Basic Suji

I’ve written a lot about suji but not actually given you information on what that means.

Suji is a way to assess one opponent’s discard pool to try and deduce safe tiles to discard. However, once an opponent calls riichi, you can also use suji information from any discard tile that said opponent does not claim for a win.

The word “suji” normally refers to “omote suji” or front-facing suji. These are the easiest and arguably the most reliable. It is reliant on the furiten rule which stipulates that you cannot win off a discard if there is a tile in your discard pool that would have completed your hand.

The theory is that most people will be trying to make a two-sided wait so if they’ve thrown a 4, for example, they can’t be waiting on a 1 or a 7 because they’ll be furiten.

There are three sets of these omote suji to remember.

The omote suji are the tiles either side of the the middle tile of these groups is discarded.

The close relation and less reliable relative of the omote suji is the inside suji or “naka suji” also oft referenced in the West. It uses the same above groupings. However, the important point is that you need both of the outside tiles visible in a discard pool for the naka suji to be safer. For example, if you see a 3, you cannot be sure that a 6 or 9 are safe because your opponent could be waiting with 78. However, if you see both a 3 and a 9, the opponent cannot be waiting with either a 45 or 78 so 6 is relatively safe.

Remember, this really only works if your hand has a two sided wait, and does not work if it’s an inside wait. For example, a common shape as you build you hand is 135. You’ll then get discard 5 to take tempai. Even though you may be tempted read an omote suji on the 5 discard, that’s going to lead to disaster This is why reading suji on a tile used to call riichi is dangerous. For more discussion on that, please check my previous post.

Note on the translation of suji: Octaves, steps, connectors, sinew: I’ve seen it all. My personal preferred translation is “string”. They’re all connected by a string of fate even though they’re not adjacent to each other. So expect to hear me say “suji string” a lot. Maybe my preference will catch on. ;)