Opponent Watching

You’ve got to tempai, do you stare at each discard trying to will it into the tile you need? Maybe you hit that Riichi button and run off to make yourself a drink. I’m telling you now: Do neither! This is prime time to train yourself to read your opponent.

East 2 and my dealership. Nice and fast tempai so it’s going to take something special to make me want to fold. I’m not going to mutter platitudes to the god of the wall. I’m going to watch what the other players are doing.

Opposite me has thrown a very early middle tile with that 6-pin. It’s worth note, but I’m not worried yet. What is concerning me is the player to my left in the South seat. They’ve thrown a 3-sou and a 2-sou from their hand. Basically they’ve trimmed a two-sided wait, and one that would accept the dora. That raises alarm bells with me that this could be a high-scoring hand they’re aiming for.

Continuing on, the South player throws a central 6-sou from their hand. The East throw isn’t particularly interesting here. I’m definitely feeling the alarm bells ringing but they’re unlikely to be close.

The player opposite looks like they could also be building something nice with another central 4-man throw. I’m starting to hear the familiar alarms.

Unfortunately we don’t get to see how this discard pool evolves as my winning tile comes out (I guess that’s fortunate but I was really absorbed in discard pool reading).

So they were doing something nice — Either a straight (itsu) or a three colour run (sanshoku). Easily a potential mangan to my very cheap red dragon only. Opposite player was also building something with the potential to be a monster.

Next tie you’re tempai and you reach, why not grab a pen and paper and make notes on what you think the other players may be up to? Once the game is over, bring up the replay and see whether you were right or not. It’s a good exercise to up your discard reading skills.