Is it ok to go for tanyao/pinfu/riichi/tsumo all the time?

[ardiel]

Is it bad to not go for other yaku if you get big hands anyway?

It seems the hands I most often complete are pinfu, tanyao and ippatsu. Some times I try for other hands but more often than not going for them pulls my hand away from tenpai and the risk doesn't seem to be worth an extra point or two, unless it's a 3+ han yaku or the difference would upgrade me to a baiman or something.

For example I end up with hands like this a lot of times where it's big enough with the dora without trying to go for something like a sanshoku.
Is it fine to do that all the time?

[Gnom]

Pinfu is correlated with high tile efficiency patterns, while tanyao uses highly efficient tiles, so it's only logical that both come often. I can't find the numbers anymore but there are statistics and they are the most common yaku of the game. I'd say what would be wrong is to aim at too high hands and never complete them, getting a lot of pinfu/tanyao is more a sign that unlike many beginners you don't fall for fancy yaku and favor an efficient play.

It is sometimes ok to go back in the hand for higher value, but only if the expected increase in value is significantly higher than the loss of speed, or you desperately need the points. In the example you give, what do you have in mind? Cause aiming at a 678 sanshoku gives you either the same value if you manage to get a 68 wait (+sanshoku -pinfu -red five), or a furiten not guaranteed baiman if you get a 67 wait. I see very few cases where that would be an interesting move.

[ardiel]

Yeah that hand was a bad example because of furiten but it gives an example of the type of hands I usually build. I'm always keeping an eye on my wait patterns and speed.

It just seems ironic to me that a lot of yaku are kind of just there. Just earlier today I got an open ittsuu worth only 1000 just to make the dealer turn pass to me and it hit me how disappointing that yaku is. It looks nice but it is worth very little by itself.

[Gnom]

In mahjong and except special cases the number one concern is speed. So as you state most yaku don't come so often, or even almost never, and whereas when you first learn the rules you're excited about all that and think mostly (which yaku should I make with this hand), ad you progress you (should) learn to focus on speed and keep an eye on available yaku to see if you can collect them with no loss of time, or at least little loss in regard of the expected increase.

Ittsu or sanshoku which you mention are mostly used as a "bonus" to pinfu-riichi, often not guaranteed before the win, or as a tactical weapon to make an open hand when you need speed more than anything, so you're on the right track when you say you're disappointed about how such a beautiful yaku ends up with such a low value hand. Keep doing what comes first, that's the way to go, you don't need to check a list of yaku you got, you just need points at the end of the game.

And that makes it all the more rewarding when you do get a beautiful hand with many intertwined yaku!