An Introduction to Riichi Mahjong

What is Riichi Mahjong?

Riichi Mahjong is a tile based 4-player game where the goal is to draw, discard, and use discarded tiles to form a winning hand and gather the most amount of points by the end of 8 consecutive rounds.

Basic Rules

A Mahjong table is comprised of 4 players sitting at their corresponding Seat Wind as they begin with 13 tile hands which have been shuffled and randomly drawn. After they organize their starting hands players draw from the Live Wall in a counter-clockwise fashion until they reach the Dead Wall or a player wins with a valid hand.

Winning Hands

A winning hand has a few requirements, first it must be comprised of 4 melds and 1 pair. Melds are comprised of either 3 tiles in a numbered sequence (1-2-3) or 3/4 tiles in an identical sequence (3-3-3/3-3-3-3). How a meld can be structured depends on the suites, and in Riichi Mahjong there are 5 suites: Pinzu, Manzu, Souzo, Sangenpai, and Kazehai (Circles, Characters, Bamboos, Dragons, and Winds respectively). Pin, Man, and Sou tiles are numbered 1-9 and are divided into simple (tiles number 2 through 8) and terminal (only 1 and 9) tiles. Dragon and Wind tiles are known as Honor tiles and can only form a meld in identical sequences so they cannot be mixed as a linear sequence. The second requirement is it must be a valid Yaku and though there are many, for beginners its best to learn Tanyao, Pinfu, Yakuhai, Riichi, and Toitoi. 

Calling Tiles

In Riichi Mahjong when a tile is discarded it can be called on into your hand in the form of Pon, Chii, and Kan. When calling a tile unless it is a closed Kan, certain Yaku are barred from use automatically such as Riichi so call wisely! When calling Chii It can only be called from the player left of your seat wind so you cannot call any other tile except for that one after the opponent to the left has discarded. When calling Pon it can be called from any player on the board as long as it completes an identical triplet. 

Winning

When you are in Tenpai there are multiple ways to win and multiple considerations to make. When an opponent on any side of the board has discarded your winning tile, you can call Ron and the point value of the hand will be deducted from that player. When you have drawn your winning tile you can call Tsumo and the point value will be deducted from all players on the table. 

There are certain considerations players must also take when in Tenpai. The most prominent is the Furiten Rule which states no winning tile which has already been discarded can be Ron'd. For example if you had already discarded a 1-pin and you are in Tenpai you will be unable to call that tile during your turn (this is called temporary Furiten). If you have declared Riichi and your winning tile has already been discarded in your pond previously You will be in permanent Furiten for the duration of the round. Though you can't Ron you will be able to Tsumo. 

Winds

At the beginning of every game each player will choose or be given randomly a Seat Wind. The first draw goes to the East player or Dealer and the Seat Winds will change at the end of every round. It should be noted that the order of winds is not based on the western cardinal directions (NESW) but on the eastern cardinal directions (ESWN) keep that in mind. The dealer also has a 1.5x point multiplier and the round will repeat with the same winds should the dealer win, this is called Renchan. The rounds will go from East 1-2-3-4 to South 1-2-3-4 and will not continue after South 4 unless there are no players with point values above 30,000. Each round is called a Hanchan.

Points

Points are set between 20,000 and 30,000 at the start of every round for all players and are measured in Tenbou though they won't be used in online matches very often. When any player reaches negative points the game will end.

Where Do I Play?

The most popular ways to play Mahjong online are on Mahjong Soul, Tenhou, and Autotable. Mahjong Soul is the most beginner friendly and I would recommend it over Tenhou or Autotable as those are more suited towards experienced players.

If you find yourself with any questions you can always use Riichi Wiki as a resource to learn any more advanced strategy, rules, or yaku. If you ever want to have a game with me my messages are always open, thank you for reading.