How do you people "Rihai" (Sorting Tiles) for your hand?
John (Zi Rong) Low
your hand.
I always do it like this, copying the Japanese mahjong video games:
Manzu Souzu Pinzu Kazehai Sangenpai
which translates to:
(left) Craks Bamboo Dots Winds Dragons (right)
Btw, I NEVER arrange the tiles in Melds like some of my occasional
"Janyuu" (mahjong partners), I always sort them out by suits and
increasing numerical order.
Tom Sloper
> Hey all, I'm just curious about how you people arrange the suits in
> your hand.
> I always do it like this, copying the Japanese mahjong video games:
>
> Manzu Souzu Pinzu Kazehai Sangenpai
I try to be unpredictable. No particular suit order. Sometimes I even order
the numbers right to left instead of left to right, when playing Japanese.
Dragons and winds usually to the right if they're going to be discarded,
otherwise I put them somewhere else in the hand.
> Btw, I NEVER arrange the tiles in Melds like some of my occasional
> "Janyuu" (mahjong partners), I always sort them out by suits and
> increasing numerical order.
I, on the other hand, use my best table etiquette - first exposure in the
right hand corner, 2nd exposure above it, 3rd exposure above that. The goal
is to make a readable "river" on the table, so the players can see an exact
timeline. That's what they do, that's what they want and expect, and I want
them to want me to play with them, so that's what I do.
Tom
Nath Krismaratala
I know I should be doing the same... but I'm lazy.
I keep number tiles in numerical order, winds and dragons weaved
between them. Also, I tend to keep to next tile I expected to discard
on the right side.
B1235 EE C357 W D159 N
(North to be discarded the next.)
...
B123 EEE C567 D789 C3 D1
(1 Dot to be discarded, maybe also the 3 Crack)
> I, on the other hand, use my best table etiquette - first exposure in the
> right hand corner, 2nd exposure above it, 3rd exposure above that. The goal
> is to make a readable "river" on the table, so the players can see an exact
> timeline.
I don't it's what John meant. Some players tend to sort their tiles by
groups, especially threaded chows. For instance, they will sort 122334,
this way instead : 123234. He wasn't talking about discards.
Happy Mahjong'ing everybody!
Tom Sloper
"Nath Krismaratala" <mahjong...@gmail.com> wrote...
>
> I don't it's what John meant. Some players tend to sort their tiles by
> groups, especially threaded chows. For instance, they will sort 122334,
> this way instead : 123234. He wasn't talking about discards.
In that part of the discussion, I thought we were talking about exposures
made during the game (not about discards, and not about sorting within the
concealed hand). John used the term "melds."
>>>Btw, I NEVER arrange the tiles in Melds like some of my occasional
>>>"Janyuu" (mahjong partners), I always sort them out by suits and
>>>increasing numerical order.
Accordingly, I was talking about melds (exposures I make prior to declaring
mah-jongg).
The first part of his question was about defensive strategy. The second part
was about table etiquette (but I got the impression he was applying
defensive strategy to what ought to be treated as table etiquette instead).
Tom
Tom Sloper
>>
>> I don't it's what John meant. Some players tend to sort their tiles by
>> groups, especially threaded chows. For instance, they will sort 122334,
>> this way instead : 123234. He wasn't talking about discards.
>
> In that part of the discussion, I thought we were talking about exposures
> made during the game (not about discards, and not about sorting within the
> concealed hand). John used the term "melds."
>
>>>>Btw, I NEVER arrange the tiles in Melds like some of my occasional
>>>>"Janyuu" (mahjong partners), I always sort them out by suits and
>>>>increasing numerical order.
Oh. Upon re-reading it yet again, I see that he meant, "arrange the tiles in
the hand as they would look if they were melded sets" - so I see that Nath's
interpretation is correct, and that I had indeed misinterpreted John's
statement.
And yes, I agree that it's not a good idea to arrange the tiles in the hand
in a way that reduces flexible of re-arrangement.
Tom
John (Zi Rong) Low
>in a way that reduces flexible of re-arrangement.
Yeah, it kinda irritates me when people just arrange the 14 tiles in
their hand as melds instead of ordering them up by suit and number. I
see in some Hong Kong dramas/photos with scenes of people playing
mahjong, they do the meld grouping very often. And then when a meld
confirmed, one of the tiles in that meld is turned upside down... I
reckon this is really really bad if someone is "Tenpai" for a concealed
"Chinitsu" hand because there are so many possible arrangements.
When I make open melds, I still copy the Japanese video games, put one
in the right corner, then the next one to the left of it, and so on.
Tina Christensen
John (Zi Rong) Low wrote:
> Hey all, I'm just curious about how you people arrange the suits in
> your hand.
Like Tom, I try to be unpredictable. I place the suits after what is
most convenient when I first look at the tiles. One suit might go
increasing left to right, another the other way round. Winds and
dragons somewhere random. All tiles of one suit doesn't have to be
together: I might have 2-3 bamboo at one end of the hand and 5-7 bamboo
somewhere else. Several Danish players play with completely unsorted
tiles. I know I am up against people who will read a lot from where in
my hand a discarded tile came from. If I have several melded sets, it
becomes increasingly important to have the remaining tiles sorted in an
unpredictable way. A predictably sorted hand is unadvisable.
Tina
John (Zi Rong) Low
>somewhere else. Several Danish players play with completely unsorted
>tiles.
That reminds me of Super Mahjong 3: Karakuchi on the SNES (Super
Nintendo) emulator. They have an option where the tiles are "Rihai" or
not sorted at all. But when I switch off "Rihai", it is very hard for
me to see what hand I have, probably because I'm not used to that
format. And some of the computer opponents win on unsorted hands as
well, which they have to sort out immediately after.