Greetings and some questions, part 2

[Referee]

A different question is how to read the hand reports we can see in this site, and curious on how they are constructed during play, too.

Also, I\'d like to get (if they exist) basic strategy primers on basic things like, what to do with your first 13 tiles (ie, how do you decide where you want your hand to go, initially), reaching, discarding when the hand is advanced (ie defensive reading),and finding the waits on long strings of suited tiles.

Some of these things may not be so basic, OK. If you think I\'m better off delaying these knowledge, you can say so, too.

And man, is scoring complicated with Riichi! :P

I think that\'s all for now.

[Poochy]

Referee wrote:

what to do with your first 13 tiles (ie, how do you decide where you want your hand to go, initially)

I can\'t say I speak for everyone, but at the initial deal, very rarely do I have a clear idea of where I want to go with the hand.

Usually, with my initial hand, I simply decide which tiles are probably going to be useless, and discard those first. These are usually stuff like 1\'s without a 2 or 3, 9\'s without a 7 or 8, singles of winds (particularly those that are neither the round wind nor my position wind), etc.

The sole exception is when I start with a LOT of yaochuupai (1\'s, 9\'s, winds, and dragons), in which case I might decide early on to aim for a yaku that requires an unusual number of those (Chanta, Honroutou, Tsuuiisou, Kokushimusou, etc.)

[Ignatius]

You can use the incredibly good defense guide on Osamuko´s blog.
Just write on google or something like that: Osamuko defense guide. Was wrote by Umakeiki anyway. In Osamuko blog you´ll find a lot about riichi mahjong strategy. I hope you like it.

[Referee]

Oh, that looks quite interesting. But a bit hard to wrap your head around, maybe. I don\'t know, maybe I just need to see it in action, like see a hand evolve and as the hand discards, see what options the other player is considering.

Do I make sense?

[Shirluban]

The long topic "game recording for analysis. Good or bad idea?" have some video game records that may interest you.

game recording for analysis. Good or bad idea?

here are some great pro replays from Tenhou that are very useful to learn from:

http://tenhou.net/cs/200901pre/

Edit: Here\'s more:
Second Video: Restraint!

Requested Instructional Videos

[audacity]

In Osamuko blog you´ll find a lot about riichi mahjong strategy.

This is not exactly true. If you want to find hard strategy, be prepared to take up a new language.

As for the above videos I am not even gonna start.

[Referee]

I'm already taking this new language. But I'm still very basic, hehe.