Sunday, February 16, 2014

An Idiot's Guide to Suji (Omote-Suji)

So upon hearing that some people still aren't that knowledgeable about suji, I've decided to make a very simplistic guide to the most common type of suji, omote-suji

Suji is a method that can be used to defend in case there are no sure safe tiles you can discard, well assuming you are trying to play defensively at that point.

Omote-suji is one of the well known suji techniques, and it works most of the time. Plus, it's REALLY simple to remember:

1) Someone discards a 4, 5 or 6.
2) Subtract 3 and take note of that tile.
3) Add 3 and take note of that tile.
4) Those two tiles are most likely safe tiles.

This means that if someone discards a 4, the safe tiles are probably 1 and 7. If someone discards a 5, the safe tiles are probably 2 and 8, and lastly if someone discards a 6, the safe tiles are probably 3 and 9.

1-4-7 || 2-5-8 || 3-6-9

WARNING:
Before you start using suji rampantly, you need to remember that it isn't perfect. It only works if your opponent has a two-sided sequence wait. If you're opponent tries a pair/triplet/center/single wait, it's useless. However, most of the time, people will try for a two-sided sequence wait as it is more efficient for winning, but it has a weakness.

If you have a 5 and 6 in your hand, but discarded 4 earlier, you cannot win on both the 4 and 7 because of furiten. It's the same case with other sequences. This is the weakness of the two-sided sequence wait which makes suji a viable tactic. 

To conclude, suji is a good enough defensive tactic, but don't rely on it too much. If someone is going for an obvious toitoi (all triples), suji will definitely not work on them.

Chombo-王 ‏   
@nevertenpai

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