Deep dives into advanced tactics, tournament strategies, and pro-level insights from Japan's competitive mahjong scene.
NewA two-sided wait declared on turn 8 wins 52% to 57% of the time at Tenhou's top level. A wait on a 5 wins 33%, or 46% behind a suji trap. Here's how often every common wait wins, turn by turn, and when dama beats riichi.
NewSplit your mahjong study time in three. Drills, play plus a review of every log, and one weak area for the month. A chess grandmaster's rule, translated to riichi, with a 3-hour and a 6-hour weekly plan.
NewWhen the dora is a 5, 11.5% of riichi hands at Tenhou's top level are waiting on it. An ordinary 5 sits in 8.0% of riichi waits. Here's the dora's real danger by tile, by wait shape, and against open hands.
NewFrom 4th you chase the mangan. From 1st you fold hands that can't hurt you. Kahneman and Tversky described both reflexes in 1979, and Tenhou's All Last numbers show where each one is right and where it costs you the game.
NewGuest winds go first and your own wind goes last. The round wind, the dragons and the isolated terminals sit in between, and each has a reason. Here's the full order for every seat, and the hands that break it.
NewThree players, 108 tiles, and no chii. On Tenhou and Mahjong Soul, North is a dora you set aside and a tsumo pays less than a ron. The two pay honba differently.
NewGo players have a word for not answering a threat because your own move is bigger. Riichi mahjong needs it. Here's when a riichi is a threat you ignore, when it's one you answer, and the Tenhou numbers that draw the line.
NewA suji tile can't deal into a two-sided wait. A kanchan, penchan, tanki, or shanpon still can. How to read suji, kabe, and genbutsu, and where the traps sit.
NewA riichi goes up and every eye lands on that pond, so the quiet two-call hand on your left rons you. Here's why attention locks onto one threat, the Houou odds on the hand you ignored, and the scan that catches it.
NewRiichi every tenpai, fold every riichi, call nothing without a yaku. Those rules are right at one rank and wrong two ranks later. Here's the rule-by-rule ladder, with the number that says when you've earned the exception.
NewAn opponent with two calls on turn 8 is tenpai 53% of the time at Tenhou's top level. One call, 27%. Three calls, 88%. Here's the full table by calls and turn, by hand type, and the discards that move the odds.
NewShogi pros replay the game they lost before they leave the board. Mahjong players close the app and queue again. Here's a 15-minute kansousen routine for one hanchan a day, with two hands, five whys, and Mortal opened last.
Want to hear whenever there's new mahjong content? Pre-subscribe to the upcoming newsletter and I will email you what you always wanted to know about Japanese mahjong before anybody else!
