top of page
shutterstock_1111181624_edited.jpg

Want to Learn Riichi Mahjong?

Riichi Mahjong is a game of calculated risk. The gameplay has many similarities to card games like gin rummy or poker. While the strategy can be very complex and the rulesets can have slight variations, the guide below can help you understand the fundamentals of the game.

Table of Contents

  1. The basics

  2. Suits and honors

  3. Setting up a game

  4. Drawing, discarding and game flow

  5. Pon, Chi and Riichi

  6. Building a hand

  7. Winning

  8. Understanding furiten 

  9. Scoring

  10. Yakus

  11. Mid-level strategy

  12. Advanced strategy

depositphotos_68070095-stock-illustration-mahjong-theme-elements_edited.png

The Basics

Mahjong is a game where 4 players compete to have the most points by the end of a match. Players take turns drawing and discarding tiles to turn their starting hands into winning hands. A winning hand consists of four sets of three tiles (three-of-a-kind or three-in-a-row), and one pair of matching tiles. Typically a match will end when every player has had a chance to be the dealer or a player ends a round with less than 0 points.

Suits and Honors

The mahjong tile set has two categories of tiles: number tiles and honor tiles. The three number tile suits are numbered from 1-9:

​

Honor tiles are independent from the number tiles. They can be further divided into the 4 wind tiles and the 3 dragon tiles.

 

Reading the tiles can be difficult as a beginner, but Riichi Nomi meetups have guides to the characters available to help. Most online clients will have an option for roman numerals in the corners of the tiles. There are also options for tile sets with Arabic numbers from various vendors and suppliers.

Drawing, Discarding and Game Flow

Players are dealt 13 tiles as their starting hand. A round will start with the dealer taking their draw and discarding. The next player will do the same in counter-clockwise order. Under certain conditions, you can call and take a tile that a player has discarded. When this happens, play will resume from the player that calls. A round will end when a player wins a hand. If no player wins any hand, the round will go to a draw. If anyone besides the dealer wins points for a round, dealership will be passed counterclockwise.

Making calls: Pon, Chi, and Riichi

Calling pon or chi lets you take a tile that another player has discarded.  There are conditions for the different types of calls. If you have a pair and any player discards another copy of that tile you can call pon to make a triplet. If you have two tiles in a sequence, and the player to your left discards the third tile that would complete it. you can call chi to make a run of 3. When you make a call, you must show the tiles you are using to make that call by laying them on the board. While making calls moves your hand forward towards completion, you give away information by showing everybody some tiles in your hand!

 

Riichi is a special call. To call riichi, you must be ready to win (with 4 of the required 5 blocks complete), and have a closed hand (meaning you have not called either pon or chi.) If you meet those conditions, you can bet 1000 points to call riichi. You can’t make anymore changes to your hand after this, and you’ll be forced to draw tiles until someone wins the round or it goes to a draw. However, your hand will be worth more points if you win!

The Basics

Mahjong is a game where 4 players compete to have the most points by the end of a match. Players take turns drawing and discarding tiles to turn their starting hands into winning hands. A winning hand consists of four sets of three tiles (three-of-a-kind or three-in-a-row), and one pair of matching tiles. Typically a match will end when every player has had a chance to be the dealer or a player ends a round with less than 0 points.

Suits and Honors

The mahjong tile set has two categories of tiles: number tiles and honor tiles. The three number tile suits are numbered from 1-9:

​

Honor tiles are independent from the number tiles. They can be further divided into the 4 wind tiles and the 3 dragon tiles.

 

Reading the tiles can be difficult as a beginner, but Riichi Nomi meetups have guides to the characters available to help. Most online clients will have an option for roman numerals in the corners of the tiles. There are also options for tile sets with Arabic numbers from various vendors and suppliers.

Digital-Patreon-Logo_FieryCoral.png

Support Riichi Nomi!

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tatio

bottom of page