How to read discards

[Nanaman]

Hey everyone, my name is Erik and I\'m new here :) Been interested in mahjong for some time; admittedly from watching Akagi and Legendary Gambler Tetsuya way back but nevertheless I found the game interesting and fun so this last month I started for real, checking up how to play and such.

I feel that I\'ve got a so-so grasp on the hands and the general goings of the game (except the messy scoring I guess :P), but something I haven\'t grasped as good is how to read discards. I kind of understand that you should use the tiles discarded as a clue to see what the opponents hands are because of furiten and I\'ve been trying to but it\'s just hard sometimes. It feels like most of the time I\'m just playing and waiting for discards relevant to my hand because the other discards doesn\'t make sense to me. Maybe I just need to play some more? Anyhow, if you\'ve got any tips on how to read discards, do tell, I\'m all ears :)

[Monadology]

http://www.osamuko.com/2009/02/18/umaik ... -and-suji/
http://www.osamuko.com/2009/02/23/defen ... -dama-ten/
http://www.reachmahjong.com/home/index. ... Itemid=127
http://www.reachmahjong.com/home/index. ... Itemid=127
http://www.reachmahjong.com/home/index. ... Itemid=127
http://www.reachmahjong.com/home/index. ... Itemid=127

All of the above are articles written on discard reading. That\'s how I learned, and I highly recommend reading all of them. The Osamuko ones use some Japanese terms for waits.

Ryanmen = Open Wait (e.g. 23 waiting on a 1 or 4 to complete it on either side)
Shanpon = Dual Pon wait (e.g. 2266 waiting on a 2 or a 6 to make one a Pon and the other a head)
Tanki = Pair wait (e.g. 2 waiting on another 2 to complete your pair)
Kanchan = Closed wait (e.g. 13 waiting on a 2 to complete the sequence)
Penchan = Edge wait (e.g. 12, waiting on the 3 to complete the sequence)

Enjoy!

P.S. I don\'t remember what the Japanese terms for waits are, I just went over the article and quickly figured it out through context/process of elimination. Please correct my terminology if I made a mistake.

[nazrath]

Ohh thanks!

I was also wondering about this.

[July]

Cool links, I hadn\'t read the Osamuko stuff before.

[HotelFSR]

Good site.

Just remember there\'s one key thing not mentioned there:

You can only read ura/matagi/senki suji and such from discards that came from the hand. You sometimes need to keep an eye on whether tiles are discarded on the draw or not, because that gives them a different meaning.

The furiten suji, however, you can read from any discard.

[gezzar]

good point on the discards

must take a heck of a lot of concentration to remember whether individual discard is from the hand or the draw in live play... much easier in ron2 with the indicator lol (kind of like a cheat, but its hard to tell whether a discard is from the hand or not without it)

[Barticle]

P.S. I don\'t remember what the Japanese terms for waits are, I just went over the article and quickly figured it out through context/process of elimination. Please correct my terminology if I made a mistake.

There´s a very useful list of Japanese terms on the same site, complete with kanji / katakana spellings. I´ve been using it a lot.

http://www.osamuko.com/2009/04/03/big-l ... rminology/

...and - as you might´ve guessed from the lack of corrections - your deductions are correct!

PS Welcome to the site, Erik. :)

[HotelFSR]

Gezzar:

It\'s actually not that hard to notice the hand discards, especially in real life or a site like Janryumon where you can see the slower-paced movement of the tiles.

Bear in mind you don\'t need to be watching them constantly, just keep and eye on suspicious opponents, especially mid-late game when the most important hand-discards are going to come out.

Eventually you get into the habit of \'keeping track\' of each opponent as you play, getting some idea of their hands as the game progresses. Don\'t forget that you have to combine discard reading with a process of elimination considering furiten, dead waits, etc.

Also Erik, reading discards is not something you really need to focus on when learning the game.

[Live]

Also Erik, reading discards is not something you really need to focus on when learning the game.

In your opinion, what us beginners should focus on? :)

[HotelFSR]

I\'m sure a lot of people will help you out around here.

My two cents are:

focus on attacking. i.e. how to make the best discards to complete your hand. use the best waits and make as many two-sided ones as possible, discard honors and terminals, etc.

do as many WWYD questions as you can find.

count how many possible tiles could improve your hand at every turn, pick your most flexible options and watch the board for dead tiles.

finally, count how many steps to ready your hand is each turn and fold when your hand is sucking/your opponents hands are far ahead- especially late game!

[Live]

I\'m sure a lot of people will help you out around here.

My two cents are:

focus on attacking. i.e. how to make the best discards to complete your hand. use the best waits and make as many two-sided ones as possible, discard honors and terminals, etc.

do as many WWYD questions as you can find.

count how many possible tiles could improve your hand at every turn, pick your most flexible options and watch the board for dead tiles.

finally, count how many steps to ready your hand is each turn and fold when your hand is sucking/your opponents hands are far ahead- especially late game!

Thank you. :)
I\'ll keep trying to improve my attack.

[Nanaman]

Thanks for all the help! Forgot to check in the thread until now so I haven\'t done any practicing on the discards, but I will :) Will come back later for more questions as soon as I need it.