Riichi MahJong

What is Riichi Mahjong?

Riichi Mahjong (立直麻雀) is the modern Japanese ruleset that layers a scoring system of yaku (hand patterns) and han/fu (value and points) on top of the classic four-player, four-suit game. Instead of a flat fan count, every winning hand is built from one or more yaku, and the resulting han and fu determine the score off a lookup table — which is exactly what our score trainer tools below are built to teach.

Riichi's signature move is the riichi declaration itself: once your hand is tenpai (one tile from winning) and fully concealed, you can declare riichi, bet 1000 points, and lock your hand — in exchange you gain access to extra yaku (ippatsu, ura dora) and the tension of playing it out. Dora indicator tiles add bonus value on top of yaku, and reading the discard pile becomes a game in itself.

Our House Rules

• Open tanyao allowed — you can call pon/chi and still win with tanyao (all simples).
• 3 red fives (aka dora) — one red 5 in each suit (man, pin, sou), each worth a bonus dora.

We have instructors on hand if you're new to riichi — from basic tile reading up through yaku, furiten, and scoring. Just ask when you sit down, or reach out beforehand.

Practice Tools

We built three free browser tools to help members learn and practice riichi scoring — no install, just open the file in any browser. Download, keep for yourself, and share freely with friends.