Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Japanese Reach Mahjong Rules. Strategy, news, sets - anything!

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HotelFSR
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Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by HotelFSR » Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:30 am

This topic is not so much for those of you in Japan, since the network of parlors and base culture of the game is strong and makes it relatively easy to bring new players into the fold.

I\'m addressing this to those of us in places where nobody plays Mahjong and teaching them to play is a considerable challenge.

What experiences have you guys had with this? How do you teach and what are some common problems you face? How do you simplify?



A three-step introduction method:

Usually I start by teaching players everything minus scoring. We play for properly configured hands but do not score them. I find it\'s important not to overwhelm people at first.

Once people are comfortable with this, I show them the hand list. We use one dora, which is the indicator itself so that people do not get confused finding the next in sequence. We don\'t use the dealer system. At this point we start scoring, but without counting base points. We just lookup Han on this chart, to make life simple and keep the game moving fast:

1: 1500
2: 3000
3: 6000
4-5: 12000
6-7: 18000
8-10: 24000
11-12: 36000
13: 48000

It\'s basically just the dealer 30 point column, which is easy to memorize and divide. This way even new players can easily plan ahead what hand scores they need. Once people get comfortable with all of the above, they\'re ready for the complete official rules (i.e. adding in full dealer system and base point chart).

What methods do you guys use and how have they worked out?

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by TobiasOlsen » Fri Feb 20, 2009 3:35 pm

We usually teach beginners the MCR rules, as these rules are simpler in most respects, except actually completing hands are harder for beginners (no furiten, simple additive scoring system, no dora, no difference which seat you are for scoring). This way people have usually been playing for some time (until they feel comfortable with the MCR rules) before they want to learn riichi, which makes it possible to include all the rules from the beginning.

We have had some discussions about which ruleset is the easiest to learn as a beginner, and it seems that MCR has some advantages there (except that the huge amount of different hands can be overwhelming, and actually completing a hand can be hard for a beginner, but this can be overcome by telling people to ignore all but a few of the most common hands).

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by HotelFSR » Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:07 pm

I would think if you do it the way I mentioned, Reach is easier than MCR for beginners.

The scoring system becomes extremely simple when you ignore the chart and ignore base points, just using the table I listed above (1500, 3000, 6000, 12000, etc.) It\'s actually even easier than adding.

You can simplify furiten at first as \'you may not win by stealing a tile you have already discarded\', or just ignore it in your first few games.

I\'ll also soon post up a hand list which I created to be as easy to understand as possible. It includes every hand except for the situational luck ones (dead wall win, last tile win) and has them organized in a very logical breakdown, with explanations that use only terms in English. It\'s also pretty much organized in terms of how common the hands are, so beginners can focus only on the top 5-10 entries on the page.

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by Bunta » Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:28 pm

At first i have a mahjong set with arabic number on its so that the new players have it easier to remember the tiles. And then i invite them to a normal round and let them take a look over my shoulder. Then i explain them how i play and how the game works.After some rounds i let them play and give them hints how to play. We play normal rules so that get used to it.

Thats it!

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by chalwa » Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:18 pm

I\'m doing it like this:
First I teach how to play, without yaku (just basic collect 4 groups and pair), then after some time, I\'m explaining every yaku, but not how to count points.
When we play, there always is one person who knows all rules so he takes care of it, so others can learn by watching, and with time they get used to what happends (dealer changes, etc.) The last thing I teach is how to count points, but earlier durnig game I give hints what is worth more, and what is better to collect.
I have also two mahjong sets with arabic numbers, but I use it only at begining, for geting used to symblos, anyway most ppl who play mahjong here knows those few kanji or learn them fast.

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by Esh » Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:17 pm

I\'m teaching it like you guys are. Tell them how to play, don\'t include the yaku, until they are comfortable with it enough to start to slowly play with the 1 han minimum requirement, then I hand out a sheet with all the hands on it, and they figure it out on their own pretty quickly. Also, I leave out all the tiny rules like furiten, until the come up into play, then explain them. I\'ll admit that this isn\'t perfect, but they remember the rules more when they almost get punished for breaking them.
what are some common problems you face?
1. Knitting. English speakers, growing up with poker, automatically assume that having a set of 3 simply means numbers, rather than numbers AND suits, even after explaining this in the beginning, and it takes a bit for them to break this habit.


2. Breaking the stealing habits. I\'m sure we\'ve all come across this problem. Even with ourselves when we were first playing. You know what I\'m talking about. Stealing every single tile that comes across that you can. A hard habit to break, and I can\'t really think of anything to discourage it other than enforcing chombo penalties.


3. Worst one yet:

Attitude towards the game.

One of the people I taught was my very own mother, who has a slight addiction to video poker. She doesn\'t take the game very seriously, which, I wouldn\'t mind in the slightest, except she doesn\'t really keep han in mind while playing. She was the reason why I had to start enforcing chombo penalties on all my other players.

I\'ve watched her play it online too. She gets even worse online. I\'ve watched her mindlessly take apart good hands, because she treats it like video poker, in that she just clicks away at her hand. She\'s been getting better, though, and learning about the hands, so, for that at least, I\'m thankful.

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by Yttrasil » Tue Mar 31, 2009 6:43 pm

Hey, nice lovely post there especially about your mom :D

Have taught quite a few ppl till now and am getting better what to start with and what yakus are important and not and adding more and more. Like to play like 2 open hands first then get it normal and then after like a round add the cannot win on what you\'ve thrown thing etc. Am just alot better on fixing the sticking points so do quite enjoy teaching ppl these days =)

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by deJENNerate » Sat Apr 04, 2009 5:44 am

I remember teaching Gem to play in Taiwan 3 or 4 years ago. At that time we gathered once a week at my house and all players could at least read the characters.

I always start by explaining each suit and how they can be used (runs, straights, etc.). Then I explain what is needed in a winning hand and how to pon and chow.

After we have that we start to play a game. Open or closed it doesn\'t matter. A player can win with any complete combination. They are entitled to all the points they make, but if they don\'t have any points they just get the minimum 1000 points. After each hand is finished I teach one rule. Either the Missed Win (furiten) rule, dora, or a Hand Point (yaku).

For the hands I always start with the Value Tiles (Winds and Dragons). Next I teach the Inside Hand since everywhere but Europe you\'re allowed to pon and chow with it. Since these are the easiest hands to make it gives them 2 options to make a hand point.

I also give out a list of hand points or a book (depending on language ability) and the URL for ReachMahjong.com so they can review themselves.

After a couple of weeks they can play really well and some people even pick up the scoring by then. I find explaining 1-2 hands after each hand quite effective since we can keep playing with just a shot interruption and they can often utilize the new knowledge right away.

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by Denizar » Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:29 pm

I started a Riichi Mahjong student club at my university in Istanbul, Turkey. I\'ve been teaching mahjong for a year now, and because nobody plays mahjong let alone riichi here, it is really hard to keep people focused and motivated.

Generally my methods are similar to whats been said above. I also teach hand composition first without the yaku, and introduce yaku one by one, always starting with tanyao, then fanpai, and later pinfu etc.

However, I disagree with the point of view that the Fu calculation should be taught later. I think that calculating Fu is rather easy, and if postponed, it creates the illusion that calculating the value of a hand is very complicated. Some of my friends who I taught last year still don\'t know how to calculate the Fu, thus still fear the scoring involved in Riichi. The new players at the student club on the other hand, feel much more comfortable.

It is definetely harder to teach mahjong where nobody plays, it really is amazing how much difference there is between teaching the game in Japan - you wouldn\'t even need to \" and teaching it in places like Turkey.

In order to speed up the process, I dedicated one lesson to only han values, and had everyone pair up and tell eachother to make specific hands, eg. tanpin sanshoku. By doing this everyone got to practice the simple hands and also saw which hands can be added together and which can\'t - like the chiitoitsu iipeekoo or ryanpeekoo example.

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by Esh » Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:05 pm

Um, I\'m about 101% sure you can\'t combine Chiitoitsu with any run based hand like Iipeikou or Ryanpeikou. . .

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by Denizar » Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:28 pm

yeah you can\'t. Thats why I said \"and which can\'t\" and then said chiitoitsu iipeekoo - ryanpeekoo ;)

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by Esh » Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:31 pm

Oh, you\'re right. My bad. But in my defense, it was a little unclear.

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by hirohurl » Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:21 pm

I tell new players that if they have played the card game \"Rummy\", it is \"a bit like that\". Actually, I hate hearing other people say it, because it is really a travesty to compare the two games...

Then I tell them they need to collect 4 x sets of 3 and a pair and we play a couple of open hands and explain what to do as we go - teach by doing.

Since the way people play - and learn to play - mahjong tells us a lot about what they are really like (don\'t you think?), I prefer to get people involved in the process of play asap to see how they respond. Their response is the key. We can take it from there - or not, as the case may be!

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by Ugusensei » Mon Apr 20, 2009 1:26 pm

hirohurl wrote:
Then I tell them they need to collect 4 x sets of 3 and a pair and we play a couple of open hands and explain what to do as we go - teach by doing.
This is actually how I do it when I try and get others interested.

Since I have a Japanese set I found it easier to teach everyone how to play 3 player mahjong. My man tiles have no numbers they can read so at the very least they just have to figure 1 and 9 out. Focus more on the rules than figuring out "Is this a 4man or a 8man" Learning the scoring is so much easier, too. Just count the yaku and don\'t bother with the extra math.

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Re:Teaching Reach Mahjong to Beginners

Post by iandstanley » Mon May 18, 2009 4:46 pm

chalwa wrote:Im doing it like this:
First I teach how to play, without yaku (just basic collect 4 groups and pair), then after some time, I\'m explaining every yaku, but not how to count points.
When we play, there always is one person who knows all rules so he takes care of it, so others can learn by watching, and with time they get used to what happends (dealer changes, etc.) The last thing I teach is how to count points, but earlier durnig game I give hints what is worth more, and what is better to collect.
I have also two mahjong sets with arabic numbers, but I use it only at begining, for geting used to symblos, anyway most ppl who play mahjong here knows those few kanji or learn them fast.
Ditto!

With Chinese rules I prefer:
  1. making sets (4 sets plus a pair)
  2. basic scoring and a knowledge of the standard doubles
  3. a selection of special hands

but with Riichi it makes more sense as you can get beginners upto valid hands very quickly within
  1. making sets (4 sets plus a pair) (maybe one round)
  2. special hands (yaku & riichi) and mention the bonus for dora (start again with east and play two rounds)
  3. basic scoring (scoring, dora scoring) (at least two rounds)
  4. Missed wins etc. (the deep end .. maybe after a few rounds if they get the rest quickly or maybe next time)

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