Suji and the 1/3 Shape - Riichi Mahjong Strategy 

Yes, there are some resources out there to help. Apologies for the difficulty following- I realized this was an issue in newer videos, so I have been putting a translation guide in the corner, but that doesn't help for the older ones. The dictionary I would typically use is this one: mahjong-ny.com/features/terminology/

@@Crow77 thank you. it seems like the vocabulary is important for any more in depth strategy

Yeah, it is one of those things that people tend to pick up and use, because there aren't good translations for it, like suji or kabe. Even some yaku translations are horribly inconsistent. Most people know ippatsu as "one shot", but WRC's recent sheet lists it as "Unbroken". Which, don't get me wrong, is a pretty metal name for a yaku, but it just adds to the confusion between different terms.

Absolutely! The only real difference between the two when looking at hand efficiency and reading is the interaction with terminal dora, in general.... A 9 dora sitting in your hand is harder to use than a 1 dora, because the dora indicator takes up a tile near it, but for a 1, it does not.

@@Crow77 oh wow, very good point, I wouldn't have thought of that difference.

What? You are cutting a ryanmen over a kanchan by doing that, throwing away tile efficiency and possible value (pinfu) for a gain of... What, exactly? I don't understand what you are claiming to be the benefit of this discard pattern.

@@Crow77 This could be local thing or even our groups game sense where I play Mahjong, but. Usually people tend to keep their 3-4-5-6s in their hand just in case. 5s being biggest offenders since they can net you easy reds. Also 3-4-5 and 5-6-7 are the edges where the red 5 can reach. Tanyao is pretty easy hand to form and rarely those hands contain 8s (mans, pins or bamboos) (as their last winning tiles) in their hand unless they are going to Chantai. Also edge waits are something that people don't see coming when they discard. Also our groups rarely throw riichis since at that point everyone gets too defensive and the game holds still until the round ends. This also means I have had to discard my ryanpeeko just to get people to discard without that much thinking. If you make your opponents think, then you can't win. And, what do I gain? a 1000 - 3900 points by winning the rounds rather than wait there with my dead riichi.

@@RiverbrookTsodmi The idea is fairly simple and has nothing to do with other people's hands. 13s only accepts a 2 to fill. At most, that is 4 tiles. Because it only waits on one type of tile, we are screwed over if someone has a triplet of it. On the other hand, the 78 of bamboo fills with a 6 and a 9. That's 2 types of tiles, which means there's a maximum of 8 left, double that of the 13 bamboo middle tile wait. It also means that since there's two types of tiles, we're less likely to get messed up if someone has a triplet of one. Lastly, keeping the double sided waits guarantees that we get pinfu, a yaku worth 1 han. So cutting the 1 and 3 of bamboo ensures we get value and a good final wait that is more resistant to the board state/people's tendencies. Try not to overthink what other player's are doing or you will end up missing the obvious things to guesswork.

@@RiverbrookTsodmi I understand that you have opinions about how your group plays. But you have to understand, even with your description of your play group, it absolutely doesn't change the decision here. Based on your analysis alone, the 9s will still come out if players hold onto 3-4-5-6. The aka5s can be integrated just as easily with a 7 as with a 3. If you truly do play with such an emphasis on your perception of this table, you are going to miss out on incredibly obvious efficiency improvements - half the time from here, you draw the 6 or 9 yourself, and do not need someone to discard it into you. And if people truly do fold as defensively as you describe, it should be easily abusable. Play for maximum efficiency, riichi everything, and have all the time in the world to tsumo. At minimum - based on your description - you will be netting 2k a round just from noten payments, and that's not accounting for the tsumos you'll get. So, to summarize - to beat the group you described, play super efficiently, fold at appropriate times, and tsumo them to hell and back. And the best way to do that is to follow basic efficiency theory - as I have laid out in this video.

@@erikkarhan9199 People form habits out of their playstyles. I've been playing Riichi Mahjong since 97. When you play certain way you tend to do that style of play a lot which results you to think less actively. Which means you tend to throw tiles you redeem "optimal" overall. Now if you reverse this and think that people have only couple of seconds (tops 5 - 7 sec) to throw a tile during a game. (Pausing when you draw makes you look suspicious) That means you need to think your hand before throwing and have time to see what others have on the pond. (Which would be around 8-12 sec if I'm generous) Let's say that you always did the 2 (pin, bamboo, man) throw and I knew for playing with you that you favor that since you know that 7-8 have "more targets", well I am now making my hand adjusted to your playstyle. Since you don't throw them, why would I aim for them. As a sidenote: Imagine now thinking all of that what you typed during the game. Would that throw you off-guard during the game? Since people who don't concentrate on the main meal, gets usually most screwed at the end. Getting you to think more of your own play cuts your thinking seconds by 3 - 5 seconds.