Introduction
Riichi Mahjong is the Japanese variation of mahjong, a combination of gin rummy and poker.
Table of Contents
Beginner resources
Learning Mahjong from scratch
- Mahjong Soul aka MJS
- Do the tutorial
- It will auto-start on your first login
- If you want to do it again, look on the right side, 3rd icon (graduation cap)
- For your first games:
- Try for a normal five group hand (pair plus four melds of 3)
- Ignore the Chii, Pon, and Kan buttons (tile calls)
- This keeps your hand closed, and guarantees your can call Riichi = Yaku = qualify
- When the Riichi button appears, click it and the computer will recommend a discard
- Friendly Match for more thinking time when you start
- Create Room
- Vs AI, 300+0s (300 seconds for every turn)
- Create
- Start
- Tile types
- Honors
- Dragons (White, Green, Red)
- Winds (East, South, West, North)
- Seat wind (Center area shows what wind you are)
- Round wind (Center area shows this – usually East or South)
- Guest wind (The other winds)
- Value Honors (Dragons, Seat wind, Round wind)
- Suits (Character/Crack/Manzu, Dot/Pinzu, Bamboo/Bam/Souzu)
- Terminals (1, 9)
- Simples (2-8)
- Discard priority order (only if isolated – not paired or part of a possible run)
- Guest Winds (not the round wind or your seat wind)
- Terminals (1, 9)
- Round wind (if not also your seat wind)
- Dragons
- Seat wind
- 2s and 8s
- Other isolated tiles
- Learn the Basic Yaku and scoring by reddit user u/Aranlyed
- Full Yaku List by reddit u/Aranlyde Source License CC/BY/NC 4.0
- Order to learn:
- Riichi
- Yakuhai (value honor triplet = set of dragons, seat wind, or round wind)
- You can consider calling Pon to form a value honor triplet
- Tanyao (all simples)
- If you have only 2-8 (no 1s, 9s, or honors) you can consider calling Pon/Chii
- But be careful with 23 or 78 draws, if you open the hand you are committed to no 1s or 9s!
- Chiitoitsu (seven pairs)
- One of two exceptions to the pair plus four melds of 3 pattern
- If you end up with five pairs, go for this
- Otherwise it’s usually best to go for a pair plus four melds of 3 hand
- BTW the final exception:
- Kokushi Musou (thirteen orphans) only go for this if:
- You start the hand with 9+ terminals
- The game will ask if you want to re-deal
- If you feel lucky, click continue and go for it!
- If you start with 9 terminals, your odds are about 5.5% Source
- Toitoi (all triplets)
- If you were heading for seven pairs but draw one or more triplets, consider switching to all triplets
- Pon everything!
- Honitsu (half flush – only one suit plus honors)
- If you start with many honor tiles and a long suit, consider discarding the other two suits first instead of the normal discard order
- All the rest
Advanced resources
Other links
