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I\'ve recently started playing East Only games on JanRyuMon and it got me wondering: what are the strategic differences with Hanchan?

Generally there is more luck in East Only games, but I started to realize certain benefits too. For example, the advantage of being final dealer is slightly less.

It can also be more fun because you\'ll spend less time in hopeless situations, since the game ends faster.

I\'ll post more as I play more. What are your thoughts?

For some reason east-south games always feel more than twice as long as east-only ones...?

One benefit of playing one-round games is that you don\'t have to remember/check what the round wind is, and if you\'re the dealer you always have double wind.

Yea i like east only because of the speed and dislike it because of the luck factor. Basically i really hate being north (it\'s the most detested place for me to sit ), and in east only games this hate is doubled up :P I mean i hate to be the last dealer and that every tile can be a chi to the east. Playing east only games has the advantage to teach you that every hand counts even a puny little 1000 points loss can be the end of you. Also the luck factor is bigger in east only but not that big so if you get hit by a bigger hand then even if you are in a full hanchan there is no coming back. So i think the most considerable advantage in east only is the speed and the heightened awareness level it requires.

Last dealer is the best seat, not the worst!

HotelFSR wrote:Last dealer is the best seat, not the worst!

For East Rounds this might not always be true since depending on the rules there are a lot of "tobi" (busting out).

On the other hand, especially in the JPML tournament rules and most tournaments, it can be tough to be the final dealer since there is now "agari-yame" (ending the game when you\'re in 1st place as the last dealer). It\'s more fair for everyone, but you have so many chances to be taken over by another player where as in the fast games the biggest advantage you have is to quit while you\'re ahead!

East-only is good practice for just going for it and getting the fastest hands. I like them a lot better, but it does get me out of practice for the full games.

Hey, when you guys want to sign up for Ron2 and Jan-ryu-mon, can you help us out by signing up with the links from:
http://reachmahjong.com/ja/

I think even if you get the free accounts it helps us out! Then we can make these forums and everything else better too! Spread the word. Thanks guys! Love ya!

On the other hand, especially in the JPML tournament rules and most tournaments, it can be tough to be the final dealer since there is now \"agari-yame\" (ending the game when you\'re in 1st place as the last dealer). It\'s more fair for everyone, but you have so many chances to be taken over by another player where as in the fast games the biggest advantage you have is to quit while you\'re ahead!

Hmm... I\'m confused.

Doesn\'t agari-yame make it *better* to be last dealer? You can suddenly jump ahead and quit without giving others a chance to rebound.

Or was it a typo when you said \"there is now agari yame\", did you mean \"there is NO agari-yame\"?

That would make more sense...

deJENNerate:
[quote] since there is now \"agari-yame\" (ending the game when you\'re in 1st place as the last dealer).

Ahhhhh!

This is supposed to be \"Since there is NOT \"agari-yame\"\"

We don\'t use it in JPML tournaments.

Also, most tournaments are timed, so Last Dealer is not usually advantageous. Pro League is not timed, so in that case I usually like 2nd to last Dealer best.

As last dealer, ever deliberately deal into a low-scoring hand just to end the game?

It\'s certainly a tactic often seen in contract bridge ... go for the lowest-risk minimum-success to ensure an overall win.

I can see this happening a lot in social games and those tournaments operated in a first-past-the-post-win style like a tennis tournament. A tournament that runs on the basis of highest score (like most mahjong tournaments and golf tournaments) after a set number of rounds is a lot less prone to this.

It can become far less common where to progress you have to not only win but by a good amount as for example your overall league position in JPML matters on how well you thrash your opponents and maintain a higher average points value.

If this is a concern with your regular players, try setting up an unofficial league, setting up a playing season and totalling uma on a session by session basis.

Incidentally, is there a Japanese name for the Agari Yame rule?

It´s one of the twenty optional rules in my new mahjong video-game but it seems to be labelled in kanji (based on my very limited Japanese and a dictionary) as \"houra todome\" - so \"winning-hand finishing-blow\"...?

\"houra todome\" - so \"winning-hand finishing-blow\"...?

This is read \"agari-yame\" in Japanese (^.^)v

Japanese Kanji is freakin\' confusing.:S haha. The \"houra\" is actually the Japanese version of the Chinese reading of the kanjis wa and ryou and the todome/yame kanji can be read as \"Yame,\" \"Tome,\" or \"Todome\"

So you got the right option there ;)

Okay, cool. Thanks Jenn. :)

In the game manual some of the less common kanji have the katakana spelling in a small font above the main text which makes it a lot easier to read, although in this case the katakana spelling is \"houra\"!

This is my first time working with kanji (and yes it´s very confusing!) but I think I´ve figured out all twenty rules (learning a few new ones in the process). For this one I (slowly) picked out the words \"dealer - final - hand - win - and - leader - situation - game - end\" in the description which sounded like Agari Yame. B)

I did get stuck on rule number 20 which is given the name Ryan Chahou (katakana reading again) which I assume is the rule which allows Double Ron? I know \"ryan\" means two (ryan han shibari, ryanmen, ryanpeikou, etc) and again \"hou\" refers to a win.

Am I also right in assuming that the kanji \"jan\" (the second half of majan) is used generally to refer to mahjong?

It appears quite often - of course a jansou is a mahjong parlour, but also the game uses \"jan chikara\" (mahjong strength/rank?) and also titles like \"jan ookami\" and \"jan tora\" - wolves and tigers.

I want to be a Mahjong Tiger when I grow up. :) (Tiger is my Chinese birthsign too, grrr!)

Hi Barticle,

(use Shift - JIS encoding?!)

Ryan Chahou (“ñ‰Æ˜a) is another term for the Double Ron rule and has the exact same function. Note that the first kanji “ñ is read as the \"Japanized\" reading of another kanji (—¼) which also means 2 in Chinese/Japanese.

The jan (雀) of 麻雀 on its own actually means sparrow and is pronounced "suzume" I think. However it's commonly used in terms referring to Mahjong, like the Jansou you mentioned.

The ma (麻) on the other hand actually means Hemp/Marijuana (and also numb in Chinese)　which can be used to smoke or make very strong rope fibres depending on the variety. I dunno why this Kanji isn't used as often in mahjong related terms though...

(use Shift-JIS)

As for playing in East Only games, I used to play on an online program called \"Ton Puu Sou\" (“Œ•—‘‘, East Wind Parlour) a lot.

What I like about East Only games is that they end quicker than East-South. For some reason I also feel that East-South takes more than twice as long to finish?!

You only have one chance at being dealer (instead of 2) so you have a tendency to try winning with fast cheap hands just to maintain dealer repetitions. However on Ton Puu Sou, the rule \"Kuitan\" (revealed Tanyao) was set to Nashi (no), so people instead were trying to win quickly via Yakuhai or simply a fast random Riichi.

I think East Only games are more for people who want fast action and not have to think so much in terms of long term strategy. Also it\'s harder to make a \"comeback\" if one of your opponents happens to screw you over with a direct \"Ron\" hit worth Mangan or higher unless you are blessed with a nice starting hand in one of the few hands remaining IMO.

Hi ZRL, and welcome to the site. Thanks very much for your reply. :)

The ma (–ƒ) on the other hand actually means Hemp/Marijuana (and also numb in Chinese)

How appropriate!

which can be used to smoke or make very strong rope fibres depending on the variety. I dunno why this Kanji isn\'t used as often in mahjong related terms though...

Heh. I knew that Jan meant sparrow but didn´t know the other. I like the idea of playing a game called Marijuana Sparrow! :lol: