Waiting for Your Call – An Introduction to the Concept of Hand Speed
You pull out your cell phone, you dial the number, hit Call and wait for it to start ringing. Sometimes it takes just a second to start ringing, but sometimes it takes 5 or even 10 seconds for it to finally start ringing. In the telecommunications industry they call this call delay. What does this have to do with mahjong? Well, mahjong also has call delay – the number of tiles you still need to be 1 away from making a winning hand. Understanding this and other terms are crucial in determining which hands to go for, why, and when. This article will go over the various terms and concepts that will help you assess your hand for speed and how quickly you are likely to make a particular pattern.
A Calling Hand or Ready Hand
Firstly, you’ll want to know what a calling hand is. A calling hand is a hand that is 1 tile away from completing a winning 14-tile mahjong hand. It’s called that because you are “calling” for a certain tile to show up that would finish off your hand. People commonly call this a ready hand, because you are ready to win as soon as an appropriate tile shows up.
This is usually in the context of also completing a specific pattern in your hand (otherwise you’d be calling for just a 1-point chicken hand – although sometimes there is a good reason to be calling to complete just a chicken hand).
Example:
π π π , π π π , π π π , π π π , π
Our player here has a Nine Tile Straight and a triplet of 3-Dot and has a calling hand – she’s calling for another green dragon to complete her pair. She is said to have a calling hand or ready hand. She is looking for a green dragon to show up, so she is said to be calling for (or calling on) a green dragon.
Call Delay
How do we describe a hand that is a bit farther away from completion? Let’s look at what her hand might have looked like a few turns ago:
π π π , π π π , π π π , π π π , π
She needs a 3-Dot to complete her 3-Dot triplet and she needs an 8-Bamboo and a 9-Bamboo to finish the last sequence she needs. Therefore she needs 3 tiles to make a calling hand.
The number of tiles needed to make a calling hand is called your call delay or your delay, for short. A hand can be described as having a number of delay – our player’s hand here has ‘a 3-delay’ or ‘a delay of 3’. You will also commonly hear how many tiles “away” someone is from a calling hand. Our player here would be “3 away” from a calling hand for a Nine-Tile Straight. (For those from a Riichi background, delay is synonymous with the concept of shanten).
Note: We use how many tiles to get into this state as the reference point, rather than using how many tiles you need to have fully finished your hand. Why is that? When you or another opponent reach this state, the game changes. If it’s you who has a calling hand, you can claim a tile for any reason (triplet, kong, sequence – doesn’t matter). If your opponents deduce that you have a calling hand, at the top of their mind is stopping you from winning.
On the other hand, let’s say your opponent has a calling hand. Now your goal shifts potentially from completing your hand to not helping them complete theirs. This dynamic shift in gameplay makes referring to the number of tiles from calling a more useful measurement.
Call Delay and Hand Speed
Call delay can be a useful metric to measure how good one’s starting hand is, which pattern or patterns to pursue as the game unfolds, and how close other opponents may be to completing their own hands.
Because of the pattern Seven Pairs, no hand is ever more than 6 tiles away from making a calling hand. Therefore, one’s delay to a decent winning hand can never be more than 6. One may measure their delay to reach a particular pattern and the delay to it is more than 6. That means it’s pretty much not a good idea to pursue that pattern. One would be better off going for another scoring pattern.
Let’s look at one example to get you thinking about how to apply this concept. Say this is your starting hand:
π π , π π , π π , π π , π π , π π , π
Looking at this hand, there are a few possibilities one could start working toward to get one of the patterns on the Ten Patterns to Learn First list:
- 2.1.1 Mixed One-Suit (ζ··δΈθ²) : 40 points — Delay of 4
Example Calling Hand: π π π , π π π , π π π , π π π , π
Waiting on π - 4.1 All Triplets (ε°ε°ε) : 30 points — Delay of 4
Example Calling Hand: π π π , π π π , π π π , π π π , π
Waiting on π - 8.1.1 Mixed Lesser Terminals (ζ··ε
¨εΈΆδΉ) : 40 point — Delay of 5
Example Calling Hand: π π π , π π π , π π π , π π π , π - 10.2 Seven Pairs (δΈε°ε) : 30 points — Delay of 2
Example Calling Hand: π π , π π , π π , π π , π π , π π , π
So, looking at the possible hands, Mixed Lesser Terminals is going to be a slower hand to develop, since it needs 5 tiles to get to a calling hand. Mixed One-Suit and All Triplets are tied in the number of tiles needed to reach a calling hand. Seven Pairs looks to also be a great hand – only two tiles needed to reach a calling hand.
However, one must remember that it’s not just what you start with, it’s also what you draw and what others discard. The best thing to do early in the game is see how the hand develops. You may find your upper seat is discarding 2-Dots, making a Mixed One-Suit or Mixed Lesser Terminals hand more doable. You may find that even though you only need two tiles for a calling hand for Seven Pairs, they never come. Remember that Seven Pairs can be harder to complete since you can only draw tiles from the wall to make a calling hand. You can’t claim tiles for pairs as you can with sequences and triplets. You may find All Triplets to be much faster to make because your opponents are discarding exactly what you need.
In the end, analyzing your hand in this manner lets you judge both how fast your initial options are and how fast they continue to be as the game progresses. No plan survives contact with the enemy, as they say. This method lets you assess and reassess as new tiles come to you from the wall and your opponents. Learn it, and it may help lead you to victory.
Did this article gives you the answer you were waiting for? Let me know below!
albatros
I’m still at the point where Mahjong is almost only randomness, so articles like this really helps me understand what I should be looking for when playing
Thanks for this article and all of the website you gathered π
admin
You’re welcome! Glad to hear it could be helpful. Concepts like these will help make it feel less random. It also helps you as you develop each level of your game. You can first apply this to your own hand to practice pattern recognition and understanding your likely paths to winning. Once you get comfortable doing for your own hand, you can then extend that skill to deducing what you opponent has and how close they might be to call, informing your play even more. Just take it step by step.
-ZJMJ