Reachmahjong.com

So yesterday, I had a a chinitsu hand which I did eventually make (in fact two made in that one hanchan, in the league room) and I didn't notice the full extent of my possible waits until a little later...

The hand was 4-5-5-5-6-6-6-7-8-9 (1-2-3 already melded) - and I eventually went out on a 5 discard to make chinitsu and itsu for a dealer haneman.

I have since determined that my outs were 3 to 6. Am I missing a wait or is that the correct list of waits? I know for sure that 4-4-4-5-6-6-6 has waits from 3 to 7, but I don't think 7 was a valid wait for the hand above.

Oh, these crazy Chinitsu hands. Often times, they make me dizzy, especially when encountering them with real tiles (where there's no computerized aid).

That's a 3-6 and 4 and 5. And I'll use pinzu.

Open:

Nice to break this puppy down in regions.

The wait guide is helpful to determine these cooky wait patterns:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=52599

The hand is a mix of "shanpon", "ryanmen", and "tanki" waits. I don't know the names of all the waits off the top of my head, but it's good to at least know the basic ones (i.e. the ones that come the most frequently).

This hand of yours. The "ryanmen":

Waiting for the 3-6.

The "shanpon".

Waiting for: 5-6. Note, pull the 5-5 and 6-6 out, and you still have a complete 4-5-6.

The "tanki":

Waiting for: the lone 4

If you happen to come across the game: Touhou Unreal Mahjong (3rd Generation). It comes with a Wait Quiz, including these whacky Chinittsu hands. Personally, it's helpful identifying the potential pairs. For the 3-6, the pair is 5-5. For the 5-6, winning off the 5, the pair is 6-6. For the 4, well, it's 4-4.

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EDIT: Here is a screenshot of the Wait Quiz: Hand is tenpai, choose the winners.

This game is good for practice.

http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/bamboo/bamboo.html

You'll have to riichi, ron and tsumo manually, and if you screw up it's a chombo.

interesting cursor placement... hmm... ?

All mahjong hands may have any amount of sequences or triples, but they will necessarily have a pair. An easy way to assess your waits is mentally separating your candidates for pairs, and looking at the remaining shape. Another, better one, long term skill, is memorizing many simpler shapes of which the more difficult ones are made of.

One tip to spot if you're missing some waits:
If you're waiting on a tile you already have, you're probably also waiting for another tile.