If you've read the blog up to this point, you should have a pretty good understanding of how a Mahjong game works. This post concerns more advanced rules and strategies to boost your knowledge to the next level!
Indebtedness
There is a rule that states: If any player takes three tiles from another player, then they become mutually indebted to one another. Let's get into what this means and the nuances of how this works!
First and foremost, taking tiles simply refers to claiming a tile that a player discards. This can be through a Chow, Pung, or Kong. To keep track of who you got the tile from, you point the tile you took in their direction.
Let's say Player A takes three tiles from Player B (putting them in a mutual state of indebtedness). If Player B were to win the hand, then Player A would be responsible for paying all the money that Player B won. For example, if Player B were to Tsumo, then they would normally be entitled to the value of their hand from each player. However, Player A is indebted so they would have to pay for all three players.
If, instead, Player B were to claim the winning tile from another player, then Player A would pay for that player instead. However, the nuance to this is that the player who discarded the tile must be ready to win for it to become Player A's responsibility to pay. This dissuades players from intentionally ruining their hands to make indebted players pay.
Whatever applies to Player A in this scenario also applies to Player B, as they bear the same burden. The purpose of the rule is so players are punished for thoughtlessly claiming tiles and have to make judgment calls about whether they want to enter indebtedness.
"A skilled player needs to know when to be defensive and avoid discarding tiles that others will claim!"
Dead Hand
This rule states that if a player ever has an inaccurate number of tiles in their hand, they must forfeit the round. Once another player points this out, the offending player's hand is considered dead, and they would directly discard whatever tiles they draw each turn.
We would advise against this rule if playing with new players since it can feel quite punishing. It is meant to dissuade people from strategically deviating from the number of tiles they should have, but it should not be used to ruin a beginner's learning experience.
If you notice a beginner has a dead hand, just point it out to them and let them draw or discard an extra tile so they can get back into the round!
Watching Opponent's Moves
Now for our first strategy lesson! It goes without saying that you should pay attention to what other players do...but what exactly do you look for?
The most basic approach is to keep track of what Suited Tiles they appear to be leaning towards. In most games, other players will opt to keep the suit that they start with the most of, which is beneficial information for you. For example, if you notice the player ahead of you is discarding Dots and Bamboos, then you should lean away from Characters. Now, we say "lean" because sometimes it is still optimal to continue pursuing a certain suit even if others area. If you happen to start with 9 Tiles from the Character suit, you may not need discards from the player before you to complete your hand.
Another thing to keep in mind is what the player after you is doing. If they discard Dots and Bamboos, then you are slightly incentivized to lean toward Characters. That way, you can avoid discarding tiles that they want and risking becoming indebted to them. If your winning hand is not going to be worth a lot while someone else appears to be building a big score, you should be defensive and hoard tiles they might need to win.
Another potentially dangerous indicator is a player discarding Suited Tiles from all three suits while not discarding Honour Tiles. Typically, honour tiles are kept to complement one suit, so if they discard all types of suits, they may be going for something big! Just be sure to dispel your suspicions if they discard an Honour Tile, as they are probably just making an All Sets hand instead.
There's a lot more you can do with the information you gather. For example, if someone is quite early to start discarding tiles from the suit they are pursuing, it is often an indicator that they are close to winning. Knowing this, you could be more passive in discarding that suit. You could get into even more nuance by looking at the specific number of the tile they are discarding. For example, if they discard a 4 of Dots, they are less likely to need a 1 or 7 of Dots to win, since these are in the same "line" as the 4. You can think of the three major lines as 147, 258, and 369.
There are a lot more nuances to Mahjong strategy that we could delve into, but for the sake of not turning this blog post into an essay, here are two final things to consider if you really want to up your game:
1) If a player gets down to one tile left in their hand and begins "fishing," the tile they are initially fishing for will likely be close to the tile they most recently discarded. If they discard a 4 Bamboo, there is a higher likelihood they will be going for a tile from 2 to 6 Bamboo, since that would have put them in a position to win with a Sequential Set of 3 before "fishing". Of course, once a round goes by, they can switch the tile they are fishing for, so this information is only relevant for a short time.
2) If you know you are unlikely to win a hand, you could disrupt someone who appears to be in a strong position to win. The most direct way would be to hold all the Suited Tiles they are going for, as well as any Honour Tiles that are not safe to discard. Near the end of the game, you could even Chow/Pung a tile to disrupt the turn order and prevent them from getting a chance at a Final Tile Win.
Conclusion
Ultimately, Mahjong is a game of risk and reward, with skill expression often taking the form of knowing when to be aggressive or defensive. What we've covered in this post gives you some things to think about, but remember that Mahjong is extremely dynamic, so your intuition is the most important...so get out there and play!
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