Roadmap for the Mahjong winner

Abstract

Player ability in mahjong can be divided into the following 3 categories. 

• Attack 
• Defense  
• Push or Fold Judgement

It is important to have 3 balanced abilities. 

If you are a mahjong beginner※, just follow the steps below.

• Just think about attack (tile efficiency) at first.
• If other players declare riichi and you are not tempai, you should just think about defense.

※In this blog, I defined the player's level below.

• Beginner players are Expert or less in Mahjong-Soul or 3-dan or less in Tenhou
• Intermidiate players are Master in Mahjong-Soul or 4-6 dan in Tenhou.

Introduction

Some people say "reading skill is the most important in mahjong", and others say "Luck is the key".

If you are Mahjong-beginner, you may not be able to discern what is right and what is wrong. 

 I declare that Attack, Defense, and Push or Fold Judgement is the most important ability in mahjong, and if you get above three abilities, your Mahjong score will be a great one. 

What is Attack?

Attack means Tile Efficiency and aiming high points. 

Tile efficiency is the most important because tempai is so strong. If you are tempai, and the other three players are not tempai, you have a great opportunity because it is only you who can win. Therefore, to get tempai as soon as possible, you should have good Tile efficiency skills. 

Aiming for high points is also important, but if you are a beginner, you do not have to aim for high points because tile efficiency is more important than aiming attack. 

What is Defense?

Defense is a technique not to be Ron by other players. Defense ability directly shows the player's mahjong ability because the Deal-in rate and player's rank show a very strong relationship (look at the graph below). No other parameters, such as call rate or tsumo rate, show such strong relations. 

Therefore, if you want to be a strong mahjong player, you should skill up in defense. 

The above graph shows the relations between the player's level(dan) in Tenhou(an online mahjong site) and the deal-in rate. The horizontal axis shows the player's level in Tenhou and the vertical axis shows the deal-in rate. (citation: https://tenhou.net/ranking.html)

What is Push or Fold Judgment?

Push or Fold Judgement is the decision whether you should keep attacking or defending. This Judgement is so sensitive to its situation, such as your hand, other players discarding tiles, the points players have, and its scoring rules, that it is tough to master push or fold judgment. But, do not worry!  I introduce very easy and effective judgment rules here. 

• Just think about attack (tile efficiency) at first.
• If other players declare riichi and you are not tempai, you should just think about defense.

The above rule works well not only for beginner players but also for intermediate players (I'm planning to write a detailed strategy later. Please wait a moment!). 

Conclusion

In this article, I introduced the most important three Mahjong abilities, Attack, Defense, and Push or Fold Judgement. It is important to have the above three skills to be a strong mahjong player. This article confines only mahjong skills up a roadmap, not a detailed strategy. I will write a more detailed article later, so please look forward to the next article!