/vt/ - Virtual Youtubers

>>13834143

A primer in tile efficiency:

Check out Touka's hand right now.
This is not a winning hand (yet) but Tenpai, and quite the good one.
We see she has a red 5 which is immediately one Han on top, we see 8-8-9 which was a formation waiting for a 7 or an 8 so it could make EITHER of 7-8-9 or 8-8-8, this is why going for double tiles is not that bad of an idea, even better if something already connects.
We see no honors which immediately tells is pinfu, her discarding the 9 after this also makes this one Tanyao as well as closed so we get
Riichi, Pinfu, Tanyao (MenTanPin) and at least one Dora which is close to Mangan, Ura-Dora or the actual Dora (not shown here and I don't remember) might already make this 5 Han and therefore Mangan, or in case she is dealer 4 Han are already 11700 points as well.

What's important here is her waiting formation. It is not yet decided if her sequence with the bamboo is 2-3-4, 5-6-7 or 1-2-3, 4-5-6 OR 2-3-4, 4-5-6
2-3-4-5-6 is a GREAT wait because it's not only dual but TRIPLE, you can wait for 1-4-7 here and all three sides of the wait qualify for Pinfu [insert boring shit about why Pinfu has to be dual-wait or better here]

Dual-waits are so fucking common they have some voodoo bullshit connected to them, which is Suji. Some cumguzzling retards preach Suji is a GREAT way to read discard piles, which is bullshit, but being aware of them makes you compute Mahjong just that much faster.
If you see 5-6 in a hand you immediately think 4/7, if one of those comes in the sequence is ready. The other way around, if you find ONLY 4 and 7 in your hand you can discard one of them once another number from that suit comes in.
If you draw the 2, that connects to the 4. 3 connects to 4. 4 is double 4.
5 connects to 4 and 7 but it's better with the 4 because 4-5 already makes you ready for 3 or 6, while 5-7 ONLY accepts the 6.
Now if you draw the 6, it's the opposite: throw the 4.

NONE of this is rules, ALL of it is pointers. Mahjong is a cruel mistress and might give you 4-7, you discard the 7 because it is slightly less optimal then you draw the 8 and the 6 right after. The problem is you will HAVE to discard.
This is where SKILL comes in:
The only thing you can do to actively improve your mahjong is being constantly aware of what setups are possible from the tile you draw, keep as many possible hands open to you as you can, and discard what you think has the least chances of connecting to something.
THIS is precisely why the most common opening to a hand is discarding Dragons and Winds because they don't make sequences and are only ever useful in at least pairs.

Some other number combinations to watch out for:
55-66 or any other double pair NOT 11 or 99:
You might be in for Iipeikou here or just two double-waits which isn't bad.

3-4-5-5-5 is interesting because it sets you up for either waiting 2/5 on the 3-4 OR using the 5 as pair and taking 3-4-5 as a sequence. This stacks indefinitely, look up Chuurenpoutou for some fucked up waits.

There is tons of other number stuff one can analyze but those two are common enough to be useful.

The other big part of Mahjong is NOT LOSING which is a whole other beast but tl;dr:
if you see someone either Riichiing or calling twice and your hand doesn't look fat enough, try to discard what they have already discarded OR what other people discard without loosing.