Zero's Guide to Riichi/Reach Mahjong ~rules, points, and general discussion~

[KENTA]

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION!

YES!

[MZeroX]

yeah, that was pretty steep loss, lol. for some reason (i shit you not), my rng luck goes down the shitter whenever deviousj gets on. my tsumos are non-existent.

[Marth]

I'll be in and out of the 7776 lobby for most of today, if anyone wants to get a game going.

[MZeroX]

i'll probably lurk there, since the only thing i'm doing today is homework.

[MZeroX]

deviousj is on and willing to play, so if someone wants to hop on, that'd be great. or if two want to hop on, that'd be even better.

[Marth]

Sure.

...Onwards, to glorious defeat! :3

[Marth]

That went about as expected. Jesus, I still fail so hard. ;_;

[MZeroX]

you predicted it, man.

[Marth]

Because compared to just about anyone else, I'm damn bad. Why? I'm still figuring that part out.

[MZeroX]

discards, man. you only have control over what you drop.

[Marth]

AGAIN. WE GO AGAIN.

I will bash my head against this wall of mahjong-ness until I learn, or I will die from it!

@___@

[MZeroX]

basics:
if everyone is ponning everything, danger tiles are usually the ones that have no other appearances in the discard piles.
if everyone is maintaining closed forms and it seems like straights are being built, watch for numbers being dropped every three spaces apart (1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9).
Also try to relate what your discard piles look like generally to what others discard piles look like. If you think you see some sort of pattern giving away how the hand is being built, then test the waters--drop things that you think might be danger tiles, and if you end up discarding in, that that pattern might be of some use--of what not to drop next time.

[Marth]

Yeah, I'm learning that. Pond reading, wheeee~
Still, there are times when something I'd think would be damn safe and it ends up...not safe. XD

And I think I kinda figured out part of my problem:

Back when I first started playing mahjong, one of the first things I was advised to do was aim for riichi. However, I've recently found that, frankly, it seems to work far better if I hold off on it awhile, if indeed I riichi at all. I seem to have clung to the 'must riichi' bit too much, it would seem.

Any logic in that, or am I confused again?

[MZeroX]

when you're learning, you don't have any knowledge of yaku. riichi bestows your shitty yaku-less hand with a yaku, so you can ron shit. once you start getting yaku down, riichi becomes something you use less often, since you are no longer bound by your lack of yaku. riichi also forces you to get used to keeping your hands closed, which is a big part of riichi mahjong. so yeah, aiming for riichi when you're a total n00b is definitely good advice.

However, once you do get yaku knowledge, the restrictions on riichi can harm you. not being able to control your discards is one of the biggest restrictions. and in the same vein, you also can't change your hand if you happen to draw a tile that can alter your hand into a higher scoring one.

basically, when you don't know shit, it gives you a chance to win, which feels good if that chance comes to fruition. keeps you motivated to play. when you do know stuff, riichi becomes just another option, and it's a risky one. if you've built your hand well, riichi can be a pretty good option due to high reward, even with its risks.

[Marth]

Mmm, that's about what I thought. Still working on my yaku-fu, though.
Once or twice in that last match, I got ronned off of and couldn't do much about it as I had riichi'd. Saw it coming, but couldn't do much about it. -_-
Mmm, time for more I suppose. My head has stopped spinning and my arms have feeling in them again. ^_^'

[MZeroX]

noooooes. my come back suuankou didn't go through. all i needed was a tsumo...

[Marth]

Am I giving you all my bad luck, Zero?

[MZeroX]

oh hell no. my luck exponentially decreases whenever deviousj is involved. you're completely unrelated to that, lol.

[Marth]

Is that your way of saying you get stomped when he's around?

[MZeroX]

well, it does apply, but even in other things irl, my luck plummets to the shitter when he's around. unfortunate that he's one of my best friends and all, lol.