I finally reached 6th dan in Tenhou, and my rating broke the 2000s for the first time, but that was short-lived, as I'm now facing quite a struggle.
While you can't judge someone's strength in mahjong based on just 50 or 100 games, there are definitely periods when a player performs poorly.
This time, I'll be writing about the various things I've been trying to figure out as I struggle to hit the ball and win the games I want.
A collection of articles on improving your mahjong skills, techniques, mental game, Tenhou (online mahjong platform), etc.
Mental state after consecutive last-place finishes
Having an unwavering mental fortitude, no matter the circumstances, is an extremely rare and valuable trait.
In particular, in Tenhou, the higher your rank, the greater the penalty points for finishing last.
If you come in last place, you lose points equivalent to 1st place plus 2nd place or more, so in subsequent matches, you naturally want to aim for a high ranking.
This is a very dangerous situation, as it significantly impairs your ability to judge when to push or pull back.
I understand you're eager to quickly regain the points you lost, but try to be patient and do something else to change your mood.
In mahjong, the rankings don't always come in a balanced order; sometimes the first place finisher stays in place for a long time, and sometimes the fourth place finisher stays in place for a long time.
Try not to get caught up in your current ranking, and instead focus on your long-term performance.
I've written about this many times in my articles, but since I haven't been able to follow it myself, I'll use it as a reminder to myself.
Learning from other people's game records
Looking at my detailed mahjong statistics, it seems my rate of calling tiles is lower than average, which I suspect is contributing to my low winning percentage.
I try to make an effort to chirp quite a bit, but it's still only around 28% to 30%, which is a bit low.
Therefore, I look at the game records of other advanced players to study when they call tiles.
You can download the game records of past Tenhou champions from the "Rankings" section of the Tenhou official website.
I've downloaded the profiles of players whose style suits me, and I'm currently looking at various game records.
I mainly focus on observing how that person plays when they are at the same 6th dan level as me.
However, learning by looking at game records is difficult because there are no explanations, so it's not clear why a particular move was made or what the player was thinking when deciding whether to push or fold.
I believe there are limits to what can be learned solely from game records.
Basically, you should look at it while thinking, "This is how I would discard it," and if someone is cutting it differently than you would, you need to think about why they discarded it that way.
It's like just reading the answers in a problem set and trying to figure out the solution yourself; it's not very efficient.
When you discover differences between yourself and others, don't just overlook them; instead, try to understand why they are different.
There's no answer to be found by thinking about it, but since it's a way of cutting that I hadn't considered before, there should be an opportunity for growth in that area.
If they're a famous player, you might be able to get an answer if you ask them.
Learning from Nico Nico Douga live commentary
Lately, what I've been enjoying is watching live gameplay videos of Tenhou on Nico Nico Douga.
It takes some time to watch, but it's perfect for a change of pace after a tough day.
With live commentary, you can see the player's thought process in real time, such as what direction they're going to take with their initial hand and how they're changing their decisions based on the other players' moves.
They need to be reasonably skilled and reliable players, but there are quite a few videos available.
What I'm learning from is the "Aiming to be a top player with smooth voice acting using voice actor IDs" series, which is commentated by "Kanae's voice actor".
It's easy to understand, it's entertaining, and he has a nice voice too (lol).
Since he's a player who plays on Tenhou (an online mahjong platform), I, as a 6th dan player myself, learn a lot from watching him.
I highly recommend it, especially because it can give you perspectives you'd never considered before.
Also, when I'm playing, I feel like I make fewer ambiguous moves if I play as if I'm providing commentary.
It's quite fun, so I sometimes play while giving a commentary-style explanation in my head.
After the match, I review my game record.
Another subtly important thing is to review your game record after you've finished playing.
While it's fine to freely create things by hand, it's important to calmly review whether the decisions you made regarding when to push forward and when to pull back were truly correct.
What matters is whether it was the best decision made at that moment, rather than whether the outcome was good or bad.
Even when I'm in last place, I feel a little calmer when I can confirm that it was an unavoidable discard.
Also, if you're unsure about a decision, it's helpful to save it as a screenshot and review it later.
If you collect those, you could probably make a workbook or something.
Hit the ball while being mindful of the numbers you are concerned about.
In my case, I have a clear weakness: I don't call many tiles. So I play with the awareness that there are times when I should be calling more tiles.
However, there's no point in barking unnecessarily, so I think it's important to clarify the criteria for barking, such as setting earlier or more relaxed criteria.
Lately, I've been afraid of dealing into someone's winning hand, so I tend to make fewer calls that shorten my hand size.
However, other players also dislike the idea of dealing into someone's winning hand, so taking the initiative and making two melds can put pressure on them.
When you make such a call, other players will often try to intimidate you by declaring "reach," which makes it easier to see when other players are ready to win, and consequently, it has the advantage of making it easier for you to fold.
I've recently started to think that one strategy is to induce your opponent to declare a reach, thereby making their own ready hand clear.
Let's play some three-player mahjong for a change of pace.
Playing a lot of four-player mahjong games can get tiring sometimes.
In those situations, I play three-player mahjong to change my mood.
Three-player mahjong tends to produce high-scoring hands, and everyone is aggressively pushing forward, so your ability to decide when to push or fold might get messed up.
Even so, when I play three-player mahjong, I can relive the same enjoyment I felt when I first started playing, and it's really fun.
I'm still only playing at the regular tables, so I imagine aiming for the top-tier tables in three-player mahjong will be another difficult path.
I occasionally play three-player mahjong in real life, so I think this might be good practice.
A collection of articles on improving your mahjong skills, techniques, mental game, Tenhou (online mahjong platform), etc.
