December 17, 2006
Garthe's first Column
Mahjong Mahjong Mahjong. So you think you want to dive into the exciting, seedy, seething, frothing at the mouth world of Mahjong. Well I'll tell you: watch out. Few escape unscathed. My ex-girlfriend regrets ever explaining the rules to me as the game achieved near girlfriend status for me after about 10 minutes. There is no known cure, besides a new girlfriend, but as afflictions go it's a pretty good one.
How do you play, you may ask. The game is basically Rummy, but with Chinese tiles. In Mahjong, you'll have 13 tiles in your hand, and your completed hand will usually have 14: 4 3-tile combinations 3-tile runs or groups (3 or 4-of-a-kinds) and one pair. However, you need to make certain combinations of runs and sets in your hands to be able to win. We call those hands "Yaku" in Japanese, or "hand-points" in English. As soon as your hand qualifies for at least one "hand-point" you can Mahjong (go out)(the Japanese is あがる).
So that's the game in a nutshell, and Jenn and I have put this site together to help you wade through the rest of the quagmire. You'll need to remember a few odd rules here and there but the starting point is going to be remembering the hand points. This week, we'll start with two of the simplest, Value Tiles and Simples (inside hand), to make it easy for you to put some winning hands together. A word of warning however: you'll have a hard time quitting, once you start. So I recommend finishing your work now. There's a lot of fun ahead of us.
Value Tiles: 1 Hand Point
Value Tile is probably the simplest and easiest to create of all the hands. It is simply a hand including one set of 3 of the same value tiles in your hand. It is also immune, meaning that you may steal (chow, bump, kong) any of your hand’s tiles from other players’ discards including the value tiles themselves. Value tiles consist of the 3 Dragon tiles: Red, White and Blue; the current wind for the round: east or south; and your seat wind for the current hand. A set of 3 of any of those tiles would constitute a value hand.
Remember, all Value Tiles are Honors but not all Honors are Value Tiles!
(click on the images to view clearly)
Value Tiles ex.1
Round: East
Seat: South
Since the Round-Wind is East, East counts as a Value Tile in this Hand.
Value Tiles ex.2
Round: South
Seat: North
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Since the Red Dragon is a Value Tile and this hand has 3, it is a Value Hand. However, since it is the Round-Wind is South and the Seat-Wind is North, West is NOT a Value Tile and having three would not give you a hand point. Therefore, to go out on someone else's discard, the discard must be the Red Dragon.
All Simples: 1 Hand Point
Also known as an Inside Hand or Two thru Eight (タンヤオ in Japanese) is also quite simple. It is just a hand consisting entirely of tiles between 2 and 8. In other words, it contains no 1, 9 or Honors. In most games it will also be immune, meaning again you can steal from other players as they discard.
All Simples Hand ex.1
Round: East
Seat: East
All Simples Hand ex.2
Round: South
Seat: West
16 comments:
One can finish relatively fast with a Tanyao (All Simple) hand, especially if the player to the left cooperates and gives a lot of middle tiles. Still, stealing tiles is allowed (most of the time). So, I guess, against good players, it's too obvious to work often.
Do you have some statistics how often players succeed with a Tanyao hand? Is it easier to win that way than with other "easy" 1 yaku hands (riichi, pinfu, yakuhai...)?
I'm not Garthe, but judging personally from the various Japanese mahjong games on the PS2 and emulators, "Tanyao", "Pinfu", "Riichi" are approximately very common.
I have seen those 3 yakus occur together by the opponents so many times, and even I try to get that hand because it assembles quickly.
Japanese people(computers) seem to love concealed hands...
Walter,
I don't have any specific statistics right now, but I will definitely look for some (since Garthe is having problems replying himself this week..)
The All Simple hand is quite obvious and for that reason it is a good idea to only steal the hard parts of your hand. Stealing a double wait (4 or 7 for a 5-6 set) is not as good as stealing on a middle wait (5 for a 4-6 set) since you want to save the easiest part for last.
Also, keep your stealing to a minimum so as to not give hints to your wait.
John,
That's right, Reach, Simples, Peace is one of the most commonly occuring hands. Traditionally Japanese players played way more concealed, but lately, especially with the popularity of Red Lucky tiles, people tend to us a non-concealed All Simple hand a lot more!
So sorry to be so late in responding, but Merry Christmas, and thanks for your comments!! It's good to see people here!!
I was thinking it would be good to have some statistics but wasn't really sure where to go to find them. I just realized, however, I can use my own, if I may elevate my status to that of average mahjong player. However however, I won't be able to get them til I get back to Japan and can log back into Fight Club. If I were to pull some numbers out of a crevasse, I'd say at least 25% of winning hands contain Tanyao (Simples) and probably another 15-20% contain Yakuhai.
It's true that it's hard not to notice what you're doing when you're stealing middle tiles one after another. However, unless you have dora in your hand, it's going to be difficult to make the hand worth anything more than the very basic minimum of 1000 or maybe 2000 points. You're not exactly striking fear into the hearts of your opponents. More often disdain, "Oh another one of those cheap hand jerk offs!" is probably what they'll be thinking.
The reason people tend to prefer the concealed hand is the possibility of more points being added to it. Stealing any tiles immediately means you won't be able to add Reach, Peace (Pinfu) and a host of others that can quickly turn your hand into a game winning monster. Add to that the possibility of getting the dora underneath the dora when you win on Reach, and you can see why the concealed hand is so attractive. "Men-tan-pin" means "Menzen Reach, Tanyao, Pinfu" and you'll hear it a lot at score counting time if you play much mahjong in Japan.
However, as Jenn points out, the increase in dora (the red lucky tiles) has increased incentive to win as quickly as possible which is why unconcealed Simples hands are becoming more common.
Mahjong is all about finding that happy medium between going out on a hand as fast as possible however cheap it is, taking the time to put together a multi-yaku barnburner, or throwing in the towel and just playing defense.
May all your atama be ura-dora
Garthe, about the "red fives" (akapai/akago), is it four pieces used, 2 in "manzu" (craks) and 1 each for "pinzu/souzu" (dots/bams)?
I agree with your wish "May all your atama be ura-dora" in a sense. But when I have a revealed hand and waiting on a pair, I see if I can make the pair worth 2 doras, "Dora Machi", securing a 3 fan hand.
Wow, great comment there. Although, I have to say, let's try to stay away from 'romaji' as much as possible to help out those who are just learning or who will soon be just learning please (^^
In a less advanced game, or in a game with a lot of extras (extra Drags for Reach and Red Drags) waiting on a Lucky Dragon can be a great thing. In a more advanced game however, like JPML's A-Rules, waiting on a Drag (lucky dragon), especially on an open hand, is usually a lost hope...
I found my stats for Mahjong Fight Club (you can bring it up on your phone Garthe!).
So, however sorry mine may be, here are my stats since April (keep in mind that I was in Taiwan for 5 months, not playing). I looked up the Hand Points that I have won hands with and for 158 Reaches I have 41 instant-wins (ippatsu). In addition I have 83 Peace-Hands and 72 All-Simple hands. Also, 84 concealed draws.
It doesn't say how many times I have won hands but that is out of 302 games, mostly East-only games with a few East-South games and a few 3-player games.
Garthe, you are right: All Simple (Tanyao), if not combined with another winning combination, doesn't score a lot of points. For this reason, I tend to give it another purpose.
All Simple is more useful for "making the table turn faster". I use it when I want the South round to go by faster and finish the game, for instance, if I have a lead in score; or to remove the current dealer (oya) because I feel she's too dangerous at that position; or to simply change the pace of the game and keep my adversaries guessing my next move.
John, I'm maybe wrong, but I think only two or three Five Reds are used at once. Some players use the two Red Cracks (2 x 5 Crack), others one of each suit (1 x 5 Dots, 1 x 5 Bamboo, 1 x 5 Crack. Therefore, set makers provide all four Red Fives to satisfy both options; and also for aesthetics reasons, because it takes a multiple of four tiles to furnish a set in a pleasing, neat fashion.
But, today, a lot misinformed players, not knowing which ones to chose, started using all four Red Fives. This mistaken way slowly becomes the rule...
That is what I was told. And it makes sense to me.
Walter,
You're right, in home sets, there are two red 5 of Grands. But, for some reason, in Mahjong Parlors in Japan, there are usually two red 5 of Dots. I'm not sure why, but I think they actually get so many tables that they get lots of extra tiles and maybe even 2 of each 5.
Although it might have been considered a mistake to use all of the red 5's at first, I would think it was also done to make things more exciting. Using Instant Wins on Reach, Hidden Drags (ura-dora) and red 5's increases the gambling aspect of the game and leaves more to luck than a more pure version of the game.
Whoa, look at all the comments! I didn't realize people were still posting on this column. So yeah, Happy New Year!!
Indeed, Walter, All Simples (Tanyao) is perfect for speeding up the game when you already have the lead and just want to get to the end faster.
Regarding John's red 5 comment, like Jenn says, most parlors in Japan will tend to use two red 5 of dots if they double any of them up. But actually, I've found that most seem to have just one of each so there are only a total of 3 on the table at a time. At the Parlor I play at recently, the gold 5 is bamboos, and it is there in addition to the other red 5 of bamboos.
Speaking of of the gambling aspect, one other tile that you sometimes find in parlors these days is the Diamond White dragon. About as specialized as a tile can get, it's usually just the white dragon, but if it's the first tile drawn after declaring reach, it becomes your winning tile, no matter what you were waiting for. Sort of a wild card. I've seen it happen once so far. Not that much of a factor.
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