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Hello,

I\'m a beginner, and I play very rarely, but I was rereading the mahjong fight club translation guides yesterday, and it got me wondering: why would you ever cancel the round when you have nine or more terminals or honor tiles, rather than try and go for one of the yakuman hands which requires them (I\'m thinking kokushi musou, for example).
Is there a good reason not to go for those hands?

Thanks,
Moah, platypus powaaa:

I wish I new the math required to give a better answer on this, but I had heard if you 10 single terminals and honors (with a possible single pair of them) then go for it otherwise don\'t.

I\'ve actually declared the Kyuushuu Kyuuhai abortive draw on Tenhou multiple times for strategic reasons.

For one, the trouble with going for Kokushimusou is that it\'s quite likely you won\'t even be tenpai at the end if you fail.

Let\'s say it\'s oorasu (the last hand of the match) and you\'re the dealer. You\'re in second place with 5,000 points less than first place and 1,000 points more than third place, and you draw 9 terminals.

Kokushimusou is still kinda a long shot with 9 terminals to start, and if you\'re not at least tenpai at the end of the round, the dealer button rotates, and in this case, the match would be over and you\'d be left in second place. Plus even if you were successful, with only 9 to start with, you\'re likely to take a long time to even get to a tenpai state, and you run the risk of first place being able to assemble an easy but low-scoring hand before then, or 3rd place being able to assemble a hand that would let him overtake you.

Thus in this scenario, I would declare Kyuushuu Kyuuhai in hopes of getting a better hand that would allow me to win with 3+ han.

The short version: In Riichi, there is much, MUCH more to consider than just your own hand, especially when your finishing rank is much more important than your actual score.

You\'d be surprised how frequently this comes up in 3p on Tenhou. Thus, my advice is from the 3p angle.

When you have a hand with 9+ unique terminals, odds are, you dont stand much of a shot at making hands besides chin-rou-tou(all terminals), hon-rou-tou(terminals w/ honors), or Kokushi. and it\'s going to take you a LOT of draws to do it.

9 times out of 10 I\'ll call the abortive draw.

The most recent one time I didnt I was rewarded with insanely lucky draws and had Kokushi by the 6th draw. It also helped that I had just played into a sanbaiman, and could REALLY use the points to get back into the game. I still ended up in 2nd, sadly.

For a 4p perspective, your odds are even worse. ...Seemingly. I would only go for it in 4p if i was: bored, or in dire need of the points. And the first reason is never a good reason. Call the draw, if you can. Pray that no one calls a chi or a pon before your turn. (and in 3p, that no one withdraws a north >x<...)

And when playing Washizu game, you can also see the opponent\'s tiles, which can also be a decision of making a choice. And it does depend how close you are to making a hand, like if you are almost Kokushimusou (and if playing Washizu mahjong, make a guess how close opponent\'s tiles are to complete hand), you might try to make it instead of a draw, but you can decide to make a draw instead if you don\'t have a good hand, or, if it is Washizu mahjong, also if your opponent very good hand. Also your current score and position can matter too. The probabilities of various things are also important, and in some cases what kind of play you think your opponent(s) might make.