I want to discuss yesterday’s hand more. Partly because I think it deserves more consideration, and partly because I get excited when one of my nonsense moves pays off.
This is the hand where I passed the tsumo to throw the 3s for a riichi waiting on sanshoku.
Let’s think if the draw had been a 2s… What would I do then?
So the discard question is easy - Throw the 3s same as before. The big question here is do I riichi?
My current locked-in yaku are sanshoku, dora x1 - 3 han. Calling riichi here would be a pretty normal move to secure a mangan and double the points.
However, imagine if I don’t riichi and i draw the 9m.
My locked-in yaku are now sanshoku, dora x1, pure outside hand - 6 han. That’s without riichi and a possible ura hiteven.
Whether you’d want to risk around 4000 points to double up for an extra 8000 points (3han vs mangan vs haneman) and potentially more… That’s a very tricky question and one without a clear answer.
It very much depends on the following:
1) Points on the table - will haneman dramatically affect your placement?
2) What are your opponents discard pools looking like? Does it look like they’ll discard a 3m or does it look like perhaps someone is building a flush in that suit so other players aren’t throwing them (as an example).
3) If you riichi, will the other players fold? This is easier if you know the players or have gotten through at least some hands with them during this game.
I’m not going to tell you what I would do. Some of it would massively depend on the read of my opponents and what I needed to achieve my overall goal in the game, tournament or league.
So yesterday’s post I passed up a tsumo win to find more value, and here I discussed squeezing even more value out of the hand. Value is where you find it.