Greetings from a newbie with questions :)

[alban lusitanae]

Greetings Mahjong Masters: :)I am a newbie in the game and came for help.

I have always been fascinated by this game and have started to try to understand it since friday. Here\'s my progress:

- Learned all tiles
- Learned basic combinations.
- Played an arcade Mahjong game and after several tries on sunday managed to win games by Reach.

So I call myself an advanced begginer :woohoo:

Nevertheless, there are things I obviously don\'t understand and need the masters\' opinion.

The arcade game is obviously a one-on-one and according to what I can see by the commands, I can play the pieces, and have the following specials commands at my disposal: reach, bet, double up, take score, flip, small, big, last chance, pon, chi, kan and obviously ron.

Since I won by reach, I know the use of ron, but... how the heck do you win anythiong by stealing?! I mean I did kan, chi and pon, but... I can\'t win?

So tell me, what am I doing wrong? Can\'t we win by stealing? The reason why I\'m saying this is because I had to chis and the rest of the entire sequence, I draw the 14th piece for a win and... nothing happens. As in, it does not accept ron.

So go ahead, I stand in honor to receive the laughs for a more than likely newbie error a small review on how I can use the other commands will be nice as well, until I find a parlor to play. I do have 7 chinese shops near my home...

Cheers and thanks in advance.

Alban

[carl]

well, without saying what youre specific hand was that you couldnt\'t win with a ron, i can only guess that your hand wasn\'t worth enough to win. calling chis and pons will reduce the value of most hands. if you\'re going to call, make sure it\'s a specific hand that will still be worth 1 han even with the calls.

[oxoboxo]

One of the most common reasons you can\'t win when you steal is that you are real close to tanyao (a hand that only uses 2-8 number tiles of any suit, no honor tiles) but you have one pesky one or nine in your hand. If you pon a white-dra green-dra red-dra or your wind or the round wind, thats an obvious Han; if you want to chi however, you should try to go for a 2-8 all simples hand, a single suit hand, or a 1-9 straight in the same suit.

Tanyao (2-8)
2-crak 2-crak 2-bam 3-bam 4-bam 2-dot 3-dot 4-dot 6-crak 7-crak 8-crak 7-dot 7-dot

Honitsu (single suit/half flush)
1-crak 2-crak 3-crak 4-crak 4-crak 4-crak 6-crak 6-crak 7-crak 7-crak 8-crak 8-crak :east :east

Itsu (1-9 straight)
1-dot 2-dot 3-dot 4-dot 5-dot 6-dot 7-dot 8-dot 9-dot 6-crak 7-crak 8-crak 4-bam 4-bam

Compared to Chinese variations, you usually decide on what hand to go for early in the game; I remember playing mahjong once in China where everyone pon and chi\'d everything and I had no idea what hand they had, but because in riichi there are a specific number of hands, people can usually read what you are going for if you open your hand. Unless you have a starting hand that screams \"Pon me!\" it\'s usually better to keep your hand closed to keep your opponents from blocking your Dai-san-gens, san-shokus, tanyao/toi-toi, honitsu, etc.

[Shirluban]

Welcome Alban,

Maybe you will find an interest in reading a complete rule description.
You will find one at http://mahjong-europe.org/rules/ (!!! Make sure you look on the \"Riichi Mahjong\" section !!!).
You will also find one other on this site (http://www.reachmahjong.com/home/index. ... &Itemid=67).


As said, the common beginner errors are:
- Going for a no yaku hand (At riichi mahjong, a hand need at least one yaku in order to go out).
- Beeing furiten (it means, grossly, waiting an already discarded tile).


Feel free to ask for more.

[gemma]

Welcome! Thanks for posting! I\'ve been playing this game for several years now and I ask lots of silly questions so don\'t worry about that here! ;)

I hope you stay with us for much longer! Mahjong is truly a great game with a lot of depth. I\'m still finding new aspects to this game. It\'s pretty amazing!

Please consider coming to one of our meetups. Just to watch if you don\'t feel confident!

Speak lots more I hope! :D

[alban lusitanae]

Hi all

Thanks for the quick reply. I will many a list of sites with rules to read some hands. :cheer: Thx Gemma :)

@Carl

I remember I managed to steal 4 x Chi, having a green dragon and drawing a second one (for the finishing pair). Can\'t remember if I had any 1/9 runs on it (mostly 4 to 6 or 7) and had no 1/9 sequence I think. Was quite frustrating.

I\'ll try to Ron with some stealing. You say I need to havea hand good enough for Han? You mean I reach anything, bugt if I steal the hand has to be better, is that it? maybe an honor pair?

Cheers
Luis

[Monadology]

An honor pair won\'t be sufficient for the necessary Han. That\'s why the hand you described where you stole four times and had a green dragon pair couldn\'t win. Honor tiles count as \'End\' or \'Outside tiles.\' Since your hand mixed sets which were fully inside (2-8) with sets that were not fully inside (your dragon pair, maybe other runs) and you couldn\'t have a pinfu with a dragon pair (or any other valuable honor) nor could you Reach (since you stole), your oppurtunities for that one Han minimum were pretty much sealed off.

This is why Reaching is a great strategy for beginners. You can get at least the Han minimum without having to worry about memorizing a bunch of different hand combinations. Plus, it makes you play more patiently and carefully. Concealed play is an important part of Reach Mahjong.

A set of three dragons (pon) or three of your seat wind or the round wind will be necessary if you want a Han from honor tiles.

[alban lusitanae]

Man, am I a newbie in this... Have I got a lot to learn . It\'s fun though. Thx Mon.

I think I\'ll take Shirluban advice and check the sites, I clearly am lacking on the hands knowledge.

Let\'s face it... I don\'t even know how to work out the Kans... :(

Well, will post with more news. I feel happy though.
I managed to beat the arcade once for a 21000 with only 2 days of knowledge. :)

thanks and cheers

[alban lusitanae]

Oh btw Shirluban, I do know of the Furiben :D at least I have 50% extreme newbieness cleared XD

And I know the game where you took your pic from XD

Cheers

[Benjamin]

Welcome, Alban!

My advice for beginners is to not steal at all and reach everything. You wind up learning better play in the long run.

Oh btw Shirluban, I do know of the Furiben :D at least I have 50% extreme newbieness cleared XD
Cheers

Well, if you\'re going to call it "Furiben" then you might not quite have reached 50%...

[carl]

alban, heres a link to a 4 player game against AI that\'s that might be good practice.

http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/mahjong/mahjong_e.html

[deJENNerate]

Welcome Alban!

It\'s great to see you here and what a great name for Mahjong (^.^)v

Don\'t forget to check out our beginner\'s guide at ReachMahjong.com. There are 9 chapters and it will take you from the beginning and teach you how to play the game. Then you\'ll be able to adapt that to all the other rules you read.

Please come to our meet-ups like Gem said! We also have a discussion on Ron2 every other week so you can ask all your questions live in a chat.

You can get your Ron2 account to join our meet-ups here:
ReachMahjong.com official Ron2 tutorial

Don\'t forget to read our articles on ReachMahjong.com\'s homepage too. There are lots of pro\'s giving great tips and things.

[Tom Sloper]

how the heck do you win anythiong by stealing?! I mean I did kan, chi and pon, but... I can\'t win?

Hi Alban,
OK, so you understand "furiten" but the game still isn\'t letting you win? I wrote an FAQ on "but the game won\'t let me win" -- it\'s at http://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/yaku/yaku.htm. If you fully understand the furiten rules, then the only other possibility is that you\'re not making a yaku.

And I suppose I\'m bucking our esteemed hostess, but I object to the use of the term "stealing" except for robbing the kong. Why? Because firstly, assuming you\'re talking about taking a discard, it\'s not stealing -- since he threw it away, knowing full well that somebody might want it and take it. It\'s not stealing if you pick up trash that somebody threw away.
Secondly, people use the term to mean different things.
But now I\'ve gone astray from the main point, that being your question. Hopefully my FAQ and a reading of this website\'s beginner\'s guide will clarify things for you.

[alban lusitanae]

Hi again masters.

@ Benjamin

Point taken

* prepares to humbly let himself be slapped with a codfish by a nipon citizen for the language sacrilege.

@ Carl

Thank you very much :) appreciated

@ Jenn

Thanks a lot. :) The second part is mainly due to the fact I\'m portuguese. :) I\'m now going through that International Manual I\'ve been given the link. My head is exploding but I\'m learning. I will attend if I can. :)

@ Tom

I like your point of view, but I do believe there is a cultural taint on the game. Reach is the bet and gamble, and honorable side, whereas the stealing is the easy side, but it\'s harder and only the knowledgable can do it and get away with it. Mahjong is teaching you life, basically. :)
And what\'s with robbing the kong for exceptions? :)

I will see your faq for more tips.

BUT... Here\'s something I have for you. You have helped win a lot lately. I have won with stealing after some combinations. I thought I shared them with you. My respect to you all for the help :) Here goes (hope it works):

white-dra white-dra white-dra 6-crak 6-crak 6-crak 6-crak 4-bam 5-bam 6-bam red-dra red-dra red-dra green-dra green-dra

The White dragons and the kong was stolen
12000 points :)

:east :east :east :east 7-dot 8-dot 9-dot 4-crak 4-crak 7-bam 8-bam 9-bam green-dra green-dra green-dra

kong and circles stolen
8000 points :)

green-dra green-dra green-dra 7-dot 8-dot 9-dot 5-crak 6-crak 7-crak :east :east :north :north :north

Dragons stolen
2600 points :)

Please comment on my first stolen wins :)

Cheers
Luis

[alban lusitanae]

Hi again

I was playing the 4 players\' Mahjong that Carl sent me,
and it\'s very well done, I have to say. Thx Carl

The guy on my left won with Tsumo self pick concealed (1F),
Yaku-pai (1) and Dora (3F), for a 5 fan mangan.

Here\'s the hand:

4-crak 5-crak 6-crak 5-dot 6-dot 7-dot 7-dot 8-dot 9-dot 2-bam 2-bam :east :east :east

It was east 1, I was on North

The turned tile on the mountain (I think that\'s the name) was :north

question: what is the Dora here?

Cheers
Luis