• Tempai... Or not?

    by  • 09:42 AM

    We present a detailed hand analysis by Vladimir Bogdanov, the professional player of the League:

    2nd East round.

    We choose between  and .

    1. Current situation:

    • Shimocha has either honitsu/chinitsu or tanyao with doras. The possibility of tempai is low.
    • Toimen is forcing his way to junchan. Unsuccessfully.
    • Kamicha has an ordinary discard. We may expect tempai when he discards a middle tile.

    To sum up: both tiles seem quite safe.

    2. Analysis

    If we discard , we will have tempai waiting for dora, which shape could improve after receiving 3 types of tiles (6 tiles in total). The advantage of this hand is that its value is 7700 minimum, the probability of mangan or haneman is rather high and we also have some chances to complete yakuman. The disadvantage is a low possibility of winning. Even if the wait improves, it still will include the dora tile, which only could be discarded by the shimocha in case he is making a one suited hand.

    If our discard will be , the ishanten could be improved by receiving 6 types of tiles (16 in total). This decision will probably leave us with a cheaper hand, but a good wait will allow us to declare riichi and thus increase its value.

    3. Summary

    The most flexible and potentially effective decision is to discard .

    4. Notes

    In real game I discarded  and received . After that my shimocha, who was aiming for honitsu, discarded the dora tile. The hand cost 7700.