I got a comment on the Joyjan post that said “Now I just need to see what the good hands are...” and it reminded me of the time I spent learning the many yaku (requirements) that a hand can have in reach mahjong, and how confused I was at the time by just having them listed in front of me.
When one is just presented with raw rules-- especially the mountain of rules that reach gives us-- one doesn’t necessarily know where to go from there. In the interest of nudging the beginner forward, I’d like to take apart a very common piece of Japanese MJ terminology: “men-tan-pin”.
“Men” stands for “menzen” or concealed, meaning a hand made without calling any tiles. Menzen tsumo is the most basic yaku: it’s given to the hand when the player draws the final tile by themselves. It’s extremely important for beginners to keep this in mind, because most valid combinations of mahjong tiles-- four sets and a pair-- don’t actually fulfill any yaku themselves. A hand without yaku is worth nothing, so if you go calling tiles without knowing what you’re doing (the number one downfall of the reach rookie), you will probably make yourself unable to win. This is obviously bad.
Furthermore, even when the hand fulfills other yaku, making a call disqualifies it from the menzen tsumo yaku and often lowers the value of those yaku it qualifies for (a full flush is worth 6 han closed and 5 han open, for example). Beginners should avoid calling tiles until they completely understand the consequences of that action.
“Tan” stands for “tanyao”, meaning a hand with no terminals or honors in it. No ones, nines, winds or dragons. We like tanyao because it’s easy to make: the middle tiles obviously connect to more tiles than those on the edges, which often leave us with difficult and unlikely waits.
Calling with tanyao (or open tanyao) is a common and powerful move. Entire rulesets hinge on whether or not this hand is allowed, but if you are playing online it usually is.
Opening a tanyao hand is all well and good, but remember that yaku are worth the most when they go together. By itself, the open tanyao is such a low-scoring hand that it’s hardly worth winning. Menzen tsumo and tanyao make an easy 2 han: now that's still a low-scoring hand, but stacking more and more yaku is how you move forward.
“Pin” stands for “pinfu”, meaning a no-point hand. Pinfu is both an vitally important yaku, your bread and butter, and one of the most complicated. I’m not going to get into the particulars of fu points because scoring in reach MJ is very complicated and beyond the reach of an article like this. A pinfu hand contains:
-all sequences (no sets of three of a single tile)
-any pair but that of a round or seat wind or a dragon
-a final wait on two tiles to complete one of the sequences (examples, 3-4 waiting on 2 or 5, but not 3-5 waiting on 4).
Finally, unlike tanyao, pinfu must be concealed. The final tile can come off another player, but no calling is allowed until then. A pinfu with menzen tsumo is a common combination.
Pinfu is complicated, but it’s also one of the most likely patterns to fall into your hand. Pinfu is good because it's likely. Sequences are easier to pull than triples: there are just more tiles available, and tiles in sequences form complex shapes that can catch many different tiles. Think of the shape 556. Is it more likely that I’ll pull one of the two remaining 5s, or am I more likely to pull 4 or 7, of which four of each are still out there? In general, favor the possibility of a sequence over that of a triple.
Pinfu is also likely to combine with menzen tsumo and tanyao, which add up to a very basic, fast, reliable, and profitable hand that most players aim for right away. Put reach (reach is its own post) and a dora tile in there and we have a high-scoring mangan hand! Great!
This hand is, going down the list: reach, tsumo, pinfu, tanyao, sanshoku doujun (one of the same sequence in each color), 1 dora. Dealer haneman. 18,000. Bread and butter pays off.
Hence the mantra men-tan-pin. It’s by no means the only combination of yaku that we shoot for, but it’s among the most common and flexible. For more analysis and advice on yaku from an actual pro player in Japan, have a look at Garthe’s columns on reachmahjong.com.
One of the things I struggle with is when the right/best time to play certain tiles/hands, mainly because I am a super casual player. I get lost in the terminologies and kind of lose interest after so many losses. I tend to try to shape my hands into pinfu, sometimes holding out in the hopes I can get a triple, though yeah ,it is a quick way to lose. Thanks for the explanations and link, hopefully should be able to slightly improve my game now.
Posted by: Groove-A | October 26, 2011 at 11:30 PM