Guide
When to switch to defense
Defense, in American mahjong, is the choice to stop chasing a hand the wall cannot finish. You play the discard for safety instead of for the hand you started.
The count
Before you throw, count two things: how many tiles you still need, and how many draws are left. If you need 4 more tiles and there are only 3 draws left, the hand cannot finish. That is the moment to switch to defense.
A short hand is not automatically dead. If you need 2 tiles and the wall is still long, keep playing the hand. Folding early gives away a hand that was still alive.
What defense looks like
- Stop calling for tiles the wall cannot supply.
- Discard tiles that do not match an exposure, especially one belonging to a player who has been calling.
- Do not feed the player who is close to Mahjong.
At the table When the wall runs short, count before you chase. NowMahj grades the switch to defense Best, Good, OK, or Costly from simulated games.
A defensive switch is one of the most underutilized moves. The official card, which says which hands you were playing toward, is at nationalmahjonggleague.org. NowMahj does not reproduce it.