Multiple Waits for Advanced Players
Check Mahjong No Jan-Ryu for the original article.
*Translation of the original article start below*
※ This section is for players who already mastered the previous 7 tile series.
Once you get the hold of Mahjong, you would want to know “How to get better at using more than 10 tiles and multiple waits for Hon-Itsu and Chin-Itsu”, right?
It’s hard to say that you would be perfect, but we will go over some pointers where you can be “comfortable in most cases”.
Practical Pointers
Even though you may have 10 or more tiles, find the same 7 tile patterns we previously went over, and you can easily find your actual waits.
For example…
Once you see the underlined 2233444666 pattern, you can see that it is a 1,2,3,4M wait. Plus…
If you remove the 234 set, you can also see the 2344666 pattern. So you can see a 1,4,5M wait too. (So it will be a 1~5M wait as a whole)
As seen in the example, once you remove the Anko or Shun-Tsu, you can spot once of the 7 tile wait patterns in most cases. Especially if you can immediately visualize the shape by removing a Shun-Tsu from your hand, your multiple wait efficiency will go up.
Another pointer would be…
Practical Pointers
If a Shun-Tsu is added to your original wait, your total wait tiles will increase.
1,4 Wait + Adding a Shun-Tsu -> (1,4,7 Wait) So 7 will be an additional tile you can wait on.
You may have noticed this without anyone mentioning it to you, but if you be a little more self-conscious about this, multiple waits like the ones below will become much easier.
Here are the examples…
Once you see the underlined 5677999 pattern, you can see that it is a 4,7,8P wait.
Once the 234 is added, you can immediately see that the 1P will also become a tile you can wait on. (So it will become a 1,4,7,8P wait as a whole)
Like this example, verifying the related wait tiles of the added Shun-Tsu becomes very useful.
As a disclaimer, just because you have gone through all of the patterns, does not mean that you are perfect. There are many other patterns and situations that people use. In order to have a wider understanding, it is a good habit to continue learning by ready books and watching people commentate in games.
The original authors of this articles recommended several books, but they are currently in Japanese only. We will be working with other authors and publishers to bring some of these books into the English community, so please keep an eye out for more to come!