Japanese mahjong: Difference between revisions

Mahjong as a whole is only a roughly 100 year old game. Originating in China, the game managed to spread across the country, East Asia, and even to the United States during the 1920s. The riichi variant only started emerging in Japan after World War 2. The modern riichi variant played today began in the 1960's, while the addition of red 5's started appearing in the 1980's. It originated as a gambling game, though play for fun or sport are also common.

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. When a player wins, 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. Once the final round ends, the game ends, and whoever has the most points wins first place.

*A hand must have at least one [[yaku]]. Yaku can be compared to "poker hands" - they are patterns/criteria that score points. For example, a "pair" in poker means having two of the same number. [[Toitoi]] ("All Triplets") is when the hand consists entirely of triplets (that is, having 4 triplets in total). In general, yaku that that are harder to get scores more [[han]], which translates to more points.

Mahjong is a zero-sum game - whenever a player gains points, the other players lose a total of that many points. Therefore, [[tile efficiency|developing hands quickly]] and [[defense|minimizing point losses]] are important aspects to the games. Sometimes, it is best to [[betaori|give up winning]] in order to prevent paying for others' hands.

The rules to the game is complex. Gameplay is generally similar to most Asia-originated variants of mahjong. For a more detailed overview, see the [[rules overview]] the page, or the rest of this article.

The game of mahjong itself has numerous variations across the world, including an attempted standardization of "World Mahjong". Virtually every country in East Asia and the United States has a form of mahjong. While they all have the same general principles, they each have very distinct rule variations.

Modern 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.

When playing with physical tiles, setup is required. Online mahjong sites will set the game up for you, while the process can be made easier with an automatic table.

When ''any'' of the tiles you've discarded could've completed a winning hand, you become ''completely'' unable to win off of another player's discard. In other words, you cannot win by [[ron]]. However, while in furiten, it is still possible to win by drawing the tile yourself. It does not matter if the tile you discarded and the tile the opponent discarded are different, when you are in furiten, all tile types are affected. It does not matter if you couldn't actually win off the tile because you did not have a yaku, if the discarded tile could complete the "winning shape", it is furiten.

The procedure of drawing, discarding, and maintaining a round ends with a few different scenarios. A player can win the hand, the tiles can run out, or a few "abortive draws" force the game to be restarted. Afterwards, the tiles are reshuffled to setup the next hand, or [[renchan]].

Depending on the rules, multiple player may win from a hand. This occurs when more than one player is waiting on the same tile, and that tile is discarded. This event is called a '''double ron''' or even '''triple ron'''. Some rules allow double ron but not triple ron. Some rules allow triple ron. Other rulesets apply the head bump rule ([[atamahane]]) - only one player wins the hand. When atamahane is used, the player closest in turn order to the next player claims the win.

A game is organized into rounds, which are named after winds. Each wind round, every player gets a chance to be a dealer. Like player order, the round's wind rotates from East ->  South -> West -> North. For example, East 1 means it is the first round and the first player's dealer turn. East 2 means it is the first round, and the second player's dealer turn. This continues until East 4, then the game continues to South 1.

When a dealer wins the round, the game repeats and one [[honba]] is added. So a game at East 1, 4 honba means the dealer won four times in a row. In many rulesets, the dealer also gets to keep the seat if in [[tenpai]] (and no one won the round).

Typically, the game ends after the final hand of the last round, when at least one player has at least 30,000 points. This figure may differ (it depends on ruleset). However, the entire game may end prematurely. A game end may occur under the following conditions:

Once the game ends, points are tallied, and places get a rank from 1st to 4th.  

With the [[oka and uma]] systems, players get a bonus or penalty based on rank. 4th place pays 1st place some amount of points, and 3rd place pays second place some amount of points. This system was originally designed for gambling, but it can also be used for tournament or competitive play.

*Yaku are less important for the value of the hand. You need at least one yaku to win, but in general, yaku are less important to focus on. This is because of [[riichi]] and [[dora]]. By using riichi and/or dora, hands can be valuable without sacrificing much speed. Therefore, slower/more difficult yaku have a harder time competing.

**The "[[mangan]] limit" is another contributing factor. Each han roughly doubles the score until ~4 han (specifically, at 8000 points), where you reach mangan. Past this point, each han become less effective at increasing your score. Therefore, 4 han hands are great for efficiency.