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MahjongSetGuide
Guide

Riichi mahjong, from online to the table

Riichi is the Japanese ruleset and the version most people under thirty learned, usually on Mahjong Soul or Tenhou or from anime. Moving to a physical table means handling the parts the app did for you: the dead wall, the dora indicator and the point sticks.

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The tiles

Riichi uses 136 tiles: three suits — man (characters), pin (dots) and sou (bamboo) — numbered one to nine with four of each, plus the four winds and three dragons. There are no flowers. Most sets replace one five in each suit with a red five; those three tiles are bonus dora.

The shape of a winning hand

Like other variants, a winning hand is usually four sets and a pair from 14 tiles. Two exceptions are worth knowing from the start: seven distinct pairs (chiitoitsu) and thirteen orphans (kokushi musou).

The rule that surprises newcomers: a complete hand is not enough. It must also contain at least one yaku — a scoring pattern. Common first yaku are riichi itself, an all-simples hand (tanyao), and a set of dragons or your own seat or round wind.

Declaring riichi

If your hand is closed — you have called nothing from discards — and you are one tile from winning, you may declare riichi. You place a 1,000-point stick on the table, and from then on your hand is locked: you discard whatever you draw unless it wins. In return, riichi counts as a yaku and adds value.

Dora, the dead wall and red fives

Fourteen tiles at the end of the wall are set aside as the dead wall. One tile in it is flipped face up as the dora indicator; the next tile in sequence is the dora, and each one in your winning hand adds value. Kongs flip more indicators. Red fives are dora on their own, which is why a set without them does not play standard Riichi rules.

Furiten

You cannot win on someone else’s discard if any tile that would complete your hand is already in your own discard pile. You can still win by drawing it yourself. This rule is the main reason online players misplay at a physical table: the app warned you, and the table does not.

Scoring in one paragraph

Hands are valued in han, from yaku and dora, and fu, from the composition of the hand. Players usually start with 25,000 points each and pay with point sticks. Most new tables keep a printed scoring table next to the mat for the first few months — there is no shame in it.

What to look for in a Riichi set

  • 136 tiles plus spares, with three red fives — check the photographs.
  • Point sticks (tenbou) in four denominations.
  • Smaller tiles than a Chinese set, typically around 26 mm, with a dark-coloured back.
  • A dealer marker and dice. A mat around 30 inches square is plenty.

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