Japanese mahjong: Difference between revisions

'''Japanese mahjong''' {{kana|麻雀、 麻将、 or マージャン}} is the Japanese varation to the 4-player table card game of mahjong, whose objective an be best described as a combination of gin rummy and poker. Even though tiles are primarily used to play the game, the game is available online and can be played with regular mahjong playing cards. It's a four player game that combines the elements of calculation and strategy that is found in chess with the elements of risk assessment, observation skills, and luck.

Besides the tile groups, players also need to meet another condition called a [[yaku]]. The yaku can be synonymous to "poker hands", where yaku are a set of patterns or conditions. Just like a poker hand, for example the "full house", each yaku is associated with a name. In addition, yaku directly affect the value of a player's hand. The yaku add richness and depth to the game but at the same time requires some additional starting knowledge. When mahjong is not played on/via a computer, scoring by hand also requires additional starting knowlege.  The game is otherwise known as '''riichi mahjong''', due to a feature in the game rules allowing [[riichi]].

In addition, all players begin with a certain number of points, usually 25,000. It is the objective of each player to develop their hands to accumulate more points than any of the opponents. In combination with yaku and [[dora]], the number of [[han]] and [[fu]] correlates to a specific number of [[Scoring|points]] to determine the value of a hand, in the event of winning a hand.

The Japanese variation is primarily played in Japan. Yet, it is available to everyone via a few Internet sites and video games.