UmaiKeiki's Tenhou Blog

Fear of dai san gen

2009-09-06T17:39:00.003+01:00

Osamu's recent encounter reminds me of the sheer force of intimidation that can be generated with a couple of yakuhai pon. When it starts to look like a yakuman, everyone plays carefully to avoid getting hit with Pao. I remember a game against Terek long ago in which he made Haku and Hatsu pon right before I was going to discard my chun.

The rest of his hand was garbage at that point but I still held on to that chun because I didn't want to risk Pao. Once I reached tenpai I decided to risk it, but terek had finally just drawn a chun and made a tanki wait on it. =3=

whoa cubistic

2009-06-12T18:29:00.004+01:00

Recently there's been someone playing in 7447 under the name "cubistic". This guy is one of the craziest players we've seen, simply because of the sheer number of games. He started playing in mid-April, and in his first two months has racked up over 420 games! Check out this stats script: http://arcturus.su/tenhou/ranking/ranking.pl?name=cubistic&type=0&from=20081222&to=20090614

So how strong is he after all those games? According to that script, his 7447 stats are slightly above breakeven; in 0000, he's earned 6 kyu with a rate of 1600+. (Not bad since the average 6-kyu is R1487.) Certainly stronger than the average beginner!

Without being an internet tough guy, I think it's safe to assume he is still a beginner. He has some gameplay habits that are telling of beginners, such as calling every tile possible and getting into furiten.

But imagine what could happen if he keeps playing at this rate... there could be a MONSTER turned loose in 7447!

Close race

2009-05-21T20:52:00.004+01:00

Today I entered a West round with three players, including myself, at roughly 29000 points each. With such a close game, whoever could make the first open 1000-point hand would win the game. After a vicious clash of pon palaces and chi castles, I was tenpai with a "harabote" shanpon wait, meaning some of my winning tiles were already being used for Shuntsu. Just then I drew a funky tile...

What wait should I use? I figured the 25 Ryanmen had a few extra chances so I threw away the 47 Shanpon.

With my luck, I'm sure anyone could have guessed that the very next discard would be a 7, exactly what I needed before throwing away the shanpon.

Tetsuya's advice: if it looks good to someone running on bad luck, do the exact opposite!

Double Houtei Ron!

2009-04-30T19:10:00.004+01:00

Here's something cool that happened in a game today. It was close to the end of a round and none of us were getting our Tenpai. I finally hit mine in the last few turns, and after waiting a bit, decided to try my luck with a Riichi.

As the round drew to a close, two opponents started calling tiles, not so they could win, but so they could be Tenpai when the ryuukyoku payments came.

This changed the draw order so that I would get the haitei tile. I drew and discarded it, and lo and behold, both opponents claimed it.

Luckily for me, both of them had been going for Pinfu, so one of them didn't even have any yaku other than Houtei after opening his hand.

Lucky draws and kanchan palace

2009-04-23T19:03:00.003+01:00

Today I played a game that never left East 1st round. I had so many lucky draws in this game it's kind of disgusting. I won on a lot of iipeikous and kanchan waits as well.

The replay for this game is in this thread: http://arcturus.su/ch/mj/kareha.pl/1229040128/l50

7447 Tournament: Spring 2009!

2009-04-19T02:00:00.003+01:00

This weekend was 7447's Spring tournament! It was an epic struggle and many lives were lost! Get ready for some AWESOME RON ACTION SHOTS

I expected CRiX to be the main challenge for me in game 1. However, due to the Colonel's absence, I was pitted against the venerable zoot in a desperate race for first.

Alas, the ill-fated NrgSpoon was dealt the final blow, sealing zoot's victory in the first battle.

The second game had me up against some tough rep players, including zoot. He dominated that table with one fell tsumo after another. Being the weakest player at that table, I was easily whittled into last place. Seems I'll need to work on my skills before the next tournament! In retrospect, maybe I should have made more open hands. I called 0 tiles during the whole game but dealt into numerous open 2000-point hands whose potency I underestimated at the time. They all add up though!

Also, check out this awesome multi-sided wait:

The final match was between ronronronronron (Bernd), NrgSpoon, narcosynthisis (desmond2), and Speedwagon. It was an intense battle with many spectators and hilarious IRC commentary. After totaling the results of 2 games, the victor was ronronronronron, with Speedwagon taking second place.

Monster recovery

2009-04-16T19:01:00.002+01:00

I found myself in a pinch today: East 3rd round, in 4th place with 1300 points.

A couple of Ren Chans later: East 4th round, 1st place with 37900 points.

Some dumb luck right there!

Protip: Don't go for Kokushi

2009-04-11T17:30:00.002+01:00

I am one greedy gambler when it comes to Kokushi. Whenever I start with a lot of yao chuu tiles I can't help but try for it.

This is a big weakness of mine. I just can't resist aiming for kokushi musou simply because of how cool it is! And you'd think that since it's one of the most common yakuman, I'd get it at least once, right? Never seems to happen though.

Ren kan taatsu are a blessing and a curse...

2009-04-09T19:29:00.003+01:00

Have you ever started a round with a long sequence of odd-only or even-only number tiles?

These are really cool because a series of kanchan waits has many opportunities to form shuntsu. In my case, holding all the odd-numbered man tiles means that any even-numbered man tile I draw will complete a shuntsu -- and any I draw after that will either form another shuntsu or upgrade my current one to a 3-sided wait shape!

The first problem with these is that they consume a lot of tiles, so you will have to cut them down eventually. I prefer to cut off the ends first, as keeping the chain as long as possible ensures the maximum number of waits as well as higher chances of getting a 3-sided wait.

And now the real problem rears its ugly head: these are deadly, deadly Furiten traps!

With my luck, I can be sure that if I cut the 1, I'll draw a 2 the next turn.

Sometimes a middle piece has to go because the ends have formed something useful. This time I'll cut the 3 or the 5...

...and draw a 4! Furiten again!

Sigh. Maybe I should have just gotten rid of the 5p earlier.

Clever Shibori and Painful Nan-nyuu

2009-04-08T18:38:00.007+01:00

I noticed something cool in a game with "Snapper" earlier today. I thought nothing of it at the time, but he used a clever little trick that can only be done in internet mahjong!

It was the start of South 2nd round. His first discard was a Hatsu, and since I started with a pair, I had the opportunity to Pon it. However, my hand was a mess and I didn't want to ruin it by opening too early. I was in no hurry to attack, either, since I had a solid lead over the others.

So I just passed it up and went on my way. But what do you think it looked like from his point of view? In internet mahjong, if you deal a tile that someone can Pon, the game pauses while they decide whether to call it and then resumes when they pass. That means he knew someone had at least 2 Hatsu already (if not all 3). Later in the round, he drew another Hatsu, and since no others were discarded, he knew someone was still holding on to a pair.

Since it was late game, it was highly likely that someone would be waiting on the pair. Especially suspicious would be the obvious Hon Itsu at his left. So he held on to that lone Hatsu, at the expense of his quickly progressing hand, and managed to deal safe tiles until the round ended in a draw. Clever Snapper!

Later I decided to play a quick tonpuusen. At least, I thought it would be quick. One guy dealt into two consecutive mangan in the first and second round, leaving him with 5000 points. Then in the third round, he got a baiman tsumo, immediately reversing the damage he had just done!

It brought everyone's scores rather close together, and since the game can't end if someone isn't above 30000 points, we had to continue on into a South round. It was rather painful for me since I had exactly 29900 points.

test

2009-04-08T05:38:00.007+01:00

Yeah, I've decided to keep a log of my tenhou games like all the cool people.

As a test post, time to show off one of my big hands!

Most big hands I've seen (sanbaiman and kazoe-yakuman) usually get that high by having a lot of Dora. So here's a sanbaiman that doesn't rely on any Dora at all!

I can see why most people don't even recognize Dai Sha Rin and its variants as instant yakuman anymore.