The starting hand
Imagine you are South with this thirteen-tile hand: 2-3 of characters, 5-7 of characters, 3-4-5 of dots, 8-8 of dots, 6 of bamboo, 9 of bamboo, a North wind and a white dragon. Nothing is complete except the dot run, but there are several partial sets.
The first job is to decide what is useless. The North wind and white dragon are single honours with no partner; the 9 of bamboo is a terminal with no neighbours. These are the first discards.
The middle turns
On the first turns you draw a 4 of bamboo and a 6 of characters, discarding the North wind and white dragon. The 6 of characters fills the gap between 5 and 7, completing a run. Then the player on your left discards a 5 of bamboo — you call chow to make 4-5-6 of bamboo and discard the 9 of bamboo.
Now your hand is 2-3 of characters, 5-6-7 of characters, 3-4-5 of dots, 8-8 of dots and the exposed 4-5-6 of bamboo. You are ready: either a 1 or a 4 of characters completes the 2-3.
The winning tile
Two turns later you draw the 4 of characters yourself and declare a self-drawn win. Your hand is four runs and a pair — a "common hand" in Hong Kong scoring, worth one faan, plus one for self-draw. The other three players each pay you.
What to learn from it
Notice the pattern: discard isolated honours and terminals early, keep connected tiles, and aim for a two-sided wait (like 2-3 waiting on 1 or 4) rather than a single tile. The chow sped things up but cost the concealed bonus — a fair trade for a cheap, quick win.
With practice the same thinking happens almost automatically. Playing slowly through a few example hands like this one is time well spent.
