Training Tool - Mattari Mahjong

Mattari Mahjong is a single-player Windows application with some fairly tough bots. But, it has a lot more to offer than just that, including defense and push/pull evaluations. It's also very fast, so it's perfect for slipping a game in here and there. But, of course, it's in Japanese, so here's a guide.

* NOTE: There's now a version available with an English translation, which you can find here: Mattari English

The official site for Mattari has gone down, but you can find it at this Google Drive link. Just extract the zip somewhere you'll remember and open the .exe. Then, open the menu at the top left.

From top to bottom, these options are as follows:

1. Start a game, with the log recorded.
2. Start a game, without recording the log.
3. Duplicate game.
4. Duplicate game with open hands.
5. Start a game with open hands.
6. Demo, with the log recorded. 
7. Demo, without recording the log.
8. Change the rules.
9. Mute.
10. Close the program.

So, really the first and eighth options are all you need to care about. If you play with the log recorded, it will be saved in the file mjscore.txt in the same folder as the .exe. The rules popup looks like this:

The first section is aka dora ari / nashi, and the second section is hanchan / tonpu. Aka ari tonpu is the default. The second menu is only available in game.

The first option will show you the risk associated with all the tiles in your hand. The second option will evaluate whether you should be pushing or pulling at the current moment. Here's an example of the risk pop up:

Click on the image if it's too small to read. The higher the number, the riskier the tile. In this case, 4p is genbutsu, so it has 0 risk, and the winds are also pretty low risk. You should know the kanji for the numbers already. The suits are 萬 for characters, 筒 for pinzu, and 索 for bamboo. They're in the same order as your hand, so it should be easy to figure out.

The push pull option will just bring up a popup saying either push or pull, like so:

That says pull, so it's suggesting we fold. Push is 押し.

Along the bottom of the screen, the options are Pon, Chii, Kan, Ron/Tsumo, Riichi, Abort, and Cancel. They'll light up when applicable. Cancel is used for declining calls. You can also just right click, and right clicking will also tsumogiri. From what I've seen, there's no auto win or no calls option.

Open Tanyao is allowed, and head bump is in effect. The consensus about the bots seems to be that they're low-mid Tokujou level, so they should provide a good challenge for most people. You can use the risk evaluations as training for your defense abilities, too. Some of the tiles look weird, and it makes it hard to scan the discards... but, it's a fun program!