Editing Mexican standoff

{{Snippet
| image          = 
| description        = "Know when to fold", delivered with /mjg/ style!
| creation_date   = 2021-08-28
| discovery_date  = 2022-09-07
| language       = English
| source_url   = https://arch.b4k.co/vg/thread/346279621/#346283185
| provenance   = 4chan
}}


Anonymous Thu 05 Aug 2021 07:47:27  [https://arch.b4k.co/vg/thread/346279621/#346283185 No.346283185]

I always lose the same way. I get an expensive hand going (6-10 han or more with any ura dora) and refuse to give up on it or break my tenpai and end up dealing in. Then I have points I need to claw back and play even riskier, or deal into a turn 3 riichi that's just enough to move me into 3rd or 4th. How do you do it, how do you stop trying to take a lead early on, how do you give up a perceived advantage? Is the answer really just to fold a hand if it's not "very" likely to complete, or if someone seems to be far along with theirs?

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Anonymous Thu 05 Aug 2021 07:47:27  [https://arch.b4k.co/vg/thread/346279621/#q346283749 No.346283749]

Think of it like a gun to your head. If somebody's riichi'd or in tenpai, they have a gun to your head. If you are also in tenpai, then you can have a gun to the other person's head too BUT if you're still in 2-shanten or 1-shanten, your gun isn't pointed at their head. You can try to cock it and lift it to point it at somebody else's head but by the time you do that the other guy already shot you.

Just ask yourself "Can I pull out my gun in time and shoot them before they shoot me?" and the answer in most cases where you're not in tenpai is "nope". That's when you fold.