Japanese mahjong: Difference between revisions

The object of riichi mahjong is to score the most points. At the start of each round, players draw and discard tiles, competing to be the first to get a winning hand. Then, the hand is scored based on its value. If the hand is won directly off another player's discard, the discarder must pay the winning payer. If a player draws their own winning tile, everyone else splits the payment. After a player wins, hands reset, and the next round starts.

There are three suits of number tiles each with sequences from one to nine. The three suits are the '''manzu''' (characters), the '''pinzu''' (coins/circles)<!--Coins seems to be the best from a historical viewpoint and they do look like coins. Oh, but pinzu may actually mean circles in Japanese.-->, and the '''souzu''' (bamboos). These three suits have the value of 1-9 according to their own suit. The face of the one of bamboo tiles have a bird design on them. The number one and nine tiles are called terminals. The number two through eight tiles are called simples. Runs don't wrap-around from nine to one.

A fourth set of mahjong tiles is composed of the '''[[jihai]]''' (honor tiles). This set of tiles can be further divided into '''[[kazehai]]''' (wind tiles) and '''[[sangenpai]]''' (dragon tiles). Unlike the standard suits previously mentioned, these honor tiles have special properties towards determining [[Han|hand value]]. They can also be referred as "word tiles". Unlike the "numbered suits", the different honor tiles cannot be mixed together to form [[mentsu|tile groupings]].

Newer Japanese mahjong sets also come with four red-five [[dora]] tiles. One number five character tile, two number five circle tiles, and one number five bamboo tile are replaced with their matching red tiles. These red dora tiles can replace the appropriate number of standard five-tiles. Usage of the red dora tiles is optional. In addition, sets also come with flower and season tiles, but these are not used in the Japanese game. Instead, flower and seasons are used in other variations like Chinese and American styles.

The game's setup features the 136 tiles, arranged in four walls of 17 tiles long double-stacked. After shuffling the tiles, all four players are responsible for creating the initial setup, which has every tile face down. A dice roll is used to determine both the initial dealer at the start of the game as well as the '''wall break''' at the beginning of each hand. After this process, both the [[dead wall]] is separated; and the tiles are dealt to each player to produce their [[haipai|starting hands]]. Play begins once the dealer makes the initial draw and discard.

After the initial setup, then the game may begin. With online sites and automatic tables, the above setup procedure may be ignored.

===Tile draws and turn order===

The game begins with the dealer's initial discard. From here onward, each player gets a turn to draw a tile from the wall, all players, except the discarder, has the option of [[Naki|claiming a discarded tile]] by '''chii''', '''pon''', '''kan''', or '''ron'''.

If no claims of the discard are made, then the next player draws from the wall and makes a discard, unless the hand is a winning hand with the declaration of '''tsumo'''. The turn order are as follows: East-South-West-North, and the cycle repeats. However, in the event of a discarded tile claim, then the next turn belongs to the player to the right of the claimer. This means, it is possible to skip a player's turn with calls of pon or kan.

Every player's discard is organized and [[discard pile|arranged in front of them]]. Per convention, players line up their discarded tiles in rows of six. This is not a necessary convention, but it is the preferred convention. The arranged discard pile is used for two primary purposes: as record of a player's discards, and as an indicator of [[Genbutsu|safe-tiles]] for [[defense|defensive play]]. Additionally, players learn and are able to discern player hand states by reading the discard piles.