>>583It just takes time and knowledge. Understanding concepts like suji, when to riichi, when to go for a quick hand and even just folding in general can take you very far. For the most part, playing defensive is the best way to win. Better to lose 3000 in the noten bappu than to lose 8000 to a direct hit mangan.
The more you play, the more you understand what to go for, how to go for it and how to play better. It really does just take some time to get used to it. You can even get some interesting stories out of it. I remember one time I was up against three riichi's and had to use everything I could to avoid dealing in until eventually riichiing myself to end the game (since you can't have 4 riichi's in a game) which was able to save me from losing my 1st place position as someone was going to deal into someone and going for a quick win next turn meant I got all 4 riichi sticks adding 4000 points to my score.
Nothing Akagi tier but still was very tense.
