Konno’s Kolumn #2: Reading Discards (2)
Hello, this is Shintaro Konno. Last time I wrote about determining what sort of hands your opponents are aiming for by reading their discards. This time I want to write about “Reading Discards” and correctly working out what your opponent is waiting for.
First of all, forget about doing that. You will not be able to tell exactly what your opponent is waiting for with one glance. It’s probably more accurate to say that instead of knowing exactly what your opponent is waiting for, we will be doing things to increase the number of safe tiles so that you don’t discard an opponent’s winner.
All discarded tiles hold a meaning. For example, let’s say that a 1 was discarded. In this situation, there are of course cases in which the player really didn’t need that tile at all, but perhaps they had 1,1 and drew a 2 or a 3 and then discarded the 1 or maybe they had 1,3 and drew a 4 so they didn’t need the 1 anymore. These are the things that show up in discards.
Let’s start with the basics. The first thing you have to remember is “octaves” (piano keys/’suji’). The three octaves are 1-4-7, 2-5-8 and 3-6-9. Open-ended waits will always be part of one of these octaves.
If you have 23 you will be waiting on 1-4 and if you have 67 you will be waiting on 5-8. It seems very obvious but if you don’t understand this then you won’t be able to move on to reading discards.
Let’s move on to the next step. In Japan, the word “suji” (octaves) has cousins called “ura-suji” (back octave) and “matagi-suji” (branch octave). The word “octave” is in each of these terms, so it should seem natural that all these terms are related. That is what I am going to explain now.
“Back Octave” means the octave that is next to the tiles that were discarded. For example if 1 was discarded, 2-5 will be the inside octave. If 8 was discarded then 4-7 is the back octave. Only 5 has 2 back octaves: 1-4 and 6-9.
List of Back Octaves:
1: 2-5
2: 3-6
3: 4-7
4: 5-8
5: 1-4, 6-9
6: 2-5
7: 3-6
8: 4-7
9: 5-8
Next let’s talk about “Branch Octaves.” Branch octaves are the octaves surrounding the discarded tiles. If 2 is discarded, 1-4 will be the branch octave. Is 7 was discarded, 5-8 and 6-9 are the branch octaves. 1 and 9 don’t have branch octaves.
List of Branch Octaves:
1: none
2: 1-4
3: 1-4, 2-5
4: 2-5, 3-6
5: 3-6, 4-7
6: 4-7, 5-8
7: 5-8, 6-9
8: 6-9
9: none
Back octaves and branch octaves have a very important meaning for reading discards. The reason is that most players aim for a Ready hand with an open-ended wait so they can win easily.
Look at this hand:
Lucky Tile
This is a common hand that you see every day. What would you discard?
Under normal circumstances you would probably think of the Inside Hand and the Peace Hand and discard 5. What would you do if you drew a 1 after that? You have lost the shot at the Inside hand. Normally you should discard 8 and reach.
Your discard now looks like this:
– – – – – –
– – (reach)
Imagine that the dashes (-) are simply tiles that you did not need and discarded for that reason. The part you should focus on are the 5 and the 8.
Take a look at the 5 and the 8 on the lists in this column.
The back octaves for 5 are 1-4 and 6-9, the branch octaves are 3-6 and 4-7.
The back octave for 8 are 4-7 and the branch octave is 6-9.
The octaves that show up in both groups are 4-7 and 6-9. We have come as far as knowing that there is a very good chance that this player is waiting on 4-7 or 6-9. The actual wait is 6-9. However, in this case 4-7 also looks dangerous, so we are only halfway done with our read.
Let’s continue down this road. Concentrate on the order that these tiles were discarded. When 5 is discarded first and 8 next, the chances that the player is waiting for 4-7 decreases. This is because if you have 5568 then the 8 will be discarded before the 5. So, if our discard pile was reversed and 8 was discarded first then 4-7 would be more dangerous.
Reading discard piles is like looking down a very deep well. Today I’ve only introduced you to the mouth of that well. Even if you come across a hand like our example today and you have successfully read 6-9 as being dangerous, if they draw their winning tile first then that read will be a waste. The meaning of the discards will also differ depending on whether 8 was discarded from the hand or directly from the wall after being drawn. That is why I mentioned at the beginning that it would be impossible to determine your opponent’s winning tile at a glance.
However, if you don’t take the first step then you will never reach that goal. Take this opportunity to start looking at your opponent’s discards. Mahjong will become fun in new ways.
We’ll close with a “Discard-Reading Quiz”
– – – – 
(reach)
If you see these tiles in a player’s discard, you may think they had 5668, so 4-7 is very dangerous. How about if you see this discard:
– – – – (reach)
What would be dangerous in this situation?
See you next time.
Shintaro Konno is Grade 4 in the Japan Professional Mahjong League and runs mahjong lessons in the Kanto region. You can find him as a pro on Ron2 and Konami’s Mahjong Fight Club.
