Tedashi and tsumogiri

Tedashi and tsumogiri are terms that describe where in the hand a tile was discarded:

• Tedashi means to discard a tile that was already in the hand before the draw, i.e. any tile other than the just-drawn tile.
• Tsumogiri means to discard the just-drawn tile.

Reading opponent's tedashi and tsumogiri discards can be useful, as they can indicate what shapes are likely/unlikely to be in their hand. They are typically combined with other discard reading strategies.

When playing with physical tiles, players will have to manually check for discards. In online clients, it will vary. Notably, tenhou.net and Mahjong Soul have animations to display tedashi/tsumogiri when a tile is discarded, but do not indicate anything after the discard (forcing players to memorize the status of each desired tile).

Notes

• Beginners do not need to worry about discard reading - other things like tile efficiency are far more important at this stage.
  • Being able to build hands efficiently is required for effective discard reading; discard reading requires knowing how players normally build their hands.
  • Other beginners tend to not build hands in a consistent way, lowering the effectiveness of discard reading.
• It is not required to memorize every single tile (e.g., if a guest wind is discarded turn 2, it doesn't matter if it's tedashi or tsumogiri). Try to focus on important tiles, such as dora and middle tiles.