Gyakuten

Gyakuten 「逆転」 ("comeback") is when a player improves their placement during the last hand.

Discarded winning tile may not be enough for gyakuten.

Knowledge of the points table is particularly helpful for pulling a comeback: it can help determine the needed tile composition, if you can open the hand, if you need to call riichi, and other key decisions. In any case, like most things in mahjong, at least a little luck is required to win.

Strategy for oorasu

The term "gyakuten" normally applies to a placement shift in the last hand of the game. In the last round, once a non-dealer wins, the game ends, and placement is finalized. Therefore, even a 100 point difference can matter. Lower players must develop a hand that gives enough score to pass the higher ranked players. On the other hand, players with their desired standing must find a way to retain their position at the end of the game, either by winning the final hand or simply avoiding losing points.

Gyakuten is important because placement is itself important. Thanks to oka and/or uma, a player can receive a large bonus for rising up a placement, or conversely, lose a lot by falling down a place. In some types of play, such as certain tournaments or tenhou.net's dan ranking, final placement is the only thing that matters.

Riichi

If an open version of a hand is enough to improve your placement, no matter how it's won, then open the hand for the extra speed. Similarly, if you can guarantee improvement with a damaten hand, then do that.

Riichi gives 1 han, plus random bonuses via ippatsu, ura dora, and/or mentsumo. If you're particularly lucky, a riichi-only hand can turn into 7900 points with riichi ippatsu mentsumo dora 1. Ideally, you should try to guarantee a comeback without any bonus han. However, if you have no reasonable way to do so, go for a riichi and hope you get enough points. At the same time, your opponents will be especially wary of a riichi in the last round, precisely because they don't want to lower their placement.

In some niche cases, the 1000 point riichi bet is enough to drop you down placement. If you have another yaku, you should usually go dama. If you don't have a yaku, then riichi is still worthwhile if you have a good wait. Since the trailing player is only 1000 points behind, any win they make would be enough for you to drop down, so you should still try to win.

Ties

When two players' scores are tied at the end of the game, there are two major rule variations on how the scores are treated:

• Ties are broken based on the initial wind seating (seats in the first hand). The initial East player beats South beats West beats North.
• Tied players split oka/uma bonuses evenly between tied players.

You should take note of which rule is used before playing. If ties are broken by wind seating, the player further from initial east player need to gain points to overcome the tie.

Score differences

In the last hand of the game, players are likely to only have one chance to win. Therefore, awareness of the point differences and the scoring table are key.

The following table displays the minimum han/fu value required to surpass a leading player that is 'X' points ahead of you. Note that:

• "Direct hit" rons (a ron on the player you're trying to surpass) are worth double the value of "non-direct hit" rons.
• Tsumo requires less points than a non-direct hit ron, because with tsumo, you take points from everyone. (E.g. if you tsumo with a mangan, you gain 8000 points, and the opponents lose 2000 points, allowing you to overcome a 10000 point gap.)
• You should also account for honba and riichi bets when calculating score.
  • Each honba stick lets you surpass a +400 point lead for tsumo, a +300 point lead for ron, and a +600 point lead for direct hit ron.
  • Each riichi bet let you surpass a +1000 point lead regardless of how you win.

Gyakuten table

Han-Fu	Non-dealer				Dealer
	Tsumo		Ron		Tsumo	Ron
	Non-dealer diff	Dealer diff	Non-direct hit	Direct hit		Non-direct hit	Direct hit
1-30	1400	1600	1000	2000	2000	1500	3000
1-40 & 2-20	1900	2000	1300	2600	2800	2000	4000
1-50 & 2-25	2000	2400	1600	3200	3200	2400	4800
1-60 & 2-30	2500	3000	2000	4000	4000	2900	5800
1-70	3000	3600	2300	4600	4800	3400	6800
1-80 & 2-40 & 3-20	3400	4000	2600	5200	5200	3900	7800
2-50 & 3-25	4000	4800	3200	6400	6400	4800	9600
2-60 & 3-30	5000	6000	3900	7800	8000	5800	11600
2-70	5900	7000	4500	9000	9200	6800	13600
2-80 & 3-40 & 4-20	6500	7800	5200	10400	10400	7700	15400
3-50 & 4-25	8000	9600	6400	12800	12800	9600	19200
3-60 & 4-30	9900	11800	7700	15400	15600	11600	23200
Mangan	10000	12000	8000	16000	16000	12000	24000
Haneman	15000	18000	12000	24000	24000	18000	36000
Baiman	20000	24000	16000	32000	32000	24000	48000
Sanbaiman	30000	36000	24000	48000	48000	36000	72000
Yakuman	40000	48000	32000	64000	64000	48000	96000