Betaori

Betaori 「ベタ降り」 is a general strategy emphasizing the discarding of safe tiles. By employing betaori, a player has abandoned all hope of developing a completed hand; and instead, the player opts to minimally lose points via opponent tsumo or ryuukyoku. Of course, a player using betaori hopes to not lose points at all.

Genbutsu and furiten

Main article: Furiten

Genbutsu 「現物」 is a term for "safe tile" due to furiten. To identify safe tile, players rely on the furiten rule. Furiten refers to a player's inability to declare ron, if any winning tile is within the player's own discard pile. Therefore, discarding tiles applied by the furiten rule are the safest tiles to discard, against particular players.

The most obvious tiles to discard safely are the one in particular opponent's discard piles. However, often, a player may possess a set of tiles in the hand, that are not clearly safe. In this case, a player may have to rely on suji and/or kabe to make an educated guess on a safe discard.

Mawashiuchi

Ideally, players best seek to use mawashiuchi 「回し打ち」. While trying to play safely, it is best to still not abandon the prospect of forming a hand. After all, a player may terminate threatening hands by outright winning the hand. This practice is best performed, if and only if, the tiles bring about the possibility of attaining tenpai, while not discarding winning tiles.

External links

• Basic Defense Techniques in Mahjong

Written work on defense in Osamuko