3-02

Power combo: Concealed Hand + All Chows + All Simples

All Simples is easy to build, since most of the tiles count toward it. However, it only scores 2 points. But add Concealed Hand and All Chows, and the hand is suddenly very close to finished.

Figure 1

Take Figure 1. You're one tile away from making ready on Mixed Shifted Chows, but our recommended play is to break up the hand and discard . Once you make a hand like the one shown in Figure 2, you're very close to finishing.

Figure 2

If the player to your left discards , claim it to complete Mixed Shifted Chows.

You cannot go out on an opponent's discard, but if you pick the tile yourself you'll score Fully Concealed Hand (4 pts.) + All Chows (2 pts.) + All Simples (2 pts.). In other words, with a combo of these three hands, you're guaranteed to make the minimum 8 points.

Remembering this simple fact will make it easier to build hands properly. For example, take Figure 3.

Figure 3

You could discard or to be one tile away from making ready with a Mixed Straight. But you would do better to discard and leave your options open, rather than rely on two specific tiles ( and ).

Let's assume you follow our advice, and make ready with the hand shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4

You've lost the Mixed Straight, but you can go out on an opponent's discard with this hand, since it scores Concealed Hand (2 pts.) + All Chows (2 pts.) + All Simples (2 pts.) + Closed Wait (1 pt.) + Mixed Double Chow (1 pt.) for a total of 8 points. The combo of Concealed + All Chows + All Simples gives you 6 points, so you need only add two more through some combination of Mixed Double Chow, Pure Double Chow, Short Straight, or one of the 1-chance waits. The best strategy is often to avoid narrowing your possibilities, and concentrate on building chows with the simple tiles.