Basic Riichi Mahjong Strategy

When I was learning mahjong, I felt like there weren't many good ways to learn the simple but important keys to the game, so I made this video. As for me, I'm currently at 5th dan rank 1900R on Tenhou and have been consistently above average for the past 100 games or so in the 特上 rooms. I'm not sure if I'll make more videos, but I'm not sure I won't either.

1: Lone tiles - 0:00
2: Set [meld] waits - 8:38
3: Less useful tiles and overlapping waits - 16:20
4: Pairs (no pair hands focus) - 26:41
5: Pairs (multiple pair hands) - 38:00

Part 2:    • Riichi Mahjong Strategy, Part 2  
Part 3:    • Riichi mahjong strategy 3 - Hand read...  
Guide to playing on tenhou:    • Tenhou riichi mahjong site guide in E...  
Newer strategy video:    • Keys to improving in mahjong, part 1  

The best advice I could give for a newer player is to not focus on the complicated strategies and the really difficult hands, and to make sure that you get all of the simple things down well first. It's easy to understand a concept such as lone 4's are generally better than lone 8's, but then miss the application in a case like: lone 8, 234, 1 (where the 1 goes with 234 to become 123 lone 4). When you learn more, you also want to learn why to make certain plays, so that you aren't using a strategy incorrectly, such as a defensive strategy when you don't need to (or intend to) defend.