Pon and position of stolen tile

[BugLaden]

I've been going over the rules and can't for the life of me figure this out. When you steal for a pon, for example, why do you position the exposed tiles in a way where players can tell whom the tile was stolen from? Does it affect scoring in any way?

Regards,
Ed

[Shirluban]

Welcome.

You do this for the same reasons you put your discard tiles in line:
- Improve strategy: By knowing the tiles a player have discarded (and in which order), you can guess which yaku he is doing and which tiles he may be waiting for.
- Enforcing the furiten rule: In riichi mahjong, players are discouraged to wait for a tile they have previously discarded. (This also improve strategy, by granting that the tiles who should be safe are really safe.)

[Scott Miller]

>why do you position the exposed tiles in a way where players can tell whom the tile was stolen from? Does it affect scoring in any way?

Yes, it directly affects riichi scoring.

Players are forbidden from declaring ron if ANY of their discards could also complete their hand (furiten rule).

If a player DOES declare ron, and a tile in their discards could also have completed their hand, they don't win, but instead have to pay a penalty, called a chombo penalty, to the other players for the missed win. So it makes a huge difference in scoring.

As such, you need to keep track of where the claimed tile came from, because it still counts against the discarder as it relates to furiten.

While computer games don't let you make such errors, in live play I'd say it's relatively common that players forget about the claimed discards and declare ron while furiten.

In live play, make it a habit of verifying players' wins, because you'll be surprised how often you catch them out... players often forget about the their discards that were claimed, and I collect chombos all the time from my opponents who thought they won.

It also applies as related to the nagashi mangan hand (discard limit hand). Depending on the house rules, it's common that a player can't claim nagashi mangan if any of their discards were claimed by other players, so another reason to keep track of where discards came from.

[BugLaden]

Excellent answers - thank you! There's a lot to learn in this game. I'm coming from a Eurogame background. I thought THOSE games were complicated!

Baby steps...

[Kyuu]

Yup. Due to the Furiten rule, it is important to keep track of who discarded what tile -- which cannot be masked by claimed tiles. Therefore, it's necessary to have those particular arrangements. When you do encounter Furiten, you'll learn quickly how dicey that situation will be.