Dora
The left player discarded just now.
Do not meld with a hand like this, at least until the 13th turn or so
(the third row in the discard). Although calling chii on will make
the hand ready with a good wait, the hand value reduces to 1000. If
you keep the hand closed and call riichi, the hand can potentially be
2 When the hand value reduces from haneman to mangan, or from baiman to
haneman, melding is acceptable. This is because mangan is already expensive
enough.
9.2. MELDING CHOICE: EXAMPLES 219
a game-deciding hand with a realistic possibility of getting mangan
or haneman.3
Fast and expensive hand
Red
ȷff
Dora
The left player discarded just now.
Calling chii on will make the hand ready with a good wait and a
high score (7700). It is true that this hand can be even more expen-
sive if you keep it closed. However, 7700 is already pretty expensive.
An additional han does not improve the hand value as much beyond
4 han. We should thus call chii on , especially after the 9th turn
or so.
Melding judgement 2
Don’t meld if melding significantly reduces the hand value!
9.2 Melding choice: examples
We will now see more examples of melding judgements, some of
which will describe an exception to the two conditions introduced so
far.
9.2.1 Eliminating bad waits
One of the purposes of melding is to eliminate a bad wait in a
hand to enhance speed. When you can call pon or chii to complete
a bad-wait block in your hand it often makes sense to do so. More
3 Riichi + tanyao + pinfu + iipeiko + dora = mangan ron or haneman
tsumo.
220 CHAPTER 9. MELDING JUDGEMENT
specifically, when you call chii with an edge-wait or closed-wait pro-
torun to make the hand ready, you should meld. Consider the fol-
lowing hand.
a$$ !
Dora
The left player discarded ff just now.
You should call chii on ff and discard . It is true that doing so
means that the hand value will be 1000 (Green Dragon only) and that
the hand can be won only with $. However, notice that the hand
value is not very high anyway if you keep the hand closed. Even if
you draw ff and call riichi, the hand value is 2600 if you win on $
or 1300 if you win on .
Keep in mind also that winning a cheap hand like this is not to-
tally meaningless. This is because doing so also means you prevent
your opponents from winning their (possibly expensive) hands. You
do not want to make your mangan hand into a 1000 hand, but the hand
above is not a mangan hand.
Moreover, this hand has pretty low tile acceptance (4 kinds–12
tiles, ff$); the chance of making the hand ready without meld-
ing is not very high, either.
Melding judgement 3
If you can eliminate a bad wait and make the hand ready, meld!
9.2.2 Improving the wait
It sometimes makes sense to meld even when your hand is al-
ready ready, as long as doing so improves the wait and/or the scores.
9.2. MELDING CHOICE: EXAMPLES 221
It may also make sense to meld to make a bad-wait 1-away into a
good-wait 1-away one.
Improving the wait
ȷff %%M
The left player discarded just now.
The hand is already ready, waiting for . However, you should call
chii on with ȷff and discard , so you can upgrade the wait
to a side wait of -ȷ. With melded hands, it is important to think
about the possibilities of improving the wait and/or scores by meld-
ing further. In the current example, calling chii on - or pon on
will improve the wait from a closed wait to a 2-way wait.
9.2.3 Confirming yaku
Ideally, we would like to complete a bad-wait block by melding
so that we can have a good-wait block as the final wait of the hand.
However, it sometimes makes sense to complete a good-wait block
by melding if doing so confirms a certain yaku in a hand.
Confirming yaku
a Dora
The left player discarded just now.
Calling chii on completes a side-wait block in this hand, leaving
the hand 1-away with one edge-wait and one side-wait protoruns.
However, this is acceptable because calling chii on confirms ittsu
in this hand. Getting ittsu with this hand requires that we have ,
222 CHAPTER 9. MELDING JUDGEMENT
not a, to complete the protorun . We should thus think of this
protorun more as an edge-wait protorun rather than a side-wait pro-
torun. Calling chii on is tantamount to eliminating a bad wait in
this case.4
Confirming yaku
fflfflffl $
Dora
The left player discarded just now.
If you call pon on and discard , the hand is ready. However,
doing so only gives you a 1300 hand. Instead, you should discard
after calling pon to have a 1-away honitsu hand, as follows.
fflfflffl 4 $
Dora
You can further call chii on any of or call pon on to get
5200 or above.
9.2.4 Concealed set of value tiles
There are situations where melding with a cheap and slow hand
may be acceptable. Recall that one of the reasons why melding is not
worthwhile with a cheap and slow hand is that we will lose safety
tiles if we meld. When that is less of your concern, melding may be
an option even with a cheap and slow hand.
4 Note that you should discard the , not the , after melding. This is because
we will discard the block if we draw the red .
9.2. MELDING CHOICE: EXAMPLES 223
Concealed set of value tiles
ȷ %%% !
Dora
The left player discarded just now.
This hand is both cheap and slow. Even after calling chii on , the
hand is still 1-away with a bad wait. However, this hand has a con-
cealed set of %, which can be used as three safe tiles when someone
calls riichi. In such cases, you can meld as long as doing so advances
the hand. That is, you can chii any of ff . You should not
call chii on -a or pon on , because doing so does not advance
this hand from 2-away to 1-away or improve the wait/scores.
Melding judgement 4
If you have a concealed set of value tiles, you can meld with a
cheap and slow hand.
9.2.5 When it is OK to meld with cheap & slow hands
There are a few more instances where melding with a cheap and
slow hand is acceptable, summarized as follows. - You are ahead of the game in South-4.
The hand value is not of your concern in such a situation. You
can meld with a cheap hand; you can also meld even when
melding significantly reduces the hand value. - There are two or more riichi bets on the table.
Winning any hand guarantees a minimum score of 3300 points
in such a situation, as you get at least 1000 (your hand) + 2000
for riichi bets + 300 for continuation. This is not much different
from winning a 3900 hand.
224 CHAPTER 9. MELDING JUDGEMENT - You are losing and you are the dealer.
You should aim for calling riichi as soon as possible in order
to delay the opponents’ attack. However, when you think you
cannot make the hand ready for riichi soon enough, calling pon
or chii early may serve the same purpose.
9.3. CALLING KAN 225
9.3 Calling kan
There are three ways to call kan — making a concealed quad
(ankan), making an open quad (daiminkan), and extending an open
set to an open quad (kakan). I will discuss decision criteria for each
of the three cases in turn.
9.3.1 Concealed quad (ankan)
The benefits of making a concealed quad includes:
• another chance to draw a tile;
• increased minipoints; and
• possibilities of getting more dora.
Conditions to justify making a concealed quad includes:
• 1-away, where at least one block has a good wait;
• 2-away, where all the blocks have a good wait;
• you need more dora or more minipoints to improve the place-
ment (especially in South-4);
• you are losing badly.
With this in mind, consider several examples. (Dora is ! in all
the examples.)
(1) ȷ """"
(2) """"
(3) """"
226 CHAPTER 9. MELDING JUDGEMENT
(4) """"#
(5) """"##
(1) This hand is 1-away, and one block has a good wait and another
has a bad wait. You can call kan.
(2) This is a perfect 1-away hand, so you can call kan.
(3) This is a perfect 2-away hand, so you can call kan.
(4) This hand is 1-away, but all the remaining blocks have a bad wait
(closed wait). You should not call kan.
(5) This hand is 2-away with a bad wait. You should not call kan
in normal situations. However, if you are in South-4, and you need
2000 points to win the game, then you should kan immediately. As
the hand will have at least 60 minipoints, you can get 2000 points
with one han (White Dragon).
Kan judgement 1
In principle, your hand needs to be close to ready to justify mak-
ing a concealed quad.
When not to make a concealed quad
Calling kan also comes with some cost, including:
• you may lose safety tiles;
• the new dora may go to the opponents.
When the following conditions are present, you should refrain from
calling kan.
• the hand is close to ready for chiitoitsu as well;
9.3. CALLING KAN 227
• one of the four tiles can be used a good floating tile;
• you lose some yaku if making the set into a quad.
Concealed quad?
It is your turn. What would you do?
If you call kan, the hand will be 1-away and the wait will not be ter-
ribly bad; it can be made ready if you draw any of
a , and you may draw one of these
tiles as a rinshan tile (the bonus draw after kan). However, the re-
sulting hand will be either riichi only or riichi + tanyao only, some-
times with a bad wait.
If you choose not to call kan and discard , you can treat one
of the four tiles of as a floating tile that could form a side-wait
protorun. The hand will be a side-wait ready hand if you draw any
of . Moreover, if you draw or ȷ, the hand will be
ready for sanshoku of 456. If you call kan, on the other hand, the hand
will lose the ability to accept ȷ that would otherwise make
the hand ready. Therefore, you should not call kan at this point and
simply discard . You can call kan later if the hand becomes ready
by drawing a pinzu (dots) tile.
Concealed quad?
ffa
It is your turn. What would you do?
If you call kan, you will lose pinfu. Moreover, if you draw a tile that
228 CHAPTER 9. MELDING JUDGEMENT
completes one of the two side-wait protoruns after calling kan, the
hand becomes a single-wait hand. You should thus discard . Then,
if you complete one of the side-wait protoruns first, you can discard
another to make the hand ready for pinfu.
Kan judgement 2
There are cases where we should not make a concealed quad
even when the hand is (close to) ready.
9.3.2 Open quad (daiminkan)
Conditions to justify making an open quad are a little bit more
demanding than the conditions to justify making a concealed quad.
You can make an open quad in any of the following situations:
• the hand is ready with a good wait, and the hand value is be-
tween 2000 and 5200 points;
• you need more dora or minipoints to improve the placement
(especially in South-4);
• you are losing badly.
Open quad?
ȷff%%% 5
Dora
The right player discarded % just now.
This ready hand is currently worth 2000 points with a good wait.
Calling kan on % is therefore justifiable. If any one of the tiles in your
hand becomes dora, the hand value increases from 2000 to 5200.
9.3. CALLING KAN 229
Open quad?
%%% 5
Dora
The right player discarded % just now.
This ready hand is currently 2000 points with a bad wait. Calling kan
on % is not justifiable when the wait is bad.
Open quad?
%%% 5 Dora
The right player discarded % just now.
This ready hand is currently 1000 points with a good wait. Calling
kan on % is not justifiable. Even when one of the tiles in your hand
becomes new dora, the hand value only increases from 1000 to 2600
points.
9.3.3 From an open set to an open quad (kakan)
When you draw the fourth tile of an open set, you have an oppor-
tunity to extend the open set to an open quad. Conditions to justify
extending an open set to a quad are more demanding than those for
a concealed quad but less demanding than those for a regular open
quad. Doing so is less foolhardy compared with a regular open quad
because you are not losing four safety tiles. At the same time, this is
riskier than making a concealed quad because you may be running
the risk of giving your opponents a chance to get chankan (Robbing
the Kong).
You can extend an open set to an open quad in any of the follow-
ing situations:
230 CHAPTER 9. MELDING JUDGEMENT
• the hand is 1-away or better with a good wait, and it has two
han or more;
• the hand is 1-away or better, and there are not many turns left
to draw tiles;
• you need more dora or minipoints to improve the placement
(especially in South-4);
• you are losing badly.
Open set to quad?
%M% Dora
You drew the fourth % just now.
This 1-away hand has two han and a good wait. Calling kan on % is
justifiable.
Open set to quad?
%M% Dora
You drew the fourth % just now.
This hand has three han and a good wait. However, since it is 2-away
from ready, calling kan on % is not justifiable.
9.4. MISCELLANEOUS TIPS FOR MELDING 231
9.4 Miscellaneous tips for melding
9.4.1 Think ahead
When you call pon, you have to say “pon! [p´ON]” out loud imme-
diately and nothing else. There is no such call as “Wait!”, and you
will have to forgo your call if (1) the next player has already drawn
their tile before you call pon or (2) another player has already called
chii before you do.5 This means that you need to think ahead and
make up your mind about what tile to call before the tile is discarded.
That is, you should think about what tile(s) can improve the wait
and/or the scores of your hand all the time. For example, consider
the following hand.
Thinking ahead
##K
What tile(s) are you waiting for?
The hand is ready, waiting for . However, you should also be pre-
pared for melding further to improve the wait and/or the scores. If
you draw or call pon on and discard , the wait will be upgraded
to an irregular 3-way wait of -ȷ . Moreover, if you draw or call
pon on the red and discard , not only the scores get better but
also the wait will be upgraded to a side wait of -ȷ.
Relatedly, think about what to discard upon melding before you
call. If you are unsure about what to discard upon melding, it prob-
ably means you should not make the call.
5 A pon call takes precedence over a chii call, but only if calls are made simulta-
neously. If the chii call was made well before the pon call, the chii call should
take precedence.
232 CHAPTER 9. MELDING JUDGEMENT
9.4.2 Be ready for dora
You should also think about how to utilize dora when melding.
Consider the following hand.
Utilizing dora
$L$
Dora
The left player discarded just now.
We should definitely call chii on to make the hand ready, but
the question here is: should we chii with or with ? Let’s
compare the resulting hands in each of the two possibilities.
8 $L$
8 $L$
Dora
Notice that the first hand can accept another dora. That is, if you
draw , you can keep it and discard to improve the hand value
from 2000 to 3900. With the second hand, you will have to discard
the dora when you draw another.
Calling chii with is better also from a perspective of de-
fense. Having to discard against an opponent’s riichi is much bet-
ter than having to discard . can be captured by both - and
- suji, whereas can be captured only by - suji. More-
over, even if you deal into an opponent’s - wait, the hand value
would be lower if you discard than , on average.6
6 Of course, this is unless an opponent has sanshoku of 678.
9.4. MISCELLANEOUS TIPS FOR MELDING 233
9.4.3 Be mindful of the seating
Each time you take a tile from the facing player (toimen) with a
pon (or kan) call, the left player’s (kamicha) turn gets skipped. Like-
wise, each time you take a tile from the right player (shimocha) with
pon/kan, the facing player’s turn gets skipped. At the same time, the
right player will have an additional chance to draw a tile in either of
the two instances. In this sense, your act of calling pon/kan benefits
the right player while penalizing the left and the facing players. It is
useful to keep this in mind in making a melding choice, especially
when the benefit of melding only slightly outweighs the benefit of
keeping the hand closed in terms of tile efficiency.
For example, when you are North, you should not meld as ag-
gressively because doing so will benefit the dealer. Likewise, when
you are South, you should try to call pon from the facing player (North)
rather than from the left player (East), so that you can penalize the
dealer. The same is true when there is a clear front-runner in the
game. When your right player is much ahead of the game, you should
try to have a closed hand rather than a melded hand. On the other
hand, when your left player is leading the game, you should meld a
bit more aggressively so you can penalize him.
Seating-related tip 1
When your right player is the dealer and/or the front-runner, try
not to call pon too much.
Applying the same logic, you do not want your right player to
call pon from your left player. This means that, if you plan to discard
something that can be pon’ed by the right player, you should do so
sooner rather than later. For example, suppose you are East, and you
are deciding which one of the three valueless wind tiles !" to
234 CHAPTER 9. MELDING JUDGEMENT
discard in the 1st turn. In this case, you should discard first. If the
South player calls pon on you discard, that would be much better
than if he called pon from the North player. Moreover, if you discard
, there is a good chance that another player may do the same in
the 1st turn as well, lowering the chance that the South player builds
a pair of in later turns and calls pon.
Seating-related tip 2
When discarding valueless wind tiles, discard the right player’s
wind first, then the facing player’s wind next.
Chapter 10
Grand strategies
The most important goal in mahjong is to win a game or generally
improve the placement. I do not deny the inherent joy of winning an
expensive hand with rare yaku. However, we should always keep
in mind that winning a hand is just a means to an end; sometimes
dealing into an opponent’s (cheap) hand can serve our purpose of
winning the game. In this chapter, I will discuss strategies to improve
the placement.
10.1 What to do in South-4
Most mahjong rule sets adopt some type of uma system where
players get some extra bonus / penalty points according to the place-
ment. For example, EMA rules award 15000 points to the first ranked
player, 5000 points to the second ranked player, 5000 points to the
third ranked player, and 15000 points to the fourth ranked player.
Such systems make it clearer that getting a better placement is gen-
erally more important than simply winning hands.
Suppose you are currently ranked fourth in South-4, and that the
third ranked player has 1800 more points than you do. In such a sit-
uation, winning a 1000 hand is not very meaningful. If you manage
to add just one more han and win, you will not only get 2000 points
directly but also get an extra 10000-point bonus for coming in third,1
a total of 12000-point gain. This is as big as winning a haneman hand.
In a situation like this, the tradeoff between speed and hand value
is qualitatively different than usual. For example, when choosing
1 You will get −5000 points instead of −15000 points, resulting in a net gain of
236 CHAPTER 10. GRAND STRATEGIES
between a good-wait one-han hand and a bad-wait two-han hand,
you should definitely choose the latter. After all, you are essentially
comparing a good-wait 1000-point hand with a bad-wait 12000-point
hand. On the other hand, when choosing between a good-wait two-
han hand and a bad-wait three-han hand, you should choose the for-
mer. Increasing the (virtual) hand value from 12000 to 13900 would
not be worthwhile if doing so significantly diminishes the chance of
winning.
Suppose further that the third ranked player is the dealer. Then,
you will have another option to improve the placement. That is, if
anyone other than the third ranked player gets a mangan tsumo (or
above), you will come in third. This is because the dealer pays 2000
more points than a non-dealer in case of a mangan tsumo. When this
happens, you will lose 2000 points for the mangan payment but gain
10000 points for the placement bonus, resulting in a net gain of 8000
points. This is as big as winning a mangan hand yourself.
Suppose yet further that the second ranked player is the right
player, who is behind the first ranked player by 10000 points. Then,
he will try to get a mangan tsumo because doing so puts him in the
first place. If he is obviously pursuing a honitsu hand, you may want
to discard tiles in the suit he is collecting so he can meld his hand to
get it ready.2 If he indeed gets a mangan tsumo, you will get 8000
points; if he wins by ron from the third ranked player, you will get
10000 points.
That being said, assisting other players in hopes of their getting a
mangan tsumo is more like a last resort. What you should think about
2 Of course, you assist him only until he gets ready. You need to be careful not
to deal into the mangan hand you helped him make.
10.1. WHAT TO DO IN SOUTH-4 237
first and foremost is winning your own hand that is just expensive
enough to improve your placement, which we will now turn to.
Improving the placement by ron / tsumo
As the discussion in the previous section illustrates, you need to
be extra conscious about your placement in South-4. If you are cur-
rently ahead of the game, your top priority is to maintain your place-
ment. If you are behind, you should do your best to improve your
placement as much as possible.
In South-4, the first thing you need to do before the hand begins
is to figure out the point differences between you and other play-
ers. When playing online on Tenhou, this can be easily done any
time by mouse overing the middle board, as illustrated in Section
1.4.4. When playing offline, each player should count and report
their points before the hand begins.
Once you figure out the point differences, you then need to know
how expensive your hand has to be to improve your placement. In
doing so, you need to figure out the required hand values under
three possibilities, as follows.
- ron from anyone
- tsumo
- direct hit ron
The first possibility to consider is winning your hand by ron from
anyone (that is, not from the very player you are trying to overtake).
For example, suppose you are currently ranked second, and the first
ranked player has 3400 more points. Then, winning a 3 han–30 mini-
points hand (3900 points) by ron from anyone is sufficient to improve
238 CHAPTER 10. GRAND STRATEGIES
your placement. You should thus aim to have a 3-han hand. Since
you don’t need a 40-minipoint hand, melding is also an option.
The second possibility to consider is winning your hand by tsumo.
For example, suppose you are currently ranked second, and the first
ranked player (non-dealer) has 9500 more points. Then, getting a
mangan tsumo is sufficient to improve your placement because you
gain 8000 points while the first ranked player loses 2000 points, in-
ducing a 8000 + 2000 = 10000 point difference. You should thus aim
to have a mangan hand and try to win it either by tsumo or by ron
from the first ranked player.
The last possibility to consider is winning your hand by ron from
the very player you are trying to overtake. For example, suppose
you are currently ranked second, and the first ranked player (non-
dealer) has 15200 more points. Then, even getting a haneman tsumo
is not enough. You need a mangan ron directly from the first ranked
player. This is sufficient because you gain 8000 points while the first
ranked player loses 8000 points, inducing a 8000 2 = 16000 point
difference.
Among these three possibilities, your hand value judgement should
be based primarily on the first possibility (i.e., winning it by ron from
anyone). This one requires the highest hand value but it is the most
realistic. Given that the player you are trying to overtake will try
hard not to deal into your hand, making your hand value judgement
based solely on the third possibility (direct hit ron) is too much of a
wishful thinking.
With this in mind, consider the following hand. Assume that you
are the North player in the 6th turn in South-4. You are currently
10.1. WHAT TO DO IN SOUTH-4 239
ranked second, and the first ranked player (South) has 5100 more
points.
South-4: 5100 points behind, dora ȷ
ȷ Draw
What would you discard?
If you keep and discard , the hand is ready. However, do-
ing insta-riichi with the current hand is not ideal. Since the hand
value is only 2600 (2 han–40 minipoints), winning it by ron from the
third-ranked or fourth-ranked player will not improve your place-
ment (unless you get ippatsu or ura dora). Also, getting tsumo will
only give you 1000-2000 (3 han–30 minipoints), generating only a
4000 + 1000 = 5000 point difference. This is not sufficient to improve
the placement.
You should rather keep the hand 1-away by discarding . If you
draw or , you can then do insta-riichi to get riichi + sanshoku =
at least 5200 (3 han–40 minipoints). Winning it by ron from anyone
is now sufficient to improve the placement. If you draw or ff, you
can also do insta-riichi to get riichi + pinfu + dora. Winning it either
by tsumo or ippatsu ron is sufficient to improve the placement.3
Point difference induced by tsumo
Getting the correct point differences induced by tsumo can be a
bit complicated. For example, suppose you are the North player,
currently ranked second in South-4. The West player is leading the
game, having 6300 more points. In this situation, would winning a
3 Drawing ff means you are in furiten, but you should still do insta-riichi.
240 CHAPTER 10. GRAND STRATEGIES
3 han–30 minipoints hand by tsumo be enough to improve the place-
ment? What about winning a 3 han–40 minipoints (= 4 han–20 mini-
points) hand by tsumo?
To calculate the point difference induced by tsumo, we add the
points you gain and the points your rival (the first ranked player)
loses. For instance, the point difference induced by a 3 han–30 mini-
points hand is: 4000 (your gain) + 1000 (your rival’s loss) = 5000
points. The point difference induced by a 3 han–40 minipoints hand
is: 5200 (your gain) + 1300 (your rival’s loss) = 6500 points. In this
example, getting a 3 han–40 minipoints tsumo is sufficient to improve
the placement, but getting a 3 han–30 minipoints tsumo is not.
It would be extremely tedious if we have to do these calculations
for several possible hand values all in our head in South-4. It would
be more efficient if we memorize the induced point differences for
several representative cases; that way, we can use our time and en-
ergy thinking about other important things during the game.
Tables 10.1–10.4 below summarize induced point differences for
limit hands and those with 30, 40 (20), and 50 (25) minipoints. In
each table, the second column shows the induced point differences
against another non-dealer, whereas the third column shows those
against the dealer. Since a dealer pays twice as much as a non-dealer,
the induced point differences against a dealer are greater. In addi-
tion, for each counter (continuation) placed on the table, the induced
point difference will get bigger by 400 points.
Note that these four tables assume that you are a non-dealer. When
you are the dealer, you do not usually need to do these calculations
because you get to continue the game if you win a hand anyway.
However, when playing with a bankruptcy rule or with time limits,
10.1. WHAT TO DO IN SOUTH-4 241
Table 10.1: Limit hands
Tsumo Non-dealer Dealer
mangan 10000 12000
haneman 15000 18000
baiman 20000 24000
sanbaiman 30000 36000
yakuman 40000 48000
Table 10.2: 30 minipoints
Tsumo Non-dealer Dealer
300-500 1400 1600
500-1000 2500 3000
1000-2000 5000 6000
2000-3900 9900 11800
Table 10.3: 40 (20) minipoints
Tsumo Non-dealer Dealer
400-700 1900 2200
700-1300 3400 4000
1300-2600 6500 7800
Table 10.4: 50 (25) minipoints
tsumo Non-dealer Dealer
400-800 2000 2400
800-1600 4000 4800
1600-3200 8000 9600
the dealer may not be able to continue the game, in which case even
the dealer has to consider if winning a particular hand improves the
placement. Tables 10.5 and 10.6 at the end of this chapter provide a
summary for a dealer as well.
Memorizing these tables would be way more important than mem-
orizing, say, scores for 70-minipoint hands. With these tables in mind,
consider the following hand. Assume that you are the North player
in the 6th turn in South-4. You are currently ranked second, and the
first ranked player (South) has 3300 more points.
South-4: 3300 points behind, dora
ff
Draw
What would you discard?
You wanted to draw ȷ first so that you can have riichi + pinfu + one
242 CHAPTER 10. GRAND STRATEGIES
dora = 3900. Winning that hand by ron from anyone would improve
your placement. However, now that you drew , what should you
do?
Recall that a 700-1300 tsumo would induce a 3400 point differ-
ence. Since this is a pinfu hand, getting riichi + pinfu + tsumo
gives you exactly 700-1300 tsumo. You should thus do insta-riichi by
discarding . Once you call riichi, you can do either (1) ippatsu
ron from anyone, (2) direct hit ron from the first ranked player, or
(3) tsumo to improve the placement.4
Consider a more complicated example that involves some mini-
point calculation. Assume that you are the North player in the 6th
turn in South-4. You are currently ranked second, and the first ranked
player (East) has 4700 more points. What are the conditions under
which you can improve your placement with the following hand?
South-4: 4700 points behind, dora
$$ : aa/
What are you waiting for?
Winning this hand on $ by ron from anyone or tsumo satisfies the
condition because it gives you 5200 points (toitoi + Green Dragon
with 40 minipoints). Winning it on , however, only gives you 2600
points. You can still improve the placement if you get a direct hit
from the first ranked player, but not if it is from other players. Even
though the first ranked player is the dealer, you cannot improve the
4 Whether or not you should let it go when the third or fourth ranked player
discards your winning tile depends on the point difference between you and
the third ranked player. Unless it is greater than 12000 points, you should call
ron and hope to get one ura dora.
10.1. WHAT TO DO IN SOUTH-4 243
placement if you draw , either. Declaring tsumo on gives you
700-1300, which induces only a 4000 point difference even against the
dealer.
However, if you manage to draw or a, you should extend the
melded set to a melded quad. Doing so not only gives you a chance
of rinshan tsumo or new dora but also enables you to improve the
placement when drawing . This is because the hand will have 50
minipoints if you tsumo: 20 for the base minipoints + 8 for a melded
Kong of or a + 2 for a melded set of a or + 4 for a concealed
set of + 2 for a pair of $ + 4 for a concealed set of + 2 for
tsumo = 42, rounded up to 50 minipoints. A 2 han–50 minipoints
tsumo induces a 4800 point difference against the dealer.
Maintaining your placement
If you are ahead of the game in South-4, you should do your best
to maintain your current rank. Trying to win a cheap but fast hand
to end the game is an option, but be extra careful not to deal into an
opponent’s expensive hand. For example, suppose you have 15200
more points than the second ranked player. If neither you nor the
second ranked player is the dealer, he cannot defeat you even with
a haneman tsumo. Then, what you need to be wary of the most is
to give him a direct hit mangan ron. You will lose not only the 8000
points for the mangan payment but also the 10000 bonus points for
the placement, a total net loss of 18000 points.
In order to figure out what exactly you should do when you are
ahead of the game in South-4, try to imagine what each of your oppo-
nents aims to do. Recall the situation I described in discussing riichi
judgement in Section 7.3, reproduced below.
Let’s think about the incentive structure for each of the other three
244 CHAPTER 10. GRAND STRATEGIES
East (you) 39000 South 22900
West 13000 North 25100
players in turn. First, the fourth ranked player (West) should try to
have a mangan tsumo, for that would put him in the third place. The
third ranked player (South) would need a 500-1000 tsumo or 2600
ron to get the second place, which is a realistic goal to pursue. In
order for him to get the first place, he would need either a haneman
tsumo or a direct hit haneman ron from you. Finally, in order for the
second ranked player (North) to get the first place, he would need
a haneman tsumo or a direct hit mangan ron from you. Given that he
has only 2200 more points than the third ranked player, the second
ranked player should rather aim to win whatever hand possible to
maintain the current rank.
So, what should you do in such a situation? What you should be
afraid of the most is a haneman tsumo by South or North. However,
notice that South and North are in a fierce competition among them-
selves. Take advantage of this. If winning a fast hand yourself does
not seem possible, you should try to assist the South player. Since the
South player is your right player, you should discard versatile mid-
dle tiles (3–7) so that he would call chii on them, possibly with a
red five (because South needs 2 han). Recall that even giving him a
direct hit mangan ron will secure you the first place.
10.2 What to do by South-3
It is never too early to start paying attention to your placement.
If you are behind other players, the target point difference you should
achieve before the beginning of South-4 is 10000 points or fewer. Over-
taking with a 10000 point difference in a single hand is a tough but
10.2. WHAT TO DO BY SOUTH-3 245
not unrealistic goal; you can do so either by mangan tsumo or haneman
ron.
Suppose the dealer wins a mangan tsumo in East-1. Now he is
leading other players by 16000 points, which is a bit depressing. How-
ever, instead of trying to overtake him with a single expensive hand,
you should aim to reduce the point difference from 16000 to 10000
by the end of South-3. This is a more realistic goal; keep calling riichi
with a pinfu-only hand, and you will eventually get tsumo + one ura
dora which induces a 6500 point difference.
On the other hand, if you are ahead of the game, you should aim
to have a 10000 or greater point difference with the second ranked
player in South-4. For example, consider the following hand. Sup-
pose you are the North player in the 6th turn in South-3. You are
currently ranked first, and you only have 1000 more points than the
second ranked player (West).
Riichi judgement in South-3: dora ȷ
ȷff aa"
Riichi or dama?
The choice here is between keeping the hand dama to maximize your
chance of winning the hand or calling riichi to aim for a bigger point
difference. You should do insta-riichi in such a situation. If you
win this hand by dama ron, the point difference will only be 3600 in
South-4. Having a 3600 point difference is not much different from
having a 1000 point difference from the perspective of the second
ranked player. However, if you win this hand with riichi, the point
difference will be at least 6200 in South-4, 9000 if you get one ura
246 CHAPTER 10. GRAND STRATEGIES
dora, and 11000 if you tsumo. Having a point difference of 11000 in
South-4 significantly increases your chance of winning the game.
If you will be the dealer in South-4, the target point difference
with the second ranked player is 12000 or more, not 10000. This is
because a mangan tsumo by a non-dealer induces a 12000 point dif-
ference against the dealer.
You should also be mindful of induced point differences by noten
penalties in South-4 and South-3. The maximum point difference in-
duced by noten penalties is 4000 (1-player noten and 3-player noten).
This means that you should aim to have at least 4000 point differ-
ence by the end of South-3. For example, suppose you are leading
the game in South-4 and you are the dealer. If the hand ends in
exhaustive draw and the point difference between you and the sec-
ond ranked player is more than 4000 points. Then, you should de-
clare noten (not ready) and terminate the game even when you have
a ready hand. You will not have this option if the point difference is
fewer than 4000 points.
10.3. TABLES FOR INDUCED POINT DIFFERENCES 247
10.3 Tables for induced point differences
Table 10.5: For non-dealer
Tsumo Non-dealer Dealer
300-500 1400 1600
400-700 1900 2200
500-1000 2500 3000
700-1300 3400 4000
800-1600 4000 4800
1000-2000 5000 6000
1300-2600 6500 7800
1600-3200 8000 9600
2000-3900 9900 11800
2000-4000 10000 12000
3000-6000 15000 18000
4000-8000 20000 24000
6000-12000 30000 36000
8000-16000 40000 48000
Table 10.6: For dealer
Tsumo Non-dealer
500 2000
700 2800
1000 4000
1300 5200
1600 6400
2000 8000
2600 10400
3200 12800
3900 15600
4000 16000
6000 24000
8000 32000
12000 48000
16000 64000
Appendices
248
Chapter A
Manners for offline playing
Manners are meant to make the game of mahjong a pleasant ex-
perience. They are a collection of small tips and techniques the fore-
runners have developed to avoid unnecessary troubles. I present
manners for four different phases of a game — (1) dealing tiles, (2)
drawing and discarding, (3) calling, and (4) winning a hand. Each
entry is given a rank, from one star (∗) to three stars (∗∗∗). Three-star
manners are more important; you should try to acquire three-star
manners first, and then move on to practice two-star and one-star
ones.
A.1 Dealing tiles
1-1: Shuffling ∗∗
I recommend a 2-step shuffling approach. First, shuffle tiles re-
ally hard. Don’t worry about keeping the tiles face down at this point.
This will guarantee that sets, runs, and pairs from the previous hand
are really broken apart. Second, put all the tiles up-side down and
shuffle them face down gently. This will guarantee that no one re-
members the locations of certain tiles.
1-2: Push the wall forward ∗∗
Once you build a wall, push it forward a little so that the facing
player can easily reach your wall. If you push it forward too much,
you will lose the space for discards.
1-3: Tilt the wall ∗
When pushing the wall forward, it would be better if you tilt the
wall a little, as follows. This will make it even easier for the facing
A.1. DEALING TILES 251
player to pick a tile from your wall.
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1-4: Split the wall ∗
In addition to tilting, some players like to mildly split the wall
into three blocks upon building the wall. You get six tiles on the left,
five tiles in the middle, and another six tiles on the right, illustrated
as follows.
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
This will make it significantly easier for the dealer to identify the
breaking point in the wall.
1-5: Break the wall ∗
After rolling the dice, the dealer should break the wall himself.
When the dice indicate a number k that is greater than 7, it is easier
to count 15 k tiles counterclockwise rather than counting k tiles
clockwise after identifying which wall to break. For example, when
the dice roll is 9, the dealer should count 6 tiles counterclockwise
(i.e., 6 from the left edge), leaving 6 tile pairs on the left of his wall.
Likewise, when the dice roll is 10, the dealer should count 5 tiles
counterclockwise, leaving 5 tile pairs on the right of the right player’s
wall (right from the dealer’s view, left from the right player’s view).
1-6: Put the rinshan tile down ∗∗
After breaking the wall, the rinshan tile (the first replacement
tile) should be preemptively put down. This is to prevent it from
falling over. This should be done by the player who has the dead
wall in front of him.
252 APPENDIX A. MANNERS FOR OFFLINE PLAYING
1-7: Turn over the dora indicator ∗∗∗
Immediately after putting down the rinshan tile, the dora indica-
tor should be turned over. Doing so is way more important than, say,
separating the dead wall from the end of the wall (which is com-
pletely unnecessary especially at the beginning of a hand). In my
experience, European players somehow like to do the latter first and
don’t open the dora indicator even after they finish the dealing.
1-8: Look at the tiles ∗∗
As you take tiles from the wall during the initial dealing, you
should start taking a look at them. Don’t wait until you get all thir-
teen tiles; doing so is a waste of time not only for you but also for the
other players.
1-9: Dealer’s first discard ∗∗
The dealer should not discard a tile until the North player gets
all thirteen tiles. This is to give everyone a roughly equal amount of
time to decide whether to call pon / chii / ron on the first discard.
A.2 Drawing and discarding
2-1: Don’t use both hands ∗∗
During the play — after the dealing is done and before the hand
finishes —, you should use only one hand. If you are right-handed,
you should not put your left hand on the table, either. Don’t do
things like drawing with your left hand and discarding with your
right hand. This is to prevent (the appearance of) cheating. The
only occasions where using both hands during the play is acceptable
are (1) when sorting the tiles in your hand, and (2) when revealing
your hand upon winning or in cases of exhaustive draw and four-
riichi abortive draw.
A.2. DRAWING AND DISCARDING 253
2-2: Arrange the discards ∗∗∗
Discards should be arranged in an orderly way (six tiles in a row).
2-3: Discard before sorting ∗
You should discard a tile before you put the tile you draw into
your hand. Putting the newly drawn tile into your hand upon tsumo
is a serious violation. To avoid it, you should make a habit of not
putting a newly drawn tile into your hand immediately.
2-4: Let go of the discard ∗∗
Upon discarding a tile, you need to let it go immediately and not
keep your finger on the tile. This is to guarantee that all the other
three players can see which tile you discarded all together.
2-5: Don’t take an overly long time ∗
Keep in mind that three other players are waiting for you; you
should not take an overly long time to draw / discard. In particular,
beginners may want to pay attention to the following.
• When your turn comes, draw a tile immediately (unless you
need to think about whether to call the last discarded tile).
• Once you make up your mind about what to discard, discard it
immediately.
2-6: Don’t speed other players ∗∗∗
Yes, it could be irritating if someone is taking a long time, but be
considerate. You should not press other players to be faster than they
could.
254 APPENDIX A. MANNERS FOR OFFLINE PLAYING
A.3 Calling
3-1: Vocalize clearly ∗∗∗
When you call pon [p´ON], chii [tS´I:], kan [k´2N], riichi [r´I:tS], ron
[r´ON], or tsumo [ts´umo], utter the word clearly so the other three play-
ers can hear you.
3-2: Vocalize before taking an action ∗∗∗
When calling pon, say “Pon.” first before taking the tile. Likewise,
when you call riichi, say “Riichi.” first before discarding a tile and
placing a riichi bet (see also 3-4 below).
3-3: Wait before calling chii ∗
When calling chii, wait for 1 second before uttering the word.
On the other hand, when calling pon / kan / ron you must do so
immediately. If someone says chii first (after taking 1 second), other
players should not be able to call pon / kan / ron. Pon, kan, and ron
should take precedence only if calls are made concurrently.1
3-4: Calling riichi ∗∗∗
The procedure to call riichi is as follows.
- Say “Riichi.”
- Discard a tile, rotating it sideways.
- Confirm that no one calls ron on the discarded tile.
- Place a riichi bet.
The most important point is that you say “Riichi.” before discarding
a tile. This is because the opponents’ choice of what to do with your
1 EMA rules allow a pon call to occur even after a chii call is made. I think this
should be changed.
A.4. WINNING A HAND 255
discard (i.e., whether or not to call pon on it, etc.) may be different if
you riichi.
A.4 Winning a hand
3-1: Vocalize clearly ∗∗∗
When winning a hand, you need to say ron or tsumo clearly. It is
also OK to say “mahjong” instead.
3-2: Don’t put the winning tile into the hand ∗∗∗
When winning by tsumo, don’t place the winning tile inside the
hand. Just place the winning tile right next to your hand. This is im-
portant because scores (yaku and minipoints) may be different de-
pending on which tile was the one to complete the hand.
3-3: Don’t take the winning tile ∗
When winning by ron, some European players grab the winning
tile and place it right next to their hand. Don’t do it. You should re-
frain from doing this to prevent (the appearance of) cheating. People
do this on TV, but they do so only for the camera.
3-4: Sort the tiles before revealing your hand ∗∗
You need to sort the tiles before showing your hand, so that other
players can easily check your hand’s score and possible furiten vio-
lation. Do not split the hand into constitutive groups. Doing so may
actually obstruct other players’ vision.
3-5: Declare yaku ∗∗
After revealing your hand, reveal the ura dora if you have called
riichi. You need to show the ura dora to all the other players even
when you don’t get any of them. This is to make sure that you are
256 APPENDIX A. MANNERS FOR OFFLINE PLAYING
not underreporting your hand value.2 After that, you should declare
all the yaku in your hand.3
3-6: Declare the score ∗∗∗
You need to declare the score of your hand yourself. It is OK
to get other players’ help on scoring, but you need to be the one to
declare it. When declaring tsumo scores, say the payment by a non-
dealer first, followed by the payment by the dealer. For example,
when declaring a 300-500 tsumo, say “Three hundred, five hundred.”
rather than “Five hundred, three hundred.”
3-7: Confirm the score ∗
When one player wins a hand, the other three players must also
see the hand and confirm the declared score. You should also check
if the hand was not furiten.
3-8: Payment ∗
A standard stick set would include four kinds of sticks, as follows.
100 point 1000 point
5000 point 10000 point
In addition to these, I suggest you prepare a set of four 500-point
sticks. I usually use green 100-point sticks that I bought in Japan,
2 It may sound odd, but there are situations where you have strategic incentives
to underreport your hand value. Trying to avoid bankruptcy of another player
when you are still ranked second or third is one obvious example. For another
example, players may not want to change the placements of other players in a
game if they are competing for ranking at a tournament. Underreporting the
hand value is usually illegal.
3 Some people may say that you only need to declare the score and that declaring
yaku is either unnecessary or even undesirable. I personally think it’s unnec-
essary, especially when playing with experienced players. However, given that
not everyone at the table can quickly identify all the yaku in another player’s
hand, it would be prudent if the winner declares all the yaku.
A.4. WINNING A HAND 257
which look like: .4 If you don’t have any green sticks,
you can use anything (e.g., coins, poker chips, etc.) for substitute.
Having 500-point sticks would make stick payment much more effi-
cient.
To streamline the payment, you should try to minimize the num-
ber of sticks exchanged on the table. Here are two examples of effi-
cient method of payment.
3900 ron
When a player wins a 3900 hand, the player who discarded the
winning tile gives the winner one , and the winner
gives back 1100 points with one and one .
5200 tsumo
When a player gets a 1300-2600 tsumo, the most efficient and beau-
tiful method of payment is as follows. - The first non-dealer (the one sitting closer to the winner) pays
the exact amount with one and three . - The second non-dealer gives the winner 1500 with
one and one . - The winner gives back the second non-dealer 200 with
two of the three he got from the first, which en-
sures that the second non-dealer pays 1300. - The dealer gives the winner 5100 with one and
one .
4 The image of 500-point stick was created by someone known as “381654729”
(Tenhou ID: 零面聴). I thank him for letting me use it in this book.
258 APPENDIX A. MANNERS FOR OFFLINE PLAYING - The winner gives back the dealer 2500 with the two
he got from the two non-dealers and the one he
got from the second non-dealer, which ensures that the dealer
pays 2600. - After all the exchanges, what remains on the table is exactly
5200 with one and two .
For this to work out perfectly, everyone needs to be on the same page.
It may sound complicated at first, but it sure feels good when the four
players manage to make it happen together.
3-9: Exhaustive draw ∗
In case of exhaustive draw, the dealer should be the first one to
declare whether or not he has a ready hand. If he wants to declare
ready, he has to show the hand and say “Tenpai.”; if not, say “Noten.”
or “Not tenpai.” without showing his hand. Then, South, West, and
North declare tenpai or noten in that order.
The order of declaration could make a difference in some (rare)
occasions. Declaring first is advantageous in some instances and dis-
advantageous in others. Suppose the dealer is ranked first in South-
4, having 2900 more points than the second ranked player. Suppose
further that he has a ready hand. In such a situation, the dealer has
an incentive to make a declaration after the second ranked player. If
the second ranked player declares noten, the dealer would want to
declare noten to terminate the game.5 On the other hand, if the sec-
ond ranked player declares tenpai, the dealer would want to declare
tenpai and continue the game. This is because the induced point dif-
ference in case of tenpai–noten is either 3000 (2-player tenpai) or
5 Continuing the game means he runs the risk of losing the placement bonus
(10000 in EMA rules) and the oka points (if any).
A.4. WINNING A HAND 259
4000 (1-player tenpai or 3-player tenpai), each of which exceeds the
current point difference of 2900.
Declaring first can be advantageous only when playing with a
bankruptcy rule. Suppose one player is at the verge of bankruptcy,
having only 1300 points. Suppose further that both he and the first
ranked player have already declared noten. In such a situation, if the
second ranked player declares tenpai first, the third ranked player
would have to declare noten even when he has a ready hand. Oth-
erwise, the fourth ranked player goes bankrupt and the game is ter-
minated.
Because of these advantages and disadvantages of declaring first,
we should stick with the predetermined order for the sake of fairness.
Chapter B
Further readings
B.1 Books on riichi mahjong
If you are a complete beginner, I recom-
mend: - Jenn Barr. 2009. Reach Mahjong: The
Only Way to Play. Huntington Press.
There are a few English books on WWYD
(What would you discard) problems.
Working on WWYD problems would be a
good next step after finishing my book. - Takunori Kajimoto. 2001. Mahjong: Kaji Mahjong Special Train-
ing. - Takunori Kajimoto. 2008. Mahjong Discard Quiz.
- Takunori Kajimoto. 2011. Mahjong Threefold Quiz.
- Jenn Barr and Garthe Nelson (ed. Gemma Sakamoto). 2013. A
Riichi Mahjong Study Book. Reach Spirits Inc.
B.1. BOOKS ON RIICHI MAHJONG 261
Of these four books, I recommend the last one, written and edited
by three Western professional players with the Japan Professional
Mahjong League. The book contains WWYD problems and discus-
sions as well as quizzes about tile efficiency, waits, and score calcu-
lation.
Their WWYD discussions are a lot more multidimensional com-
pared with stylized hand examples introduced in my book. You
would find it interesting to see how Jenn and Garthe often disagree
about what they would discard. Even those players who share a sim-
ilar view on strategy principles can still disagree about exactly how
to apply these principles in a given situation. You would be able to
understand their WWYD discussions much better after completing
my book first.
Scott D. Miller, a riichi player from Texas, has recently published
two books on the history, culture, rules, and variants of riichi mahjong.
I have not had a chance to read them, but both of them seem to be a
fun reading. - Scott D. Miller. 2012/2015. Mahjong From A To Zhú. (2nd edi-
tion) Lulu.com - Scott D. Miller. 2015. Riichi Mahjong: The Ultimate Guide to the
Japanese Game Taking the World By Storm. Lulu.com
262 APPENDIX B. FURTHER READINGS
B.2 Online resources
Osamuko: http://osamuko.com/
Osamuko is one of the most extensive online mahjong blogs in
English. There are quite a few blog entries there, and many of them
are very good. In particular, I find the articles by a contributor named
UmaiKeiki very useful.
Osamuko’s Facebook group: Osamuko's Mahjong Group | Facebook
There is a Facebook group page hosted by one of the contribu-
tors of Osamuko. It is a closed group, but I suppose anyone can join
the group by sending a request to the administrator. Group mem-
bers frequently post their play records from Tenhou and ask for other
members’ opinions on them.
Mahjong on Reddit: Reddit - Dive into anything
Reddit is a social bookmarking website that allows users to add,
annotate, edit, and share bookmarks of web documents. It has a
lively community dedicated to mahjong where you can discuss mahjong
related topics.
Mahjong News: http://mahjongnews.com/
The website is updated regularly with information on upcoming
mahjong tournaments (Riichi, MCR, and online), their results, and
newly released mahjong books, among other things.
Japanese Mahjong Wiki: http://arcturus.su/wiki/
This website provides an encyclopedic information on rules, ter-
minology, and strategies of riichi mahjong. It is a wiki page so anyone
can edit the contents.
B.2. ONLINE RESOURCES 263
Reach Mahjong of New York: http://mahjong-ny.com/
This website not only serves as the hub webpage for players in
the US but also provides quite a few useful resources, including a
terminology list, beginner’s guide, and quizzes about tile efficiency
and scoring.
Just Another Japanese Mahjong Blog:
Just Another Japanese Mahjong Blog
This website has a number of articles on Riichi theories, trans-
lated from Chinese.
ReachMahjong.com: http://reachmahjong.com/en/
This website is run by the professional players who wrote the
aforementioned Riichi Mahjong Study Book. You can find more WWYD
problems and discussions, strategy guides, and reports on tourna-
ments, among other things.
EMA: http://mahjong-europe.org/
This is the official webpage of the European Mahjong Associa-
tion. You can find information on rules, upcoming tournaments,
tournament results and observer reports, and player rankings.
UKMA: http://ukmahjong.co.uk/
This is the official webpage of the UK Mahjong Association. You
can find information on the UK Riichi Open tournaments and the
affiliated clubs, among other things.
Index
1-away (1-shanten), 52
golden 1-away, 118, 185
perfect 1-away, 62, 66, 113, 124,
126, 192, 213
side & side 1-away, 126
2-away (2-shanten), 52
perfect 2-away, 62
3-away (3-shanten), 52
Arcturus, vii
Barr, Jenn, iv, 260, 261
blockade (kabe; wall), 198
bulging float (nakabukure), 72
chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs), 134, 150,
172
chow (shuntsu; run), 52
dama, 176, 188, 193
double closed (ryankan) shape, 66,
114
EMA, iii, 24, 32, 35, 48, 216, 235, 263
fanpai (yakuhai; value tiles), 51
five-block method, 85
fu (minipoint), 50, 77, 143, 153
Fukuchi, Makoto, v, 84
genbutsu, 180, 188
group (mentsu), 52
honitsu (Half Flush), 128, 222
honor tiles (jihai), 51
insta-riichi, 166, 188
ittsu, 120, 171
jihai (honor tiles), 51
kabe (blockade; wall), 198
kan (kong), 52, 225
kantsu (quad), 52, 225
Katayama, Masayuki, v
kotsu (set; pung), 52
mentsu (group), 52
minipoint (fu), 50, 77, 143, 153
nakabukure (bulging float), 72
nobetan (stretched single) shape, 70,
115
oka, 23, 32
Osamuko, viii, 197, 262
otakaze (valueless wind), 51
how to discard, 234
pair (toitsu), 58
pinfu, 125, 149, 152, 166
protorun (taatsu), 55
pung (kotsu; set), 52
quad (kantsu), 52, 225
ready (tenpai), 52
264
INDEX 265
run (shuntsu; chow), 52
ryankan (double closed) shape, 66,
114
sanshoku, 111, 167, 168, 170, 185, 227
set (kotsu; pung), 52
shuntsu (run; chow), 52
simple tiles (tanyao hai), 50
skipping shape, 74
stretched single (nobetan) shape, 70,
115
suji, 195, 215
suji trap, 173, 175, 179, 182, 186,
196
taatsu (protorun), 55
tanyao hai (simple tiles), 50
tenpai (ready), 52
terminal tiles, 50
tile acceptance (ukeire), 52
toitoi (All Pungs), 134
toitsu (pair), 58
ukeire (tile acceptance), 52
UKMA, 263
uma, 23
value tiles (fanpai; yakuhai), 51
valueless wind (otakaze), 51
how to discard, 234
waits, 76, 176
closed wait, 55, 76, 177
dual pon wait, 76, 177
edge wait, 55, 76, 177
semi side wait, 76, 177
side wait, 55, 76, 177
single wait, 76, 177
stretched single wait, 76, 177
yakuhai (fanpai; value tiles), 51
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