Analysis: Mauro's Games - 01

[Mauro]

It's a while my winning rate (both hands and games) dropped significantly, and I can't understand why (I deal in less, when I watch my opponents' winning hands I'd have played it almost like them, and I don't think my playing style changed significantly from when I was winning more), so I was looking about some hints to improve; the drop started with this game, in which almost every hand I endend at least 1 shanten, yet I won just one hand and endend in third place: http://tenhou.net/0/?log=2015090619gm-0 ... 63f2e&tw=1

I know I made at least a mistake: In South 1 first continuance, I dropped 3s, while I should have dropped 9s (there were more free 3s, and 9s is safer), but overall I'm not sure if I won just one hand because I made mistakes I'm not aware of; I'm quite new at mahjong, so I could be missing something obvious.

Now I'm reviewing the following games: I'm sure I made mistakes (in part due to annoyace for poor results - I'm working on that), I'm not so sure about how many I made/how serious they were; more on this later, when I'm finished reviewing them.

Thanks in advance

[or2az]

East 3: Calling that on your 1st turn may not have been a good idea. Now you have to rely on drawing that 3rd since you probably won't get it from your opponents. Discarding that on your 7th tile was even worse. You threw away tenpai. Probably was accidental.

[Mauro]

East 3: Calling that on your 1st turn may not have been a good idea. Now you have to rely on drawing that 3rd since you probably won't get it from your opponents

This is something I'm thinking about, if relying on drawing or calling yakuhai makes sense, at least in early game: I saw it happening, but I'm not sure how often. So it's usually not so good?

Discarding that on your 7th tile was even worse. You threw away tenpai. Probably was accidental

Seeing it now I'd say accidental, yes, that's clearly a mistake.

[or2az]

Well, in a video game, I might attempt it in certain cases, but not against people, and not on my 1st turn, and not in that situation.
If you don't get that dragon, you have really limited your hand possibilities. What yaku will you try for?
With and a melded , there is no tanyao, no pinfu, no riichi, no menzen tsumo, no toi-toi, no chanta, no seven pairs, no honitsu, and in your case, no san shoku or ittsu. Staying concealed here was probably a better choice.

p.s. tried that riichi calculator scoring app you mentioned, pretty decent for under a megabyte.

[or2az]

South 1: Dealer called riichi and you continued to go for the win instead of bailing. Don't think this was a good plan but let's go on from there.

You had , drew the , and discarded it instead of the . (both looked equally dangerous).

Next turn, dealer tossed the and you called chi, tossed the , leaving you with .
You drew that 3rd dragon but eventually dealt the dora to the dealer and lost the hand, 7700 pts.

If you would have kept that and tossed the , your hand would have been and when dealer then tossed the , your chow would be 678 instead of 789 and you would be left with after discarding the .

The would now have been your winning tile.

I would not have called that kan on the . Too risky. Others may disagree, but I don't think so. Remember, you are adding a kan dora to the mix and a riichi winner also gets a kan ura dora. Could have been a bigger disaster.

[Mauro]

South 1: Dealer called riichi and you continued to go for the win instead of bailing. Don't think this was a good plan but let's go on from there

I did that because I was 1-shanten and I was hoping in four triplets, maybe with yakuhai in the mix, but I'm still trying to understand when to attack and when to defend if someone riichi (hand value plays a part, but I still have to study them; right now I can just calculate them, but that requires a little time).

You'r absolutely right on the .

[or2az]

still trying to understand when to attack and when to defend if someone riichi (hand value plays a part....

Understood. I can remember having those same decision making problems.
Other factors to consider in addition to the potential value of your hand include the score and at what point you are in the match.
When the dealer called riichi, you were in 2nd place, 6700 pts behind the leader and 4100 pts ahead of the riichi caller. It was South 1 and you were the next East (dealer). Still lots of time left.
Also remember that if you play with red fives (you said you usually don't), that the potential for higher value hands increase substantially.
Be patient. Try to look at the whole picture. It was only two years ago when I had been playing for only a month. I can relate.

[Mauro]

Ok, I'll try to pay more attention at the whole game, thanks for you advice. I'll think about them while reviewing the game, then go on with another one.

[Mauro]

Here the second one: http://reachmahjong.com/en/forum/viewto ... 48&t=53425