Riichi For Beginners

To play Riichi, build four sets and a pair as in any mahjong, but make sure the hand has at least one yaku, because without one it cannot win. Declaring riichi on a closed, ready hand is the easiest yaku to learn first.

Riichi looks intimidating, but one hand teaches most of it. Here’s a deal from start to finish, with the rules you meet on the way.

The Tiles And The Goal

A Riichi set has 136 tiles: Characters (man), Circles (pin) and Bamboo (sou), each from 1 to 9, plus the four winds and three dragons. Four of each, no flowers. One five in each suit is red.

Four sets and a pair: a complete hand.

You start with thirteen tiles and aim for fourteen: four sets and a pair. A set is a run (3-4-5 in one suit) or three of a kind. Each turn you draw one tile and discard one, into your own neat river in front of you.

Every Win Needs A Yaku

Here’s the big difference from other tables. A complete hand isn’t enough: it needs at least one yaku, a named pattern worth at least one han. No yaku, no win.

The yaku you’ll use most as a beginner:

Riichi: declare your closed hand ready, 1 han, closed only.
Menzen tsumo: a closed hand won on your own draw, 1 han, closed only.
Tanyao: only 2s to 8s, 1 han, even after a call.
Yakuhai: a triplet of a dragon, your seat wind or the round wind, 1 han each.
Pinfu: four runs, a plain pair and a two-sided wait, closed, 1 han, closed only.

The example hand above, all 2s to 8s, already has tanyao. The rest are in the yaku guides.

Calling Opens Your Hand

You can take another player’s discard: pon for three of a kind from anyone, chi for a run only from the player on your left, kan for four of a kind. Calls speed you up, but they open your hand.

An open hand can’t declare riichi, and it loses menzen tsumo and pinfu. So before you call, ask: what will my yaku be? Tanyao and yakuhai are the usual answers. If there isn’t one, don’t call.

Riichi, Tsumo And Ron

Say your closed hand is one tile from winning (tenpai). You can declare riichi: turn your discard sideways and put out a riichi stick. Now you have a yaku whatever your shape, but your hand is locked, and you must throw every tile you draw unless it wins.

Then you wait. Draw the winning tile yourself and call tsumo: everyone pays. Or claim it from someone’s discard and call ron: the discarder pays it all. A riichi tsumo also brings menzen tsumo, and a win within one go-round adds ippatsu.

Furiten: The Rule That Bites

If any tile you’re waiting on is in your own discards, you’re furiten and can’t ron at all, not even on the other side of your wait. Tsumo still works.

Let a winning tile go by and you’re furiten until your next discard. After riichi, a missed tile makes you furiten for the rest of the hand. Before declaring, check your own river for your waits; it saves a lot of heartbreak.

Dora And The Score

The tile shown on the dead wall points to the dora, the next tile in order, and each dora in a winning hand adds a han. Red fives add one each, and a riichi winner turns the hidden ura dora too. But dora aren’t a yaku: the dora guide explains why that matters.

A hand’s score has two parts. Han come from yaku and dora; fu come from how the hand was built and won, such as concealed triplets, honour pairs, awkward waits and a closed ron. The two combine into points, and bigger hands reach named limits (mangan, then haneman, baiman and sanbaiman) where fu stop mattering. The dealer is paid half as much again, and the Japanese Riichi table guide covers the full scoring.

Don’t worry about counting fu at the start: Straits Mahjong counts every hand for you and shows each yaku, dora and fu item.