I’m going to offer what I feel is a very obvious example of where a hand has multiple potential routes… We all have our biases and inclinations. Those sometimes lead us to be blind to options. Taking a step back and assessing yaku without the time pressure can be a useful exercise. I’ve ignored dora potential etc. and riichi is considered in the discussion of the hand shape yaku here. Option 1 The straight/ittsuu is the most obvious yaku or at least it’s likely the one your eyes are drawn to. Two of its sets are complete and you’re waiting for two tiles to complete it in its entirety. Value ..read more

You know your suji and your kabe. What next? Sotogawa is something that is occasionally discussed in Western theory circles but I’ve seen it misunderstood, too. Sotogawa literally means the outer side. Imagine the centre of the suit being at five, you move further out to the terminals. If you have a 4, the outer tiles are the 123. if it’s a 3, the outer tiles are 12. So far, so obvious. How can this be used to your advantage if you need to identify a safe(er) tile to avoid dealing in? Defence As with most defence (when you’re not playing completely safe), it’s about identifying whether there i ..read more

The worst situation! It could be seven pairs (chitoi), it could be all triplets (toitoi). It’s the Sophie’s choice of mahjong. Which way are you going to go? It’s a common problem. Here are some tips to help you make that judgement call. 1) Are at least two of your pairs value tiles? If you have more than two pairs of seat wind/round wind/dragons, just start calling, You’ve got value enough to get to three han plus with a toitoi hand and that easily beats a basic chitoi hand in terms of points. 2) Do you see flush potential? Flush and toitoi takes you to four han and is far superior to the poi ..read more

5 Block Theory is standard in Western riichi play. So what is 6 Block Theory? Let’s look at the hand from the 5 Block Theory article. That can be divided into 6 blocks. Rather than looking to reduce a block as we move to five groups, we look to retain one so instead choose to throw 3p or 4p from this shape and keep the less strong 12s shape. What are the benefits of the 6 Block strategy? The main benefit is that you can act with more flexibility to developments on the rest of the board whereas 5 Block theory can lock you into areas of suits. If a critical tile is kanned or ponned, effectivel ..read more

5 Block Theory is a pretty standard method of progressing your hand quickly and efficiently. If you’ve never heard of this theory before, you’ve probably naturally familiarised yourself with the basics already. It is the path of least resistance. Studying the theory itself, though, may help you really absorb it and guide you when the timer is ticking. The theory was already well popularised in the west by Daina Chiba’s book. All mahjong hands have to have four groups and a pair which equals five blocks. The material to build those five blocks are dealt to you in your initial hand. I won’t wind ..read more

Inspired by another of Kuroki-pro’s notes! If you read Japanese, subscribe here! A ‘poker face’ is a bit of a misnomer because if you’ve ever watched a poker game, there is a lot of emotion on those faces. Not all of it real and sometimes it only shows in between hands but there are plenty of opportunities for a poker player to tell the audience how they’re feeling. Professional-level mahjong on the other hand expressly discourages it. My view on the reasons for this are two fold: (1) Shared community cards in Texas Hold ‘em. That shared experience creates a more obvious forum for sharing of e ..read more

The scoring chart. Did you ever find a single mahjong player who said they liked it or even if they were okay with it? I’ve never found such a unicorn. The scoring chart is universally hated. It’s easy to blame online play for making it too easy to get by without really becoming too familiar with the score chart. I’ve found players of all skill levels and experience levels who are not comfortable with the score chart. It’s one of the dirty secrets of high level mahjong. If you’re sitting there anxiously worrying about scoring in events, you’re not alone. Dear reader, the scoring chart also mak ..read more

I’m still banging on about suji.     It’s a classic. Regular progression in the discards. Ura suji for my 2-4 wait in the first line of discards. Matagi suji in my second line of discards at the moment I reach tempai. If you’re struggling to get a grip on reading opponents discard pools, start taking screen caps of your own at relevant points. You’ll have a better insight into what was driving those discards. Once you’ve grasped that, it’s easier to reverse engineer it and apply it in your defence strategy ..read more

Move over unwieldy and imprecise Suji Trap. I want to popularise the Flush Trap! A glance at this discard pool and you would have to be thinking this is a flush hand. Take a look at my open calls and you would be feeling pretty confident I was going for a flush… A 6pin call followed by a green dragon call would suggest I was pushing for a flush hand. However… I don’t want to get into the ins and outs of atozuke (that’s where I’ve called before having a clear yaku), but as we have the rule, it allows for beautiful situations like this. I didn’t have nice wait shapes at the start but I did hav ..read more

It’s obvious you have to concentrate to be good at riichi mahjong - right? It’s so obvious we don’t talk about it… You’re stuck in a gully with your game and you immediately reach to game analysis and strategy discussions. However, first consider your concentration. Concentration can be particularly difficult when we’re playing online. A hundred and one things are all vying for our attention. Modern life has normalized constant multi-tasking. However, every little bit of your attention directed elsewhere is a drag on your game performance. Some signs that you’re not concentrating: 1) Realizing ..read more