Riichi Mahjong is a tabletop game that is played by four players. The objective of the game is to create a 14-tile winning hand, consisting of four sets of three tiles and one pair.

Basic Rules

A game of Riichi Mahjong is determined by the number of winds you decide to play. Each wind is four rounds. An east-wind game is one wind: four rounds long. A south-wind game is two winds: eight rounds long. The importance of the winds will be discussed later, but for now all you need to know is that a game always starts in the east wind and continues clockwise.

In addition to the rounds, each player is assigned a seat wind at the beginning of the game, starting with the east wind and continuing counterclockwise. At the end of the round, the seat winds rotate one position counterclockwise. The player in the east wind seat is considered the dealer for that round.

At the beginning of a round, each player is dealt thirteen tiles from the wall. Fourteen tiles are then isolated from the live wall to form the dead wall, and one is flipped face-up to become the first dora indicator (a concept we will be discussing later in detail). Then, starting with the dealer, players take turns drawing one tile from the live wall and then discarding a tile face-up. This continues until a player completes a hand or the live wall runs out of tiles.

The Tiles

Riichi mahjong is played with 34 different tiles, of which there are four of each copy. The majority of these tiles consist of the numbers 1 to 9 in three different "suits", which are:

Souzu (sou, bamboo, sticks):

Pinzu (pin, circles, dots):

Manzu (man, characters, cracks):

Additionally, there are sets of honor tiles, which are made up of two subsets:

Winds:

Dragons:

Optionally, one five from each suit can be replaced with a red five tile.

The Hand

During the game, each player is in possession of 13 tiles. On their turn, a player draws a tile from the wall, temporarily giving them fourteen tiles. If the player has a completed hand (3+3+3+2=14 tiles) and a yaku (explained later), they can declare they have won. Otherwise, they must discard a tile and end their turn.

During a round, the player's goal is to complete sets of three tiles. There are three types of set:

Sequence

A sequence is a set of three consecutive character tiles in the same suit.

Triplet

A triplet consists of three of the same tile. Any tile can be a triplet.

Kan

A kan is four of the same tile, and counts as a triplet for both scoring and tile count purposes. Unlike typical sets, to form part of a winning tile, a kan must be declared publically, and counts as a triplet.

If you draw all four tiles yourself, you can declare a closed kan, which keeps your hand closed despite being an open call. When you call kan, you immediately draw a replacement tile from the dead wall. Closed kan do not have to be declared immediately upon drawing into four of the same tile, but must be called to count as a triplet in a finished hand. This is the only non-victory tile call you can make while in riichi.

Calling tiles

When a player discards a tile at the end of a turn, other players may call the discarded tile into their hand if it completes a set. When making an open call, the tile that is called is rotated 90 degrees and is positioned to indicate which player discarded it. For instance, if the player on the left discarded the tile, it is placed to the left of the set, and if the player across from you discarded the tile, it is placed in the center of the set.

There are four types of calls:

• Chii: The call to complete a sequence. This call can only be made on the discard of the dealer to your left.

• Pon: The call to complete a triplet. This call can be made on any other player at the table.

• Kan: The call to complete a quadruplet. This call can be made on any other player at the table, but can also be declared as a closed call, or to upgrade an open pon if a player draws into the fourth tile. A closed kan is shown below.

• Ron: When you are in tenpai with a winning hand, and another player discards a tile you need to win, you may call ron, and collect the tile. If you draw into the winning tile yourself, you make a closed call of Tsumo to win the hand.

Sets made after an open call are placed face-up on the table, in the bottom-right corner.

At the start of the round, your hand is in a closed state. Calls of chii, pon, and open calls of kan open your hand. Open your hand with some caution: there are many strategic advantages to keeping a closed hand.

If your hand is one tile away from a complete set, your hand is in tenpai, regardless of if you can win with the hand or not. If you are in tenpai and any of the tiles you need to win are in your discard pile, you are in furiten, and can not call ron on another player, instead needing to draw into your winning tile yourself.

Yaku: Winning the game

Having a complete set of 14 tiles isn't enough to win a game. Your hand must also meet the conditions of at least one yaku. Yaku are worth more or less han depending on the difficulty of obtaining the yaku, but many yaku are compatible, and you will gain han for every yaku that your hand qualifies for.

There are many different yaku, so it is recommended to keep a small list on-hand for beginners until you are more familiar with them. I will provide a small sample of easy-to-remember yaku for beginners:

Yakuhai

Hand contains a triplet of the player's seat wind, the round wind, or any dragon tile. Hand may be open or closed. Worth 1 han, but can score multiple yakuhai in one hand.

Tanyao (all simples)

No 1, 9, or honor tiles in your hand. Hand may be open or closed. Worth 1 han.

Toitoi (all triples)

Hand consists of all triplets and a pair. Hand may be open or closed. Worth 2 han.

Honitsu (half flush)

Hand consists of all character tiles in the same suit and honor tiles. Hand may be open or closed. Worth 2 han. Full flush (no honor tiles) is worth 6 han; 5 if hand is open.

Iipeikou (Pure Doubles Sequence)

Hand consists of the same sequence twice in the same suit. Hand must be closed. Worth 1 han. Twice Pure Doubles Sequence is worth 3 han.

Sanshoku (Mixed Triples Sequence)

Hand consists of the same sequence across three different suits. Hand may be open or closed. Worth 2 han, but only 1 if the hand is open.

Many yaku are compatible with each other, and their han values are additive. Additionally, there are several additional ways for a hand to be worth additional han.

Riichi

When a player is in tenpai with a closed hand, they may place a riichi bet onto the table. The discarded tile that riichi is called on is placed sideways in the discard pile, and the player places a 1000-point stick onto the table. Completing a hand after calling Riichi is a 1-han yaku, and completing a hand within one round of calling Riichi is worth an additional han.

When a player calls riichi, they are essentially on autopilot for the rest of the round. Any tile they pick up must be immediately discarded if it is not a winning tile, and they may not make non-winning calls aside from closed kan. If the player does not call ron at the first possible opportunity, they will be in furiten for the rest of the round, and can not call on another player's tile to win.

Additionally, winning after calling Riichi grants access to the additional hidden ura dora, with the potential for earning more points.

• At the end of the round, if nobody has created a winning hand, an exhaustive draw is called. A total exchange of 3,000 points are evenly split between the players in tenpai players from the players in noten.
• When a player calls Ron, the player who's discard was collected pays the entire worth of the hand to the winner. When a player calls tsumo, the cost is split evenly among all players, except for the dealer, who pays twice as much of the percentage.
• If the dealer wins the round, their hand is worth 1.5 times the points. Additionally, if the dealer wins or is in tenpai during an exhaustive draw, the round is repeated until someone other than the dealer wins.

Dora

At the beginning of the game, fourteen tiles are isolated from the live wall to create the dead wall. One of these tiles is flipped face-up to indicate that the tile to the left of it in sequence is the dora. If the dora indicator is a 9, the 1 of the same suit will be the dora. Honor tiles are indicated in this order:

=> => =>

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Each copy of a dora tile in your hand is worth 1 han. Additionally, the red five tile of each suit is a dora worth 1 han. If the 5 of a suit is the dora, the red 5 will be worth 2 han.

Additional dora are added to the game each time each time a player calls kan, up to a maximum of 5 dora.

Beneath the initial 5 dora indicator tiles are 5 ura dora tiles. If a player wins on a hand after calling riichi, the ura dora indicators beneath each revealed dora are also flipped, which doubles the potential dora for the winning hand.

Ending

The game ends upon the conclusion of the final wind of the game, or if any player's score goes into the negatives. Some rulesets require the winning player to have over a certain number of points for the game to end, in which case additional rounds will be played until someone reaches the points threshold.

If you're in the last wind of the game and in last place, however, it's important to remember the repeat-round rule: If the current dealer isn't in first place and they win the round, the game won't end, and you can use that to your advantage while you wait on a hand that might get you back into the game. Additionally, if you can win a hand that gets somebody below the minimum victory points threshold, you'll get at least one more round to try for points. When you're playing in a ranked setting, remember that third place is better than last. Don't give up!