If you are in defensive mode when looking at your rack, then playing your tiles on the rack instead of on the table is the right thing to do. It allows you control of the most tiles with the minimum amount of effort. However, there are other basic defensive tactics which must be considered. The most important of these is how you play your discards. This is especially true when playing a game with only two players, but it is also of considerable importance with three or four players.
Not only must you consider which tiles are the safest to discard, but you must consider what use you can make of the tiles discarded to you. Obviously your discards, defensively, consist of tiles that cannot be used by your opponent or that have the least chance of being used. With open melds, the tiles in the melds are still available for use in other melds by rearranging them. It is extremely difficult to find meld arrangements that prevent the eventual playing of almost any tile. The only tiles that are truly not in play are discards that have not been picked up. This is the reason as to why it is so important to remember so many of the discards that you have already seen.
Sometimes you play a discard that is picked up by the next player. The easiest defense then dictates that you do not discard another tile that combines with the first. As a result, you will be holding tiles for purely defensive reasons. It is important that you now try to match these tiles yourself so that you can get rid of them. When this situation occurs, it is bets to allow the other player to meld the tile first, if possible. This lets you have the opportunity to rearrange his meld and unload your tiles. If you combine the defensive tile and meld first, the chances are almost certain that your opponent will utilize your meld to play the tile he has picked up from you.
When you are playing with someone who is also careful in watching the discards, as most players are, you can often take advantage of the situation to force him to hold tiles that are not useful to him. You do this by picking a tile on “speculation.” Generally you do not pick discards unless they complete melds on your rack, however if you feel the player on your right is holding a better rack than you, by picking up a discard that forms a combination but isn’t necessarily a meld, is a good action to take. The more combinations it fits, the better a pick it is. This not only improves your hand, but it forces the other layer to hold tiles that are probably going to be of no use to him and will forestall his ability to go out. This technique works really well against a defensive player.