Japanese mahjong: Difference between revisions

This continues until the [[#End of a hand|round ends]].

There are two notable exceptions to the 4 tile groups and a pair pattern: [[Seven Pairs]] and [[Thirteen Orphans]].

Various conditions may allow players to abort the hand. In other words, a mahjong hand may end prematurely before anyone claims a win or before all the tiles are drawn and discarded. In these events, no points are exchanged; and no penalties are enforced. Instead, the hand ends, and the tiles are reshuffled.

The '''chombo''' is a penalty to the player, who performs specific illegal procedures. Other illegal procedures may be forgivable if done accidentally, like accidentally drawing a tile from a different part of the wall. However, things like cheating or winning without a yaku are more serious offenses. In the event of a chombo, the player must play out a penalty of points to the amount of a [[Scoring|mangan]]. Otherwise, the rules to chombo may be [[Rule_variations#Chombo|modified]]. A more common practice involves docking penalized points after the game to expedite it and not waste time enforcing the penalty.

Out of all the mahjong variants, riichi has the most complicated scoring system. Winning hands are awarded points based on their composition. So, the appropriate amount of points are exchanged between players according to the tables in the [[Scoring|scoring rules]] of the game. The scoring for this game features two variables: [[han]] and [[fu]]. These two factor into the game's scoring equation and other factors to generate the game's [[scoring table]]. Naturally, the point exchanges are already handled by software and mahjong game sites. Even some automatic tables are capable of scoring calculations.  Otherwise, players go on to [[Score table memorization|memorize the point values]].

Dealers receive roughly 50% more points when winning than non-dealers. However, if a non-dealer wins by draw, then the dealer must pay roughly 50% while non-dealers pay roughly 25% each. The winner of a hand collects any riichi bets on the table and additional points allowed by [[honba]].

Games are organized into wind rounds. For each wind round, every player has the chance to be the dealer once.

Typically, the game ends after the final hand of the last round, when at least one player is scoring 30,000 or more. This number may differ barring house rules.  However, the entire game may end differently than the standard rounds. This may occur under the following conditions:

* '''Negative points'''. When any player's points falls into the negatives, or below zero, then the game ends. At that point, the player has run out of point sticks. The game can continue when a player has exactly 0 points. Some rules may allow continuance of the game regardless, in order to complete the entire wind rotation.

* '''Win and finish'''. On the final hand of the last round, if the dealer wins the hand, the dealer may choose to continue the game or end the game. A similar rule applies to the last battle of team matches. If the dealer's team is in the lead after the first hand of the very last rotation, the dealer may choose to end the match when the match would otherwise continue due to dealer repeats. In which case, teams will usually opt to end the match.

* '''Extra rounds'''. The game may play out an extra round, when a regular game ends with all of the players under 30,000 points.  In the case of [[tonpuusen]], the game extends into the '''South round'''.  For a [[hanchan]], the game extends into the '''West round'''.  This overtime round ends as soon as any player has over 30,000 points. If all the points remains below 30,000 after another full round, then another overtime round may be played in the next prevailing-wind.

Finally, the player with the greatest number of points at the end wins. For additional scoring, another final [[Uma|uma score]] or +/- score may be applied. While this additional calculation has its origins around gambling, the adjusted points also allows comparison between games.  For example, in two different games, a player may score exactly 34,000 points.  However, in one game, the player finished 1st; while in the second game, the player finished 2nd.  The point adjustment becomes a better reflection on player performance, rather than just using the raw scores.