Not Quite My Tempo – The Role That Claiming Tiles Has in Hand Completion

Watching people play mahjong quickly is a thing of beauty. Even more, playing mahjong quickly is a thing of beauty. One gets into a rhythm and a tempo that makes an intimidating-looking game feel effortless. However, today’s article is about a different kind of tempo. This isn’t about music or beats per minute. This is about the rate at which new tiles come into your hand compared to your opponents and how that momentum can help shift the game into your or your opponent’s favor.

In a game where no one claims tiles, everyone would see new tiles at the same rate. Every time we cycle once around the table, everyone would draw one tile and discard one tile. First cycle, everyone would have one discarded tile in front of them. Second cycle, everyone would have two tiles discarded in front of them, Seventh cycle, everyone would have seven tiles in front of them. You get the picture. Even if someone claimed a tile for a sequence, yes the number of tiles in front of one player may change, but through everyone’s hands the name number of tiles would have flowed – one tile into the hand and one tile out of the hand. No one misses a turn, no one misses a chance to get a tile and work on their hand.

This all changes with claiming tiles for triplets and kongs. Depending on from whom the tile is claimed, someone’s upcoming turn may get skipped entirely. In the speed of how fast a game of mahjong gets played, with its rapid drawing and discarding, it can be easy to forget that this is more than just a 2-second delay in “when you get to do stuff.” This actually represents a loss of tempo: fewer tiles will have passed through my hands than some of my opponents, all other things being equal.

Consider it in an extreme example: You are North and the game has just started. East draws and discards. South draws and discards. West draws and discards and East claims pong on West’s discard. You as North get skipped. East discards a tile. South draws and discards. West draws and discards and East claims pong on that discard. Repeat this scenario two more times and you as North haven’t even drawn or discarded a single tile in the first 4 turns. Meanwhile, East is smelling victory. Everyone else at least has got to work on their hand – you haven’t done anything.

Now while the above scenario is certainly very unlikely, it illustrates an important point: getting skipped because someone claimed a pong/kong has an impact on your own ability to finish your hand compared to how quickly your opponents can complete their own hands. Tempo is an important factor to keep in mind when estimating how close they are to finishing their hand compared to how close you are to finishing your own. Forget about it and you won’t just be off-beat, you may get beat.