Single suit mahjong: Difference between revisions

Highly stripped-down variations of single-suited mahjong can also be used as a teaching aid for new players. The [[Tibet rules]] method starts players with a hand of four tiles in a single numeric suit (typically circles/pinzu), with the objective being to develop a hand consisting of five tiles: one set of three tiles ([[mentsu]]) and one pair ([[jantou]]). Scoring is ignored completely; the focus is simply on completing a hand's shapes. Once players understand the flow of the game and the difference between a set and a pair, the standard next step is to add three more tiles to the hand (a total of seven), with the objective of creating a hand of eight tiles: two sets of three tiles, and one pair.

However, as a teaching tool, it tends to be a bad idea to extend into ten-tile hands with only a single suit. As noted, single-suited hands can generate some complex waits, and disentangling those possibilities can distract from enjoyment of the game at such an early stage of learning. There are already many ways in which seven tiles can generate complex waits -- it could be argued that seven-tile hands with two numeric suits is actually easier for new players to understand than with only one numeric suit. And so the standard next step to take in Tibet rules is to move to the seven tiles and two suits game, rather than continue on with the single-suit path.