Japanese mahjong
Japanese mahjong, otherwise known as riichi mahjong, 「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.
Gin rummy can trace its origins back to the mahjong that was played in China. Gin rummy is a card game which centers itself towards developing tile groups of sequences (1-2-3, 6-7-8) and/or triplets (9-9-9).
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.
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 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.
Game development history
Mahjong overall is only a 100 year old game or so. Originating in China, the game managed to spread across the country, East Asia, and even to the United States during the 1920's.
Main differences
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.
Japanese mahjong features these major aspects of the game, that are not used in many of the other mahjong variants. Although, these are not unique to Japanese mahjong.
Mahjong tiles and suits
There are three suits of number tiles each with sequences from one to nine. The three suits are the wan (characters), the pinzu (coins/circles), and the sou (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 honor tiles. This set of tiles can be further divided into wind tiles and dragon tiles. Unlike the standard suits previously mentioned, these honor tiles have special properties towards determining hand value. They can also be referred as "word tiles". Unlike the "numbered suits", the different honor tiles cannot be mixed together to form 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.
Game setup
The game of Japanese mahjong is played with a set of 136 tiles. Of these 136 tiles, there are 34 different tiles with 4 of each kind. Aside from online, the live game is played on a square table, with the mahjong tiles places onto a mahjong mat. While the mat is not necessary, it is useful to use the mat in order to protect the tile surfaces.
Starting the game
For casual games, players may take any seat desired on each side of the square table. Then dice are used to determine the position of the first dealer. With the dice roll, the count begins at 1 starting with the dice roller; and the count moves counter-clockwise. At the end of this initial count, the player is assigned as the dealer and receives the dealer marker.
This dealer marker is an east-south prevailing-wind marker used in games to indicate the round and the current dealer. The table's raised border has four recesses where the prevailing-wind marker, counters, and carry-over riichi bets can be placed.
As the dealer, this player is assigned the wind of East. The player to the right of the dealer is South. The player across the dealer is West, and finally, the player to the left is North. Eventually, during the course of the game, this dealer assignment rotates to give every player the chance to be dealer. Likewise, the wind arrangement rotates counter-clockwise. As a note, South is always to the right of the dealer East.
In more formal settings, like tournaments, the initial dice roll and seating procedures may follow additional protocols. With regards to seating, four or five tiles are randomized for players to draw seating positions. The four tiles are naturally one of each wind tiles. With five tiles, a haku tile is added, where drawing this tile determines the location of the east player. After the tile draws, the players sit accordingly in the following order, counterclockwise: East, South, West, and North. Then, the person sitting East rolls the dice to determine the first dealer, as the procedure mentioned above. With regards to dice rolling, the player who drew east bears the task of determining the first dealer.
Automatic tables
The automatic table includes one or two sets of tiles, with blue or orange backs. With the push of a red button on the central island, it rises up and the discard ponds collapse to allow players to push tiles into the mixer below. With another push of the red button, four 17x2 walls of shuffled tiles rise up from below. Automatic tables are real and not that uncommon. However, they are rather expensive, with the cheapest tables priced around ¥2000, or roughly $2000 or so.
Some automatic tables are capable of keeping score, based on point sticks stored in four pull out compartments. In the event of riichi, the central island has four slots where 1000-point stick rīchi bets can be placed. In front of each player, an display shows the player's current score.
An east-south prevailing-wind marker is used in hanchan games to indicate the round. The table's raised border has four recesses where the prevailing-wind marker, counters, and carry-over rīchi bets can be placed..
Building walls and breaking the wall
At the beginning of each hand, the tiles are shuffled and arranged into walls. After shuffling, tiles are arranged into 4-double stacked rows of 17-tiles faced down. Every player has the responsibility of building their own walls arranged in front of them. Once the walls are built, the dealer determines the initial breakage of the wall using a dice roll. Once again, starting with the dealer, the count begins at 1 and the count moves clockwise. Then the wall of the player at the end of this count is broken, where the player counts with the same dice number from the first tile on the right side of his/her wall towards the left.
Sometimes, the automatic table is used. These tables include one or two sets of tiles, with different colored backs. The table uses magnets to properly align the tiles face down. These tables randomly and conveniently arrange the tiles into the 4 separate walls. With push of the red button, four 17x2 walls of shuffled tiles rise up from below. With the push of a red button on the central island, it rises up and the discard ponds collapse to allow players to push tiles into the mixer below. Some automatic tables may be advanced enough to even handle game scoring and tracking.
The dead wall and dora
Then the dead-wall must be set. From the point of the initial wall break, players count 7-tiles to the right of the initial break; and the wall is broken again. There should be a total of 14-tiles (7-tiles double stacked) in this group. This is the dead wall, which consists of tiles set aside and not used in the regular draw. Finally, the third tile closest to the inital break is flipped over and used as a dora indicator.
Dealing the tiles
From the initial break, the dealer (East) begins by taking a group of 4 tiles from the regular wall. The South takes the next group of 4. Then West with 4 more, and North with 4 more. This procedure is repeated 2 more times, to ensure an initial deal of 12-tiles for each player. At this point, the dealer East takes the first and third tiles on the top row of the wall. South takes the next available draw, then West, and finally North. At this initial deal of the tiles, the dealer East should have 14 tiles; and the rest have 13. The game hand begins with the dealer discarding 1 tile.
Players are recommended to arrange their tiles according to suit, but it is not necessary. Some players are able to read their hands with the tiles in randomized order.
Game play
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 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.
Discard pile
Every player's discard is organized and 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 discard pile is used two-fold: as record of a player's discards, and as an indicator of safe-tiles for defensive play.
Furiten
     
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The furiten rule is a fairly complicated rule as it takes into account not just one's own set of discards, but it may also consider the other players' discards. The discard pile may indicate a player in furiten. If a player has a winning tile in the player's discard pile, then the player is in furiten. This state of furiten is dubious as it disables the player's ability to win off a discard. In other words, the player cannot claim ron.
In addition, the disabling of ron by furiten applies to all winning tiles, not just a particular tile in the discard. If the player's hand looks like this:
- Example tenpai hand:
Waiting for: 
- , or 
This example hand is a tenpai hand waiting three tiles . If any of those tiles are in the player's discard pile, then the player cannot claim ron. A player can get out of furiten by changing the hand composition.
This rule forces players to take extra consideration, when making discards. Often, a player must have good reason to discard particular tiles, especially when they are already part of a tile group.
Hand development
The process of drawing and discarding, as well as making claims to discard is the process of hand development. As a player, after the initial deal of hands, players have a start hand. So, the aim of a player is to develop this hand into a complete hand. A complete mahjong hand is composed of 4 tile groups and a pair. The hand may be open or closed and have at minimum 1-yaku. This is a total of 13 tiles plus 1 (the winning tile), like so:
May win with: or
Per the yaku rule, it is possible to unable to win with the first tile by discard. However, the the second tile may be claimed for a win under any circumstance in the East round, or for the dealer.
A hand that is one tile away from being complete is in tenpai. A hand that is one tile away from tenpai is one shanten. A hand that is two tiles away from tenpai is two shanten, and so on. Experienced players may sense how likely they are to win a hand based on their initial shanten number.
There are two notable exceptions to the 4 tile groups and a pair pattern. Players can try to form seven pairs or the rare thirteen orphans hand. Both of these hands are closed by default.
Tile groupings
Mentsu 「面子」 are the tile groups used to form mahjong hands. Each individual tile group must be composed of a single suit or type of mahjong tile. All groups, except kantsu, are composed of groups of 3 tiles.
- Consecutive same suit Sequences. Sequences must be in consecutive numbers per the following examples:
| Closed | Open |
|---|---|
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- Same suit triplets. Triplets are three-of-a-kind. As such, the tiles must be of the same kind both in number and suit. Per examples:
| Closed | Open |
|---|---|
 |
|
 |
 
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- Quads occur, when a player is in possession of all four tiles of a specific tile type. With possession of all four of a tile type, a player has the option to invoke special rules applied to this tile grouping. Even though, the tile group consists of four tiles, it is, in an actual sense, counted as three-of-a-kind plus one extra, where players are actually awarded special privileges for possessing four of one type of tile.
Quads
A special set of rules and procedures applies to quads. When in special possession of all four tiles of a specific type, a player may invoke these rules, or otherwise, decline the option. Like many aspects of the game, this is a risk-reward option. When choosing to invoke the "quad rules", a player may declare after the current tile draw, if four tiles or the fourth tile is in the hand. If a player possesses three tiles and a player discarded a fourth, then the player may invoke the "quad rules" on that discard.
After the declaration for a quad, then a player gains special access to the dead wall. This is one of the first four tiles to the left of the dora-indicator. Afterwards, if the the extra tile does not complete the hand, the player must discard and play moves on to the right. As a sidenote, for each call kan, the player's tile count increases by one for each quad. Yet once again, a quad counts as a triplet plus one.
Furthermore, when a player calls or declares a kan, an additional dora indicator tile is flipped. This is called the kandora. Some rules may allow the kandora to be flipped immediately after the kan call. Other rules have stricter procedures on when the kandora tile is flipped. Some make the distinction between the open kan and the closed kan. Finally, a tile is shifted from the end of the regular wall to the dead wall, in order to maintain 14-tiles in the dead wall. Because of the additional dora, a play using quads can be very risky or rewarding.
Claiming discards
As part of the game, players have the ability to claim other player's discards.
Finally, a hand is distinguishable between an open hand and closed hand. A closed hand is a player's hand, that had yet to make any claim on a discard. A hand in this state is fully concealed from the other players. In the event a player makes a claim on a discard, then the player's hand changes from a closed hand to an open hand.
Usually, a player's hand value decreases in the event of an open hand, but this may not always be the case, especially for some yakuman hands. Japanese mahjong strategy centers on knowing when to appropriately make the above calls. Knowledge of the yaku plays a large part in this decision making process.
End of a hand
The procedure of drawing, discarding, and maintaining a hand ends with many different scenarios. The ideal for any player is the completion of the hand and winning it. A hand may end when all the tiles, except for the dead-wall tiles, are drawn, or when a player chombos, meaning making an illegal play. After the end of the hand, points are exchanged accordingly. Then afterwards, the tiles are reshuffled to setup the next hand, or renchan.
Winning a hand
Ideally, players seek to win hands. Once again, a winning hand is composed of a tenpai hand; and a winning tile may be claimed. Of course, a player must actively declare the win (ron or tsumo), or else, the player may also decline the win. Though, the latter option may be used for specific and strategic instances. This can also be attained by the dead-wall draw with the special tsumo of rinshan kaihou yaku. Two other special win claims can be attained by ron via chankan.
It is most important to note: winning a hand requires a minimum of one yaku. Failure to meet this requirement may be subject to a penalty.
Depending on the rules, multiple winners are also possible for a hand. This event occurs when more than one player is waiting on the same tile(s), and the wins are both claimed by discard. This event is called a double ron or even triple ron. Some rules may allow double, but not triple. In this case, the losing player must pay the winning players according to their respective hand values. Likewise, honba applies for both of them as well. Otherwise, some rules may apply the head bump rule, or atamahane. In this case, only one of the players may claim the win over the other. The former winner may claim the win over the latter, or vice-versa depending on the rules agreed upon.
Exhaustive draw
Also, known as ryuukyoku, the hand ends in a draw, after all the tiles from the wall are drawn, except for the 14 tiles in the dead wall. In this case, the player(s) in tenpai receive points from those in noten. A hand in tenpai is one that needs just one more tile, either by draw (tsumo) or discard (ron) to win. However, that needed tile was never claimed. Nearly 40% of professional games go to an exhaustive draw due to players immediately dropping out of the race when a player declares riichi.
Abortive draw
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.
Chombo
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 mangan. Otherwise, the rules to chombo may be modified.
Scoring
Winning hands are awarded points based on the difficulty and luck needed to form them. So, the appropriate amount of points are exchanged between players according to the tables in the scoring rules of the game. Naturally, the point exchanges are already handled by software and mahjong game sites. Even some automatic tables are capable of scoring calculations.
Dealers receive roughly 50% more points when winning than non-dealers. However, if a non-dealer wins by draw (tsumo), then the dealer must pay roughly 50% while non-dealers pay roughly 25% each. The winner of a hand collects any rīchi bets on the table and additional points allowed by honba.
Game Rounds
Most games consist of two prevailing-wind rounds and are called hanchan. Each of the two rounds is labeled as the East round and South round. For shorter games, just a single East round may be played. For each round, every player gets a chance to be seated as the dealer once per round. A prevailing wind round is complete when all four players have had a rotation as the dealer. At the beginning of the second round, the initial east seat-wind player turns over the prevailing-wind marker to indicate that it's the south prevailing-wind round.
End of game
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 tonpussen, 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 score or +/- score may be applied.
Tied scores
When two or more players finish the game with tied scores, the tiebreaker follows the original wind seating order. Raw scores are not adjusted. Instead, the order factors towards the awarding of the uma score.
Rule variations
Many rules of the game may be subject to various customization and house rules. Many simply resort towards allowing or disallowing certain rules and even hand patterns. Others involve different methods of enforcement and point values.
External links
- Japanese mahjong in Japanese Wikipedia
- Their Riichi Rules for Japanese Mahjong contains detailed rules and terminology. A previous version was used by Crunchyroll's Saki anime translator.
- Barticle's Japanese Mahjong Guide can be downloaded from the downloads section. It contains even more detailed rules and terminology.
- JPML ruleset
- Hanayori Uta's video.
- A Japanese Mahjong blog for English speakers
- Rules from the Saikyosen tournament
- Another blog regarding various aspects of the game.