HP (Yaku) Explanation – Flushes (2)
From: http://blog.jpmahjong.net/read.php/529.htm
In this section we’ll focus on the important points when calling tiles at the time of going for a flush hand (one suit hand/somete).
Flush hands can be pretty confusing because all tiles are concentrated and the shape is complex, so it takes some effort when we have to call tiles. Calling tiles should make it faster for us to win the hand, but with inferior calling skills it will only make it more difficult. I will now introduce the basic principles for calling tiles.
Rule 1: Make sure it gets the hand closer to ready (tenpai)
If a hand two away from ready gets to one away from ready, it has gone one step closer to ready and will make you win the hand faster. Getting closer to ready is the vital point of calling tiles.
Player to our left discards , we don’t need this tile.
We already have , and calling doesn’t move us any step closer to ready, and we also lose a valuable chance to draw a tile. Calling a useless tile is worse than passing on it.
Readers should note, there are times where we should call tiles even if it doesn’t get you closer to ready, but that’s more advanced theory (shape) which doesn’t fall within the scope of this article right now.
Rule 2: After calling, the hand shape doesn’t change
In this hand, we should call any tile except one.
This is, bumping (pon) after someone discards it. The reason is that the remaining is empty (because we’re already using three , there is only one left)
What if the person to our left discards , what should we do? As long as there are no other especial situations (for example if all were already dead), we shouldn’t touch this tile. Because is a good shape, calling this tile doesn’t move us any step closer to ready and it also changes the shape of the hand erasing a good shape.
Another example.
There is no problem aiming for a full flush with this hand, but when the person in front of him discarded , this player bumped it. This, I wouldn’t recommend.
Look carefully at the composition for this hand:
+++
Forming a set with breaks up a complete group (mentsu) and also an incomplete group (taatsu) which could have made another group; the gains do not make up for the losses. The shape is not the same now that is on a set, and we only remain with a lone to use and maybe letter tiles (jihai) as well to finish this hand. All this did was making the hand more painful and difficult to win.
If this was discarded by the person to our left, there would have been no problem (you may chow/chii this tile).
Rule 3: Pay attention at the way you call tiles.
In flush hands we have many tiles of one single suit in our hands, so when the person to our left discards a tile we normally have more than one way to call it.
Person to our left discarded , what should we do?
The right answer is calling it with , and discard , thus it the remaining shape is with a four sided wait ().
A mistake many beginners make is calling this with and discard too anyway, ending up with , waiting on only .
As far as flush hands concern, we’ll drop this here. In the next article, we’ll discuss pair-based hands (Toi-Toi (all bumps) and Chii Toi Tsu (all pairs)).
——————————————————————————————————————————————–
Garthe’s Commentary
! Just waiting for , I was fretting over what I would do if I had a chance to improve my wait. It’s fun to play with everyone watching but nerve-racking too as I really didn’t want to make a mistake in front of everybody.. Throwing seemed like the obvious choice but for some reason, I just couldn’t see what I’d be waiting for besides . Even now I had to get my tiles out, put the hand on my bed and start taking out pairs to finally see that I was also waiting for . would be safe and he discarded my winner. 16,000 points plus shock and amazement oohs and ahs from everyone watching as Ogawa’s final table hopes went down the drain.
