Mastered simple 1-4-7 suji yet? Good, you'll find defending a bit easier once you start using them. Now why don't we test your newfound suji knowledge?
Your opponent just riichi'd throwing away the 5-sou. Now, which among these two tiles would you discard? The 8-sou or the 6-sou?
If you answered 8-sou , then congratulations! You have mastered defending using omote-suji! Too bad you just fed into your opponent's hand, a suji trap.
Suji Traps in a Nutshell
Your opponent had a 5-sou, 7-sou, and 9-sou. He discarded the 5-sou to get you to think that 8-sou was a "safe" tile. Because your opponent decided to declare richii with an undesirable center wait, he managed to get a ron.
Suji traps aren't limited to only center waits though. Pair waits, triple waits, edge waits, basically all single waits are viable waits for trapping people with.
The most common way to make a suji trap is to take the commonly used suji knowledge (1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9) and discard a tile to deceivingly lead into an opponent discarding the winning tile. For example, if you're going to win on a 9-man, discarding the 6-man (preferably with riichi to alert your opponents) will prompt your opponents to start discarding defensively. If they use suji to defend, they will probably discard the 9-man.
Hand:
Suji Traps vs Regular Hands (Tsumo Wins)
Generally one should go for suji traps if one thinks that he/she will not be able to complete the hand with a tsumo.
Do aim for a suji trap if you feel that a certain player is holding your winning tiles.
Do aim for a suji trap if your winning tile has been discarded twice or thrice, so the chances of you drawing it is unlikely.
Do aim for a suji trap if you want to throw your opponents off. The fact that you produced a trap will make them less confident about their "safe" discards
Do NOT aim for a suji trap if the alternative to one is a possible multi-sided wait where getting a tsumo is a high possibility.
Conclusion
To summarize, suji traps are a great way to throw your opponent off and give an alternative way of winning if you can't draw your tile. Do not aim for I though if you have a high chance of getting a tsumo.
Chombo-王
@nevertenpai
(Tiles courtesy of: http://www.martinpersson.org)
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