What am I missing?

[angryostrich]

So, I was playing on ron2 today, and am having a hard time trying to figure something out. Here is what was going on at the time....



The 6 dots was just discarded. I should have been able to win off that, right? However, the computer would not allow me to. There was also a yellow exclamation point in the lower left corner of the screen. My first thought was, \"Am I furiten?\" but I am waiting on 3 or 6 dot, neither which I have discarded, so I don\'t think it is that. Am I missing something here, or did the computer mess up?

[Gamegrunt]

I can\'t see why you don\'t ron in that position - you have your yaku with the green dragon meld...beats me too.

Gg

[Robert]

Um... you are furiten.

Look at that pon of 3-dot across from you. The middle one is turned sideways, meaning you discarded it.

[Gamegrunt]

Um... you are furiten.

Look at that pon of 3-dot across from you. The middle one is turned sideways, meaning you discarded it.

This is the aspect of furiten that is most difficult for this newbie to wrap his brain around. Here you have a discard that completes your hand, it\'s not a tile you\'ve discarded, but it completes the same chi that the tile you discarded earlier in the round could also have completed. It\'s a strange rule and one I would like a rationale for.

Gg

[Robert]

Um... you are furiten.

Look at that pon of 3-dot across from you. The middle one is turned sideways, meaning you discarded it.

This is the aspect of furiten that is most difficult for this newbie to wrap his brain around. Here you have a discard that completes your hand, it\'s not a tile you\'ve discarded, but it completes the same chi that the tile you discarded earlier in the round could also have completed. It\'s a strange rule and one I would like a rationale for.

Gg

Unless there is some kind of bug, you did discard that tile, and you are furiten.

Okay, imagine you are playing a game with tangible mahjong tiles. If you discard a tile and someone else says "pon", they physically remove the discarded tile from your discard pile, and put it beside the other two tiles used in the "pon". The tile in question is no longer physically in your discard pile, but it is still one of your discards, and is regarded as one of your discards for purposes of furiten.

Oh. Sorry. I just realized what you meant.

The rule is kind of a pain in the butt, but it is just part of this "defensiveness" of riichi mahjong. This is so you cannot use the offensive trick of "baiting" your opponents by waiting for a tile on the other side of the chi.

[Tom Sloper]

This is the aspect of furiten that is most difficult for this newbie to wrap his brain around. Here you have a discard that completes your hand, it\'s not a tile you\'ve discarded, but it completes the same chi that the tile you discarded earlier in the round could also have completed. It\'s a strange rule and one I would like a rationale for.

I believe the principle behind the rule is "a player has a right to a reasonable expectation of what is safe."
That\'s not a principle that\'s recognized in other forms, but the idea is that a player should be able to tell from another player\'s discards what is and isn\'t safe to throw.
And the 1-4-7 principle also applies to this rule.
If someone threw a 4 in the past, then it should be safe to assume that that player is not going to win on a chow ending in a 4, so it should be safe to throw a 1 or a 7 (as far as that person, and chows, are concerned).
That is the "rationale" (as far as I know) but really, one shouldn\'t expect to have a full and complete "reason why" any particular rule exists. What I\'ve said above is only a way of thinking that might help you understand the rule.

[angryostrich]

Ouch, I see it now. I knew it was going to be some kind of newbie mistake. Ah well, now I know. Thanks!