Barticle’s excellent Riichi Mahjong terminology guide now available for download at our website

We’re proud to be hosting a Riichi Mahjong terminology guide put together by Barticle!
Barticle’s guide contains a wealth of Riichi Mahjong terms covering all aspects of the game, from rules to waits to optional hands and variants. Each term is presented in the original Japanese, translated and thoroughly defined. Examples and diagrams are embedded throughout, making it easy to visualize and understand many of the more complicated terms. This is an excellent read for any Riichi player looking to solidify their understanding of game concepts, or just curious about the meaning of terms they might have run into in other mahjong-related media.
Download it here: http://www.uspml.com/site/downloads/entry/barticles_japanese.htm

Learn-to-Play Workshops temporarily suspended – curriculum redesign in process

Learn-to-Play Workshops are temporarily suspended, partly because of scheduling conflicts, and partly because we are re-working our lesson plans and curriculum. We’ll resume classes and other teaching activities soon with a new-and-improved method.

Thomas Riedel and I arrived in Hanover on Thursday afternoon, and proceeded to immediately succumb to the ravages of jetlag.  Happily, we were awake and ambulatory by Friday afternoon, which was when the lecture by Benjamin Boas and Takunori Kajimoto was scheduled.  This seminar was our first event of the tournament and, in retrospect, we were very lucky to have attended.  Being able to go over play concepts and introduce ourselves to the other players made for a much more comfortable experience and let us get a handle on what we’d be doing for the rest of the weekend.
.
So, first the facts:  The 2010 EC Riichi brought 80 players from all over the world to Hanover, Germany.  Each player participated in eight games and their total score determined their ranking; there was no elimination or bracketing.  Games consisted of either a full hanchan (East-South) game or 90 minutes of play, whichever came first – at 15 minutes remaining a gong was sounded, indicating that all players should finish their current hand and then play one more hand before finishing the game.
.
.
Now the details of how my games went!
.
Game 1 – I started the tourney nervous, but calmed down a bit when it seemed everyone else was just getting settled in as well.  I remember this as being a solid game with good defense by all players.  During the East Round I actually ended up in tenpai on Greater/Lesser Four Winds, which did a lot to soothe my nerves – even though I didn’t win the hand, hitting such a high-tension feeling so early in the event meant that I could take a deep breath and be a bit more relaxed from then on.
.
Game 2 – This was another game full of good defensive players.  Points were hard-earned but I was fortunate and managed to wind up ahead.  I had to take a lot of care to avoid dealing in to the others, and this game heightened my defensive senses to their full capacity.
.
Game 3 – This game saw my first deal-in, for a substantial 12,000 points.  Luckily, I managed to win 12,000 points off that same player immediately afterwards, so I was back on neutral footing.  After that I played things a bit more sedately and finished in second place.
.
Game 4 – Everyone at this table was very aggressive, calling and pushing hard for their hands.  It shut down my game a bit, since it made it a lot more difficult to play defense, but I held back from shifting to a more aggressive stance and ended up in second place again.
.
Game 5 – This game was my second deal-in of the tourney, to another 12,000 point hand.  A bit of a poor start, but once again careful play made up the numbers.  A lucky tsumo or two got me out of the negatives and I found myself once again in second place.
.
.
Game 6 – The first game of Day 2 saw Thomas Riedel and I playing at the same table!  Unfortunately for me, he was fresh off a good night’s sleep and in top form, and he dominated the game.  I was able to stay out of his way and grab a few points of my own, so I continued my trend of coming in second.
.
Game 7 – This game was my first net loss.  Caught between two very aggressive players and a fairly skilled defender, I dealt in to a Chanta hand (Outside Hand) early, for 2000 points, and just wasn’t able to make any headway for the rest of the game, losing a bit more from noten payments and other players’ tsumo.  A little disappointing, but this late in the tournament at least I had good results to look back on to keep my confidence up.  After the scores were posted it was clear that it was still anyone’s game heading into the last match!
.
Game 8 – I knew that my final game would be important, but I didn’t know it would be my most exciting game of the whole event!  The East Round went by quickly, I’d managed to win a few solid hands so I was feeling pretty positive.  South Round put me more on the back foot, the other players wanted their share of the points so I had to let several hands pass by in order to be sure of holding on to my score.  Finally, we hit South Fourth, well ahead of the time limit.  Wanting to end the game quickly, I took advantage of the two Chun I’d been dealt and worked my way towards a called Fanpai (Dragon Pung) hand.  Drawing a red 5 sou was good luck.  Then, the player to my right dealt the red 5 pin, which I was able to pon.  My discard after that call left me ready on a 2 or 5 man, and immediately the player to my right drew and discarded the red 5 man, letting me ron a 4-han hand to end the game.  “Why was he casually dealing such dangerous tiles?” I thought… until he revealed his hand: tenpai, Kokushi Musou (Thirteen Orphans).  A tense game to the very end!
.
.
Through these eight games I’d focused a lot on defense – my strategy was “don’t lose”.  My thinking was that since I wasn’t experienced in how the tournament was paced, I should just focus on not moving backwards and always gaining points, even if those gains were modest.  In the end, this strategy turned out to pay off quite well, and I ended the tournament in third place!  Overall I feel like this experience helped me to grow a lot as a player.  I faced many strong opponents and was constantly pushed to play at 100%.  Coming back I can’t wait to bring the lessons I learned back to the rest of the USPML players.
.
Once again I’d like to extend a big “thank you” to the organizers of the 2010 EC Riichi – it was a huge event and their hard work ensured that it was also a huge success!  I’d also like to thank the referees and my fellow players for creating a friendly and welcoming environment, not to mention being excellent competition.
.
.
David Bresnick is the president of the USPML.

The requirement that All Simples be closed especially changes the pacing of the game. If All Simples is permitted as an open hand, when an opponent goes into Riichi or otherwise appears threatening, other players usually choose one of two paths: a defensive path where the player discards safer tiles and tries not to deal in, or an offensive path where the player tries to win quickly, even if only a very small hand, to deny the opponent a potentially valuable win. By analogy, I think of the defensive path as a “dodge” and the offensive one as a “block”. To try to “block” an opponent by winning quickly, a player must call tiles. Open All Simples is often used in this situation since, out of all the hands, it is usually the easiest to win quickly.
Players might normally feel that winning a hand whose only yaku is Open All Simples wasn’t worth it, preferring instead to keep their hands closed and stack All Simples with other closed yaku like Pinfu or Riichi. But when an opponent appears threatening it can be worthwhile to sacrifice one’s chance at a big win and race to the finish to “block” what could be a game-changing hand for another player. Without the possibility of Open All Simples, it can feel like the “block” option is gone or is too difficult to be worthwhile. When switching between rulesets, players must adapt to this difference.

In other news, our first public Learn to Play Workshop is on Sunday May 23. Over fifteen students are slated to attend the workshop, including several American Mah Jongg players who are interested in learning other styles. We’re excited about getting more people playing Riichi Mahjong.

Please feel free to contact me any time, and also visit us online at www.uspml.com!

Overall, the workshop went well. Fifteen students attended. Of these, three had some experience with other types of mahjong, about half were familiar with similar card games like rummy, and the rest were not familiar with either mahjong or any related games. We used five mahjong tables, with one instructor and three students per table. The workshop was held on a weeknight from 6 PM to 10 PM. We took a dinner break about halfway through; food and beverages were provided.

Comments on topics from last month’s update.

Numbered sets: Success. Having the numbers on the tiles was a big help. No one had much trouble reading their hands.

Preset tables: Mixed results. I preset all five tables (shuffled, built walls, broke walls, dealt 13 tiles each). My intention was to let students get to the “meat” of the game right away, without first explaining all the intricacies of the setup procedure. Results were mixed. Preset tables were highly effective for three of the five tables. These three tables reported that students felt excited about getting to play the first hand immediately, that the first hand played quickly, and that students more easily learned the setup procedure while setting up for the second hand. These three tables also agreed that the students focused on the “key concepts” (how to take your turn, how to make calls, how to read your hand), and might have been confused or distracted by learning the setup procedure first. However, for the other two tables, pre-setting did not work well. Those two tables reported that the students wanted a chance to see and touch the tiles first before they had to start playing with them. In fact, one table’s students insisted upon this, and they dismantled the preset walls in order to look at and handle all the tiles. Preset tables may be effective.

Dora: Success. Zero confusion about how dora works.

More observations.

Handouts: I had prepared several handouts with descriptions and examples of many yaku, rules, and procedures. My intention was to provide visual aids and reference info for the students to refer to while they learned, or at home later for review; that is, the handouts are meant to support what the instructor teaches. Used this way, they are very helpful. However, on their own, they don’t really contain any instruction at all. At the workshop, I packaged all the handouts into a folder which I distributed to each student at the beginning of the workshop. At that time (before any instruction had started), many students looked through all the handouts and felt confused and intimidated by all the information there… understandably. At future events, handouts will be distributed at more appropriate times, when they can be most helpful.

Students with mahjong experience: Students who know Chinese or even American mahjong can learn Riichi a lot faster than students starting from scratch. Future plans may include developing an accelerated method designed for students who already have other mahjong experience.

Student-to-Instructor ratio: One instructor playing at the same table as his three students works well, very effective for teaching. Instructors can give students plenty of individual attention, and can also make adjustments to suit their needs.

Attendance: Because of the organization of the lesson plan, and because of the interactive format, learning the whole game takes the entire scheduled time, and four people per table are required. At the workshop, a few of the students left early, at the halfway point; as one might guess, they only learned half! While that might be sufficient for a “taste” of the game, they didn’t get to learn the whole game. Furthermore, people leaving mid-workshop means that seating arrangements need to be adjusted; some students had to be moved to a different instructor’s table when their table-mates left.

Length of workshop: Four hours seems like a long time, even with a dinner break. However, students (who attended the whole workshop) remained interested, attentive and lively the whole time. Some students even reported that they would have liked to stay even longer, to play and practice what they learned. I think this is partly a result of the interactive format; because students are playing and learning at the same time, the whole workshop feels fun.

Plans.

All in all, our first Learn-to-Play event was successful. Some adjustments to the teaching method and workshop format will be made based on lessons learned from this first event, but in general, we found that the teaching method worked very well.

Thus, the USPML will start holding Learn-to-Play events that are open to the public! We have already scheduled the first of these: USPML Learn-to-Play Mahjong Workshop, Sunday May 23, New York City. An official event announcement with full details is coming soon. Please visit our website www.uspml.com for the latest.

NOT ALLOWED (NASHI):
Akadora (Red dora)
Barenchan (8 Continuances)
Double Yakuman (Double Limit Hand)
Kuikae (Chow Switch)
Ryanhanshibari (Min 2 HP after 5 Continuances)
Yakitori
_________________________________________________________

(Note from Charlyn: Jenn wrote a column, Jenn’s Corner #27, which describes each of these in more detail.)

(Note from Jenn: I have included English translations for Charlyn. Please use whichever term is easiest for you.)

________________________________________________________

I’m Charlyn Gee from the USPML. While the official USPML rules standard is still under development, there is an interim set of rules being used. Here are my personal opinions about some of these rules:

AKADORA (“Red Fives”): Red Fives count as an extra dora.
Not Allowed – I do not like Red Fives used together with Open All Simples (which is allowed, see KUITAN below). Red Fives makes All Simples hands more likely to be high in value, even if they are opened. So valuable, in fact, that it can seem like a waste of time to patiently pursue other hands that are more difficult/slower to form. It’s likely that, every hand, at least one player will chase Open All Simples with red fives to try to win big quick, so the game tends to become more of a lucky race rather than the strategic plan that is my favorite part of mahjong.

ATOZUKE: Yaku does not need to be guaranteed before win, also called After-attaching.
Allowed – A player relying on Atozuke has put himself at a disadvantage. Not all of his waits can win, so his chances of winning are lower. Disallowing Atozuke is kind of like making players wear seatbelts. If you want to take the risk, I think you should be able to. It may be somewhat annoying, but attentive opponents, knowing Atozuke is possible, can still defend; also, Atozuke hands are rarely high value (especially when Red Fives are disallowed).

KUITAN (“Open All Simples”): All Simples (Tanyao) is worth one yaku even with called discards.
Allowed - Open All Simples helps defend against Riichi. Riichi can be risky but it can also be very positive. In some respects, it’s only a matter of time before a player in Riichi wins. Other players may not have enough time to build winning hands, while still maintaining defense. Open All Simples offers a way to play against a Riichi, especially an early one. Open All Simples can also be won quickly, fast enough to sneak ahead, possibly preventing a large win. Also, though easy to win, Open All Simples is seldom high-value itself (especially when Red Fives are disallowed), so players won’t always choose it.

IPPATSU (“One Shot”): Winning on the first go-around after declaring Riichi.
Allowed - I like it because it means you can’t just discard willy-nilly after someone goes into Riichi; you’re forced to think, at least about the first discard.

YAKITORI: Players who never won a hand during the whole game pay a penalty at the end of the game.
Not Allowed – I think it’s an interesting game statistic, but not worth a point penalty. Most of the time, if you never won a hand, you are already suffering the penalty of losing. No need to rub it in with another penalty. And if not… I think that in mahjong, not losing is just as important as winning. If you sneaked yourself into second place by never losing (even though you never won), I’d say you played pretty well, and don’t deserve a penalty.

________________________________________________________

Questions or comments about this column? Please visit the USPML website and use the Forum for Riichi Rules and Etiquette.