立直

One of the things that intrigue me about the Japanese style of Mahjong is the Riichi system. If anything, it is a system which balances risk vs. reward. At the cost of 1000 points, you can declare Riichi, which basically gives you a win condition. Of course you can only do this if your hand is completely concealed, with the exception of a self Kan. Therefore, with Riichi, players will tend to be divided into two play styles, which I will shortly evaluate now.

1) The "Win Any Way Possible" players

Most beginners and those that are unfamiliar with Japanese Mahjong fall under this category. These are the players who don't care about points; only about winning, even with the worst hands imaginable. Sure it's fun to win, but half the fun of winning is the challenge. Playing Chicken or using the easiest win condition (Pon of a dragon, or seat/round wind) can get dull fast. Granted everyone starts in this category, but only those dedicated move on to the second category.

2) The "Win Elegantly" players

What do I mean by elegantly? I think it's just a word to encompass the players that go for complex hands, attempt to Riichi, pay attention to the Dora indicators, change their strategy based on the flow of the game, and in general, not just try to win, but to WIN.

Category 2 players will focus heavily on Riichi, since it changes the flow of the game completely. Let's review what Riichi does on a broad scale:

- Riichi player forgoes 1000 points
- They discard the tile that isn't part of a Tenpai wait
- They then discard any new tile they draw unless that tile grants a Tsumo

At first it may seem that declaring Riichi is a stupid thing to do. Not only do you LOSE points, but you also tell everyone you're in Tenpai, thereby changing the way they play (in the regard of what they discard, etc). In addition, you can't alter your hand, which in a sense makes it harder to win. Is that worth the "free" win condition? Most category 1 players would say no, while most category 2 players would say yes. What causes this distinction? That would be the mentality that each category player holds.

Since category 1 players are so obsessed with winning, they don't want to give their opponent any kind of "advantage" per se. Category 2 players know that even if the opponent knows they're in Tenpai, for the most part it won't alter their chances of winning.

But how is that so if the good player will change from being offensive (constructing their hand), to defensive (discarding safe tiles instead of focusing on their own hand)? Think about it. The defensive player has a much lower chance of winning, since they cater to you, the aggressive Riichi player. Even if you don't win, you're still in Tenpai, so you'll get most, if not all your points back.

One thing about Riichi I have neglected to mention until now, is that if you win, you get access to the Under Dora, which is basically a Dora indicator under the regular Dora indicator. If any Kans had been obtained during that game, then you get access to Under Dora up to the amount of regular Dora indicators. Basically, you double your Dora indicators. So even if the only win condition you have is Riichi, Dora can help boost your score.

Hopefully you (the reader) will now consider becoming a category 2 player. One last thing to keep in mind about Riichi is when to declare, and when not to. Most players will get very excited that they can declare Riichi (since it isn't something you can do every game obviously), and will automatically declare when they can. For the most part, this is a mistake. Two reasons for this:

1) No alteration of waits

Say you draw your next tile, and now you're in Tenpai, with an all concealed hand. Before deciding to declare Riichi, examine your waits. Your waits should always be in your favor. Consider things like:

- The pool, what has or hasn't been discarded
- Terminal waits
- Furiten

The first point is common sense; if the pool consists of 3 of the tile you are waiting for, then it is highly unlikely that you will get the last of that tile.

The second point is also common sense. If you have a 1 and 2, then you are stuck waiting on a 3. On the other hand, if you have a 2 and a 3, you can wait on either 1 or 4, which essentially doubles the chance of winning. Therefore, the best waits for Riichi are sequences with two ends, (such as the aforementioned) or two pairs of any tile. For the latter, this is a good wait, since most of the time there would be little correlation on your waits (You could be waiting on 1 Pin and North wind for example). It helps to prevent your opponents from predicting your wait.

The final point is something I've mentioned previously very extensively. Even if you have a 2 and 3 Pin, waiting on 1 and 4 Pin, if you had discarded 1 Pin at any point in the game, you cannot win if someone discards that tile. It doesn't stop you from declaring Riichi however; it merely lowers your chances of winning.

2) Duration of game

This is a no-brainer. It's best to declare Riichi as early as possible; that way there won't be many discards in your pool for your opponent to read safe tiles from. Declaring Riichi late game is a mistake, since not only do you only have a few rounds of discards to win off of, but your pool is massive, which makes it easy for your opponent to discard safe tiles.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is to use common sense. Riichi is a privilege that shouldn't be abused.