Reading Complex Shapes - Riichi Mahjong Strategy

Introducing tools for breaking down complex shapes to figure out their waits, beginner to intermediate level.
I'm getting over an illness right now, so apologies for any weird sounding audio!
Tile images combined from riichi-mahjong-tiles by FluffyStuff on Github, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

[@misterpayah7723]

One of the most terrifying feelings in mahjong: being in iishanten for a closed chinitsu and having no idea what your wait will be when you draw that last tile. This was a great technique! Thanks for sharing.

[@JudeYoungMusic]

goodbye vocal fry! congrats, and thank you for the great videos!

[@pip4183]

wow. this is much easier to understand, having to them to seperate from the rest sequence or make em triple instead. thanks crow

[@GRBtutorials]

Thanks for the method! I recently got my first chiniitsu and it was hard to read, fortunately the hand built itself and I was playing on Majsoul, which only lets you declare a win if you can. In person (or certain online clients like Mahjong Time) it’d be more problematic because of furiten and chombo… and I do plan on playing in person, so this is especially useful to me.

[@TakeshiNM]

Thank you for sharing this technique! I usually let the game win for me on these situations, so I'm always afraid it will happen playing live

[@danielcomisar1531]

Very useful, thanks

[@naph5456]

Great video! Thanks!

[@fedrickalfredo9174]

i've been searching method for this complex shapes reading. i still remember about a months a go i declare winning on a complex shape, turns out im on furiten because instead of ryanmen, i was waiting for 4 tiles XD

[@MumbleMyCat]

HOT NEW MAHJONG VIDEO DROPPED

[@emsharingan8639]

I know you've done some case studies for if to riichi or not before, do you think you could expand on that concept in a future video? It's something I really struggle with.

[@Crow77]

Sure! I remember that one was heavily based on tournament scoring, I'll take a look at sharing some more general guidelines. I know of at least one resource that goes heavily into the statistics of it, so I knight be able to mix that and some of my experience with the matter. Thanks for the suggestion! As a general rule of thumb though, it's easier to make a mistake by not riiching when you should riichi. So in general, if in doubt, throw in the stick!

[@emsharingan8639]

@@Crow77 Thanks! Some situations to give you an idea. If no other players have made any calls and it's near the beginning of the round, should I potentially wait to try to improve my hand with another Dora or just go for it? If I'm third place and first has already declared reach and maybe someone else has two calls made, is it safe to go for to risk dropping into 4th? Things like that.

[@stfu69420weed]

Your voice has changed

[@stevem8611]

Is there an application where I can give a board state and get a hint for a recommended move? Playing with something like shredder chess growing up was very helpful

[@Crow77]

Mahjong is pretty complicated as far as that goes, but there are a couple options. Erzzy hosts a few trainers for efficiency and defense practice. They are limited in scope, but the efficiency one can help recognize good vs bad complex shapes like these. The only issue with jt is it is looking at next-tile efficiency (ukeire), not long term hand building or even long term efficiency- so it isn't always the "right" discard for a hand. It's available here, and iirc there are links for her other trainers- euophrys.itch.io/mahjong-efficiency-trainer No hints on it though. There are general WWYD (what would you discard) problems available all over the place. There are two books especially, called 300 and 301, that if you do some digging, you should be able to find- I think there are some translations out there for it so it's available in English, but normally in Japanese. Oddly, 300 is harder than 301, so 301 is a better starting point. Lastly, for game reviews of the games you played, there are engines that will analyze the choices you made. Take them with a grain of salt, AI don't look at situations the same way we do, and can sometimes be straight up wrong. But, Mortal is currently the go-to free engine, or if you play on Tenhou there is a build in Naga engine for premium users. Mortal is available here- mjai.ekyu.moe/

[@blob9573]

you sound sick, hope you get better soon.

[@Crow77]

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I actually have time to finish the video 😅 I'll be posting something short about my voice too, there's a few other things going on I want to fill all y'all in on.

[@mdeboer6453]

Is there some app for this? Where you can pick the waiting tiles?

[@Crow77]

Yes! I use one on Android called Mahjong Flush Drill. It's full flush hands only, but they are usually the hardest to read, so it's great practice!

[@mdeboer6453]

I agree they are hard to read, I don't own a smartphone tho so many I need to download Bluestacks for Android on my PC. Just got into Expert 2 with 27,45% win 12,39% deal in over 145 South games, so while I may be able to grind my way to Master, I don't know all the Yaku nor scoring and have little to none defensive options and horrible call/riichi judgement so I feel I need to improve on my fundamentals regardless. Don't feel like spending 3x more time with grinding and pain, where I could have put that effort in study which I 100% need if I ever get into Master. Or I will end up like one of the many players that's stuck between Ex3 and M1 holding on for dear life hoping they eventually by experience gain a advantage over players that try that same tactic.@@Crow77

[@elliotheath5366]

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