Damaten: Difference between revisions

'''Damaten''' {{kana|黙聴}} (or "hidden tenpai") is a closed [[tenpai]] hand that has not called [[riichi]]. Typically, a dama hand will have a [[yaku]] without needing to riichi; otherwise, [[menzen tsumo]] (or another circumstantial yaku) would be needed to win. An older term '''yamiten''' {{kana|闇聴}} refers to the same thing.

There are many reasons to dama. In most cases, it's when the extra points from riichi do not matter:

*When the call for riichi wouldn't increase the hand's value by itself. For example, a [[haneman]] is scored if you have 6-7 han. If you have an 6 han hand, the +1 han for riichi wouldn't increase the score. Declaring riichi could still increase score with a tsumo, ippatsu, and/or ura dora, but these aren't reliable.

*When the hand is valuable. Because players will often [[defense|defend]] against a riichi hand, declaring riichi will generally lower your hand's win rate. So if your hand is already a guaranteed [[mangan]] or higher, you may wish to dama to get the existing value. Plus, once mangan is reached, each han afterwards has reduced value.

*When winning at all is the only thing that matters. If you are far in the lead, dama can be used to increase your win rate (thus, ending the game faster). If the game is in [[oorasu|all last]], and winning with riichi wouldn't improve your placement (even with ippatsu ron), dama can also be considered.

*When you wish to change your hand. Riichi locks your hand in, preventing you from upgrading the wait or gaining yaku. If your hand has many upgrades, you may wish to dama.

*When the hand is bad. You might get to tenpai on what would be a riichi-only bad wait hand and decide it's not worth it. If someone else reaches tenpai, you can [[betaori|abandon the hand]].

That being said, you should not overuse dama. Riichi's +1 han is valuable, since each han below 4000 will roughly double your score. Plus, you can get even more han from ippatsu and ura dora. See [[riichi strategy]] for more details.