Sometimes, there are some tiles that seem similar, making it hard to decide which to discard for best. But, is it true?
You know, Mahjong is a four-player game, so the other three competitors are all variables in this game. Today, let's discuss how to think differently from your competitors' perspective.
In this case, the tiles
and
are both considered flexible tiles. If you get
, you can improve it to a wait for
and
. Similarly, if you keep
and draw a
, you can improve it to a wait for
or
. They both offer similar improvement options.
However , when it comes to forming pairs, even-numbered pairs are generally not as good as odd-numbered pairs. The common saying is,
Discard the Even, rather than Discard the Odd.
Let’s think about this differently. If you want to win with your hand,
it usually doesn’t depend on easy-to-form pairs like
, but rather on the weaker pairs like.
or
.
This is similar to the "Liebig's law of the minimum," where the amount of water a barrel can hold is determined by its shortest plank, not the longer ones. Good pairs are efficient and help you form winning hands quickly, instead of the weaker pairs.
For example, if you break up
, what are you more likely to draw:
or
? Clearly,
is more likely. So, your winning tile will probably be only
. Similarly, if you break up
, drawing a
or
will also show that
is more likely. Thus, your winning tile will likely be only
.
So, when playing Mahjong, you should follow the patterns and think
outside the box. If you draw a
or
and both are single tiles, would you discard the
or the
first? Most people would discard the
because the
is more central and has more chances to form pairs with the tiles on either
side. However, it might be better to discard the
or
instead. This way, your winning tile is on
, which has a higher chance than being on
. This is because other players are more likely to discard
, so based on the tiles in play, you’ll have a clearer idea of your chances
of getting a
.
You can find more Mahjong strategies here. That's it. Hope you like this. See you next time.