Analysis - Yaku Combinations

It's the holidays. All the couples are out having fun. But those aren't the couples I care about right now. What are the biggest power couples in Mahjong? The yaku that always show up together? Let's find out.

Analysis - Starting Seat Placement Bias

This week, we're going to look at how the starting seat affects the ending placement of that player. Are people right to dislike certain starting seats? Should tournaments shuffle players in a way that each player plays on each seat the same number of times? Let's find out.

Analysis - Fu Rates in Non-Limit Hands

I haven't had much time this week to put together a substantial analysis, so we'll look at something quick: the rate of each han fu combination in Houou hands.

Week 13 - Diligence

I've decided to actually schedule my time. We'll see if I stick to the schedule, but I'll do my best to at least follow it for this month. Also, let's talk meditation.

Analysis - Hanchan vs Tonpu vs Sanma

This analysis will look at some of the differences between the primary game modes. hanchan (East-South games), tonpu (East-only games), and sanma (Three-player games).

Analysis - Lone Dora Dragons

In this post, we'll analyze the Houou replays to see when players discard a lone dora dragon from their hand, as well as what happens when they do.

Week 12 - Platforms

These past few weeks, I've been looking at other Mahjong platforms. Of course, you can only get Houou on Tenhou, so this is more of a relaxing vacation from the Tenhou grind. I'll talk about how I feel about the ones I've tried.

Guide - Counting Suji

Counting suji is a simple way to estimate the danger of any given discard, especially when you have reason to think the opponent has a ryanmen wait. This post will go over how to do it.

Analysis - The Threat of Pao

In this analysis, we'll look at how Houou players react when faced with the threat of Pao. In other words, when one player has called two dragons, and the third is live. We'll also look at what happens when the third is discarded, and see how dangerous it actually is. Is it worth holding the tile so you don't deal into a yakuman, or is a yakuman so rare that you shouldn't worry about it?

Analysis - The Average Houou Game

As an intro to the Houou replay analyses, we'll start by looking at several statistics about the Houou games. How often does a game go to west? How often does a round go to an exhaustive draw? What's the ratio of ron vs tsumo? What's the most times a player has dealt in in a single game? These questions and more will be answered, along with several interesting replays!

Week 11 - Breathing Room

I still have a lot of room to grow. I can see the path forward, but I've barely begun taking steps towards it. What roadblock will await me next?

Replay Review by Myself - Aug 15

This is a self-review of one of my replays. I've been trying new things, and noticed a lot of mistakes while playing the game, so I wanted to go through it in-depth. Maybe it can give you an idea of what to look at in your own replays, too.

Resource - Translated Videos

This is a collection of videos with Japanese content that have English subtitles, dubbing, or live translation. Essentially, content provided by the Japanese Mahjong scene that is viewable without knowing Japanese. If you know of any others, let me know and I'll add them.

Exercise - Exercise

Improving your physical health will also improve your mental game. Plus, you'll live longer, and be able to play more Mahjong! But, how do we find the time to exercise with all that Mahjong? The RCAF has the answer, with an exercise routine that takes 12 minutes or less, with no equipment!

Week 10 - Still Alive

Hello. I've had a rough few weeks, but I'm ready to get back to the Mahjong now. This won't be a normal update, but mostly just an update on what's been going on with me.

All Last Comebacks

It's important to know how big of a hand you need in order to make a comeback (gyakuten) in All Last. I've prepared tables of the common hand scores with what point difference they can overcome when you tsumo them. And of course, I have a tool for practicing them!

Week 9 - A Step Up

This week I had an epiphany of sorts regarding tile efficiency. I also had a pretty amazing streak of results, but not as amazing as I'd like.

Week 8 - Deflowered

I'm back to playing on my Erzzy account now. My play on Shinshou showed me that I could reach tokujou with my current skill, so I decided I might as well skip to 3dan, right?

Week 7 - Silver Queen

My despair from the previous week has passed. I've patched up some large holes in my play, and have renewed confidence. But, I'm still not where I'd like to be.

Resource - Anki Decks

This is a growing collection of Anki decks I'm using. I'll call out in my weekly updates when I add something to this list.

Exercise - Mangan Shibari

This exercise helps you learn how to build bigger hands, as well as improves the speed of your information gathering. This exercise is from Week 2.

Exercise - Information Gathering

This exercise is to help you gain information from every discard the opponent makes. There are several levels of difficulty. This exercise is from Week 1.

Exercise - Speed Estimation

This exercise is to give you a better understanding of how fast your hand is, which will let you make better decisions about when to go for value. It will also refine your knowledge of efficiency. This exercise is from Week 1.

Exercise - Scoring Training

This exercise is to ensure you can quickly calculate the score of your hand, which makes push/pull decisions faster. It also lets you recall the score table faster, which helps with All Last situations. This exercise is from Week 1.

Exercise - Efficiency Training

This exercise is to ensure you can play as efficiently as possible when the situation calls for it, as well as have a good understanding of the state of your hand at any given moment. This is from Week 1.

Replay Review By Dasuke - June 23rd

This is a review of one of my replays, done by Dasuke. Text in italics, like this, will be my comments, while the rest are his. The game was played on my alt account. At the time of this replay, my main account was third dan.

Week 6 - Despair

I'd planned to play a lot of mahjong, but I ended up not playing too much. I could make some excuses, but the truth is, it just started really getting to me.

Week 5 - Health

Incredibly, I'm still sick. I'm starting to get worried. Maybe I'll have to go see a doctor? In any case, I did play some Mahjong this week.

Week 4 - Sickness

I've had a sinus infection with a dash of migraines all this week, so there won't be a real update this time. Sorry! I know I said I'd play on bad days, but there's a difference between thinking poorly, and not being able to think. On the bright side, I have all next week off work, so I'll be able to play a lot!

Week 3 - Push, Pull, Up, Down...

For the third week, I've been a bit careless and pushing when I shouldn't. So, this week has a focus on push/pull judgement.

Tips for Learning the Score Table

The big hurdle when it comes to learning how to score hands in Riichi is, of course, memorizing the score table. It seems like a lot to learn, but there are several useful tricks that cut down the amount you need to learn drastically.

Week 2 - Reservation... Four!

Another week has come and gone. Perhaps too quickly. But, we have a new exercise to show for it!

Calculating Shanten and Ukeire

After my last post, which included an exercise that requires you to calculate a hand's shanten number and ukeire count, some people asked me how you do that. It's not too complicated.

Week 1 - Eyes open, Amber!

I've now been training under Dasuke's guidance for a week. I've been given several drills and warm-up exercises, as well as requirements to fulfill in-game, and my results have been surprising.

Training Tool - Hitori Mahjong Simulator

Hitori Mahjong Simulator is a useful tool for getting statistics about the expected value or speed of a hand. It has some limitations, for example not considering calls, but you can still get good stuff out of it. However, with it being entirely in Japanese, how do we use it? Let me guide you!

Training Tool - Maru-Jan Score Trainer

One of the tools at our disposal for improving our mahjong game is the Maru-Jan Score Trainer. It will show you a hand, and you have to give the hand's total score. Perfect for people like me who have no idea how to score their hands! But, it's in Japanese, so how do we use it? Let me show you!

Week 0 - The Starting Line

One day in the Mahjong discord, Dasuke posted this message: