| Japanese Riichi | Overview | Gameplay | Scoring |
|---|
| Japanese Riichi | |
|---|---|
| Game Length | 2 Rounds |
| Tiles | 136 |
| Hand | 13 |
| Dead Wall | 14 |
| Replenishing Dead Wall | Yes |
| Discards | Rows of 6 |
| Scoring Type | Exponential |
| Scoring System | Discarder-Pays-All |
| Self-Draw Split | x1 x1 x1 |
| Discard Split | x3 x0 x0 |
| Dealer Bonus | Double |
| Dealer Curse | Double |
| Minimum | 1 Yaku |
| Maximum | Yakuman |
| Multiple Winners on Discard | Varies |
| Continuous Dealer Wins | Yes |
| Payout | Winner only |
| Concealed Kongs | Displayed |
Japanese Riichi is allegedly one of the most defensive variations of Mahjong.
Terminology
Concealed: Self-drawn tiles within the players hand.
Exposed: Melds made in part from an opponent's discard.
Chi: A run of 3 tiles. Players say "Chi!" to make a Chi.
Pon: A set of 3 identical tiles. Players say "Pon!" to make a Pon.
Kan: A declared set of 4 identical tiles. Players say "Kan!" to make a Kan. There are three types of Kan…
- Concealed: All 4 tiles were self-drawn.
- Called: The first 3 tiles were self-drawn, the 4th was called from a discard.
- Added: The first 3 tiles are an exposed Pon, the 4th was self-drawn.
Agari: A valid winning hand. Players say "Tsumo!" if they self-draw their winning tile or "Ron!" if they Call their winning tile from a discard.
Yaku: Refers to the winning condition.
Han: Refers to the value of the winning condition. These later get converted into points.
Fu: Refers to the value of mini-points. These later get converted into points.
Dora: Bonuses that are not Yaku, but award Han.
Furiten: [coming soon]
Equipment
Tiles: A basic set of 136 tiles. Replacing some or all of the 5 Circles with Aka Dora (Red Fives) is common.
Dice: 2 Dice if playing without Flowers.
Round Wind Indicator: The first East player of the game holds onto this.
Point Sticks: Used to keep score, declare "Riichi", and keep track of consecutive wins.
Players & Seating
A Round of Mahjong is made up of 4 Hands. There are 2 Rounds in a Game.
Seat Winds: Each Seat at the table has a Wind associated with it…
- The Dealer is always East. East displays the dice to their right.
- At the end of a Hand the Seat Winds rotate counter-clockwise. The dice are passed to the new East player.
Round Winds: Each Round also had a Wind associated with it. The Round Wind is shown on the Round Wind Indicator.
Building the Wall & Dealing
- Each player builds a wall 17 tiles long and 2 tiles high.
- East rolls the dice and counts counter-clockwise around each seat. A player is chosen.
- Also using the dice roll, that player counts stacks in their wall from right to left, and makes a break in the wall. To the left of the break is the beginning of the Live Wall; to the right is the end of the Dead Wall.
- Starting with East, players draw 13 tiles starting from the beginning of the Live Wall. Players take turns grabbing 4 at a time (2 stacks) until they have 12. Then each player takes 1 more tile*. Tiles are removed from the wall clockwise, but the players take turns counterclockwise.
- The last 14 tiles (7 stacks) form the Dead Wall.
- The top tile of the 3rd stack from the end of the Dead Wall is flipped. This denotes the Dora Indicator.
*East can take both their 13th and 14th tiles simultaneously by removing the top tile of the next stack and the top tile of the 3rd stack.
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