麻雀

mahjongintro

The tiles

characters man

bamboo sou

dots pin

winds kaze

eastsouthwestnorth

dragons sangen

whitegreenred

34 × 4 = 136 total tiles

Your hand

The full list

Every yaku, for later.

Tap one to see it. The dotted ones are the ones you’ve met. Numbers are han; closed means it needs a closed hand, and some are worth a little less once you’ve called.

That’s the book

Almost all of it, on one card.

  1. Fourteen tiles: four sets and a pair.
  2. Draw one, discard one.
  3. Pon from anyone. Chi from your left. Ron to win.
  4. You need a yaku. Riichi is always there.

Now find three friends, and go play.

Still curious? A few more rules, after the book.

付録

For the curious

After the book

Dora

At the start of each hand, one tile in the wall is turned face up: the indicator. The tile that comes after it is dora. Every dora in your winning hand is one more han.

indicator
dora
→ → →

Numbers wrap round, 9 to 1. Winds go East, South, West, North; dragons White, Green, Red. Most tables also play one red 5 in each suit — each is a dora too. Dora aren’t a yaku: a hand with only dora still can’t win.

Furiten

You can never ron on a tile you threw away yourself. And if any of your winning tiles is in your own discards, you can’t ron on any of them.

Your hand — waiting on 6 or 9

Your discards

A 9 is in your discards — so no ron on the 6 either. You can still win by drawing it yourself. Two more kinds of furiten

Han, in points

More han, more points. Roughly what a win is worth when you’re not the dealer — the dealer gets half as much again.

  1. 1 han1,000
  2. 2 han2,000
  3. 3 han3,900
  4. 4 han7,700
  5. 5 mangan8,000
  6. 6–7 haneman12,000
  7. 8–10 baiman16,000
  8. 11–12 sanbaiman24,000
  9. 13+ yakuman32,000

1 to 4 han shown at 30 fu, the most common. From 5 han up, fu stop mattering. What are fu?

Defense

Folding

Someone declares riichi, and your hand is far from ready. Stop chasing it. From now on, throw only tiles that can’t win for them.

West’s discards, after riichi

The safest tiles are the ones they’ve already thrown — furiten means they can never ron on those. After those: suji

Defense

Reading discards

Discards show what someone doesn’t need. Split each suit into low, middle and high, and look for what’s missing.

Characters and dots from all over — and no bamboo at all. They’re probably collecting bamboo — careful throwing it. Honors thrown early is normal; someone still holding honors late may be waiting to pon them.

The double index

Deeper notes

The links in the book land here. ← back takes you to where you were.

A faster race

Riichi is quiet but slow: your closed hand has to get all the way to one-from-done on its own. An open hand can be quicker — call pon and chi to build tanyao, or pon a pair of dragons early for yakuhai. The catch: called sets are face up, so everyone can read what you need, and stop throwing it.

← back

Two more kinds of furiten

Let a winning discard go by, and you can’t ron again until your next turn. Let one go by while you’re in riichi, and you can’t ron for the rest of the hand. Winning by tsumo is always allowed.

← back

Fu, the small points

  • Every win starts at 20 fu.
  • +10 for ron with a closed hand; +2 for tsumo (not with pinfu).
  • Triplets of 2–8: 2 open, 4 closed. Of 1s, 9s or honors: 4 open, 8 closed. A kan is four times that.
  • A pair of dragons, your seat wind or the round wind: +2.
  • Waiting on just one tile — a middle, an edge or a pair: +2.
  • Round up to the next 10. Seven pairs is always 25.

Points are about fu × 2han + 2, times 4 for a ron (times 6 if you’re the dealer), rounded up to the hundred — until mangan caps it.

← back

Suji

A wait on either side — like 2-3, waiting on 1 or 4 — wins on two tiles three apart. So if someone has thrown a 4, the 1 and the 7 of that suit are safer against those waits: 1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9. Safer, not safe — a pair, edge or middle wait can still hit.

← back

Glossary

Chi
Claiming the discard of the player on your left to make a run.
Closed hand
A hand with no called sets.
Dora
A bonus tile: one han each, but not a yaku.
Fu
Small points that, with han, set a hand’s exact value.
Furiten
No ron, because one of your winning tiles is in your own discards.
Han
What yaku and dora are counted in.
Honors
The winds and the dragons.
Ippatsu
Winning within one trip round the table after riichi. One more han.
Mangan
Five han — the first cap on points.
Open hand
A hand with at least one called set.
Pair
Two the same. Every hand needs one.
Pon
Claiming anyone’s discard to make a triplet.
Riichi
Declaring a closed hand one tile from done: a 1000 bet and one han.
Ron
Winning on someone else’s discard.
Run
Three in a row, in one suit.
Simples
The tiles 2 through 8.
Suji
Tiles three apart — 1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9 — used to guess what’s safer.
Tenpai
One tile from a finished hand.
Terminals
The 1s and the 9s.
Triplet
Three the same.
Tsumo
Winning on a tile you drew yourself.
Wall
The face-down tiles everyone draws from.
Yaku
A scoring pattern. You need at least one to win.