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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Mahjong, The Art and Science of
 
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Siivola
Dec 23, 2012

 Oh hey, a mahjong thread! I love riichi, even if it's kind of a dumb, long-rear end game about making the least mistakes most of the time. I should come play with you.

Since there was a bit of talk about it, let's talk about pinfu. It's a wonderful yaku, since it combos so well with other yaku, and the number of different tiles makes it a bit likelier to score a surprise ura-dora. The short definition is this: It's a hand with no points. Riichi scoring is sort of arcane, so for beginners, that means:
  1. It's all sequences (chi), no triples (kan).
  2. Your winning tile finishes a sequence, not the pair.
  3. You must be waiting for at least two different winning tiles. This is called a two-sided wait. For example, you could be waiting a 2 or a 5 to finish a 34-sequence.
    • In other words, no pair waits, middle waits (you've got a 1 and a 3 and are waiting on a 2) or edge waits (you're sitting with 12 and waiting for the 3).
  4. The pair must not be dragons, the round wind or your seat wind. If you could score a yaku with it, it's out.
  5. Oh, and your hand must be closed.
I think it's one of the most important yaku to know, because it really opens up the scoring potential in a hand. Grabbing scrubby yaku-pai hands is easy enough, but like Stelas said, it really shits on your score. An important thing to remember about riichi is that it's a zero-sum game: If you only play tiny thousand-point hands, it's really easy for people to make a comeback and overtake you in a single round.

In Finland people generally play according to the European Mahjong Association rules, and their rulebook is pretty good a reference. Granted, they don't play with things like open tanyao or red fives.

* # ¿ Jul 23, 2014 10:07
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# ¿ May 17, 2024 19:39
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Siivola
Dec 23, 2012

 I think two good rules of thumb for beginning players are 1) don't open your hand and 2) go for a pinfu because it's the best yaku.

* # ¿ Jan 14, 2015 11:13
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Mahjong, The Art and Science of