Hikkake reach

[Shirluban]

Well, it\'s not a rule of the game, but there\'s a style of playing in Japan ("janki-ryu", I think?) where they take it on themselves to make discards in 3 seconds or less, never throw an honor on the first discard, never make a hikkake reach, and some other things.

I can understand the 3 second discard rule and no hikkake reach, but why never discard an honor on the first discard?

- If you discard an honor early, and if an opponent have already a maching honor pair, then you offer him a yaku and a quick path to win. If you wait and none else discard this honor -> danger, someone want it.
- Keeping honors generaly means keeping safe tiles to discard on later stage. An isolated honor can also turn into a nice "trap-wait".

Please note this is my personal guess about "why never discard an honor on the first discard".
This strategy can be a subject of controversy. Personaly, I don\'t do it.

[July]

So I don\'t think people are getting my question, probably because I mistakenly said it was a \'rule\'.

I don\'t know of any rules saying that doing the hikkake reach is illegal, but my question is why some people think of it as a bad move strategically.

[Tom Sloper]

my question is why some people think of [hikkake riichi] as a bad move strategically.

Any unique wait is not as strong as any two-way wait.
Your folks who vow not to do this and not to discard honors on the first discard are probably thinking beyond that, though. There\'s also the "sneakiness" of it. Saying riichi on a 3 when you\'re waiting for a 6 is kind of sneaky, since some folks might think the 6 is safe.
And lots of groups have rules or table rules against doing anything sneaky, especially if it brushes up against what someone might think is "safe."

[iandstanley]

I guess if your playing janki-ryu with 3 second discards then deliberately performing an hikkake reach could cheese some people off as they are having to consider their discards with very little lead time

[iandstanley]

Cool, I learned some new terms today!

Jen, Any chance of these being added to the RM Japanese Glossary?