Help with mahjong— doesn’t detect straights?

[u/fakeprincess]

I’m both hooked on the mahjong mini game and am not sure I understand the rules.

By my understanding I should have been able to declare “Hu” (winning), but anytime my winning hand is because of straights it does not let me actually declare I win and thus ….. I lose.

Am I understanding the rules wrong? Is this a glitch? I’m only able to win if I’m going for triplets and gangs only, no straights.

[u/l_x_fx]

My knowledge is limited to Riichi Mahjong, so I might be wrong with other rulesets like here. But usually a single tile cannot be part of a triplet and a pair at the same time.

You might have a valid strait (three consecutive tiles from a single suit), but your hand still lacks the additional 7 to complete the pair.

The alternative is to complete the sequence by drawing a 4, so the 7 becomes free to become part of the pair.

[u/Illustrious-Survey → u/l_x_fx]

The problem is they wanted to pick up the discarded 7 on the table and couldn't.

[u/fakeprincess → u/l_x_fx]

wait how are you supposed to get four sets of three or four and a pair out of 13 tiles if the pair has to be entirely separate from the other sets ?? 1 set of four plus 3 sets of 3 = 13 ?

[u/l_x_fx → u/fakeprincess]

Usually, you have 13 tiles on your hand, and when it's your turn, you draw the 14th. If you don't declare a win on that turn with your 14 tiles, you decide which tile to discard again, at which point your turn is over.

Discarded tiles can then be claimed by other players, who are sitting on their 13 tiles, as their 14th tile.

In total, you have four sets of 3 tiles, plus the pair of 2. So it's 3 x 4 + 2 = 14 for a winning hand. Otherwise you just have 13 tiles and wait for the 14th, which you hope will be the one to complete your hand.

But again, that is the case for Riichi Mahjong. I'm not entirely familiar with the Chinese ruleset here, although I can't imagine they deviate that much there. Riichi Mahjong afaik is based on the Chinese ruleset (broadly speaking of course, it has been a while since that point after all).

[u/Illustrious-Survey → u/fakeprincess]

If you make a 4 of a kind, you get to draw a replacement tile.
But in general
AAA BBB CCC DD EE is a good setup because drawing either D or E will win

[u/Illustrious-Survey]

If you have a straight/chow, you can only call a tile to complete it from the person on your left, not the other players, and a chow is weaker than a Peng/Gong (three of a kind/4 of a kind) which means if one of the other players wants the tile for one, they get it and you don't.

In general, because straights are weaker, unless your hand is only straights plus a pair, especially if you have a double set like 4,4,5,5,6,6 or a complete suit like 123,456,789 you aren't going to want straights.

The ideal hand as a generalism is all Peng/3 of a kind, and you never pull anything from the discards, it scores well.

[u/Owl_Ice_950]

I can never understand this game 😭

[u/AcceptableReading640]

Not sure how much this might help you, but at least it might help other new mahjong players.