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After the acclaimed Do you Riichi?, here there is its sequel: Do you meld?

When to meld is something I'm trying to learn, and in my last game there was a situation I thought about posting it here:
It's very early in the game: I don't have a great hand (3-shanten after melding, with lots of lone tiles) and melding would decrease my defensive chances; on the other hand, if I'm able to win quickly shimocha wouldn't be East anymore (which is good, since it's second and I don't want him to have continuance, but he wouldn't be east also if someone else won), I would increase my very small lead on him and would be in all last in first place. If I don't meld, I can hope to draw (or meld later, with a better hand) the fourth later.

(I didn't meld, the fourth dragon didn't come out, the hand ended in a draw with kimocha getting 3000.)

I think I'd meld but Haku only to keep as many tiles in my hand as possible. I'd hope to get something around 4p, 8p and to expand the Manzu shape. So, Pon, discard 1s.

Stopping Shimocha is crucial but the most important thing is to not a get a silly Ron before oorasu.

Two years ago, when I was learning and only playing riichi for 5 months, Scott Miller gave me this advice.

Scott Miller wrote:
You went for a 1-yaku hand. Again, by itself, that's not a mistake… but beginners do that more often than they should too. 1-yaku hands definitely have their place, but try to see past the obvious 1-yaku and look deeper into your hand for where you might have others to develop. Think about this… is it worth developing a cheap only to lose to a haneman? Make a mental rule for yourself to go for at least a 2 yaku hand or not at all to force yourself to look deeper into your hand. You'll lose a few more hands early on, but it will develop your skill much faster and you'll be crushing much sooner. On the hands you decide "not at all", use those hands to work on your skill of not discarding into someone else's hand… defense. A skill more important than winning, believe it or not. So you'll be working two crucial skills at once with this 2-yaku exercise.

Having a small lead in South 3 is one of those times, for me, when it is more important not to lose, than to win.
I would not open the hand here.

This is a tough decision for me. If you were in second by 1300 I would call chasing first. If third place was close behind you I'd call as well. As it is, I would be right in the middle between calling and not calling. My goal here would be giving myself the best chance to get to south 4 in first, since even if you play into a dealer mangan (which shouldn't happen, but even if it did), you're still not in too much danger of getting last, and 2nd isn't that valuable in the joukyuu room, so your mindset should be focused on 1st. But for not calling, you can hope for the last white dragon later or make a hand with white dragons as a pair as well. And if you end up in a tough situation and play into a hand after calling, you'll lose 1st.

I think I would lean towards calling but not calling seems good too. Either way, I would discard south wind next. 1s seems safe to the dealer and gives you more space to draw your hand.

Scott Miller's advice is spot on! I've recently dealt into a really silly dabu Ron while pursuing a pointless cheap hand. One of those times when my discipline took a break

The reward for *not* pushing is too low. If you end up noten, you lose a rank, most likely. If shimocha wins then you can fall deeply. If you can grasp the minimum 1300 points, toimen would need to cover 8800 pt (2:50 or 3:25 direct, 3:40 tsumo, 4+ han ron).

There is no merit to playing for more points, first place is an unequivocal win. Points matter solely to establish a rank among the also-rans.