ReachMahjong Ebook PDF

Reach Mahjong
The Only Way to Play
Jenn Barr
Huntington Press
Las Vegas, Nevada
Reach Mahjong
The Only Way to Play
Published by

Huntington Press

3665 Procyon St.

Las Vegas, NV 89103

Phone (702) 252-0655

e-mail: books@huntingtonpress.com
Copyright 2009, Jenn Barr
10-Digit ISBN: 1-935396-03-X
13-Digit ISBN: 978-1-935396-03-1
Design & Production: Laurie Shaw
Photos: Harunobu Yoda
Hair/Make-up: Shigeru Obayashi
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright
owner.
Dedication
For my parents, sister, Andrea, and Seth.
Also, for Moriyama, who has the vision;
Gem and Garthe, who stand by me;
Kirk, who keeps it going; and
Kei, who started it all.
Acknowledgments
I owe much of my success to the support of the Japan Professional Mahjong League.
A big thank you to Tom Sloper and Troy Presley for their
help in the proofreading process.
Id also like to thank all the readers at ReachMahjong.com.
Their constant encouragement and support keep me motivated
and fuel my passion for the game.
Contents
New Dogs Learning Old Tricks.......................................... 1

Part IHow To Play.................................................... 3
I. Tools of the Trade............................................... 4
Board Map...................................................... 10
II. Deal Em Up.................................................... 11
Seating............................................................ 11
Points.............................................................. 15
Building the Wall.............................................. 16
Dealer............................................................. 18
Breaking the Wall............................................. 20
Lucky Tile/Dora Indicator................................... 24
Taking Turns or, Playing the Game..................... 26
Combos........................................................... 28
III. Winner!........................................................... 39
Ready Hand..................................................... 39
Outs/Waits..................................................... 40
Types of Wins.................................................. 44
Hand Points..................................................... 46
IV. Special Situations............................................. 75

V. Count em Up................................................... 85
Base Points...................................................... 85
Part IIVariations.................................................. 105

VI. Inflated Mahjong............................................ 106
vi Reach Mahjong
VII. Mahjong for Money........................................ 110
VIII. Two-Player Mahjong....................................... 112
IX. Three Player Mahjong..................................... 114
Simple Three Player Game............................... 114
Original Three Player Game............................ 115
Wild White Dragon........................................ 120
5 or More Players........................................... 127
Variation Summary......................................... 127
Part IIIStrategy..................................................... 129

X. Playing Your Hand.......................................... 130

XI. Reading the Board.......................................... 142

XII. Your Opponent.............................................. 144
Part IVAppendices................................................. 154
A. Glossary........................................................ 155

B. Answers to Quizzes........................................ 192

C. Etiquette........................................................ 199
About the Author............................................ 204
About Huntington Press.................................... 206
New Dogs
Learning Old Tricks
Most descriptions you will read about Mahjong start out by
telling you what an old and traditional game it is. Thats fine,
but hearing vague comments about its long history in China
will not help you learn the game and, quite frankly, may bore
you out of a learning mindset.
This book is simple and straightforward. Its designed to
teach you how to play the game in a day or two (with practice) and get you comfortable with the rules currently used in
Japan, where 10% of the countrys population plays this game
regularly.
Throughout Japan, there is a huge competitive network of
both amateurs and professionals, including networked computer and arcade games, each with tens of thousands of members.
The reason for its popularity is not because Mahjong is an ancient spiritual game connected with the blood of the peoples
ancestors (although this very well might be true). The reason
everyone is playing this game is because its challenging, competitive, and fun. Its as simple as that.
People throughout the world are realizing the benefits of
this rule set. Mahjong clubs can be found in places like Canada, Russia, Croatia, and throughout Europe.
Like poker in the Western world, Mahjong is perfect for
companionship, mind skills, and gambling. Pick up this book
2 Reach Mahjong
and youll find a challenging hobby that will stay with you
throughout your life, as well as a new way to take money and
pride from your friends and, more importantly, your enemies.
Mahjong tiles are like a deck of cards. There are a million
different games that you can play using the tiles. Theyre all
Mahjong. This book only explains the Japanese style of Mahjong, known as Reach Mahjong. Its simplicity and strict rules
provide a firm platform for a test of skill and a strong competitive atmosphere. A player who becomes proficient in Reach
Mahjong will have no problem transferring to Chinese rules
and will only need a short lesson and a bit of practice to get
used to the American rules, since the main differences among
all types of Mahjong are the scoring systems.
Read the book, get online and play, get a deck of tiles, call
some friends, and make some money!
Part I
How To Play
I. Tools of the Trade

Who
To play a full game, you need four players. Short on friends?

Dont worry, tons of online options bring the friends to you. Just
need one more player? The variations chapter explains how
you can play Heads Up (2-player) or 3-Way Mahjong.
What
There are a few things that you must have to start your
game.
5 Reach Mahjong
Tiles
These are obviously the most important physical elements

of the game. The only alternative is a deck of Mahjong cards.
A deck of tiles should have 136 normal tiles and may contain
eight special tiles. There are three suits numbered 1 through 9:
Bamboo, Dots, and Craks, and one suit of Honors (winds and
dragons). There are 4 tiles of each number/Honor in each suit.
There is only 1 each of the special tiles.

Bamboos
The 1-Bams is usually a bird. Dont mix it up with the 1-Dots!
Dots
Craks/Grands
The red character under the black numbers stands for

10,000, so each of the Craks (derived from the word Character) means ten-grand, giving us a fun slang name: Grands.
6 Reach Mahjong
Tools of the Trade 6
Honors
Winds:
East South
West North
Dragons:
White Green Red
Extra Tiles
Red Fives: There is a small circle on each red-five in case

the color wears off or a player cant distinguish the color.
Bamboo Dots
Craks
Flowers/Seasons: These will differ for each set. A Mahjong-tile artist puts his heart into the Flowers/Seasons tiles.

Spring Summer Autumn
Winter
7 Reach Mahjong
Round Indicator (Button): This plate is necessary to help
keep track of which Round the game is in. Reach Mahjong
plays two rounds, East and South, so anything that shows this
will work.

East Round South Round
Dice
A pair of dice comes with any

Mahjong set you purchase. In Reach
Mahjong, only two dice are needed
to decide the dealer and where to
break the wall.
Table
Its possible to play on the floor, but to keep everyone comfortable, a table is best.
Whether its a square
card table, a coffee
table, or a small kitchen table, use whatever
you have. Just make
sure that all players can
reach the middle of the
table comfortably. Bestcase scenario: an automatic shuffling table
made by Alban with a
point display.
8 Reach Mahjong
Still good: A mat with places for your point bones, so everyone knows how many points the other players have.
At least you can play: Contact paper on a rectangular table, so your tiles dont get scratched up while youre shuffling.
Two people have to reach far, but just place the dudes with
long arms there.
Bones/Chips
Reach Mahjong uses scoring sticks or bones to keep track

of who is winning. A normal game will call for a total of at least
100,000 points: 25,000 for each player. The denominations
are not important, but normally youll find:
100-point bones (40)
1,000-point bones (36)
Altogether these total 120,000 points. I like to break one of

my 1,000-point bones in half to make 500-point bones, so that
the scoring is easier in the end.
9 Reach Mahjong
Cant find the right bones? No worries. Poker chips work
just as well! Just assign an amount to each color.
When
A full game of Reach Mahjong consists of two rounds

named the East Round and the South Round (kept track of on
the Button). Each player gets to be the dealer one time each
round. This means that a full game has at least eight hands.
When four professionals play a full game of Mahjong, with
automatic shuffling tables, it usually takes about 45 minutes to
an hour. Quarter-games (East Round only) are also common.
Where
In Japan, you can find casino-style Mahjong parlors in just

about every city you go to. In other parts of the world, you may
have to settle for getting your friends together at home or at a
caf. In addition, many online options allow you to play real
time with opponents anywhere in the world.
How
Now that you have everything you need, its time to learn
how to play.
10 Reach Mahjong
Board Map
A. East Players Hand (dealer)

B. North Players Hand
C. West Players Hand
D. South Players Hand
E. Continuance and Reach Bank
F. River
G. Wall
H. Kings Tiles (part of the wall)
I. East Players Bones (Chips)
II. Deal Em Up
Seating
Many Mahjong players consider seating to be a big deal.

Im not one of them, but Im a sheep and I tend to follow the
herd, so I do feel an obligation to explain how seats are normally chosen. If you find it too much of a pain, go ahead and
just pick the seat facing the TV in your home game, skip this
section, and learn how to play the game. But if you decide to
play in a tournament someday, its likely this information will
come in very handy.
1. Everyone first sits in his favorite seat (no hair-pulling or
eye-gouging!). One player shuffles 6 tiles together facedown:
one of each Wind, one odd number, and one even number.
12 Reach Mahjong
2. After shuffling, line them
up facedown.
3. The person across from

the shuffler rolls the dice.
4. The dice roller starts with
himself and counts off the number
on the dice counter-clockwise.
Whichever seat he finishes counting on gets the Button.
13 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 13
5. The shuffler turns over the tiles without changing the

order.
6. The two numbered tiles are moved to

the edges.
7. If the dice showed an odd number, then start from
the odd side; if they showed an even number, start from the
even side. In our
example, an even
number (8) was
rolled, so well start
from the even side
and the player with
the Button will get
the first tile. The remaining tiles will be
distributed in order
counter-clockwise.
14 Reach Mahjong
8. The seat with the Button is Temporary East and thats
where the player who drew the East tile will sit. The player that
drew the South tile will sit to the right of Temporary East, the
player with the West tile will sit across, and the player with the
North tile will sit to the left of Temporary East.
15 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 15
9. North and South are the opposite of normal maps, so

be careful! The seat to the right of East is South, across is West,
and the seat to the left of East is North. This is because Mahjong
has been considered to be a game of the gods. We are supposed to be playing as though we are looking up at Heaven
and these are the directions when looking up. If you dont get
it, try standing on your head and looking up. Still dont get it?
Clap your hands, sing the alphabet song
For a quick way to choose seats, just mix up one of each

wind and have each player choose one. The player who
chooses the East tile gets to choose his seat and that seat
becomes temporary East. The other players sit in their seats
according to the wind they have chosen.
Points
Each player starts with 30,000 points. The bones should be

distributed like this: one 10,000-point, two 5,000-point, nine
1,000-point and ten 100-point sticks. If you want to have a bonus for the winner of the game (like an ante), start with 25,000
points. In that case, the bones should be distributed like this:
one 10,000-point, two 5,000-point, four 1,000-point and ten
100-point sticks.
16 Reach Mahjong
Building the Wall
The wall is the collection of tiles that the deal and all draws
will happen from. There is an order to this madness. If you are
fortunate enough to get to wash the tiles (shuffle by hand) and
build the wall all by yourself, youll learn a cool trick to show
off to your friends.
Everyone needs to help in washing the tiles, since there are
so many (136) of them. Unless youre playing in a tournament,
dont worry about if they are all upside down or not; that will
slow down your efforts. The important thing is to play as many
hands as possible. If your set has more than 136 tiles, make
sure to take out the seasons and/or separate out the red 5s.
If you want to use the red 5s, replace 3 or 4 normal 5s with
them.
After the tiles are good and mixed, line up 17 in front of
you facedown.
Now line up 17 more in front of that.
17 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 17
Push the front row out a little bit, push the second row out
a little less
put your pinkies on either side of the back row, steady

the inside tiles with the rest of your fingers, and in one swift motion put the back row on top of the front row.
Theres your wall! If your friends are doing their jobs, there
should be four of these to form a mountain.
18 Reach Mahjong
Dealer
The dealer in Mahjong has an important role. Each player

gets two chances to be dealer, so everyone should pay attention to this section!
After everyone has arrived at their seats, whoever is in the
seat with the Button (Temporary East) rolls the dice once to decide the first dealer.
The dice roller starts with himself and counts off the total of
the dice counterclockwise.
19 Reach Mahjong
DEAL EM UP 19
The player chosen wins the Round Indicator and is the first
dealer of the game.
20 Reach Mahjong
Breaking the Wall
The dealer is responsible for breaking the wall and for this
she gets a bonus of 50% for any hands she wins! The catch is
that she has to pay double for hands won on a draw by other
players The idea is to win! The dealer is also always the
East Wind.
The dealer picks up the dice for the last time.
The dealer starts with herself and counts off the total on the
dice counterclockwise.
21 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 21
She starts on the right-hand side of the wall in front of the

lucky person the dice pointed to and counts off the number of
tiers shown on the dice.
Leave all the tiles that you counted off. Those tiles will be
the end of the wall. Starting with the next tier, the dealer takes
four tiles (i.e., breaks the wall). These 4 tiles will not be the tiles
that you counted off. The tiles counted off will not be touched
during the entire deal.
Next, the player to her right takes four tiles (two tiers), and
each player after takes turns taking four tiles each three times
so each player has 12 tiles. Make sure youre taking your tiles
in order!
22 Reach Mahjong
Next, the dealer takes one tile, plus her first draw.
23 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 23
The player to her left takes one tile from the bottom and the
other two players take one tile each as well.
Tiles are always taken by tier: first the top tile of the tier,
then the bottom tile of the tier. No other drawing order is allowed for normal turns.
24 Reach Mahjong
The dealer now has 14 tiles and each of the other players
have 13. Congratulations! Your hands are ready to play!
Lucky Tile/Dora Indicator
There is always a bonus tile in Reach Mahjong called the

dora. It will be explained in the points section, but we have to
decide which tile will be lucky each hand. First, drop the top
tile from the last tier of the wall. This part is really a matter of
etiquette and not entirely necessary.
25 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 25
Next, flip over the top tile of the third tier from the end.
When you are counting tiers to the third, count them before
you drop the tile. If youre not sure, check the image above and
make sure the end of your wall matches the one in the image.
The next number in sequence of this tile (the dora indicator) will
be the Lucky Dora. More about that later.
The 14 tiles at the end are called the Kings Tiles or the
Dead Wall. These tiles will not be touched for the whole game
(unless you declare a quad, but more about that later).
26 Reach Mahjong
Taking Turns or, Playing the Game

Draw
Each turn a player takes includes receiving a tile and discarding a tile. Normally, players draw a tile from the wall. Its
not OK to take just any tile you want! You must draw the next
available tile when you draw from the wall.
27 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 27
If you like the tile you get, keep it and discard a tile from
your hand. If you dont like it, discard the one you picked directly to the River.
All discards must be lined up in front of the player who

threw them away from left to right in rows of six (the rows of six
is just a custom, but everyone does this now, so lets be sheep
and follow the herd!).
28 Reach Mahjong
It sounds a little tedious, but the order of the discard is important for rules later, so just do as you are told.
Combos
I suppose you might want to know how to decide if you

want a tile that you just drew or not. Thats fair. The goal is to
make a hand You want to know how to make a hand too?
Tough crowd. OK, here goes.
With two exceptions, every hand must have four sets or runs
and one pair. Sets of 3- or 4-of-a-kind and sequential runs of
three are acceptable.
Set of 3-of-a-kind
29 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 29
Set of 4-of-a-kind
Sequential run of three

Before you get too excited, there are some rules. Sets of
three and four and runs of three must be in the same suit. No
mixing and matching! Also, runs cant wrap around from nine to
one. The lowest straight starts with one and the highest straight
ends with nine. For example, the following sets and runs are
unacceptable, or as we would say in Japan, dame!
Bad sets of three
Bad set of four
Bad run
Get the idea? Now that you realize you actually wanted to
keep that tile you just discarded, get your friends to let you take
it back and lets start over again.
Complete hands consists of four runs or sets and one pair:
30 Reach Mahjong
Chow
You may take a tile from the player to your left when he
throws it away if it completes a run in your hand. Make sure
you dont touch the wall before you decide to take it! Once
you touch the tile youre supposed to draw, youre no longer
allowed to take other players discarded tiles. To complete a
run with another players discard, chow is used. chow means
to eat. In effect, if you declare chow, you may eat another
players discard. The final discard of the game is never allowed to be chowed.
31 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 31
To declare chow, first show which tiles you will use with
your newfound treasure.
(seven and nine of craks)
(see the eight-craks on left-players discard)

Next choose a tile from the rest of your hand to discard,
throw it in your river, and then meld the set. Melding is putting the set together on the table. Melded sets can never be
changed once melded.
You need to show everyone which tile you took from your
opponent, so turn the new tile perpendicular to the two from
your hand and place them on the right side of the table. The
new tile stays on the left of the two from your hand, since you
took it from the player on your left.
32 Reach Mahjong
Now your turn is over and the play continues to your right
as usual. Remember, chow is used only to complete runs of
three.
Pon/Bump
Pon is almost like chow. Many people in the world use the
word Pung from the Mandarin word Peng4, which means
bump. In Japan, the word is pon. You are free to use whichever word you would like when you play.
Pon is used when you have a pair and you want to use another players discard to complete a set of 3-of-a-kind. You may
bump off of any player to complete a set, but you must declare
the pon when the tile is thrown away. If the player to your right
discards a tile you want to pon, but you dont declare it until
it comes around to your turn, everyone will think youre dumb
and youll have to pay 1,000 points to the pot for not paying
attention! The final discard of the game is never allowed to be
ponned.
To declare a pon, first say, PON! or BUMP! in a really
loud voice (since you are acting out of turn, you should make
extra sure to pon loud and clear, even more than when you
say chow). Show the pair that matches with the discard, then
discard a tile. Now youre ready to meld! Place the tile corresponding to the player you took the tile from perpendicular,
so everyone knows who you bumped off of. If you ponned off
of the player to your left, place the left tile sideways; if you
bumped off of the player across from you, place the middle tile
sideways; if you bumped off of the player to your right, place
the right tile sideways.
33 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 33
Ponned from player on the left
Ponned from player directly

across
Ponned from player on the right

The melded set should be placed to your right, on the edge
of the table along with your chows. Remember, pon may be
declared from any players discard.
Quad
Quad is a very special type of declaration. Since each normal group of tiles in Reach Mahjong can only contain three
tiles, a quad requires special attention. A quad must be a set
of four of the exact same kind of tile. Once again, no mixing of
suits is allowed and the number or characters has to match too.
Since the rest of your hand will be missing a tile for a group,
you will need to take an extra supplementary tile from the end
of the deck after declaring your quad.
34 Reach Mahjong
After drawing your extra tile, you discard and play continues to your right as normal.
There are three ways to declare a quad.
Open Quad
An open quad is essentially bumped from another player

the same way you would bump a set of trips. If you have 3-ofa-kind in your hand and someone discards the final tile of the
set, you are allowed to say, quad, and take the tile.
Show the other three tiles you will use with it, take your
extra tile from the Kings Wall, and make your discard.
35 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 35
Meld your set, once again turning one tile sideways to

show who you took it from.
Concealed Quad
Sometimes youll be lucky enough to draw quads yourself

during the game. If this happens, youll have the option to declare a concealed quad at almost anytime.
When youre ready to show the world your set, wait for
your turn, draw a tile from the wall first, then say, quad. Show
all four tiles in your set, draw your supplementary tile from the
Kings Wall, then make your discard. Concealed quads can
only be declared directly after drawing a tile, not directly after
bumping or chowing a tile. The drawn tile doesnt need to be
part of the set of four in the quad.
36 Reach Mahjong
Since you made this quad all on your own, you get extra
points, so you need to show that this quad is concealed by turning two of the tiles upside down and leaving the other two faceup. Make sure you show all four tiles beforehand, so people
dont think youre hiding a different tile in the set!
All concealed quads hang out with the open sets and runs
to your right on the edge of the table. A hand is still eligible for
Reach after declaring a concealed quad as long as there are
no groups exposed from the hand (i.e. pon, chow, open quad).
37 Reach Mahjong
Deal Em Up 37
Add-a-Quad
If youve ponned a set of 3-of-a-kind and you draw the

fourth tile to your set, youre allowed to add the tile to your
set to upgrade from trips to quads. Simply add the fourth tile
to your set, draw your extra tile from the Kings Wall, and discard. Remember, add-a-quad cant be declared if youre acting
out of turn by ponning or chowing a group. You must wait until
your next turn at drawing from the wall.
Placing Declared Tiles
The first exposed set should go on the corner of the table

and the next ones should be placed either next to or on top of
the first set. The third set should follow the second set, so that
its obvious in which order the tiles were taken.
38 Reach Mahjong
Priority of Declarations
The first to the tile (the first to declare) gets the tile, but if
two or more players declare a tile at the same time, an order is
followed to decide who gets the tile:
Winning the hand with Mahjong (Ron) always holds
top priority.
Pon or quad holds priority over chow.
If no one else claims the tile, it may go to the chow.
III. Winner!
Ready Hand
Ready Hand is a very important term in Reach Mahjong.

Any book that will ever be written about Reach Mahjong from
now on will include the phrase Ready Hand an innumerable
amount of times, so its very important to wake up and pay attention to this part of this book.
A Ready Hand is a hand that needs only one more tile to
win. You cant win any hand without being Ready first. There
are a few different possibilities for Ready Hand situations.
Incomplete Run
If a hand has three complete groups of three (or four if there

are quads), one complete pair, and two connectors, its Ready
with an incomplete run. A tile that completes the run will win
the hand.
40 Reach Mahjong
Incomplete Set
If a hand has three complete groups of three (or four if there

are quads), and two pairs, its a ready hand with an incomplete set. A tile that matches either pair will win the hand.
Incomplete Pair
If a hand has four complete groups of three (or four if there

are quads) and a single tile with no pair, its a ready hand with
an incomplete pair. The tile that completes the final pair is the
winning tile.

Outs/Waits
A ready hand could be left with no outs or could have up

to 39 outs. An out is a tile that will turn your ready hand into
a winning hand. The more tiles involved in your final wait, the
more outs you probably have.
One Wait
This hand can only be won with the 2-dots. Thats one wait
and four outs (there are four of each tile in the deck).
41 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 41
Two Waits
Trade the 1-dots for the 4-dots in the above example and
your waits change from one to two: The 2-dots and 5-dots, giving you eight outs.
Three Waits
This hand is waiting to complete a run with three options:

345 and 678, 456 and 678, or 456 and 789. That means
that a 3-bams, 6-bams, or 9-bams will win this hand. Thats
three waits and eleven outs (one of the 6-bams is already being
used in the hand, taking away one out).
Four Waits
This hand can win with 3-bams, 6-bams, 5-dots, or 8-dots.

Thats four waits and ten outs.
Five Waits
42 Reach Mahjong
Depending on how you split this hand, you could be waiting to complete a run.
Here, you could be waiting for 1-bams, 4-bams, or 7-bams.

Or, you could be waiting to complete a pair.
Here a 2-bams or 5-bams will complete the pair. That

means altogether there are five waits and 15 outs for this hand.
Nine Waits
Any of the 9 tiles in the hand will complete the hand. Go

ahead, play around with it and see what combinations you get.
There are nine waits (1-9 of dots) and 23 outs for this hand.
13 Waits (special limit hand)
The best ready hand ever! All you need to complete this 13
Orphans Limit Hand is a pair. This means that any pair in the
hand will get you a win. There are 13 tiles, so that gives you
13 waits. Since there are three of each tile left, you have 39
outs for this hand. See page 64 for an explanation of the 13
Orphans.
43 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 43
Quiz 1Waits
(Answers on page 199)

Which tiles will win the following hands?

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
44 Reach Mahjong

7.
8.
9.
10.
Types of Wins
Once you get a Ready Hand, youre prepared (notice the

synonym for ready) to win your hand. Winning means you
complete your final group or pair. There are a few ways to win
a hand.
Self-Draw
If you draw your winning tile by yourself from the wall on

your own turn, your win is considered a Self-Drawn win. This
means that the other players must split the point worth of your
hand with each other, so you get points from everyone.
If you draw your winning tile, dont put the tile in your hand
45 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 45
and dont discard it. You need to first show the winning tile
by placing it on the table next to your hand. Next, show your
entire hand by pushing the tiles face-up on the table in front of
you.
Its very important that you dont put the tile in your hand;
certain hands and scores will change according to which tile
you were waiting for when your hand was Ready.
River Win (Winning off of a Discard)
If another player discards your winning tile and you declare

Mahjong, its considered a River Win and only the discarder
has to pay you points.
If another player discards your winning tile, declare Mahjong right away, but dont pick up the discard and put it in your
hand. Leave the tile, as it is on the river to ensure that there are
no arguments about who discarded it. Just say, Mahjong,
push your tiles face-up for the other players to see, and count
the points.
(*example of table during river-win)
46 Reach Mahjong
Kings-Tile Win
After declaring a quad, sometimes hands will be won on

the extra tile drawn from the Kings Wall. If the quad that led
to the winning tile was an open quad, its considered a River
Win and the player who discarded the tile that completed the
quad will pay the points. If the quad was a Concealed quad
or an Add-a-Quad, the win will be considered Self-Drawn and
each player will have to pay points to the winner for the hand.
This rule differs and some places recognize all wins on supplementary tiles a self-draw.
Add-a-Quad Win (Robbing the Quad)
If your hand is ready, but another player has already

ponned your winning tile, you have a chance to get an add-aquad Win. If the player declares an add-a-quad with your winning tile when your hand is Ready, youre allowed to declare
Mahjong on that tile. This is considered a River Win and only
the player who declared the add-a-quad must pay points to
you.
Hand Points
The most important unit of counting the points in Reach

Mahjong is Hand Points. A winning hand must, must, MUST
have at least one of the following Hand Points to be considered a winning hand. Good players will learn how to combine
Hand Points to get premium scores. Read the descriptions of
the Hand Points here, and memorize it. Its OK to keep the list
by you while youre playing, but after a while youll find you
no longer need it.
Some hands must be concealed. A concealed hand is a
hand that has not used another players tile with pon/bump,
chow or quad. The only melded sets allowed are concealed
quads. If a Hand must be concealed it is marked (No Stealing)
47 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 47
so make sure to double-check this point when you are learning

each of the hands.
1 Hand Point (HP)

Reach (No stealing)
Reach is the namesake of Reach Mahjong and one of the

most interesting rules of the game. Once you have a concealed
ready hand, you have the option of declaring Reach. Reach is
like an extra bet that you will win the hand and costs 1,000
points to declare. Once you go Reach, theres no going back.
In other words, you are not allowed to change any part of your
hand after declaring Reach and there are no take-backs after
youve made the declaration. The 1,000 points you use to bet
that youll win go to the eventual winner of the hand. If no one
wins the hand, theyll be stored in the Reach Bank with the Continuance Bank and go to the next winner of a hand.
The only exception to this is that you may declare a concealed quad if you have a set of trips in your hand and you
draw the fourth tile to the set, as long as the quad does not
change the Hand Points or waits already in your hand.
Since it doesnt affect the rest of the hand, its OK to quad

the 9-bams after Reaching.

the 1-dots after Reaching.
48 Reach Mahjong

the 9-bams after Reaching. However, the waits on this hand are
1-dots, 4-dots, and the North Wind. If the 1-dots is used in a
quad, the wait will change to only 1-dots and 4-dots. Since the
wait changes, its not allowed to declare a quad on the 1-dots.
Quadding the 1-dots or the 4-dots in this hand changes the

possible combinations in the winning hand (the pair will be
decided instead of arbitrary), so its not allowed to declare a
quad in this hand after declaring Reach, even though the wait
doesnt change.
Quiz 2Illegal Reach Quads

(Answers on page 200-201)

Which quads are legal to declare after Reaching?

1.
2.
49 Reach Mahjong
3.
4.
5.
6.
Winner! 49
When you decide you want to declare Reach, first make

your discard perpendicular to the rest of your discards.
50 Reach Mahjong
This is called your Reach declaration tile. This is the only

one that needs to be placed sideways. The rest of your discards
will be the same as before. Next, place your 1,000-point bone
in the middle of the table to complete your bet as shown in the
image.
The play will continue as normal to your right. If someone
steals your Reach declaration tile, let him have it and your
next discard will have to be placed perpendicular instead. If
a player wins on your Reach declaration tile, your Reach will
be considered incomplete and you may take back the 1,000
point bet. You may then proceed to pay the winner the points
for his hand.
Since declaring Reach tells everyone else that you have a
ready hand, its a great weapon to use to scare people off. Its
also useful, because you dont need any other Hand Points to
use it, so if youre missing your 1 HP minimum, just say Reach
and there you go! Remember, Reach is not allowed for exposed
hands (hands including pons/bumps, chows, or Open quads).
Concealed Self-Draw (No Stealing)
If a player draws the winning tile for their concealed hand,

its called a Concealed Self-Draw and is worth 1 Hand Point.
Youre getting a point for making your hand all by yourself.
Since Reach is always concealed as well, youll often find these
two hands together.
51 Reach Mahjong
Set of Value Tiles (Stealing OK)
Winner! 51
Value Tiles are special tiles in the Honor suit that hold value. Each player will have four to five kinds of tiles that hold
value for each hand. The Colored Dragons are always Value
Tiles for every player.
The other two value tiles are the Round Wind and the Seat
Wind.
The Round Wind is the prevailing wind for the current round
of play. Since Reach Mahjong uses only the East and South
rounds, East will be the Round Wind during each players first
turn at dealer and South will be the Round Wind during each
players second turn at dealer.
The Seat Wind is the wind corresponding to each players
seat. Since the dealer is always the East seat, the player across
from the dealer will always be the West seat. North and South
are placed opposite of the map, so the player to the dealers
right will be the South seat and the player to the dealers left
will be the North seat. At the beginning of each hand, always
make sure you know which seat you are in!
52 Reach Mahjong
Each set of three Identical Value Tiles is worth 1 Hand
Point.
During the East round, both the dealers Seat Wind and
the Round Wind will be East, so the dealer will get 2 Hand
Points for trip or quad Easts. During the South round, the player
to the right of the dealer will have South as the Round Wind
and the Seat Wind, so they will get 2 Hand Points for a set of
South trips or quads. These are called Double East and Double
South.
Set of Value Tiles is the easiest Hand Point to remember
and since you are allowed to steal tiles from other players, its
a very convenient hand. For beginners, I would recommend
going for this hand every time you have a pair of Value Tiles in
your hand until you get used to the game and memorize more
of the Hand Points. Just keep in mind that if this is the only Hand
Point you have, the hand gets really cheap really fast.
The set of three Red Dragons in this hand counts for a Set
of Value Tiles.
The set of White Dragons in this hand counts for a Set of

Value Tiles.
The set of West Winds in this hand would count for a Set of
Value Tiles for the player sitting in the West Seat.
53 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 53
If the dealer has this hand during the East Round, the set of
East Winds in this hand will count for two Sets of Value Tiles.
The set of Green Dragons in this hand counts as a Set of

Value Tiles.
Inside Hand/2-8 (Stealing OK)
Also known as All Simples or Two-thru-Eight, the Inside

Hand is another easy one to remember and use. The hand is
just like its name says: a hand that consists only of tiles from
two to eight. That means no ones, no nines, and no honors.
The good news is that you are allowed to steal others discards
to your hearts content, so its an easy hand to become Ready
and win with. (Note: In EMA RCR rules the Inside Hand must
be concealed.)
This is a good hand for beginners to aim for almost every
time if you dont have any Value Tiles in your hand. Its easy
to understand and a good way to get used to the game before
you have memorized all of the different Hand Points.
Be careful. Get a hand like the one below and a win on a

6-dots will give you the inside hand, but the 9-dots wont and
youll be left without a Hand Point. Might want to think about
Reaching here.
54 Reach Mahjong
Peace HandAll Runs (No Stealing)
Also known as All Runs, the Peace Hand is probably the

most common hand in Reach Mahjong. This is because it goes
well with so many other hands and leads to some big wins.
The Peace Hand is worth only 1 Hand Point, but its just
about as strict as they come in terms of conditions. There are so
many that I can make a list:
All groups of tiles must be runs.
The incomplete group must be an open-ended straight
draw.
The pair may not be a Value Tile.
No stealing allowed.
That means no waiting for a gut shot and no waiting for
your pair to win the hand. While it seems a bit harsh, the
number of different combinations you can make with the Peace
Hand makes it all worth it (see combos on pg. 145), so study
this hand and learn how to wield it to earn yourself big points.
The reason the Peace Hand is so strict is because of the
base points (pg. 87). The idea is that there are no base points.
Its also called a Flat Hand for this reason. The problem with
a gut shot for your final wait or a pair of Value Tiles will merit
base points, giving this pointless hand value. The Self-drawn
Peace hand is always worth 20 BP and the River Win Peace
hand is always worth 30BP.
55 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 55
Double Run (No Stealing)
A Double Run is two of the exact same run. That means they
must be the same numbers and the same suit. Not only are you
not allowed to steal to complete these two straights, but you
cant pon or chow any part of this hand. It must be completely
concealed before the win. Its often a favorite of beginners and
another easy-to-remember Hand Point.
Final Tile Win (Stealing OK)
Whether you have the final draw and win on that tile yourself or another player has the final draw and discards your
winning tile on his final discard, pat yourself on the back and
add another Hand Point to your score. The Japanese name
for drawing your winning tile on the final tile is Bottom of
the Ocean, since you went through the entire mountain before drawing your winning tile. Winning on the final discard is
called Bottom of the River, since the discard area is called the
River and you found your winner at the end of it.
Add-a-Quad Win/Robbing the Quad (Stealing OK)
If your hand is Ready, but another player has already

bumped your winning tile, you have a chance to get an adda-quad Win. If the player declares an add-a-quad with your
winning tile when your hand is Ready, youre allowed to declare Mahjong on that tile. This is considered a River Win and
only the player who declared the add-a-quad must pay points
to you. So, if youre thinking about declaring an add-a-quad,
make sure that youre not quadding someone elses winning
tile or you may be doubling the points that you have to pay.
56 Reach Mahjong
Robbing the King Kings-Tile Win (Stealing OK)
If you declare a quad when your hand is otherwise Ready

and the extra supplementary tile you draw from the Kings Tiles
happens to be your winning tile, congratulations, you have successfully robbed the King! You have won 1 Hand Point. If your
hand is concealed, including the quad you just declared, you
also get the Hand Point for a Concealed Self-Draw.
2 Hand Points (HP)
Three-Colored Runs (1 HP Penalty for Stealing)
The favorite of many seasoned players, Three-Colored Runs

is the same straight in each of the three suits. Its visually appealing, which is why many people claim this as their favorite hand. This is a good hand to combine with Reach, Peace
Hand, Inside Hand, Value Tiles, and Outside Hands. Often
youll find yourself on an open-ended wait, one tile that will
give you the third run and one tile that wont. Make sure to
consider this when youre scoring your hand.
Full Straight (1 HP Penalty for Stealing)
A Full Straight is a 9-tile straight including one of each numbered tile of a suit starting with 1 and ending with 9. Essentially, its three runs: 123, 456, and 789. The entire straight
must be the same suit. Its fine to add in pairs and sets of the
same suit in the hand, but to get points from the straight, at
least one of each number must be used to complete runs in the
straight. This hand is usually combined with the Half-Flush or
the Peace Hand.
57 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 57
Mixed Outside Hand (1 HP Penalty for Stealing)
Almost the opposite of the Inside Hand. A Mixed Outside

Hand must contain a 1, 9, or Honor Tile in each of its sets,
runs, and pair. The only runs allowed are 123 and 789. Like
in Three-Colored Runs, youll often come to a situation where
you are waiting on two tiles and one will qualify for this hand,
while the other one wont.
All Pairs (No Stealing)
Just like the name says, this special hand allows no runs
and no sets of 3 or 4. All Pairs is one of two exceptional hands
that differ from the normal 4-groups and 1-pair pattern. 14 tiles
in a finished hand means that this hand will have 7-pairs. The
catch is that all pairs must be different tiles; four of the same tile
may not be counted as two different pairs in Reach Mahjong.
All Pairs is always worth 25 BP.
Three Concealed Sets (Stealing OK)
Ive said that stealing other players discards is allowed for

this hand, but the catch is that the stealing is only allowed for
the portion of the hand thats not part of the Three Concealed
58 Reach Mahjong
Sets of 3 or 4. While a concealed quad is allowed to be one of
your concealed sets, an exposed quad will ruin it, so be careful. If you have two concealed sets and are waiting on the third,
make sure that you draw your winning tile yourself or youll be
stuck with only two concealed triples!
All Sets (Stealing OK)
The groups in this hand must be all trips or quads. Its specially made for people who want to push their All Pairs hands to
a few more points. This hand holds the same 2-HP value of the
All Pairs hand, but the Base Points usually put your score up a
little. Also, if you hold off on your stealing and make this hand
yourself, you may be able to add points like Three Concealed
Sets as well, so dont get too bump-happy too fast! Combining
this hand with Value Tiles or the Half-Flush is also a great way
to gain some points.
Three Colored Sets (Stealing OK)
Sets, meaning trips or quads, are harder to get than runs.

If you can get the same-numbered set in each suit, its good for
2 Hand Points, stolen or otherwise. This hand is a bit on the
rare side and is easy to see if youre stealing your sets, so dont
work too hard for it.
59 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 59
Three Quads (Stealing OK)
Self-explanatory. Since only 4 Quads are allowed to be

declared in a game, be careful if some other players have also
declared quads, you may end up ending the game early. It
might be a better choice to go for Three Concealed Triples or
All Sets instead!
Small Dragons (Stealing OK)
Two sets and one pair of dragons. This hand will always
get 2 Hand Points for the two sets of dragons, since dragons
are always Value Tiles, so make sure you remember to start
counting your Hand Points at 4 when you get this hand! Match
this hand up with a Half-Flush and youll be rolling in the points!
All Terminals/Honors (Stealing OK)
For this hand, only sets of 1s, 9s, and Honor Tiles are allowed. Since all groups will be sets of 3- or 4-of-a-kind or pairs,
always remember to add another 2 Hand Points for the All Sets
hand or the All Pairs hand.
60 Reach Mahjong
Double Reach (No Stealing)
Getting this hand will give you the name Luck Box. The requirement is simple: Get yourself dealt a Ready Hand and declare Reach on your first discard before anyone pons, chows,
or quads any tiles. The only difference between this hand and
the 1 HP Reach Hand is that this Reach is declared on the very
first discard.
3 Hand Points (HP)
Half-Flush (1 HP Penalty for Stealing)
Only one suit and Honor Tiles are allowed in this hand. The
best way to get the most value out of this hand is to add sets
of Value Tiles in the Half-Flush. Only showing two suits in your
discard is sure to tip off your opponents to your intentions in
this hand, but if you can win on it, all your effort will be worth
it in the end.
Pure Outside Hand (1 HP Penalty for Stealing)
Like the Mixed Outside Hand, but this time with no honors.
Every run, set, and pair must include a 1 or 9.
Two Double Runs (No Stealing)
Its All Pairs! Its a Double Run! No its Two Double Runs!
Just like the Double Run hand, but times two. This hand is very
rare and hard to go for. When it does happen, its usually
61 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 61
combined with the Peace Hand, Concealed Self-Draw, Reach,

or Inside Hand. Its best to just be happy when (and if ever) you
get this hand and not try to aim for it too much.
6 Hand Points (HP)
Full Flush (1 HP Penalty for Stealing)
Easy to define, hard to do. While a Full Flush is beautiful

because it only uses one suit and ends up being very appealing
to the eyes, it usually leads to difficult-to-decipher waits or the
rest of the table knowing what youre going for and keeping
all the tiles of the suit away from you. But with a guaranteed
5 Hand Points and possible 6 or more, its worth going for it
when you can.
Limit Hands
Limit hands are the highest possible hands to win with. Because of the difficulty of these special hands, the scores are not
counted, but rather set at 32,000 points for non-dealers and
48,000 points for dealers. Many players like to take a picture
of these hands when they win on them and others may stare in
awe before dishing out their points.
Four Concealed Sets (No Stealing)
Arguably the most common limit hand, Four Concealed

Sets requires four sets of three or four that are completely concealed. Ponning this hand will drop the points down to a Three
62 Reach Mahjong
Concealed Sets or simply an All Sets hand. Some house rules
allow a double limit score if the four sets are complete and the
final tile is a single wait.
13 Orphans (No Stealing)
This is the other exception to the 4-groups and 1-pair rule.

This hand has no sets and no runs. Go for this hand when you
cant see any other options. The 13 Orphans hand requires
one of each Terminal (1s and 9s) and Honor Tile (winds and
dragons) and for one of those terminals or honors to be paired.
Since one of each is needed, many places allow this hand to
be won if its Ready even on a concealed quad when its declared. If youre extremely lucky, going for this hand might give
you the most outs possible in a Mahjong hand. If you have one
of each terminal in your hand already, you will only be waiting
for your pair, which can match any of the tiles in your hand,
giving you a maximum of 39 outs (13 types x the 3 tiles that
are not in your hand)! Some places count the 13-waits situation
as a double-limit hand.
Big Dragons (Stealing OK)
Remember the Small Dragons and make that pair a set.

Now you have a set of each of the colored dragons and a
limit hand. This is one of the hands that fall to the Pow rule (see
page 83 for the Pow rule). If a player has ponned two of the
dragons and you allow him/her to bump the third dragon, you
63 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 63
will be responsible for all of the payment if the player draws

her winning tile, and half the payment if another player lets her
win on his/her discard.
4 Winds (Stealing OK)
Big Winds is four sets of winds and Small Winds is three

sets and a pair of winds. Long, long ago there was a difference
in score for these two hands, but now theyre both considered
to be the same-level limit hand. This is another one of the hands
that fall to the Pow rule (see page 83 for the Pow rule). If a
player has bumped three of the winds and you allow her to
bump the fourth wind, you will be responsible for all of the payment if the player draws her winning tile, and half the payment
if another player lets her win on his/her discard. (Note: EMA
RCR rules acknowledge a difference between Big Winds and
Small Winds and award a double-limit hand for Big Winds.)
Big Winds
Small Winds
All Green (Stealing OK)
Just like the name says, only tiles that are colored green are
64 Reach Mahjong
allowed in this hand. That means the 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, of Bams and
the Green Dragon. Depending on the house rules, the Green
Dragon may actually be required in the All Green hand. This
hand is so rare that some players have been known to help out
their friends with discards when theyre going for All Green,
just for the chance to see it!
All Honors (Stealing OK)
Only winds and dragons are allowed in this hand. That

means sets of three or four and pairs only. Given the ingredients, this hand is often paired with other limit hands, like Four
Winds and Big Dragons. Some places allow you to count each
limit hand separately when this happens, giving you more than
the Limit.
9 Treasures (No Stealing)
9 Treasures is the royal flush of Mahjong. This hand is so

rare that a popular saying in Japan is, Find the 9 Treasures
and next youll find your death. Dont worry, all the people I
know who have won on this hand are still alive and kicking.
The requirements are 111, 999, and at least one of each number in between, all in the same suit. Since this hand allows no
claiming of discards, its much harder to win with than it looks.
65 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 65
All 1s and 9s (Stealing OK)
All sets, no Simples, and no honors. There are only six types
of tiles available for this hand, making it even harder than the
All Honors hand. The good news is that in normal hands, players tend to work on the simples, so ample components should
be available to you if theyre not discarded too quickly.
Four Quads (Stealing OK)
Ill bet you couldnt guess what this hand is by the name.
Give it a shot. Youre right! Declare 4 Quads and youre golden with a single wait. Only 4 Quads are allowed to be declared between all players during a hand, so if someone else
has already quadded a tile, your dreams for this hand will be
squashed and you will have to settle for 3 Quads and no limit
hand.
Instant Win (No Stealing)
For the dealer this is dubbed the Heavenly Win and for
non-dealers, the Earthly Win. Any hand that is dealt ready and
won on the first drawn tile (in the dealers case, the hand will
be dealt a winner) qualifies. The catch is that it doesnt count if
66 Reach Mahjong
another player has already ponned, chowed or quaded a tile.
It also only counts for the first draw, so if you dont win on it,
Double Reach it!
House Hands
A few hands used by certain parlors or in home games

spice up the game and add some fun. Ill explain them in order
of relevance and mention situations in which you might come
across these hands.
First-Turn Win (No Stealing)
This is by far the most commonly recognized house rule. If

a player wins a hand on the first three discards or first draw
directly after Reaching, he gets a 1 HP bonus for his First-Turn
Win. If another player bumps or chows a tile in that time, this
bonus is void and play continues as normal. This rule is often
used with the hidden lucky tile and quad lucky tile rules as well.
Almost all home games and most major tournaments recognize
this rule.
Human Win (No Stealing5HP)
If a non-dealer is dealt a Ready hand and wins on another

players discard before his first turn, its called a Human Win
and its good for 8,000 points. This hand is void if there is a
bump or chow before the win.
Open Reach (No Stealing2HP)
Once you have declared Reach, you may show your hand,
67 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 67
or the part of your hand that holds your wait, face-up on the
table. Everyone will be able to see what your winning tile is,
so youre going for a Self-Drawn win here. Its worth an extra
Hand Point. Of the places that allow this rule, many only allow
it if youre not victim to the Missed Win rule, even though thats
one of the best situations to use it in.
Honorable Discard (No Stealing5HP)
If a player discards only terminals and honors and the hand

ends in a draw (except for a special draw), he gets a 5HP
hand, paid by all players. Most places dont allow this hand if
the player has ponned or chowed during the game.
Big Wheels (No StealingLimit Hand)
Like All Green, Big Wheels is a suit-specific hand. Big

Wheels calls for an All Pairs hand from 2 to 8 in Dots. No
pairs are allowed to be repeated.
68 Reach Mahjong
Three Consecutive Sets (Stealing OK2HP)
Take the Double-Run hand up one more and it looks like a

Triple-Run, but its actually Three Consecutive Sets. Three sets
of 3- or 4-of-a-kind in a row. Its worth 2 Hand Points and pons
are allowed.
13 Non-Towers (No Stealing5HP)
This hand still exists in the Chinese rules, but is rarely used
in the Japanese sets. On the first draw right after the hands are
dealt out, the hand must have no possibility for runs or sets,
which means each tile must be at least two digits separated
from the others in the same suit. There must be one pair in the
hand. Its worth a 5 hand points.
Now that you know all the hands in Reach Mahjong, lets
practice counting your Hand Points. The examples start out
easy and get harder. The answers are all on page 202.
Quiz 3Hand Points

Name all the Hand Points in each winning hand.

1. South Round, 3rd Hand, West Seat, Lucky Tile:
69 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 69

River Win:
2. East Round, 2nd Hand, East Seat, Lucky Tile:

River Win:
3. East Round, 1st Hand, North Seat, Lucky Tile:
Self- Drawn Win:
70 Reach Mahjong
4. South Round, 3rd Hand, South Seat, Lucky Tile:
River Win:
5. East Round, 2nd Hand, West Seat, Lucky Tile:
River Win:
71 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 71
6. East Round, 1st Hand, South Seat, Lucky Tile:
River Win:
7. South Round, 1st Hand, Dealer, Lucky Tile:
River Win:
72 Reach Mahjong
8. East Round, 1st Hand, East Seat Lucky Tile:
Self-Drawn Win:
Reach, First Turn Win
9. East Round, 3rd Hand, South Seat, Lucky Tile:
Self-Drawn Win:
73 Reach Mahjong
Winner! 73
10. East Round, 4th Hand, South Seat, Lucky Tile:
Self-Drawn Win:
11. East Round, 1st Hand, East Seat, Lucky Tile:
Quad Lucky Tile:
Self-Drawn Win:
12. East Round, 4th Hand, West Seat, Lucky Tile:
74 Reach Mahjong
Quad Lucky Tile:
River Win:
13. East Round, 1st Hand, Dealer, Lucky Tile:
River Win:
14. East Round, 4th Hand, North Seat, Lucky Tile:
River Win:
IV. Special Situations

Lucky Tile (Dora)
At the beginning of the game, when the wall is broken, the

third tile on top of the dead wall is turned over to be shown.
The tile next in sequence of the same suit, becomes the dora.
Each dora used in a winning hand is worth 1 extra Hand Point.
The dora is not eligible, however, to count toward the minimum
1 Hand Point needed for a winning hand. The word dora
came from shortening the Japanese pronunciation of the word
Dragon, so you may find this also called a Lucky Dragon.
Dont confuse it with the Red, White, and Green Dragons.
1->2 ->3 ->4 ->5 ->6 ->7 ->8 ->9 ->1

E ->S ->W ->N ->E
Red ->White ->Green ->Red
The lucky tile will be the next in sequence to that showing
as the indicator. For example the 1-crak is shown here, so the
lucky tile is the 2-crak. If East is showing then South will be the
lucky tile and so on.
76 Reach Mahjong
Missed Win
Besides Reach, the Missed Win rule is the most loved, hated, and unique rule in Reach Mahjong. The rule is a show of
the skill level required in these rules and emphasizes the point
that the strong will win and the weak will need to practice
more.
The idea is that no other player will be punished for discarding your winning tile if you have already discarded it yourself.
If any of your winning tiles are in your discard, youre not
eligible for a River Win (a win off of another players discard).
Even a hand waiting on a 3-6 with a 3 in the discard may not
win on a 6 discarded by another player.
For Example, this hand is Ready, waiting for the 1-dots and
the East Wind.
However, the player has already discarded the 1-dots.
77 Reach Mahjong
Special Situations 77
This player is no longer eligible for a River Win (win off of

a discard). His only option is to draw the winning tile himself
or change the wait.
Although a bit harsh, its not completely without compassion. Even with a missed win, a player who draws the winner
again from the wall is allowed to win as usual and qualifies for
all points associated with the hand.
The same rule applies each turn for tiles discarded by other
players. If a player discards your winning tile and you miss it
or let it go, you may not win on your hand until its your turn
again.
Example:
If Player 1 discards your winning tile, and you miss
it or decide that you would rather win from Player 2,
your hand falls under the Missed Win rule until you
either draw a tile from the wall and win or complete a
turn by drawing, ponning, chowing or quading a tile
and discarding.
After Reaching, any tiles in your own discard and
the discards of the other players after your Reach are
now part of the Missed Win rule. After Reaching, once
your tile is out on the board, you must declare Mahjong
or be doomed to drawing it yourself, giving your opponents the chance to beat you to the punch by winning
on their own hands.
Draw
Not Winning: Ending in a draw

Sometimes no one wins a hand. This is called ending in a
draw.
78 Reach Mahjong
In draws, almost does count and players with Ready
hands are rewarded and players who are not Ready are penalized. When there are only 14 tiles left in the wall (including the
Lucky Tile/dora Indicator) and no one has declared Mahjong,
the hand ends in a draw. The players with Ready hands show
their hands and the players without Ready hands turn their tiles
face-down. In this situation, all players without Ready hands
split the penalty of 3,000 points and pay it to the players with
Ready hands, who split the bonus among themselves.
Ready Players Each Non-Ready Players Each
Receive
Pay
No Ready Players N/A
0
1 Ready Player
3,000 pts
1,000 pts
2 Ready Players
1,500 pts
1,500 pts
3 Ready Players
1,000 pts
3,000 pts
4 Ready Players
0 N/A
Special Draws
All Special Draws are subject to house and specific tournament rules. In some cases, they are considered ways to even
the playing field, but most come from superstitious roots and
are no longer considered necessary. When a Special Draw is
declared, the hand starts over, the dealer doesnt change, and
one continuance is added to the bank.
Nine Different Terminals
On a players first draw from the wall, if he has nine different terminals and/or honors in his hand, he may declare a
Special Draw and restart the hand. This rule is made to keep
players from getting starting hands that are too hard to play.
Declaring Nine Different Terminals, however, is an option
and not required. Many players choose to aim for the 13 Or-
79 Reach Mahjong
phans Limit Hand instead of restarting the hand. This decision

is made based on the current point totals, position (whether you
are the dealer or not), etc.
First-Round Wind Discards
If all four players discard the same Wind tile in the first turn,
the hand may end in a Special Draw and the hand is started
over.
This rule originated as a superstition. Four of the same
Wind tiles discarded in the first turn was considered bad luck,
because of the similarities between the Chinese and Japanese
words for four and death. This rule is still common practice,
but certain tournaments and most parlors choose not to allow a
Special Draw for this situation. Be careful, if the same Dragon
is discarded, it does not verify a Special Draw. Only winds.
Four Quads
Once 4 quads have been declared on the board, the game

ends in a Special Draw. The two exceptions to this rule are
when a single player has all 4 quads and the game continues
(because they are Ready for the 4 quads Limit Hand) or if a
player wins by the add-a-quad rule when the fourth quad is declared. A fifth quad is never allowed under any circumstances.
This Special Draw also began as a superstition, because
the words Four Quads may also be interpreted as Death
Coffin in Chinese. However, because of the Lucky Tile (dora)
rule in Reach Mahjong, only four tiles are available for supplementary draws for quads, making it impossible to allow more
than 4 quads. For that reason, the Four Quad Special Draw
rule is still commonly practiced, for practical reasons. The other
option is to continue without allowing any more quads.
80 Reach Mahjong
Four Reaches
When four players have declared Reach and there is no

winner with the fourth persons declaration, a Special Draw
may be called.
As with the rules above, a common name for this rule is
Four House Reach and may be misinterpreted as Death
House Reach in Japanese, giving the feeling of a bad omen.
Still, with four players in the same position and no more thinking
involved, since all players must draw and discard non-winning
tiles, many consider this rule still valid for practical reasons.
If a Four Reaches Special Draw is declared, all players
should show their hand to prove that they are Ready and the
hand will start over with one continuance added. If a player is
not ready, he receives a foul and the hand starts over with no
added continuances.
Three Winners
If three players declare Mahjong on a single players discard, the hand may end in a Special Draw. Certain tournaments and parlor games only allow one winner for each hand,
some allow two, and some allow three. Many rules allow the
player on the discarders right priority for calling the tile and in
that case this rule is unnecessary.
This rule seems mostly to protect the poor soul who threw
the winning tile and is good for friendly home games.
Continuances
The dealer is always responsible for showing the number

of continuances saved up in the Continuance Bank by placing
100-point Bones in the corner of the table to her right. There
are two ways to add continuances to the bank.
The dealer wins a hand and continues as the dealer.
The hand ends in any kind of draw.
81 Reach Mahjong
Whenever one of the situations above occurs, one continuance is added to the bank. Each continuance is represented by
one 100-point Bone. These Bones still belong to the dealer and
are only used to show the value of the Continuance Bank. The
winner of the hand is not entitled to these Bones.
The Continuance Bank will always be cleared when a player other than the dealer wins a hand. This is the only way to
clear the Continuance Bank. Each continuance adds a 300point bonus to the winning hand.
Fouls/Penalties
Dead Hand
If a player has broken a rule, his hand may be declared

dead and its no longer eligible to win. The player must continue to draw and discard tiles until another player wins or the
hand ends in a draw. The player is not allowed to chow, pon,
or quad any tiles for the remainder of the hand.
Pow
A player has put other players hands in jeopardy by discarding tiles considered too dangerous to be allowed in play.
If a player wins because of this specific discard, the discarder
holds responsibility for the win. Basically, discarding this tile is
like holding a gun to your own head and pulling the trigger:
POW!
If a player discards a Colored Dragon, allowing a player
who already ponned the other two Colored Dragons to pon
again, or allows a player to pon the 4th Wind after he has already ponned the other three, this falls under the Pow rule. After
that, if the player wins the Limit Hand on a Self-Draw, the guilty
party must pay the entire score. If another player discards the
winning tile, the guilty party and the discarder of the winning
tile splits the score. Continuances are paid by the player guilty
of the Pow. Also, a player who allows another player to quad
82 Reach Mahjong
his discard must pay the entire score if the players winning tile
is the supplementary tile drawn from the Kings Tiles.
Maximum Penalty
The worst punishment for a mistake. A non-dealer usually

pays 2,000 to non-dealers and 4,000 to the dealer. A dealer
usually pays 4,000 points to each non-dealer. The tiles are
shuffled and the hand restarted from the beginning. No continuances are added to the bank and the dealer doesnt change.
The amount of the Maximum Penalty differs according to the
tournament or parlor rules.
Name
Punishment
More or Less: Dead Hand

If a hand is caught with too many or too few tiles
after discarding, its considered dead. The hand continues and the player must draw and discard until the
hand ends. Some places enforce the Maximum Penalty
for holding too many tiles.
Mistaken Steal:
1,000-Point Penalty

to the Reach Bank
If a player declares chow, bump, or quad by accident or without the proper tiles allowed to do so, the
player is not allowed to meld the group and must pay
1,000 points to the Reach Bank. Like Reach Bones, the
next player to win a hand gets this 1,000 points. Play
continues.
Mistaken Win: Dead Hand or Maximum Penalty
If a player declares Mahjong by mistake and has
not shown his hand to the other players, he must discard as usual and the hand is now considered dead.
83 Reach Mahjong
If a player declares Mahjong by mistake and shows

the mistake by placing his hand face-up on the table,
its considered a maximum penalty and the player must
pay the price. The hand is restarted. The dealer remains
the same and no continuances are added. The tiles are
reshuffled and the hand is started over.
Invalid Quad After Reach: Maximum Penalty
If a player wins a hand after Reaching or the hand
ends in a draw and its obvious that the player made
a quad after Reaching that wasnt allowed, the hand
is restarted. The player must pay the maximum penalty, the tiles are reshuffled, and the dealer does not
change.

Win Without Hand Points: Maximum Penalty
If a player declares Mahjong with a hand that has
no hand points, the hand is restarted. The dealer remains the same and no continuances are added. The
player must pay the maximum penalty, the tiles are reshuffled, and the hand is started over.
Non-Ready Reach:
Maximum Penalty
When the hand ends in a draw and hands are
checked for Ready, and a player who declared Reach
during the hand does not have a Ready hand, its a
foul and the player must pay the maximum penalty. The
hand is restarted. The dealer remains the same and no
continuances are added. The tiles are reshuffled and
the hand is started over.
Interference:
Maximum Penalty
If a player affects the tiles on the board in a way
so that play of the current hand cant continue, its a
84 Reach Mahjong
foul and the player must pay the maximum penalty. The
hand is restarted. The dealer remains the same and
no continuances are added. The player must pay the
maximum penalty, the tiles are reshuffled, and the hand
is started over.
V. Count em Up
Reach Mahjong hands are scored based on difficulty of
groups and difficulty of combinations. Two types of points,
Base Points and Hand Points, need to be counted. Only winning hands are scored. The idea is that Base Points are counted
first and then doubled for each Hand Point earned. I will introduce and explain the process, but most players find it easier
just to match up the points on the handy chart provided while
playing to speed up the process. After a while, youll have the
chart memorized.
When a player wins a hand off of a discard, the discarder
is responsible for paying all the points to the winner (except in
the Pow case). If a player wins by drawing his/her own tile, the
other three players must split the points of the winning hand.
Base Points
Base Points are awarded for difficulty in groups. You can

earn points for sets of three or four, difficult waits, and difficult
wins. Runs are not considered difficult enough to merit Base
Points.
Points for Sets
A pair of Value Tiles is worth 2 points. Sets of three or four

are also worth points. Sets of three are more difficult when
86 Reach Mahjong
concealed than not and sets of four are more difficult than sets
of three. Exposed sets receive half the score of concealed sets.
This chart shows you how many Base Points each set is worth,
either concealed or exposed (pon or open quad).
Open Example
Pair of N/A
Concealed Example
2 BP
Value Tiles
Set of
3 Simples
2 BP
4 BP
Set of 3
Terminals/
Honors
4 BP
8 BP
8 BP
16 BP
16 BP
32 BP
Quad of
Simples
Quad of
Terminals/
Honors
Waits/Draws
Certain final draws are harder than others. There are three
types of waits that only allow one type of tile to be won on (gut
shots): Drawing to a Side Wait, drawing to a Middle Wait,
and drawing to a pair (single wait).
87 Reach Mahjong
Count em Up 87

Side Wait
Points Example
2 BP
2 BP
Middle Wait
Single Wait
2 BP
Wins: 20 Base Points are given to every winning hand.

Extra points are awarded for completely concealed hands and
Self-Drawn wins. If a hand is concealed and won off of a discard, even more points are given.

Points Notes/Exceptions
Winning Hand
20 BP All hands are given this bonus no

matter what.
Self-Drawn Win
2 BP Is not applied to hands won from a

Kings Tile Draw after declaring an

open quad. Also not applied to

the Peace Hand.
Concealed
10 BP An Inside Hand (All Simples) that has
River Win (won
been exposed also receives this bonus
on a discard)
even if it is made entirely of runs with

an open-ended wait.
After all of the Base Points have been tallied, the total
should be rounded up to the next 10. A 22 BP score and a 28
BP score will be rounded up to 30. 36 BP will be rounded up
to 40, 52 BP to 60 and so on.
88 Reach Mahjong
Base-Point Practice
Every hand should be checked for these three things after

winning.

Base
Points Notes
Win
20 BP Awarded to every hand no matter what
Self-Drawn or
Concealed River Win
BP Possible 0-10 points (see above)
Points for Pairs,

Trips, and/or Quads
BP Possible 0-130 points (see above)
Points for
BP Possible 0-2 points
Difficult Draws
Total
BP Round total up to the next 10
Use the chart above or count in your head to calculate the

Base Points in these hands:
Quiz 4Base Points

How many Base Points in each hand?
1. River Win:
89 Reach Mahjong
2. River Win:
3. River Win:
4. Self-Drawn Win:
5. Self-Drawn Win:
Count em Up 89
90 Reach Mahjong
Hand Points
Remember all the hands we went over in Chapter 3. This

is where they get put to use. After you know your Base Points,
count up all the Hand Points you can find.
Lucky Tiles (Dora)
Count up all the Lucky Tiles (dora), Hidden Lucky Tiles,

Quad Lucky Tiles, Hidden Quad Lucky Tiles, and Red Tiles you
can find. Now add these to your list of Hand Points.
Putting it Together
Score Chart
The dealer always gets 1.5 times the score of the nondealers and the dealer always has to pay twice as much as
non-dealers for Self-Drawn wins. It makes it easier to have two
charts available, one for dealers to use and one for non-dealers.
91 Reach Mahjong
Count em Up 91
Non-Dealer Chart
HP 1
2
3
4
5
6-7
8-10
11-

BP
20 N/A

(400, (700
(1300 (2000
700) 1300) 2600) 4000
(3000, (4000
6000) 8000)
Limit
Hand
(6000 (8000
12000) 16000)
25 N/A 1600 3200 6400 8000 12000 16000 24000 32000

N/A (800
(1600 (2000, (3000, (4000, (6000, (8000,

1600) 3200) 4000) 6000) 8000) 12000) 16000)
30 1000 2000 3900 7700* 8000 12000 16000 24000 32000

(300, (500, (1000, (2000, (2000, (3000, (4000, (6000, (8000,

500) 1000) 2000) 3900) 4000) 6000) 8000) 12000) 16000)
40 1300 2600 5200 8000 8000 12000 16000 24000 32000

(400, (700, (1300, (2000, (2000, (3000, (4000, (6000, (8000,

700) 1300) 2600) 4000) 4000) 6000) 8000) 12000) 16000)
50 1600 3200 6400 8000 8000 12000 16000 24000 32000

(400, (800, (1600, (2000, (2000, (3000, (4000, (6000, (8000,

800) 1600) 3200) 4000) 4000) 6000) 8000) 12000) 16000)
60 2000 3900 7700* 8000 8000 12000 16000 24000 32000

(500, (1000, (2000, (2000, (2000, (3000, (4000, (6000, (8000,

1000) 2000) 3900) 4000) 4000) 6000) 8000) 12000) 16000)
70 2300 4500 8000 8000 8000 12000 16000 24000 32000

(600, (1200, (2000, (2000, (2000, (3000, (4000, (6000, (8000,

1200) 2300) 4000) 4000) 4000) 6000) 8000) 12000) 16000)
80 2600 5200 8000 8000 8000 12000 16000 24000 32000

(700, (1300, (2000, (2000, (2000, (3000, (4000, (6000, (8000,

1300) 2600) 4000) 4000) 4000) 6000) 8000) 12000) 16000)
*7700 (2000,3900) is often rounded to 8000 (2000,

4000)
**The top number is the amount paid by the discarder for
a River Win. The bottom number in parentheses is the amount
paid by each other player for a Self-Drawn winthe lesser
amount is paid by non-dealers and the higher amount is paid
by the dealer.
92 Reach Mahjong
Dealer Chart
HP 1
2
3
4
5
6-7
8-10 11-

BP
Limit
Hand
20 N/A
48000

(700) (1300) (2600) (4000) (6000) (8000) (12000) (16000)
25 N/A

2400 4800 9600 12000 18000 24000 36000 48000

(N/A) (1600) (3200) (4000) (6000) (8000) (12000) (16000)
30 1500 2900 5800 11600* 12000 18000 24000 36000 48000

(500) (1000) (2000) (3900) (4000) (6000) (8000) (12000) (16000)
40 2000 3900 7700 12000 12000 18000 24000 36000 48000

(700) (1300) (2600) (4000) (4000) (6000) (8000) (12000) (16000)
50 2400 4800 9600 12000 12000 18000 24000 36000 48000

(800) (1600) (3200) (4000) (4000) (6000) (8000) (12000) (16000)
60 2900 5800 11600* 12000 12000 18000 24000 36000 48000

(1000) (2000) (3900) (4000) (4000) (6000) (8000) (12000) (16000)
70 3400 6800 12000 12000 12000 18000 24000 36000 48000

(1200) (2300) (4000) (4000) (4000) (6000) (8000) (12000) (16000)
80 3900 7700 12000 12000 12000 18000 24000 36000 48000

(1300) (2600) (4000) (4000) (4000) (6000) (8000) (12000) (16000)
*11600 (3900) is often rounded to 12000 (4000)

**The top number is the amount paid by the discarder for
a River Win. The bottom number in parentheses is the amount
paid by each other player for a Self-Drawn win.
Continuance Bonuses
After youve counted up your Base Points and your Hand

Points and figured out your score, its time to add the Continuance Bonuses. Each CB is worth 300 points. If you win off of
a discard, the discarder pays the entire CB. If the hand is won
on a Self-Draw, then the CB is split between the other three
players.
93 Reach Mahjong
Count em Up 93
Putting It All Together
It all sounds very complicated, but if you use these charts,

calculating your score should only take a few minutes. Pretty
soon youll have all the scores memorized and youll be scoring with the best of em! Regular players can score in about 10
seconds or less, so dont be discouraged!
Scoring Chart
River Win Self-Drawn Win
Base Points
Hand Points
Lucky Tiles
Total HP
Chart Score (BPxHP)
Continuances x 300
Total for Dealer
Total for Non-Dealers
94 Reach Mahjong
Quiz 5Scoring Hands

What score should each winning hand receive? From how
many players?
1. East Round, 1st Hand, Dealer, Lucky Tile:
River Win:
2. South Round, 2nd Hand, West Seat, Lucky Tile:
Self-Drawn Win:
3. South Round, 1st Hand, South Seat Lucky Tile:
95 Reach Mahjong
Count em Up 95
River Win:
4. East Round, 2nd Hand, North Seat Lucky Tile:
River Win:
5. South Round, 3rd Hand, Dealer, Lucky Tile:
Self-Drawn Win:
96 Reach Mahjong
Where Did These Charts Come From?
All scoring in Reach Mahjong is based on Base Points. The

Hand Points are used to double the Base Points to create Score
Units. Each winning hand gets a 20-Base-Point bonus and a 2
Hand Point bonus. A win by a non-dealer is good for 4 Score
Units and a win by a dealer is worth 6 Score Units.
BP x 2HP = Score Unit
e.g.,
(Self-Drawn Win)
BP: 20+8 (
)+2(Inside draw)+8(
)+2(Self-Drawn
win) = 40BP
HP: 2+1(Value Tile)+1(Concealed Self-Draw)= 4HP
The total Base Points are doubled for each Hand Point:
40BPx24 = 40BPx16 = 640
For Self-Drawn wins by a non-dealer, each other non-dealer
pays 1 Score Unit to the winner and the dealer pays double: 2
Score Units. The amount paid is rounded up to the next 100.
In this example, the non-dealers pays 700 points (640 -> 700)
and the dealer pays 1300 points (640x2=1280 -> 1300).
If the same hand were won by the dealer, each non-dealer
would pay 2 Score Units: 1,300 points each (640x2=1280 ->
1300). For River Wins, the discarder pays all 4 Score Units if
the winner is a non-dealer and all 6 Score Units if the winner
is a dealer.
97 Reach Mahjong
Count em Up 97
If you memorize the charts, or keep them in front of you, its

not necessary to calculate the doubles each time. It is, however,
good to know where the system came from, so here are some
examples.
1. East Round, West Seat, Lucky Tile:
River Win:
BP: 20+4 (
)+4(
)+10(Concealed River Win) = 38
rounded to 40BP
HP: 2+1(Value Tile)+1(Lucky Tile)= 4HP
40BPx24 = 40BPx16 = 640
Non-Dealer River Win: 640x4 = 2560 rounded up to 2600
paid by discarder.
2. South Round, South Seat, Lucky Tile:
Self-Drawn Win:
98 Reach Mahjong
BP: 20+2 (
)+2(Inside Wait)+8(
)+2(Self-Draw) =
34 rounded to 40BP
HP: 2+2(3 Colored Runs)+1(Concealed Self-Draw)= 5HP
40BPx25 = 40BPx32 = 1280
Non-Dealer Self-Drawn: 1280 rounded up to 1300 paid
by each non-dealer, 1280x2 = 2560 rounded up to 2600
paid by dealer.
3. South Round, East Seat, Lucky Tile:
River Win:
BP: 20+32 (
)+16(
)+8(
)+2(Gut Shot) = 78
rounded to 80BP
HP: 2+2(3 Quads) = 4HP
80BPx24 = 80BPx16 = 1280
Dealer River Win: 1280x6=7680 rounded up to 7700
paid discarder.
99 Reach Mahjong
Count em Up 99
Quiz 6Doubles Calculation

od.
Calculate the score of each hand using the doubling meth-
River Win:
2. East Round, West Seat, Lucky Tile:
Self-Drawn Win:
100 Reach Mahjong
River Win:
After the game is over, scores are settled. Use the chart
below (or get a booklet of these charts) to keep track of the
scores of all the games you play. The scores are calculated according to the 30,000 points each player starts with. Whether
you started with 25,000 or 30,000, you still subtract 30,000
points, since the extra 5,000 was the ante. Whatever your
score is, subtract 30,000. Next, drop the three zeros and you
have your score for the game.
For four players starting with 30,000 points, normal score
calculations might look like this:
Name Score Subtract 30,000 Drop 3 Zeros
Player A
16,300
-13,700
-13.7
Player B
32,400
+2,400
+2.4
Player C
47,800
+17,800
+17.8
Player D
23,500
-6,500
-6.5
The total of all four players final scores should add up to

zero.
101 Reach Mahjong
Count em Up 101
If you start with 25,000 points, the winner will get an extra
20,000 points (the sum of four 5,000-point antes). Four players scores would look like this:
Subtract Antes Drop 3
Name Score
30,000
for First
Zeros
Player A
34,700
+4,700
+4.7
Player B
17,200
-12,800
-12.8
Player C
6,500
-23,500
-23.5
Player D
41.600
+11,600
+31.6
+20,000
Many players choose to add a bonus or penalty for each

place too. The most common amounts are an extra 20,000 or
30,000 for first place, an extra 10,000 for second place, a
penalty of 10,000 for third place, and a penalty of 20,000
or 30,000 for fourth place. The total of the bonuses/penalties
must equal zero.
Subtract
Name Score
30,000
Bonus/Penalty Antes for Drop 3

for Placement First Total
Zeros
Player A 51,200 +21,200 +20,000
+20,000 +61,200 +61.2
Player B 8,700
-20,000
-41,300
-41.3
Player C 27,800 -2,200
+10,000
+7,800
+7.8
Player D 12,300 -17,700
-10,000
-27,700
-27.7
-21,300
These charts are just to show you how to arrive at the numbers. The actual process will only take a few seconds and you
will find yourself writing the totals directly into a chart as shown
below. Most players choose to round off the decimals as well. If
the three games above were played and the scores written into
the official scoring chart, it would look like this (all decimals
have been rounded off):
102 Reach Mahjong
Name
Number
Player A
Player B
Player C
Player D
-
14
61
19*
13
41
-
24
32
28
4
5
6
Subtotal 66
Total
14
+52
54
-52
27
24
+3
32
35
-3
Other
*If, after rounding, the numbers dont match, the winner of

the game will take or lose the extra point.
All amounts across should equal zero. At the end of the session, if you have chosen to play for money, you can settle by
paying a certain amount for each point, for example, 50 cents
for each point or $1 for each point:
Name Score
50 cents per point
$1 per point
Player A
+52
+$26.00
+$52.00
Player B
-52
-$26.00
-$52.00
Player C
+3
+$1.50
+$3.00
Player D
-3
-$1.50
-$3.00
etc.
The same calculations can be made for nickels, dimes,
103 Reach Mahjong
Count em Up 103
Now you know all the basics and are ready to play Mahjong with practically anyone in the world. For the Chinese versions, youll have to learn the point system and check which
Hands they use, but the basics should all be the same. The
American rules will take considerably more practice as well,
but for the most part, you should be ready to go!
Quiz 7Scoring the Game

Create a Score Sheet for the following games:
1. Starting at 30,000 each, +20, +10, -10, -20 Placing
Bonus
Player A: 52,000
Player B: 36,000
Player C: 21,000
Player D: 11,000
2. Starting at 25,000 each +20, +10, -10, -20 Placing
Bonus
Player A: 6,000
Player B: 37,000
Player C: 15,000
Player D: 42,000
Bonus
Player A: 36,200
Player B: 31,100
Player C: 6,900
Player D: 25,800
104 Reach Mahjong

Bonus
Player A: 41,300
Player B: 1,300
Player C: 27,600
Player D: 29,800
Part II
Variations
VI. Inflated Mahjong

In order to add a gambling element and more excitement to the
game, most players choose to add Lucky Tiles for extra points.
Remember the dora from before? There are four more types of
Lucky Tiles (dora) that can be added in the game. These are all
optional and using them simply adds excitement. The gambling
element also increases, but strategy changes as well and the
game still requires a huge amount of skill. Strong players will
learn to read the board and change their strategy in order to
maximize the chance of hitting one of these Lucky Tiles (doras),
and thus maximizing the hand value or expected value each
time.
Hidden Lucky Tile (Dora)
When the Hidden Lucky Tile (dora) rule is in effect, any

player who Reaches gets to see an extra Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator if he wins the hand. A player with a winning Reach Hand
can look at the tile underneath the Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator
and if the player has a tile in the same suit, next in sequence to
the Hidden Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator its worth an extra Hand
Point for each one. Needless to say, the hand values get big
fast. Hidden Lucky Tiles are often awarded side bets among all
players ($1 or so for each one).
107 Reach Mahjong
Quad Lucky Tile (Quad Dora)
Whenever a player declares a quad, the next tile in line

to the Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator toward the live wall is flipped
over and this becomes the Quad Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator.
The next tile in sequence of the same suits worth 1 extra Hand
Point each of the corresponding tiles used in the winning hand.
Its treated the same as the original dora. The Quad Lucky Tile
(dora) Indicator should be turned over before the player draws
the supplementary draw from the end of the Kings Tiles. A
hand won on the supplementary draw is eligible for the Quad
Dora points.
Quad Hidden Lucky Tile
If a Reached player wins a hand after a Quad Lucky Tile

has been added, the winning player may also look underneath
the Quad Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator and if the player has a tile
in the same suit next in sequence to this tile, its worth an extra
Hand Point for each one. Quad Hidden Lucky Tiles are often
awarded side bets among all players ($1 or so for each one).
Red 5s
All tile sets made in Japan come with four Red 5s (one
Red 5-Bams, one Red 5-Craks, and two Red 5-Dots). These tiles
may replace one or more 5s of the suited tiles and each one is
worth an extra Hand Point if its used in a winning hand. Red
108 Reach Mahjong
Inflated Mahjong 108
5s are often awarded side bets among all players ($1 or so

for each one).
Gold 5s
Gold 5s or 3s may be used (only available in special sets)

and are usually worth 2 extra Hand Points for any winning
hand that uses them or 1 extra Hand Point and 2 side bets ($2
or so each).
Wall-Split (Wareme)
This is a fun rule that inflates the game and is often used in
home games. The idea is to double. Whichever player is sitting at the wall that was opened on the deal pays and receives
double for all scores.
Chicken on a Stick (Yakitori)
If you have Yakitori markers, you may choose to add this

variation. Each player has a Yakitori marker in front of him,
109 Reach Mahjong

chicken-side up. If a player wins during the game, the marker
is turned over. At the end of the game, any player who is still
showing his chicken must pay a penalty to the winner of the
game. This amount should be decided before the game.
VII. Mahjong for Money

Adding a wagering system could make your home games
a bit more interesting. The rates dont have to be high, but no
matter what rates you decide to use, the calculation methods
will be the same.
Deciding a Placing Bonus
In cash games, a Placing Bonus will be used to reward

players for scoring in the top two at the table and to penalize losing players (third and fourth place). The Placing Bonus
will add up to zero when its distributed. The smallest bonus
is generally +20,000 points for first place, +10,000 points
for second place, -10,000 points for third place and -20,000
points for fourth place. These can be multiplied or added to
for personal taste. A popular amount is +30,000, +10,000,
-10,000, and -30,000, because the jump from each place is
the same amount. (Note: The EMA RCR rules have a placing
bonus of 9,000 points for 1st place and 3,000 points for 2nd
place.)
Deciding a Rate
The rate is the amount that will be multiplied by the final

score to determine the payout. A 50-cent rate means 50 cents
for each point of the final score; $1 rate is $1 for each point
and a $2 rate is $2 for each point. These are the general rates
111 Reach Mahjong

that are available at Mahjong parlors (in Yen of course), but
there is certainly no limit and players may choose according to
the game for home games.
Calculating the Payout

(See page 103)
VIII. Two-Player Mahjong

Benefits
Playing heads-up Mahjong is a great way to get used to

the game. Playing two-player, all the Hand Points are the same,
but with only two players you get to see a lot more hands and
can concentrate on creating those hands, since it wont make
sense to fold most of the time. Since there are only two discard
piles, its also a great way to practice reading your opponents
hands, discards, and tells, since you only have to concentrate
on one opponent instead of the three in a normal game. Many
of the old video games are two-player, meaning that players
without an online account will have many more opportunities
to practice this form if you can get a hold of an old Japanese
Gameboy or Nintendo game.
Rounds
A two-player game has two rounds: East and South, just

like the four-player game. The dealer is the East seat and the
non-dealer is the South seat. There are no West and North
seats. Chow and pon/bump are both allowed.
Draws/Discards
A
deck,
Tiles).
Many
normal four-player game has 70 draws total (136-tile

minus 13x4=52 for the deal, minus 14 for the Kings
A two-player game has 36 draws: 18 for each player.
times there is no winner when the draws are this few,
113 Reach Mahjong

so feel free to go up to 45 or 50 draws for heads-up games,
especially when youre starting out, since its way more fun and
motivating to win.
Scoring
Scoring for two-player Mahjong is calculated the same

way four-player Mahjong is. The only difference is that for selfdrawn wins, the opponent pays the entire score to the winner,
since there are no other players to split it with.
Other
One of the greatest things about Mahjong is the versatility

and easy adaptation of new rules. Feel free to make up rules,
add and take away house rules that Ive introduced to you,
and have a great time with your friends. Just like playing cards,
everyone comes up with crazy variations to make the game
more fun.
IX. Three Player Mahjong

Simple Three Player Game
Intro
The easiest way to play three-player is to adapt the fourplayer game. There will be less tiles, but all possible Hands
from the four-player game will be used in the three-player game
as well. Chow is not allowed in three-player Mahjong.
Tiles
All Craks 2-8 should be removed and the four 1-craks and
four 9-craks should remain in the deck. The craks left in the
deck may only be used in sets of three or four, just like Honor
tiles. If the Lucky Tile/dora Indicator is 1-crak, then the dora will
be 9-crak, and if the Indicator is 9-crak, then the Lucky Tile/
dora will be 1-crak.
Rounds/Seating
The game will last two rounds, East and South, just like in
the four-player game. There will be no North seat, so the North
tile will be used as a non-value tile for the entire game.
Scoring
Scores are calculated the same as the four-player game,

but payouts for self-drawn wins will be split evenly between
opponents, regardless of who is the dealer. There may be one
115 Reach Mahjong

Placing Bonus paid from third place to first place or two paid
from second and third place to first place.
Original Three Player Game

Intro
There are many versions of 3 Player Mahjong. Although I

am dubbing this the Original version, this was by no means
the first three-player version of the game played. This is the first
version I ever played and one of the most popular versions,
especially in Tokyo. The scoring is quite different from the fourplayer version and most players find it way more fun than just
adapting the rules from the four-player game like the Simple
version. Its called Toutenkou (East Crimson Sky) in Japanese.
Deck/Set-up
All craks 2-8 should be removed from the deck. The 1-craks
and 9-craks should remain in the deck. The 5-craks may be left
as well according to preference. Chow claims are not allowed
in the three-player game. The Lucky Tile Indicator will be the
top tile on the fifth tier of the Dead Wall instead of the third,
so that there are enough supplementary tiles for the extra Lucky
Tiles (dora) and for any declared quads. The more extra Lucky
Tiles (dora) used, the more the indicator should be farther to the
right. At the end of a game that ends in a draw, 14 Kings Tiles
should be left, no matter what.
Since the deck is smaller, only one of the dice should be
used. Walls will be 14 or 15 tiles long (with two tiers), depending on whether the 5-craks and Flowers are used.
Rounds/Seating
Each hand will be played as a new game. The Round will

always be East. The first dealer will be decided by roll of the
116 Reach Mahjong
Three Player Mahjong 116
die. After that the winner of each hand will become the next
dealer. The game can last for as many or as few hands as
youd like, but should be agreed on beforehand by all players.
Hands/Hand Points
Extra Lucky Tiles (dora)
The North Wind and Craks may only be used in Limit

Hands, otherwise the tiles will be extra Lucky Tiles (dora).
When the tiles are dealt in the beginning, starting with the
dealer, each player in turn, will remove all North tiles and the
1, 5, 9 of craks from their hands and place them on the right
side of the table where a claimed set is placed. A replacement
tile must be taken from the dead wall for each tile placed to the
right of the table. These will be worth 1 point each if the player
wins the hand.
Hands/Scoring
While most of the hands are the same as the normal fourplayer Reach game, the scoring is different. Each player will
start with 50 points. Using the normal scoring sticks, each
denomination will be divided by 100. Hundred-point sticks
are worth 1 point, 500-point sticks are worth 5 points, and
1000-point sticks are worth 10 points. Each player should start
with four 10-point sticks, one five-point stick, and five one-point
sticks.
Most of the hands in the Original three-player game are
the same, but since there are no base points in this game, the
points are not split into Base Points and Hand Points and are,
117 Reach Mahjong

instead, just called points. The Limit Hands may be worth 40 or
50 points. Each Lucky Tile (dora) and Extra Lucky Tile (dora) is
worth one point. At least one of the hands on this list is necessary for a winning hand. Lucky Tiles do not count toward the
minimum 1-point needed for winning, they are only allowed to
be used as bonuses.
1-Point Hands
s Concealed self-draw; no stealing. Concealed hand won

on a drawn tile.
s Reach; no stealing. Declaration of a ready hand. Hand
cant be changed except to declare quad.
s Value tiles; stealing ok. Set of three or four identical value
tiles (dragons, round wind, or seat wind)
s Peace hand (all runs), no stealing. Concealed all runs
with a valueless pair and an open-ended wait.
s Kings tile draw; stealing ok. Win on the supplementary
draw after declaring a quad.
s Add-a-quad win; stealing ok. Win on the tile that another
player has added to a bumped/ponned set to make a quad.
s Final tile win; stealing ok. Win on the final drawn or discarded tile of a hand.
s Dealer win; stealing ok. A win as the dealer.
2-Point Hands
s Double reach; no stealing. Reach declared on the first

discard before anyone has declared chow, pon or quad.
s All sets; stealing ok. Hand consisting of all sets of three or
four and one pair.
3-Point Hands
s All simples; stealing ok. Hand made of only tiles 2-8.

s Double run; no stealing. Two identical runs in a hand.
s All honors/terminals; stealing ok. Hand made of sets of
only honors and terminal tiles.
118 Reach Mahjong
s Full straight; two-point penalty for stealing. Three runs

with one of each of 1-9 in the same suit.
s Three concealed triples; stealing ok. Three concealed sets
of 3- or 4-of-a-kind.
s Three quads; stealing ok. Three declared quads in one
hand.
s All pairs; no stealing. Hand made of 7 pairs only.
s Open quad; stealing ok. A declared quad (counted in
addition to quad hands).
5-Point Hands
s Mixed outside hand; two-point penalty for stealing. Hand

that uses honors or at least one terminal in each group.
s Half-flush; two-point penalty for stealing. Hand using only
one suit and honors.
s Concealed quad; stealing ok. A concealed quad (counted in addition to quad hands).
10-Point Hands
s Two double runs; five-point penalty for stealing. Two sets

of identical runs.
s Triple run; five-point penalty for stealing. Three identical
runs.
s Small dragons; stealing ok. Two sets and one pair of
dragons.
s Pure outside hand; five-point penalty for stealing. Hand
that uses at least one terminal in each group.
s Pure flush; five-point penalty for stealing. Hand that uses
only one suit and no honors.
20-Point Hands
s Zero extra lucky tiles; stealing ok. Winning hand with no

extra lucky tiles (galley).
119 Reach Mahjong
Limit Hands (40-50 Points)
s Human win; no stealing. Win by non-dealer on a discard

in the first round of discards before chow, pon, and before
your own first draw.
s Honorable discard; no stealing. Hand that has discarded
only honors and terminals. Win is on final discard by player or
when the hand ends in a draw.
s Heavenly win; no stealing. Hand won by dealer on deal.
s Earthly win; no stealing. Hand won by non-dealer on deal
and first draw.
s Four concealed triples; no stealing. Hand with 4 concealed sets of 3 or 4 and one pair. River win is only allowed if
final wait is a single tile.
s Big dragons; stealing ok. Hand with a set of three or four
of each colored dragon.
s 13 orphans; no stealing. Hand with one of each terminal
and honor with one of them paired.
s All green; stealing ok. Hand using only 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, of
bams and the green dragon.
s All honors; stealing ok. Hand using only sets of honors.
s Four winds; stealing ok. Hand with set of three or four of
all winds or three sets of winds and one pair.
s All terminals; stealing ok. Hand using only 1s and 9s.
s 9 treasures; no stealing. Hand with only 1112345678999,
plus one more tile, all in the same suit.
s Big wheels; no stealing. Hand with pair of each simple
dot (2-8).
Other Scoring Nuances
A winning hand using a set of four identical Extra Lucky

Tiles (dora) will score an extra four points.
Continuances are worth one point each.
When a hand ends in a draw, instead of a 3,000 point
exchange, each non-Ready player will pay each Ready player
20 points.
120 Reach Mahjong
When a player runs out of points, the game ends. The winner of the hand will count the full amount of points won on the
final hand.
Its easiest to use the tiles that have been discarded to count
the points. Use one tile for each point.
The winner will receive the amount of points from the discarder of the winning tile. If the win is Self-Drawn, each opponent will pay the amount of the score, so Self-Drawn wins get
double the score.
Intro
Wild White Dragon
This is a game introduced to me by my friend Mr. Naito. At

our weekly Mahjong gathering we had only three people, so
Mr. Naito suggested we play this Wild White Dragon game
that he loves. I found it to be an incredibly useful training tool
for the four-player game. Sometimes, even if you have four
people, you might want to try this version of the game by leaving out the player who threw the winning tile each game. In
Japanese this game is called White All-Mighty, but for many
reasons I chose to change the English name to Wild White
Dragon.
121 Reach Mahjong
Set-up
The basic set-up and rules will be the same as the Original
three-player game explained on page 118. The difference is
that the White Dragon is wild. That means that the White Dragon can count for any tile in the deck. In a 13-tile game, this can
get quite confusing, so practice, practice, practice!
Example 1
Waiting for:
Example 2
Waiting for:
Example 3
122 Reach Mahjong
Waiting for:
Special Rules
Quad/Quint etc.: Add-a-quad sets may be added to making Quint sets or even sets of six or more.
Lucky Tile (dora) Full Sets: A winning hand that uses four
identical Extra Lucky Tiles (dora) gains 5 extra points. A hand
using all the Red 5s will also gain 5 extra points.
Hand with No White Dragons: A hand using zero White
Dragons is special and called a Purity hand.
Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator: If the White Dragon is the Lucky
Tile (dora) Indicator, then every tile in the deck will count as a
Lucky Tile (dora).
Extra Lucky Tiles (dora): A hand that uses no Extra Lucky
Tiles (dora) is called a Crows Hand and gets an extra 30
points if there are also no White Dragon Tiles in the hand,
or 20 points if there are White Dragon Tiles in the hand. The
Crows Hand does not count toward the minimum points required to win a hand and there is a 10-point penalty for a
Crows Hand that uses stolen tiles.
Open Reach: Any time a player has a concealed Ready
hand, the player may declare Open Reach. The player should
declare Reach as usual and show the entire hand on the table.
A player who discards the winning tile of an Open Reach hand
must pay an extra 50-point penalty.
123 Reach Mahjong
All Pairs: The All Pairs hand may use multiples of the same
pair and use White Dragons to make these pairs.
Hands/Hand Points
The hands in Wild White Dragon Three-player Mahjong

are a little different than the Original game. At least one of
the hands on this list is necessary for a winning hand. Only
explanations for hands differing from the Original Three-player
game are included. Please see page 120 for an explanation
of the other hands.
1-Point Hands
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
Reach; no stealing
Peace hand (all runs); no stealing
All simples; stealing ok
Double run; no stealing
Kings tile draw; stealing ok
Add-a-quad; stealing ok
Open quad; stealing ok
2-Point Hands
s Double reach; no stealing

s Open reach; no stealing
124 Reach Mahjong
s Full straight; -1 point for stealing

s First-turn Win on White; no stealing. Drawing a White
Dragon on the first draw after declaring Reach to win the hand.
Invalid if another player declares chow, bump/pon or quad
between the Reach declaration and the win.
s Concealed quad; stealing ok
3-Point Hands
s First-turn win; no stealing

s Naked wait; stealing ok. A hand that has four exposed
groups and wins on the final concealed tile.
s Purity; stealing ok. A hand with no White Dragons.
s Octaves wait on Reach; no stealing. A Reached Hand
that has discarded a tile that corresponds with the octaves of
the winning tile (1-4-7, 2-5-8 or 3-6-9).
4-Point Hands
s All pairs; no stealing

s All sets; stealing ok
5-Point Hands
s Quint; stealing ok. 5-of-a-kind
6-Point Hands
s 4-Tile all pairs; no stealing. An all-pairs hand that uses

4-of-a-kind as two different pairs.
s Half flush; -3 points for stealing
10-Point Hands
s 8-Tile all pairs; no stealing. An all-pairs hand that uses

two 4-of-a-kind sets as four different pairs.
s Mixed outside hand; -5 points for stealing
s Pure flush; -5 points for stealing
s Double run; no stealing
s Three concealed triples; stealing ok
125 Reach Mahjong
20-Point Hands
s Set of 6; stealing ok. 6-of-a-kind

s All honors/terminals; -10 points for stealing
30-Point Hands
s Three quads; stealing ok
50-Point Hands (Double for Purity addition)
s Heavenly win; no stealing

s Earthly win; no stealing
s Human win; no stealing
s Four concealed triples; no stealing
s Pure outside hand; -25 points for stealing
s Small dragons; stealing ok
s Big wheels; no stealing
s 9 treasures; no stealing
s 13 orphans; no stealing
s 12-tile all pairs; no stealing. An all pairs hand that uses
three sets of 4-of-a-kind to make six different pairs.
s Set of white dragons; -50 points for stealing

s All green; stealing ok
s 3 colored sets; stealing ok
s Small four winds; stealing ok
s Three quints; stealing ok. Three sets of 5-of-a-kind
s 14-tile all pairs; no stealing. An all-pairs hand that uses
three sets of 4-of-a-kind and two white dragons to make seven
different pairs.

s Big four winds; stealing ok
s Four quads; stealing ok
126 Reach Mahjong
300-Point Hands
s Quad of White Dragons; -150 points for stealing

s Big Dragons; stealing ok
500-Point Hands

s Four quints; stealing ok. Four sets of 5-of-a-kind
s Honorable Discard; no stealing
1,000-Point Hands
s All Extra Lucky Tiles (dora); Stealing OK. A winning hand

that has collected all of the Extra Lucky Tiles (galley).
Scoring
Its easiest to use the tiles that have been discarded to count
the points. Use one tile for each point. See image on page 123.
The winner receives the amount of points from the discarder
of the winning tile. If the win is Self-Drawn, each opponent
pays the amount of the score, so Self-Drawn wins get double
the score.
Other scoring nuances
When a hand ends in a draw, 30 points exchange hands.

If one player is Ready, each non-Ready player pays 15 points
to the Ready player. If two players are Ready, the non-Ready
player pays 15 points to each of the Ready players.
A mistaken bump/pon or quad declaration costs a 1-point
penalty, which should be paid to the Reach Bank.
After Reaching, the White Dragon may not be added to
any pon or quads. If you dont win on a drawn White Dragon
after Reaching, its considered a foul.
A 13 Orphans hand that only uses one White Dragon tile
counts as Purity.
127 Reach Mahjong

The White Dragon may be discarded in order to create a
Purity hand, but all hands that have a White Dragon discarded
become a Missed Win and can only be won on a Self-Draw.
5 or More Players
If there are five players, play the normal four-player game

and one player should take turns sitting out. This is a great time
to sit back and watch opponents. Watching hands from behind
is one of the best ways to study and learn about the game. Usually 2nd place from the previous game is the one sitting out. This
is because last place and 3rd place want to get their winnings
back and no one wants to let the previous winner get away
with those winnings. You can see what other players would do
in certain situations, get ideas, and learn how your opponents
play.
With six players, you have the choice between two threeplayer games or one four-player game with two players sitting
out.
Variation Summary
Rule variations are great ways to improve your game. Using rules with more gambling elements (First-Turn Win bonuses
and Hidden Lucky Tiles (dora)) encourage players to go for
faster wins and more chances to get lucky. Using Red 5s
encourages players to go for inside hands and leave out the
terminals and honors more. Three-player variations encourage
more Half-Flushes, Flushes, and big hands, since there are only
two suits and honors. Learning all the games turns you into
a much stronger player in each game individually as well as
128 Reach Mahjong
collectively. After learning three-player games, youll notice

more chances to turn your hands during four-player games into
flushes. After learning the Wild White Dragon game, youll see
more opportunities to get Ready hands and win more quickly
and more often, and learn to read waits of hands much more
quickly and accurately.
Quiz 8Wild White Dragon

What tiles will complete the hand?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Part III
Strategy
X. Playing Your Hand

In Mahjong, the most information you have is in your own hand
in the beginning and on the board later in the game. At the beginning of the game, you see 14 tiles (15 if youre the dealer):
the tiles in your own hand and the Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator.
Thats about 10% of the deck. In the beginning, understanding
and playing your own hand must be your top priority. Especially as a beginner, your first priority should be to play as many
hands as possible and observe as much as you can.
How Many Away
Decisions in Mahjong are based on how close your hand is

to being Ready. We keep track of this by counting how many
tiles we are away from being Ready. If your hand is 1-Away,
it means that you only need to exchange one more tile in your
hand to be Ready. Two-Away means that you need two tiles
to get to Ready. You want to make sure that every discard you
make has a reason. In general, the reason is to get closer to
Ready with each discard (although that is not always possible
or optimal).
The furthest your hand will ever be from Ready is 6-Away.
131 Reach Mahjong

Even at the worst, a hand only needs to pair six times to be
Ready for the All-Pairs hand.
Quiz 9How Many Away?

How many tiles Away from Ready is each hand?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
132 Reach Mahjong
Getting Ready
Playing Your Hand 132
Once you have mastered recognizing how many tiles Away

from Ready you are, you should start thinking about what type
of Ready hand you want. At first, youll only be able to take the
Ready hands that you get. You should start by discarding tiles
that will get you as close to Ready as possible.
In the beginning, before you know all the Hand Points, its
best to get your hand to Ready without declaring any pons or
chows. Especially against stronger opponents, your best defense is invisibility, which means giving off as little information
as possible. Your mistakes will be hidden and when you get
lucky with a monster, youll be paid off. Also, one of the most
useful HP of Reach Mahjong, and the most fun, is Reach, and
your hand must be completely concealed to declare it. In the
very beginning, you should get your hand to Ready and plan to
declare Reach almost every time. Its all right if your hand isnt
worth much or if you dont have many outs. Declaring Reach
puts all of the decisions on your opponents and lets you relax a
little and watch the game. Forcing them to make the decisions
gives them more opportunities to make mistakes and helps you
win, even as the weaker player.
In this stage, you will only be able to start planning your
Ready hand when youre 1- or 2-Away and have little control
over the tiles you use. Youll lose a lot of hands by discarding your opponents winning tiles, but dont worry about that
either. After you get used to this and start becoming a stronger
player, youll start planning your hand earlier and earlier, until
you have a plan for your hand right from the Deal.
133 Reach Mahjong
Quiz 10Getting Ready

Which tiles will make each hand Ready?
1.
2.
3.
Planning Your Hand
Getting used to the Hand Points is the key part of planning

a good hand. You need to understand what kinds of hands are
available, so youll know if youll be able to bump or chow tiles
for your hand, if youll be able to successfully Reach, or if you
need to think about giving up on your hand and folding. The
first step to become a strong player should be to memorize all
Hand Points. Learn them inside and out.
The other key point of planning a good Ready Hand is
your waits. Going for a hand with very few or no outs wont be
profitable to you in the long run. Sometimes it may be correct
to gamble on a slim wait, but most of your big wins will come
from drawing a good wait or trapping your opponents into
discarding a tile for you.
134 Reach Mahjong
The easiest wait to understand and put into use immediately

is the open-ended straight. Two connectors from 2 to 8, e.g.,
23, 45, and 78, will give you an open-ended straight and eight
outs at its best. Beginners should strive to wait on open-ended
straights on at least 80%-90% of your Ready hands. Sometimes
when you are playing, most of your outs will be on the table
before you make it to Ready and youll be left with only a few
outs for your precious open-ended straight. Dont worry about
that. Starting out by making good habits with your own hand
makes it easier to play once you get into reading the board. If
your outs are gone and you cant win the hand, thats OK. It
happens sometimes. For now, make sure that you know how to
add waits to your hand. Sometimes that means not Reaching
when you have an inside-straight draw (gut shot) or a single
wait and waiting a couple of draws to see if you can change
it to open-ended.
Exchange
to change to a 2-Dot, 5-Dot wait.
Exchange
to change to a 5-Crak, 8-Crak wait.
135 Reach Mahjong
Exchange
or
6-Bam, 9-Bam wait.
for a 3-Bam, 6-Bam wait, or a
This wont always be correct, but until you can read the
board well, its a good idea to go through this step to create
good habits. This practice will help you notice good and bad
spots in your hand and plan for better hands in the future.
Flexibility
In my opinion, flexibility is the most important quality of

a strong player. Mahjong is often spoken of as the game of
the Four Winds. Many players talk about the changing winds
during the game. While this might not be true literally, there
is definitely real symbolic value in these words. There are four
other players in the game with you, which means, if all four
players are of equal skill level, each player should win about
one out of four or five hands (some hands will end in a draw,
so the number should not be exactly four) and come out first in
one out of four games. While the majority of your hands will
start out with a plan of how to win, most of your hands wont
end up as winners, especially if youre giving up Away points
for Value (see below). You need to be able to recognize when
the circumstances of your hand have changed and know how
to adapt to the changes.
Example 1
This hand can become a lot of things: All Simples, 3-Col-
136 Reach Mahjong
ored Runs, Peace, among them. But the 3-Colored-Runs hand

requires some specific tiles. A good player must be flexible
enough to know when to stop waiting for the 6-Dots to complete the 3-Colored Runs and instead see the potential for the
multiple waits if a 4-Craks comes (2-5-8 wait) and the multiple
waits already in the Bams (2-3-5-8).
Example 2
From:
To:
The original shape of the hand is waiting for the 1-Crak

and 6-Crak, but what if you only have one or two outs left
because you can already see two 1-craks on the board? If you
pull a 5-Bams, thats a great opportunity to change the hand.
With the new shape, any 5-Crak, 6-Crak, 4-Bam, 6-Bam, 7Bam or 9-Bam will improve the wait of the hand a create a
great opportunity for Reaching, and may upgrade your hand
to a Peace hand.
Example 3Lucky Tile:
137 Reach Mahjong

This hand could be All Simples or Peace, but dont forget the
All Pairs hand. Depending on what comes next, the hand youre
aiming for might change. Practice looking for all opportunities.
Example 4
South Round, 3rd hand, West Seat, Lucky Tile:
6,000 points away from First place, Draw:
This hand looks like a Half-Flush, but now a Lucky Tile has
been drawn, messing it all up. Look closer. This hand could
also be a Small Dragons or a 2 Value-Tile with two Lucky Tiles.
Get rid of the 1-Bam and 9-Bam and youre left with a 2-5-8Bam wait and lots of chances to win or get to Ready.
Getting PointsValue
Reach Mahjong only requires 1 Hand Point for each winning hand. Just because thats the rule, however, doesnt mean
you should stop there. Winning players combine as many Hand
Points as possible and use Lucky Tiles (dora) every chance they
get to take advantage of every point possibility available. Each
Hand Point you let go by for your winning hands is the same
as losing a Hand Point. On the other hand, if you get greedy
and go for too many Hand Points at a time, you run the risk
of missing your chance to win the hand. Finding the balance
here is the key to becoming a winning player in any game of
mahjong.
138 Reach Mahjong
Think of hands under 5,000 points as small hands, little

pots you should pick up when its easy and youre a favorite.
Hands worth 5,000-10,000 points are big hands and hard to
lay down. Hands worth 10,000 points or more are monsters
and you should think very, very carefully before giving up on
any of these hands.
The Importance of Simplicity

and Peace
Mahjong is called the Game of the Gods. It utilizes four

winds, one of each direction; the tiles are drawn from the wall
and discarded into the river. Keeping with this theme, Reach
Mahjong centers itself around simplicity and peace. One of
the most popular sayings among Reach Mahjong players is,
Number one is the Inside hand (2-8), number two is the Peace
hand. The more you play, the more youll find this saying to be
true. These two hands will become your bread and butter and
earn you the most points over time.
Simplicity
The All Simples or Inside hand is the easiest to remember,

the easiest to aim for and, therefore, one of the least satisfying
hands point-wise. Thats the image of the hand on the surface.
Dig a little deeper and youll find a useful offensive tool that will
help you win big hands, keep others from winning big hands
(what I like to call defensive offense), and seal your victories
once you pull ahead of the game. Not only are there more
simples in the deck than terminals/honors (84 simples and 52
honors/terminals), since the Simple tiles can be used in both
runs and sets, they prove way more useful than the honors/
terminals. The All Simples hand also allows you to pon and
chow to your hearts content, making it a favorite for beginners
and anyone looking for a quick win. Use a deck with Red 5s
139 Reach Mahjong

and youll want to go for this hand even more, taking quick
stabs at your opponents and leaving them in the dust while you
gather your bones. (Note: EMA RCR rules do not allow open
All Simples hands.)
Example 1
All Simples, Peace, Double-Run, possible 3-Colored Runs

Example 2
All Simples, All Pairs

Example 3
All Simples, Double-Run
Peace
The All Runs hand, dubbed Peace for its lack of complications, is the most versatile hand in Reach Mahjong. Its only
worth 1 Hand Point itself, but combined with a few others, its a
weapon that will make your enemies weep with pain. Consider
the number of other hands that can be combined with this one:
Reach, All Simples, Concealed Self-Draw, Inside Hand,
140 Reach Mahjong
Double Run, Final Tile Win, Add-a-quad Win, ThreeColored Runs, Full Straight, Mixed Outside Hand, Double Reach, Half-Flush, Pure Outside Hand, Two Double
Runs, Full Flush.
Thats 15 out of 23 non-Limit hands that can be combined with the Peace hand (there are 24 including the
Peace hand). Not all of these hands can be combined
all at the same time, but combine three or four of them
and youre looking at a 8,000+-point hand.
Example 1Reached,
Self-Drawn Win, Winning Tile:
Peace, Reach, All Simples, 3-Colored Runs, DoubleRun, Concealed Self-Draw
Example 2River-Win, Winning Tile:
Peace, Full Straight
Example 3Reach, River-Win, Winning Tile:
Peace, Reach, Pure Outside Hand, 3-Colored Runs
141 Reach Mahjong
Waits and Outs
Sometimes you will decide to change your waits, depending on what is showing on the board. If youre only down to
two outs with an open-ended draw, but you can change to four
outs with two-pair waiting to complete a set, be strong enough
to stand by the wait with the better percentage. Sometimes a
big hand will have to be folded due to lack of waits. A strong
player must be flexible enough to recognize these situations
and play accordingly.
Speed
Four players are trying to win at the same time. This means
that speed is a big factor. A player with a fast 1,000-point
hand will kill a slow 24,000-point hand. Fast cheap hands will
not win you the game, but sometimes speed needs to be chosen
over value to protect yourself. For example, if youre the point
leader and you sense another player is going for a big hand,
you might want to get a quick win, even for few points, just to
keep the other player from taking the lead away from you.
DealerAs the dealer, your main goal is to remain the
dealer as long as possible. When youre the dealer, the points
you receive for hands are 1.5 times what you get as a nondealer. This opportunity is huge! It means you need less Hand
Points to get big hands and monsters. You want to win as many
hands as possible in this situation. The scoring difference will
cause your opponents to fear you and think harder about coming up against you if you show strength.
XI. Reading the Board

Once you can play your own hand without too many big mistakes, its time to start taking a look at the board. A hand
ending in a draw will have 70 tiles on the board at the last
discard. Thats more than half the deck and your best source of
information. When your hand isnt worth much, is still far Away
from Ready, or doesnt have a lot of outs left, its a good idea
to read others hands and start watching your own discards
to keep other players from winning, especially from you. Even
though Mahjong is a four-player game, on any given hand,
only one to two people will usually have a hand worth fighting for. Sometimes three players and in rare circumstances all
four players will have great hands, but now is the time to start
recognizing when your own hand is not one that will bring you
glory. Since you already know how to play your own hand and
should be able to tell by now if its a potential winner or not,
lets take a look at your opponents hands.
Texture/Discards
Watch the Dealer
The dealer is your biggest threat with his potential points

being worth 1.5x the amount of yours. The risk of fighting any
dealers Reach, and the penalty for not reading a monster
hand, is going to be multiplied.
143 Reach Mahjong
Suits
One of the easiest hands to decipher in an opponent is a

Half-Flush/Flush. The discard for these hands generally follow
two patterns: They either start with terminals of two different
suits or start with random tiles of one certain suit. The latter
option helps the player disguise at the beginning which suited
flush hes going for, but a second suit generally follows the first.
Once Honor tiles start coming out of this players hand, its
safe to assume hes getting close to Ready. Once a tile of the
suspected suits discarded, you should be on full alert, because
if the player isnt Ready yet, he at least knows exactly which
shape his Ready hand will be in.
Lets talk about how to play against this type of hand. If you
are to the left of this player, it means he can chow from you.
Unless your hand is exciting, its a good idea to conserve the
suit he wants from the very beginning of the hand, especially
if hes the dealer. If you are not to the left of the player, he will
only be able to take tiles from you using bump/pon. Be very
wary of Lucky Tiles (dora) and Value Tiles since these will both
increase his score and are favorites for Half-Flush hands.
Honors
Remember how important I said the Inside Hand and the

Peace Hand are? The majority of the time your opponents will
go for those, just like you. Its important to be able to tell from
their discards when they are not going for these hands. These
hands start by discarding honors and terminals. Any discards
that begin with anything from three to seven should be considered suspicious. The good news is that hands besides these
often end in slim draws or take awhile to get to Ready. Its
important to pay attention to these discards and hands, but
remember that your best defense is a good offense, so dont
forget to keep at your own hand too.
XII. Your Opponent

Exposed Hands
Most beginners love to expose their hands. While they

scream Pon! Chow! Quad! it seems like theyre really saying, Look at my beautiful hand! You should just smile and
nod. These players are giving you tons of free information. You
can see what they are going for, since their Hand Points will
probably be clearly paraded for you. It will also be easier to
guess what they might be waiting for, since only a few tiles will
be left in their hand and more and more tiles will be discarded
as the game goes on, giving you more and more information.
The fact that youre using your opponents exposed sets to your
advantage should give you more motivation to keep your own
hand as concealed as possible.
Example 1
Discards:
145 Reach Mahjong

Chowed Tiles:
Hand:
If there are Value Tiles, Honors and some of each suit in the
discard, this hand can only be going for an Outside Hand or a
3-Colored Run or have concealed Value Tiles in the hand. This
discard will start with inside tiles and later have outside tiles.
Example 2
Discard:
Hand:
This hand starts off with honors and terminals in the discard, then moves toward the middle tiles. Most likely a Peace
Hand and an open-ended wait.
146 Reach Mahjong
Your Opponent 146
Example 3
Discard:
Ponned Tiles:
Hand:
This hand starts with outside Dot and Bam discards and
then discards honors. The hand is obviously a Half-Flush and at
worst may be a Full Flush. Watch your discards!
Reached Opponents
When an opponent Reaches, if your hand is not Ready,

and sometimes even if it is, more often than not youll end up
folding your own hand. This means that youll discard tiles that
are safe, tiles that your opponent cant win on. Thanks to the
Missed Win rule and the fact that a player has to pay for any
hand that he discards the winning tile for, Reach Mahjong is
one of the only types of Mahjong that offers multiple clear options for defense. Any tile that your opponent discards before
and after declaring Reach is dead to them. Also, any tiles that
147 Reach Mahjong

the other players discard after one player has declared Reach
are dead to the Reached player. Even if one of those mentioned tiles are his winner, after it hits the board and he lets it
go, his only chance at winning is a Self-Draw. When a player
Reaches, study his discards and decide if you have enough
safe tiles to get away from your hand or not. If you only have
one or two safe tiles to his hand, you might be committed and
just have to try to win your own hand, especially if you are
close to Ready.
Opponent Reached
Hands to Fold:
This hand is still 2-Away from Ready and worth 1-2 HP

(Peace and Reach) at best. Its not worth going after the Reach.
This hand is 2-Away. If honors look safe, start with the honors and see where the hand goes.
This hand can start by discarding the honors as well if they

look safe. Beware of two-pair waiting for sets of three.
148 Reach Mahjong
Your Opponent 148
Hands to go for:
East Round, 2nd Hand, North Seat, Lucky Tile:
If a 3-bam or 5-dot makes this hand Ready, it will be huge

with an Inside Hand, Peace Hand, 3-Colored Runs, a Lucky Tile
and maybe a Double Run. Theres no folding now. Go for it!
South Round, 2nd Hand, North Seat, Lucky Tile:
This hand is not particularly big score-wise but the Green

Dragon is the only tile you have to push to keep it alive. Generally honor tiles are easier to push with to a Reach than other
tiles. This hand is probably going to be hard to fold anyway,
so just go for it!
East Round, 3rd Hand, West Seat, Lucky Tile:
149 Reach Mahjong

Opponents Discard:
Your Hand:
This hand is hard to fold. The only safe tiles to your opponent are 5-bam and 6-bam and he could be waiting for
anything. If you get Ready with a 3-dot, 3-crak, or 5-crak then
it might just be worth the risk to get a quick win and let your
opponent steam over losing his early Reach.
Playing the odds
It will be hard to discard only safe tiles all the time to a

Reacher. Sometimes youll be forced to make educated guesses
and go with odds. This is especially true if youre still in the
game and are looking for a way to discard mostly safe tiles
and still try to make a winner.
Octaves
The majority of hands will end up waiting on an open-ended straight draw. Since the only options for this are 1-4-7, 2-58, and 3-6-9 (dont they remind you of piano octaves?), you
can use your opponents discard to guess safe tiles. If a player
has discarded a 4, there is a good chance hes not waiting
on 1 or 7. If a 5 has been discarded by the player, there is a
150 Reach Mahjong
Your Opponent 150
good chance that 2 and 8 are safe. And finally, if a 6 has been
discarded, there is a good chance that 3 and 9 are safe. This
is not always true and its a way that some strong players use
to trap weaker players. When that happens, there is not much
you can do except to fold only safe tiles. This trick is simply a
way to better guess what your opponent is waiting for. If there
are less honors in the beginning of the players discard and it
doesnt look like he is going for the All Runs (Peace) Hand, then
this technique should be used with caution.
Walls
Similar to the rule above, its possible to guess the lack of

a certain open-ended wait using Walls. A 1-4 and a 2-5 wait
requires 3. If you can see all four 3s of one suit, then its unlikely that the player has a 1-4 wait or a 2-5 wait in that suit.
Of course, its possible that the player is waiting on a single
1 or 2 or has a pair of 1s or 2s and is waiting to complete a
set. For this reason, this judgment works best when some of
the 3s are in your hand, reducing the likeliness that the player
trapped you into discarding a tile protected by a wall. Remember, though, more than half of winning hands will be waiting
on open-ended draws, making this rule of thumb a profitable
one in the long run.
One Chance
If youre out of Octaves and out of Walls, the next idea is

the One-Chance rule. Lets say you cant see four 3s, but you
can see three 3s. It still makes it unlikely that your opponent is
on a 1-4 or 2-5 draw, since there are three other places the
fourth 3 could be (in one of the other two players hands or in
the wall). There is only one chance that the player has the
fourth 3, making it a good guess when you need a reason
to discard a tile. Remember, all your discards should have a
reason.
151 Reach Mahjong
Deceit
Defensive Tricks
The tricks above are not only good defensive ways of thinking, theyre great for offense too. If you can see three or four 3s
of one suit on the board, you could Reach waiting for a 1 or 2
of the same suit and trap your opponents into discarding your
winning tile. This works well especially if you think your opponents are weak, but committed to continuing with their hand.
You can also use the Octaves trick to trap your opponents. If
you have 1-3-5 and must discard one tile to be Ready, a good
trick is to discard the 5 and declare Reach. Youre only leaving yourself with four outs, but youre putting pressure on your
opponents and may be tricking them into thinking that the 2 of
that suit is safe, since you discarded the 5.
Exposing Tiles
Showing lots of Lucky Tiles (dora) or lots of one suit using

pon and chow may lead other players to believe that you have
a big hand or a near-Ready hand. This may be true, but even
if its not, it will often stop your opponents in their tracks or at
least slow them down. They will feel pressure and possibly start
to make mistakes. Make sure, if you do this, that you do win
some of the hands you do this on; otherwise they will stop fearing you and just start to ignore you. On the other hand, that
might be a good time to pounce as well.

Using deception to win a hand:

Example1Discard:
152 Reach Mahjong
Your Opponent 152
Hand:
This early in the hand and with only honors/terminals in

the discard, this hand is very hard to read as the All Pairs hand
and an excellent time to Reach, since Honor tiles look fairly
safe. All Pairs will usually have a discard with more Simple tiles
and look more random.
Example 2Discard:
Hand:
The
in the beginning of the discard may throw players
off and make them think that

ing only three outs.
is safe. A risky move, leav-
153 Reach Mahjong

Example 3Discard:
Hand:
The
in the beginning of the discard may lead oppon-
ents to think that
is safe. A good time to Reach, since
even drawing a
and changing to open-ended will give
you a Missed Win with the
discarded.
Part IV
Appendices
A. Glossary
English Type of
Japanese
Term Term Definition Term
Ready Tile The tile that makes

a hand Ready.
hairime
12-Tile
3PM A hand in the Wild
All Pairs
Hand
White Dragon game

that is All Pairs and has

3 sets of 2 identical pairs.
juunimai chitoitsu
14-tile
All Pairs
Hand
White Dragon game


3 sets of 2 identical pairs

plus 2 White Dragons.
juuyonmaichitoitsu
2-Hand
house A house rule. After 5
Point
rule
continuances, 2 Hand
Minimum
Points are required for

winning hands until the

Continuance Bank is reset.
ryanhanshibari
2nd Call
strategy

term

ninaki
Calling bump/pon on
the 2nd discarded tile
instead of the first.
4-Tile
All Pairs
Hand
White Dragon game


2 identical pairs.
yonmaichitoitsu
156 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
8-Tile
All Pairs
Hand
White Dragon game


2 sets of 2 identical pairs.
A Top

house
rule
hachimaichitoitsu
Winning when only 1 player

finishes above 30,000 points. A toppu
Add-a-
action Adding the 4th matching
Quad
tile to a bumped/

ponned set.
kakan
Add-a-
Quad Win 1HP
Winning on a tile when

a player Add-a-quads it.
chankan
All 1s
and 9s
Limit Hand consisting of

sets of terminals only.
chinroutou
Limit
Hand
All Green
Limit

Hand
only 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8

of Bams and/or the
Green Dragon.
ryuuisou
All Honors

tsuuiisou
Limit
Hand

sets of Honor tiles only.
All Last
strategy The final hand of a

term
game. All Last may

occur more than once

if the final dealer

continues as dealer.
oorasu
All Pairs
2HP A 2-HP hand consisting

only of pairs. This hand is

always worth 25 Base

Points and at least 2

Hand Points.
chiitoitsu
All Sets
2HP A 2-HP hand consisting

of sets of 3 or 4 tiles.
No penalty for stealing/

calling tiles.
toitoihou
157 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 157
English Type of
Japanese
All A 2-HP hand consisting of
Terminals/ 2HP
only sets of Terminal and
Honors
Honor tiles. There is no

penalty for stealing/calling

tiles. An extra 2 HP will al
ways be added to this hand

for the All Sets hand, making

the All Terminals/Honors

hand worth at least 4 HP.
honroutou
Ante
rule The amount of points col
lected from each player at

the beginning of the game to

go to the winner of the game.
This is usually 5,000 points

taken from each players

30,000 starting points.
oka
Away
strategy The number of tiles needed

term
to turn an active hand into a
Ready hand. It is used by put
ting the number before the

word Away, e.g., 1-Away,

2-Away (from Ready).
shanten
B Top
rule set

Winning when 2 players

are above 30,000 points
at the end of a game.
Back
strategy Open-ended combination
Octaves
term
considered dangerous,

because of a tile next to

the combination showing

in the discard. e.g. 3-6 are

Back Octaves to 2 and 7.
B toppu
urasuji
Backdoor
rule The winning Hand Point does
Win
not need to be guaranteed

before the hand is won.
sakizuke/atozuke
Balk
strategy A player makes a move as

term
if he wants to call for a tile

or win the hand, but then

doesnt.
koshi
158 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Bams/
tiles/ The green suit. The number
Bamboos
game
1 is usually denoted by the

picture of a bird.
souzu
Base Points scoring The basic points used to

score hands. The Base Points

are doubled by the number

of Hand Points to calculate

the final score of a hand.
fu
Big
Dragons
Limit
Hand
Limit Hand that includes a

set of each of the 3 Dragons. daisangen
Big Open A quad declared by a player

Quad
groups
that had a set of 3 concealed

matching tiles in his hand

and called on another

players discard for the 4th. daiminkan
Big Wheels Limit Hand Limit Hand including a pair

/House
of each of the Simple Dots

(2-8 of the Dot Suit).
Big Winds Limit

Hand

daisharin
Limit Hand that has a set of

3 or 4 of each of the winds.
Big Winds used to be worth
more than Small Winds and
still is in the EMA RCR rules. daisuushii
Bird

tiles/ Slang term for the 1 of Bams.

game
tori
Black

strategy
term
Holding a positive score

in the game.
uki
Blind Read strategy Reading the tiles using

term
fingertips instead of looking

at the face of the tile.
moupai
Blocking
strategy A Reach declaration made
Reach
term
with a weak hand to scare

opponents with possible

stronger hands into folding

stronger hands.
ashidome riichi
Bluff
strategy Actions to make opponents

term
think a hand is worth more

or less than it really is and/

or Ready when it is not.
burafu
159 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 159
English Type of
Japanese
Bones
tiles/ The chips used to keep

game
track of and exchange

points in Reach Mahjong.
tenbou
Bonus
rule set Rule set that awards Bonus
Mahjong
chips for using Red 5s and

Hidden Lucky Tiles (dora).
goshugi ma-jan
Boo
rule set A rule set popular in the
Mahjong
Kansai region in the past.
buuma-jan
Bottom
tiles/
Draw
game

shitazumo
Being in a turn in which

tiles are drawn from the
bottom of the tiers.
Break
tiles/ To start the deal by rolling
the Wall
game
the dice, counting off the

appropriate number of tiers

on the wall, and taking the

first 4 tiles after that count.
kaimen
Bump (pon) tiles/ To call a tile from another

game
players discard to match a

pair already in the calling

players hand. Any tile can

be bumped from any other

players discard when the tile

is discarded, as long as the

calling player holds 2 tiles

that match the discarded tile. Pon
Bust Out
tiles/

game

Losing all starting points

and/or going into negative buttobi/
points in a game.
hakoten/tobi
Button
tiles/ The plate that shows which

game
round of the game is currently

being played. The Button/
Round Indicator always stays

on the right side of the table

in front of the dealer.
chiichamaaku
C Top
rule set

Winning when 3 players are

above 30,000 points at the
end of a game.
C toppu
160 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Call
tiles/ To claim a tile from another

game
players discard when it is

discarded.
kuu
Casino-style tiles/
Mahjong
game

furiimaajan
Mahjong played in a
parlor without prior
reservation for money or
points. Customers may sit
at an open seat at any time
and leave after any game.
Chinese
rule set Set of rules used for
Official
competitions in Asia and
Rules Europe based on the

classical Chinese version

of the game.
chuugokukoushikimaajan
Chip
Leader
toppume
strategy
term
Player who has the most

points during a game.
Chips
tiles/ Round chips used to keep

game
track of bonuses for

Hidden Lucky Tiles, quad

Hidden Lucky Tiles, First-Turn

Wins, and Red tiles in

cash games.
chippu
Chow
tiles/

game

chii
Calling a tile from the

discard pile to the left of
the player when it is
discarded to complete a
run in the players hand.
Chow
tiles/ Declare a chow using two
Switch
game
tiles that are already part of

a run and discarding the 3rd

tile of the run. Also, declaring

a bump/pon on an already

complete set and discarding

the 4th tile of that set.
kuikae
Collabor-
ation
tiles/
game
2 players working together

to gain points in a game.
konpiuchi
161 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 161
English Type of
Japanese
Complete tiles/ A hand that includes
Hand
game
4 sets/runs of 3 and

one pair, 7 pairs or one

of each Terminal and

Honor, and 1 pair.
agarite
Concealed tiles/ A hand with no

game
exposed groups.
menzen
Concealed groups
Quad

ankan
Four-of-a-kind declared
by a player who has collected all four tiles from
the deal and/or draws.
Concealed 10BP A hand that is concealed

River Win
(see above) and won on

a tile from another

players discard.
menzendeagari
Concealed 1HP A hand created and won

Self-Draw
only by tiles dealt to and

drawn by the winning

player.
menzentsumo
Concealed groups A set of 3-of-a-kind in

Set of 3
a hand made from tiles

dealt or drawn from

the wall.
anko
Continu-
tiles/ A count of hands won
ance
game
consecutively by a dealer

and/or ending in a draw.

continuances are reset to

zero when a player other

than the dealer wins.
renchan
Continu-
tiles/ A 100-point score stick
ance
game
placed on the table in front
Bone
of the dealer to show how

many continuances apply to

the current hand.
tsumibou
Continu-
tiles/ The amount awarded to
ance
game
a winning player for each
Bonus Hand
continuance saved up in

the game.
tsumiba
162 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Counted
Limit A hand that has accumulated
Limit Hand Hand
enough Hand Points to be

worth a Limit Hand.
kazoeyakuman
Craks
tiles/ The red suit denoted by

game
the Chinese character for

10,000.
wanzu/manzu
Dangerous strategy A tile that is very likely to

Discard
term
be a winning or useful tile

for another player.
kikenhai
Dead Hand penalty A penalty that disqualifies

a player from winning a

hand. The player must

continue to draw and

discard tiles.
agarihouki
Dead Pair

toisuu
strategy
term
When the same pair is

held by 2 different players.
Deal
tiles/game The distribution of 13 tiles to

each player at the beginning

of a hand.
haipai
Dealer
tiles/ The player who begins the

game
deal by breaking the wall.
The dealer receives 1.5x

the winning score of non
dealers and must pay double

what the non-dealers pay to

winning hands that are self
drawn by non-dealers.
oya/toncha
Decided
strategy A play style in which the
Play
term
player decides on a final

shape for a hand and

discards all tiles that do not

fit in the shape.
kimeuchi
Declaration tiles/

game

naki
Declared
Tiles
Calling a tile from another

player by saying bump/
pon, or chow.
tiles/ Tiles that were called

game
from other players discards. nakihai
163 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 163
English Type of
Japanese
Dice
tiles/
Cubes with numbers 1-6

game
used by the dealer. Two dice

are generally used in
Reach Mahjong.
saikoro
Digital
strategy Style of play played hand

term
by hand without thought of

impact of hands before and

after the current hand.
dejitaru
Discard
tiles/

game

dahai/kiru/
sutehai
Choosing a tile not needed

in the hand and placing
it in the River.
Discard
strategy Discarding a tile already in
Match
term
an opponents discard pile

because it is safe.
genbutsu
Discard
strategy The order that tiles are
Order
term
discarded to make a

winning hand.
tejun
Discarded tiles/ Discard a tile immediately

Draw
game
after its drawn.
tsumogiri
Dora
tiles/ A tile determined by the
(lucky tile) game
Lucky Tile/dora indicator at

the beginning of the game.
Any Bonus Tile used in a

winning hand is worth 1

Hand Point, but does not

count toward the minimum

of 1 Hand Point required for

a winning hand.
dora
Dots

pinzu
tiles/ The colored suit denoted

game
by circles or balls.
Double
strategy
Belly Buster term

3 tiles 1 apart each so that

2 types of tiles will complete
a run, e.g., 246, 135.
Double-
strategy A run of 4 waiting to
Ended
term
complete a pair on either
Wait
end, e.g., 1234.
ryankan
nobetan
164 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Double
Limit
Limit Hand Hand

House rule that allows multiple counting of Limit Hands,

e.g., Big Dragons and All
Honors together. Also,
sometimes special waits call
for Double Limit Hands in
house rules, such as 4 Concealed quads single wait or
13 Orphans 13-tile wait.
daburuyakuman
Double
2HP A hand that delcares Reach
Reach
on the first discard before

any tiles have been called

by bump/pon, or Chow.

Worth 2 Hand Points.
daburu riichi
Double Run 1HP A 1-HP hand that includes

2 identical runs in the same

suit. No stealing/calling is

allowed for this hand.
iipeikou
Double
Win
daburon
tiles/
game
2 players win off of 1

other players discard.
Double
2 HP A Wind that corresponds
Wind
to both the players seat and

the round and worth 2 Hand

Points when used as a set of

3 or 4. For example, Double
East and Double South.
renfu
Dragons
tiles/ Three Honor tiles that are

game
denoted by Chinese charac
ters and distinguished by

color: red, green, and white. sangenpai
Draw

tiles/ A hand that ends

game
without a winner.
Draw Tiles tiles/ Action in the game in

game
which a player draws the

next available tile from the

wall to continue the

game and is followed by a

discard, a win, or a quad

declaration.
ryuukyoku
tsumo
165 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 165
English Type of
Japanese
Drop
strategy To discard a tile from either

term
a pair, incomplete run, or

completed group with the

intent of discarding the other

parts of the group as well.
otosu
EMA RCR ruleset Stands for European

Mahjong Association Riichi

Competition Rules. The

official international rules of
Europe used in tournaments

throughout the region.
East Last
tiles/game The 4th hand in the
East Round.
tonrasu
East Round tiles/ The first 4 dealer

game
turns of play.
tonba
East Wind tiles/ One of the winds denoted

game
by the Chinese character

for East on sets in Asia

and including the English

character E on Western sets. tonpuu
Empty
Call
tiles/
game
Making a declaration
and then cancelling it.
karanaki
Empty
tiles/ To declare chow without
Chow
game
showing any tiles and can
celling the action.
kuuchii
Empty
tiles/ To declare bump/pon
Pon
game
without showing any tiles

and cancelling the action.
kuupon
Empty
tiles/ To declare quad without
Quad
game
showing any tiles and can
celling the action. Usually

penalized by a 1,000
point penalty.
kuukan
Empty
tiles/ A Ready hand in which
Ready
game
all winning tiles are

showing on the board or in

the hand and the hand

cannot be won.
karaten
166 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Empty
strategy Drawing a tile and
Switch
term
discarding an identical tile

from inside the hand.
karagiri
Etiquette
tiles/ Guidelines and manners

game
that should be followed so

all players are comfortable.
See Appendix C, Etiquette.
manaa
Exposed
tiles/ A hand that has stolen/
Hand
game
called tiles and

exposed groups.
nakite
Eyes

tiles/ The pair necessary to a

game
winning hand.
atama/jantou
Facing
Player
strategy The player across the

term
table from the subject.
toimen
Final
Dealer
tiles/ The last dealer

game
of a hand.
rasuoya
Final
Discard
tiles/ The last discarded tile

game
of the hand.
hooteihai
Final
strategy A Ready Hand that has
Shape
term
no chance of improving the

score or wait.
saishuukei
Final Tile

haiteihai
tiles/ The final tile to be drawn

game
in a hand.
Final A 1-HP hand won on the

Tile Win
1HP
final draw or final discard

of a hand. No penalty for

stolen/called tiles.
haitei/houtei
First
tiles/ The player who starts the
Dealer
game
game as dealer (East Wind).
The button (round indicator)

remains at the right of this

player for the entire game.
chiicha
167 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 167
English Type of
Japanese
First-Turn
1HP/ A special 1-HP hand
Win
house rule available to Reach hands

that win on the first round

of discards or the first draw

after declaring Reach. Any

pon/bump or chow

declaration between the
Reach declaration and the

win cancels this Hand Point. ippatsu
Fish

strategy A player who rarely wins

term
and makes an easy target.
kamo
Flower Tiles tile Tiles that are not used in

Reach Mahjong, but are in
cluded in Mahjong sets that

are denoted by either the 4

seasons or 4 types of flowers. hanahai
Fold
strategy To give up on a hand by

term
discarding only safe tiles to

make sure an opponent does

not win off of your discards. betaori/oriru
Following strategy To declare Reach after
Reach
term
another player has already

declared Reach.
okkakeriichi
Fouls
tiles/game Rules that are broken during

the game and call for

penalties.
Four
Limit
Concealed Hand
Sets
Limit Hand that consists of

4 concealed sets of 3 or 4.
suuankou
Four Quads Limit Hand Limit Hand that includes 4

sets of 4-of-a-kind.
suukantsu
Four Quads Special A Special Draw in which

Draw Draws
more than one player

declares a total of 4 quads.

When the 4th quad is

declared, the hand ends,

the dealer does not change,

and one continuance is

added to the bank.
suukannagare/
suukansanra
168 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Four Quints house rule A special hand used in the

Wild White Dragon game

that includes 4 sets of 5. One

White Dragon must be used

in each set.
suukintsu
Four Special A Special Draw in which all
Reaches Draws
4 players declare Reach and

no player wins on the 4th

declarations discard. Each

player must show a Ready

hand and any hands that

are not Ready are penalized.
The hand ends, the dealer

does not change, and one

continuance is added to

the bank.
yonnin riichi
Four Winds Limit Hand Limit Hand consisting of a set

of each of 3 Winds and a

pair or set of the other.
suushiihoo
Fried
house rule Special penalty for players
Chicken
who have not won a single
on a Stick
hand in a game.
yakitori
Full Flush
6HP A 6-HP hand that consists of

only 1 suit. There is a 1-HP

penalty for exposed hands.
chinitsu
Full Game tiles/game A game that includes 4

rounds: East, South, West

and North. Reach Mahjong

games usually only last 2

rounds and are called

Half-Games.
iichan
Full Straight 2HP A 2-HP hand that includes a

straight of 1-9 of the same

suit (3 runs). There is a 1-HP

penalty for an exposed hand. ikkitsuukan/ittsuu
169 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 169
English Type of
Japanese
Fully
tiles/game A table that mixes all tiles
Automatic

together and builds the
Table
mountains at the push of a

button. Modern tables also

keep track of each players

score.
zenjidoutaku
Grands
tiles/game The red suit denoted by the

Chinese character for

10,000.
wanzu/manzu
Green
tiles/game One of the 3 Colored
Dragon Dragons denoted by the

Chinese character for fortune

painted green.
hatsu/ryuufa
Group
tiles/game A run or set of 3 or 4. Four

of these are needed for a

winning hand.
mentsu
Gut Shot
strategy A middle wait: A group of 2

term
tiles that would make a run if

the tile in sequence was

available, e.g., 24, 46, etc. kanchan machi
Half-
tiles/game A table that shakes to turn
Automatic
all of the tiles upside down
Table
for easy shuffling.
hanjidoutaku
Half-Flush
3HP A 3-HP hand that includes

only 1 suit and honors.
There is a 1-HP penalty for

stealing/calling tiles from

other players discards.
honitsu
Half-Game tiles/game A full game of Reach

Mahjong, including an East
Round and South Round.
Each player should be the

dealer twice.
hanchan/
tonnansen
Hand
scoring A combination of tiles that

makes a hand worth points.
yaku
Hand
tiles/game The record of hands and
History
games recorded by a

bystander or on computer

software.
paifu
170 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Hand Points scoring

Points awarded for certain

combinations in hands. Base
Points are doubled by the
number of Hand Points to
calculate the final score.
fan/han
Head
tiles/game The pair necessary to

a winning hand.
atama/jantou
Heads-Up rule set A set of rules adapting the

usual 4-player game of
Reach Mahjong to a

2-player game.
futari maajan
Hell Wait
strategy A Ready hand waiting for a

term
single tile when the other 3

are visible to the player.
jigokumachi
Hidden
house rule A special Lucky Tile
Lucky Tile/
available only to winning
Dora
hands that declared Reach.
The tile is determined by

turning over the tile under

the Lucky Tile/dora Indicator.
Any tile next in sequence of

the same suit used in the

winning hand is worth an

extra Hand Point.
uradora
Hidden
tiles/game An extra Lucky Tile that
Quad Lucky
becomes available when a
Tile (dora)
player declares a quad. The

tile next to the Lucky Tile

(dora) Indicator is turned

over and becomes another

Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator.
The next tile in sequence of

the same suit becomes the

Quad Lucky Tile (dora). The

tile under this is the Hidden

Quad Lucky Tile (dora)
Indicator and the next tile in

sequence of the same suit is

the Hidden Quad Lucky Tile. kanuradora
171 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 171
English Type of
Japanese
High End
strategy The Winning Tile worth more

term
when there are 2 or more

waits in a hand.
takame
Honorable house rule A special hand that consists
Discard
of only Terminal and Honor

tile discards. The hand may

be complete upon the final

discard of the player or the

final discard of the hand. The

hand is worth 8,000 points

for non-dealers and 12,000

points for dealers.
nagashimangan
Honors
tiles/game Type of tiles including the

winds and the dragons.
jihai/tsuuhai
House Rule rule Rules used only in certain

regions or parlors.
rookaru ruuru
Human Win house rule A special hand in which a

player is dealt a Ready hand

and wins the hand during the

first round of discards from

another players discard. The

winner usually receives 8,000

points from the discarder.
renhou
Hybrid
strategy

term

Play style in which the

player aims for certain hands
and keeps only tiles that
fit in or help those hands.
haiburiddo
Illegal
tiles/game Declaring quad after
Quad Reaching in a way that

changes the wait, shape or

Hand Points of a hand.
okurikan
Incentives
house rule Bonus chips awarded for

using Red 5s and Hidden

Lucky Tiles (dora).
goshuugi
Incomplete tiles/game A single tile that needs a

Pair
matching tile to complete

a pair.
tanki
172 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Incomplete strategy A group of 2 tiles that would
Run
term
make a run if the last tile in

sequence was available,

e.g., 24, 45, 89, etc.
taatsu
Incomplete strategy A pair of tiles that needs

Set
term
another matching tile to

complete a set of 3.
toitsu
Inside Hand 1HP A 1-HP hand that consists of

only Simple tiles (2-8).
tanyao
Instant Win Limit Hand A Limit Hand that is Ready

on the deal and won on the

first drawn tile before any

player has declared pon,

chow or quad.
tenhou
Insta-Reach strategy Declaring Reach immediately

term
after a hand becomes Ready. sokurii
Interference foul A foul in which a player

makes it impossible to con
tinue the hand by exposing

too many tiles (i.e., more

than 5) or otherwise.
Kings-Tile 1 HP A 1-HP hand in which a
Win
player wins the hand with

the supplementary tile drawn

from the Kings Tiles directly

after declaring a quad.
rinshankaihou
Kings Tiles/ tiles/game The 14 tiles left at the end of
Kings Wall
the mountain for the game.
This is where the supplemen
tary tiles for quad declara-

tions are drawn from.
rinshanhai/
wanpai
Last
tiles/game The player in 4th place at

the end of a game.
rasu
Last-Place strategy In the final hand, the lastWin

term
place player wins the hand,

but remains in last place.
agarasu
Left Player tiles/game The player sitting immediately

to the subjects left-hand side. kamicha
173 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 173
English Type of
Japanese
Let Go
strategy Not declaring Mahjong on a

term
winning tile discarded by

an opponent.
minogasu
Limit Hand scoring Group of difficult hands

worth 32,000 points for

non-dealers and 48,000

points for dealers.
yakuman
Live Wall
tiles/game The mountain that will be

drawn by players.
tsumoyama
Low End

yasume
strategy The cheaper of 2 waits for a

term
winning hand.
Lucky Tile tiles/game A tile determined by the

(dora)
Lucky Tile/dora indicator at

the beginning of the game.
Any Bonus Tile used in a

winning hand is worth 1

Hand Point, but does not

count toward the minimum

of 1-Hand Point required

for a winning hand.
dora
Lucky Tile tiles/game Tile indicating which tile will

(dora)

be the Lucky Tile of the hand
Indicator
turned over during the deal.
The top tile on the 3rd tier

from the end of the Kings
Tiles.
dorahyoujihai
Mahjong
tiles/game A four-player game

originated in China played

with tiles or cards.
maajan
Made
Hand
kanzensakizuke
house A hand that has a decided

rule
Hand Point before winning.
Match
strategy Discard made to match
Discard
term
another players latest

discard, because it is safe to

other players hands.
awaseuchi
174 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Maximum penalty
When a player commits an
Penalty
irreversible offense (declares

incorrect Mahjong and shows

hand, interference, etc.), he

must pay the maximum pen
alty and the hand starts over.
No continuances are added

and the dealer does not

change. The penalty amount

may be determined by the

players prior to the game.
Generally, the amount is

4,000 to each player for a

dealer offense (12,000

points) and 2,000 to non
dealers, 4,000 to the

dealer for a non-dealer

offense (8,000 points).
chombo
Meld
tiles/game

Placing groups of tiles that

include a stolen/called tile
at the right-hand side of the
table to show other players
how it is used in the hand.
Middle Four strategy These are tiles of the same

term
suit, 4 digits apart in an

opponents discard and the

2 tiles inside these are con
sidered to be dangerous;

i.e., 3-8 in the discard,

4,7 are dangerous.
sarasu/soroeru
aidayonken
Middle
strategy A group of 2 tiles that would
Wait
term
make a Run if the tile in the

middle of the sequence was

available, e.g., 24, 46, etc. kanchanmachi
Missed Win tiles/game A hand that is Ready, but has

already discarded one of the

winning tiles. Hands with a

Missed Win may not win off

of discards, only Self-Draws. furiten
175 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 175
English Type of
Japanese
Missed
tiles/game Declaring Reach when one or
Win Reach
more of the winning tiles are

in the players own discard

pile.
furitenriichi
Mistaken foul A player mistakenly calls for
Steal
a discarded tile and changes

the call.
gopon/gochi
Mistaken foul A player declares Mahjong
Win
(ron) by mistake on a tile

he cannot win on, but does

not show the hand.
goron
Mixed
Outside

at least one Terminal or
Hand
honors in each group/

set; 1-HP penalty for stealing. chanta
Mix-Up
strategy To shuffle tiles in the hand

term
after the draw to confuse

other players about if the dis
carded tile was drawn or

came from the hand.
kotegaeshi
Monster
strategy A big hand. Usually worth a

term
pound (8,000 points) or

more.
oomonote
More
foul Active hand that has more

than 13 tiles.
taahai
Mountain
tiles/game The stacks of tiles in front of

each player set up at the

beginning of the game.
yama
Multiple
strategy
Hand with more than 2 waits.
Wait
tamenchan
Naked
strategy A Ready hand that has 4
Wait
term
melded sets/runs and only 1

remaining concealed tile,

waiting to complete a pair.
hadaka tanki
Natural
strategy Discarding tiles in the most
Play
term
natural order according to

a hand that was dealt.
tenari
176 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Next Turn house rule When there are 2 winners,
Winner
and the player closest to the

right of the discarder gets

the win by position.
atamahane
Nine Special An optional Special Draw in

Different Draws
which a player has 9
Terminals
different terminals or honors

in his hand on the Deal

and no pon/bump or chow

has been called. The player

shows the 9 tiles and the

hand ends. One continuance

is added to the bank and the

dealer does not change.
kyuushukyuuhai
Nine
Limit Hand A Limit Hand that includes
Treasures
three 1s, three 9s, one of

each of the numbers 2-8,

and one more tile, all of the

same suit. No stealing is

allowed.
chuurenpoutou
No Chance strategy A tile next to a tile that the

term
player can see 4 of. Thought

of as safer than others,

because there is no chance

the tile can be used in a run. no-chansu
No Rate
tiles/game Mahjong not played

for money.
no-reeto
No Limit
rule set Game that counts points

without using the score chart

and without rounding values

after 5 Hand Points.
aotenjou
Non-Dealer tiles/game The players who are not the

current dealer/East Wind.
ko
Non-Ready tiles/game Holding a hand that is not

ready when the hand ends

in a draw.
no-ten
177 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 177
English Type of
Japanese
Non-Ready tiles/game The penalty that non-Ready
Penalty
hands must pay to Ready

hands when the hand ends

in a draw.
no-tenbappu
Non-Ready foul A foul in which a player

Reach
declares Reach on a hand

that is not Ready. Since
Reach may not be taken

back once declared, the

player must continue to draw

and discard until the hand

ends in a draw. If another

player wins the hand, the

player with the non-Ready
Reach hand does not receive

a penalty.
no-tenriichi
North Wind tiles/game One of the winds denoted

by the Chinese character for
North on sets in Asia and

including the English

character N on Western sets. pei
Octave
strategy Declaring Reach when the
Trap
term Octave Tiles of the Winning

tile is in the players discard

but the player does not have

a Missed Win, e.g., 4 is in

the discard and the player

has 68 waiting for 7.
hikkake
Octaves
strategy A strategy term based on

term
open-ended waits and

tiles needed for a run.

(i.e., 1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9).
suji
One Away strategy A hand that only needs

term
one more tile to be Ready.
iishanten
One Before tiles/game South Round 3 Hand, the

Last
hand before All Last. One

Before Last may continue

for more than one hand if the

dealer continues as dealer. rasumae
rd
178 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
One
strategy A strategy theory that if 3 of
Chance
term
the same tile are seen on the

board, then the tile only has

one chance to be used in a

run, so neighboring tiles look

like safe discards.
wanchansu
One
rule set A rule that requires at least
Minimum
one Hand Point for every
Hand Point
winning hand.
iihanshibari
Open-
wait A group of 2 tiles that would
Ended
make a run if the tile at the

beginning or end of the

sequence was available,

e.g., 23, 56, etc.
ryanmenmachi
Open Quad tiles/game A set of 4 in which one of

the tiles was called from

another players discard.
minkan
Open
house rule A 1-HP hand (plus 1 HP for
Reach Reach) in which the player

declares Reach and shows

the hand open on the table

so all players can see what

the player is waiting for. This

hand is a house rule and is

most common in home games

and 3-player Mahjong.
openriichi
Open
tiles/game A set of 3 that includes 1
Set of 3
called tile taken by declaring

bump/pon.
minkou
Open
rule A 1-HP hand. The All
Simples Simples hand in which

bump/pon and chow decla
rations are allowed. This is

the most common form of

the hand in Japan. This rule

is not allowed in the EMA
RCR rules.
kuitan
179 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 179
English Type of
Japanese
Original
tiles/game The next tile of the same suit
Lucky Tile
in sequence to the first Lucky
(Dora) Tile Indicator turned over at

the beginning of the hand.
omotedora
Original
rule set An adaptation of the 4-player
Three-
game for 3 players that is
Player
most commonly played
Mahjong
in Tokyo.
toutenkou sanma
Out
strategy The tile(s) that make a

term
winning hand from a Ready

hand.
machi
Pair
tiles/game A group of 2 tiles identical

in value and suit.
toitsu
Pair of
2BP A group of 2 identical value
Value Tiles
tiles (i.e., Round Wind, Seat

Wind, or Colored Dragons). yakuhaitoitsu
Pass
strategy A strategy of keeping tiles
Around
term
other players may need and

still aiming for a Ready or

winning hand.
mawashiuchi
Peace Hand 1HP A 1-HP hand that has no

Base Points. All groups must

be runs, no Value Tiles are

allowed for the pair, and the

final wait must be

open-ended.
pinfu
Penalty
tiles/game The amount a player must

play for breaking a rule,

e.g., Empty chow, Empty

bump/pon.
bappu
Picture
strategy Style of play that disregards
Matching term
all hands and matches runs

and sets to make a Winning

Combination.
eawase
180 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Placing
scoring
Bonus

Bonus points awarded to

players or paid by players
according to placement at
the end of the game. In
general, 1st and 2nd win
extra points and 3rd and
4th place pay extra points.
uma
Pon
tiles/game To call a tile from another

players discard to match a

pair already in the calling

players hand. Any tile can

be ponned from any other

players discard when the tile

is discarded, as long as the

calling player holds 2 tiles

that match the discarded tile. Pon
Pow
penalty A penalty in which a player

has discarded a tile that is

called by another player and

guarantees a Limit Hand for

the other player (e.g., the 4th

Wind when a player has

already melded 3 sets of

winds).
pau
Pure
3HP A 3-HP hand in which each
Outside

set or run includes at least
Hand
one Terminal (1 or 9). 1-HP

penalty for an exposed hand. junchan
Purity
3PM Hand A special condition in the

3-player Wild White Dragon

game in which a hand does

not include any White
Dragons.
junsei
Quad
tiles/game A set of 4 identical tiles.
kan
181 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 181
English Type of
Japanese
Quad Lucky house rule An extra Lucky Tile that
Tile (Dora)
becomes available when a

player declares a quad. The

tile next to the Lucky Tile

(dora) Indicator is turned over

and becomes the Quad

Lucky Tile (dora) Indicator.
The next tile in sequence of

the same suit becomes the

Quad Lucky Tile (dora).
kandora
Quarter
tiles/game A game that includes only
Game
1 round: the East Round.
tonpuusen
Quint
3PM Hand A special set in the 3-player

Wild White Dragon game of

4 identical tiles and 1 White
Dragon.
kin
Quotes
tiles/game The final 2 tiles the dealer

takes at the end of the Deal,

on the top of the wall,

skipping one tile.
chonchon
Rate
tiles/game The amount awarded for

each 1,000 points in a

cash game.
re-to
Raw Tile

shonpai
strategy A tile that has not yet been

term
discarded by any player.
Reach
1HP A 1-HP hand in which a

player creates a concealed
Ready hand and declares
Reach to show that hes
Ready. Reach is declared by

placing the discard on the

declaration sideways and

placing a 1,000-point bet

on the table. After declaring
Reach, the hand may not be

changed except to declare a

quad if it does not affect

any other part of the hand. riichi
182 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Reach Bank tiles/game The collection of Reach bets

that have remained on the

table because of a lack of

winners in hands that Reach

was declared. All bets saved

in the Reach Bank go to

the next winner of any hand. kyoutaku
Reach Bone tiles/game The 1,000-point bet made

when Reach is declared,

placed in the middle of

the River.
riichibou
Reach
tiles/game The tile discarded when a
Declaration
player declares Reach. This
Tile
tile must be placed perpin
dicular to the other discards

when discarded.
riichi
Reach
rule set A set of rules that evolved
Mahjong
from the original Chinese

game in Japan and is now

played in a professional

circuit, most known for its

defensive aspect.
riichi maajan
Reachless
Ready
strategy A hand that is concealed

term
and Ready, but not Reached. damaten/yamiten
Read
strategy Determining certain traits

term
about an opponents hand by

looking only at the players

discards.
yomi
Ready
rule set Rules in which a dealer may
Continue
continue being dealer if the

hand ends in a draw by

holding a Ready hand.
tenpairenchan
Ready
tiles/game A hand that only needs one
Hand
more tile to be complete.
tenpai
Ready in
tiles/game A hand that is Ready, but
Shape
does not have any Hand

Points.
keishikitenpai
Red
scoring

shizumi
Holding less than 30,000

points.
183 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 183
English Type of
Japanese
Red Dragon tile One of the 3 Colored
Dragons denoted by the

Chinese character for Middle

or China, colored Red.
chun
Red Fives
tiles/game Red tiles that replace the

normal 5s of a suit.
Generally there is 1 red 5 for

each suit in a Reach set.
akadora
Right Player tiles/game The person sitting directly to

the right of the subject.
shimocha
River
tiles/game The place on the table where

discards are placed.
kawa
River Win tiles/game A hand won off of a tile

discarded by another player. deagari
Robbing See Add-a-Quad Win. (Kong
the Kong
1HP
is the Chinese and Japanese

word used for a Quad.)
chankan
Ron
tiles/game The Japanese declaration

used for a hand won off of

a tile discarded by another

player.
ron
Round
tiles/game A period of the game in

which each player is dealer

(East Wind) once. Rounds

are denoted by Wind names.
A full Reach Mahjong game

includes the East Round and
South Round.
ba
Round
tiles/game The plate that shows which
Indicator
round of the game is currently

being played. The Button/
Round Indicator always stays

on the right side of the table

to the dealer.
chiichamaaku
184 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Round
1HP The Wind corresponding to
Wind
the current Round being

played and shown on the

button (round indicator). Also

a 1-HP hand that includes a

set of 3 or 4 of the Wind

corresponding to the current
Round beign played.
bakaze
Run
tiles/game A group of 3 tiles of the

same suit and in sequence,

e.g., 123, 567.
shuntsu
Safe
Discard
anzenpai
strategy A tile that is obviously not

term
and other players winner.
Same Special A special rule that calls for

Wind Draws
a draw (no winner) of the
Discards
hand if each player discards

the same Wind on the first

discard and there are no

declarations of pon/bump or

chow. The dealer does not

change and 1 continuance

is added ot the bank.
suufuushirenda
Scoring
tiles/game The chips used to keep track
Sticks
of and exchange points in
Reach Mahjong.
tenbou
Season Tiles tiles/game Tiles that are not used in

Reach Mahjong, but are

included in Mahjong sets that

are denoted by either the 4

seasons or 4 types of flowers. hanahai
Seat
tiles/game The process of deciding
Allocation
where each player will sit for

the duration of the game.
bagime
185 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 185
English Type of
Japanese
Seat Wind 1HP The Wind corresponding to

the seat a player is in

according to the dealer.
Also, a 1-HP hand in which

a player has a set of 3 or 4

of the Wind corresponding

with his seat according to

the dealer.
jikaze
Self-Drawn tiles/game A hand in which the player

Win
has drawn the winning tile

from the wall.
tsumo-agari/
tsumoho
Sequential tiles/game A group of tiles of the same

Run
suit and in sequence,

e.g., 123, 567.
shuntsu
Set of
tiles/game A group of 3 tiles that are
3-of-a-kind
identical in value and suit.
kootsu
Set of
tiles/game A group of 4 tiles that are
4-of-a-kind
identical in value and suit.
kantsu
Set of
1HP A 1-HP hand in which the
Value Tiles
player has a set of 3 of their
Seat Wind, the Round Wind,

or a Colored Dragon.
yakuhaikoutsu
Set Wait
tiles/game A Ready hand that has 2

pairs and needs to complete

one into a set of 3-of-a-kind.
Side Bet
other

shanpon
Bet made between 2 players

in the game about which one sotouma/
will finish higher.
sashiuma
Side Wait tiles/game A group of 2 tiles that would

make a run if the tile at one

end of the sequence was

available, e.g., 12, 89.
penchanmachi
Simple
other
Hand with Peace and
Peace All Simples.
tanpin
Simple
rule set The 3-player adaptation of
Three-Player
the 4-player Reach Mahjong
Mahjong
game closest to the original

4-player version in scoring

and play.
hanchansei
sanma
186 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Simples
tiles/game All suited tiles from 2-8.
chunchanpai
Single Wait tiles/game A Ready hand that is waiting

to complete a pair.
tankimachi
Small
Dragons
2 sets of 3 or 4 Colored
Dragons and 1 pair of

Colored Dragons. Each set

of Colored Dragons also

receives 1 HP, so the

minimum score for this hand

is 4 Hand Points.
shousangen
Small
Limit Hand A Limit Hand that includes
Winds
3 sets of 3 or 4 Winds and

1 pair of winds.
shousuushi
South
tiles/game The second round of play,
Round
denoted by the button.
nanba
South Wind tile One of the winds denoted

South on sets in Asia and


character S on Western sets. nan
Special
rule Special circumstances that
Draws
end the hand before a

winner is declared due to

superstitious or logical

reasons. The hand ends, 1

continuance is added to the

bank, and the dealer does

not change.
tochuuryuukyoku
Stack
other To play unfairly and arrange
the Deck
tiles so that winning is easier. ikasama
Staked
other A player who plays with
Player
someone elses money.
daiuchi
Starting
tiles/game The amount of points each
Points
player begins a game with.
Usually 30,000 points.
genten
187 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 187
English Type of
Japanese
Suits
tiles/game Three colors distinguishing

the numbered tiles: Craks,

Bams, and Dots.
iro/shuupai
Supplemen- tiles/game An extra draw from the end

tary Draw
of the wall (the Kings
Tiles) to replace a tile used in

a quad to even out the rest

of the groups in a hand.
rinshantsumo
Temporary tiles/game The seat that will roll the
East
dice to decide the first

dealer.
kariton
Temporary strategy A Ready hand with either a

Ready
term
bad wait or no Hand Points

that is being held to to be

changed to a different final

hand.
kariten
Terminals
routouhai
tiles/game The 1s and 9s of each suit.
Thirteen
Limit Hand Limit Hand consisting of one
Orphans
of each Terminal and Honor

and including one pair.
kokushimusou
Three
2HP A 2-HP hand including runs
Colored
using the same numbers in
Runs
each suit. There is a 1 HP

penalty for an exposed hand. sanshokudoujun
Three
2HP A 2-HP hand including sets of
Colored
3 or 4 of the same numbers
Sets
in each suit. There is no

penalty for an exposed hand. sanshokudoukou
Three
2HP A 2-HP hand including 3 sets
Concealed
of 3 or 4 that have not been
Sets
called or won from other

players discards. Parts of the

hand not related to the 3

Concealed Sets may be

exposed with no penalty.
sanankou
188 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Three
2HP/ A 2-HP hand that is no
Consecutive house rule longer commonly used in
Sets
public play, including 3 sets

of 3 or 4 of consecutive tiles

in the same suit.
sanrenkou
Three-
rule set A set of rules adapting the
Player
Mahjong Reach Mahjong to a 3-player

game. Many variations are

played throughout Japan.
sanma
Three
2HP A 2-HP hand that includes 3
Quads
sets of 4 (quads). There is no

penalty for an exposed hand. sankantsu
Three
house rule A special rule for the Wild
Quints
White Dragon game. The
Three Quints hand includes

3 sets of 5 (at least one Wild

tile must be used).
sankintsu
Three-way tiles/game A group of tiles that will
Wait
complete a run with 3 types sanmenchan/

of tiles, e.g., 2333, 23456. sanmenmachi
Thirteen
house rule A special hand that consists
Non-Towers
of 1 pair and all

non-connected tiles for the

rest of the hand on the deal.
The hand is worth 12,000

points for dealers and 8,000

points for non-dealers.
juusanputou
Throw To

strategy To purposely discard a winterm

ning tile for another player.
sashikomi
Tier
tiles/game A set of 2 tiles stacked on top

of each other in the wall.
Each hand starts with a

mount that contains 42 tiers. ton
Tile Odds strategy The process of considering

term
the number and types of tiles

that will advance a hand.
haikouritsu
Tiles
tiles/game The essence of Mahjong.
hai/pai
189 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 189
English Type of
Japanese
Title
other

1st place in a championship

tournament.
Too Few
foul A hand that has less than

13 tiles.
taitoru
shouhai
Top
tiles/game Player that has the most

points at the end of a game. toppu
Triple
Limit Hand House rule that allows multiLimit Hand
ple counting of Limit Hands,

e .g., Big Dragons and
All Honors together. Also,

sometimes special waits call

for Double Limit Hands in

house rules, such as 4 Con
cealed quads single wait

or 13 Orphans 13-tile wait.
toripuru yakuman
Triple Run 2HP A hand used in some 3-player

house rule games or private 4-player

games consisting of 3

identical runs. A concealed

version of this hand may also

be counted as Three

Consecutive Sets.
isshokusanjun
Two
3HP A 3-HP hand that must
Double

include 2 sets of identical
Runs
runs. No stealing is allowed

for this hand.
ryanpeikou
Two-Player rule set A set of rules adapting the

Mahjong
Reach Mahjong to a 2-player

game.
futarimaajan
Value Tile tiles/game Tiles that are worth a Hand

Point or more when used as

a set of 3-of-a-kind.
fanpai/yakuhai
Valueless tiles/game A wind that does not

Wind
correspond to a players Seat

Wind or the Round Wind.
otakaze
Wait
strategy The tile(s) that will make a

term
winning hand from a
Ready hand.
machi
190 Reach Mahjong

English Type of
Japanese
Wall
strategy A strategy theory that if 4 of

term
the same tile are seen on the

board, then the tile cannot be

used in a run, so neighboring

tiles look like safe discards. kabe
Walls
tiles/game The stacks of tiles in front of

each player set up at the

beginning of the game.
yama
Wall Split house rule A special house rule that calls

for the player sitting in front

of the broken wall to pay

double-score for non-winning

hands and receive double
score for winning hands.
wareme
Wash Tiles tiles/game Shuffle the tiles by moving

them around on the table

with other players.
shiipai
West
house rule Playing an extra round after
Round Play
the South Round is over

because all players hold

less than 30,000 points.
shaanyuu
West Wind tiles/game One of the winds denoted


West on sets in Asia and


character W on Western sets. sha
White
tile One of the 3 Colored
Dragon Dragons denoted by a blank

tile or a black rectangle on a

white background.
haku
Wild White ruleset A special set of 3-player rules
Dragon
in which the White Dragon

tile is wild.
hakumaiti
Win
tiles/game Complete a Ready hand by

another players discard or

by drawing the winning tile. agari
Win
house rule In the final hand, the dealer
and Run
may choose to stop the game

if he is the point leader.
agariyame
191 Reach Mahjong
Appendix a 191
English Type of
Japanese
Win
foul A foul in which a player has
Without
declared a win and shown
a Hand
down a hand that has no

Hand Points.
yakunashi
Winds
type of tile Four of the Honor Tiles that

are denoted by the 4

directions on a compass:
East, South, West, and North.
Also the names of the seats

of each player.
kaze/kazehai
Winning
scoring
Base-
Point Bonus
20-point Base-Point bonus

awarded to all winning
hands.
fuutei
Winning
scoring The 2 HP awarded to every
Hand
winning hand. Does not
Point Bonus
apply toward the 1-HP

minimum of a winning hand.
Omitted in modern

calculating shortcuts.
banban/bazoro
Winning
strategy The amount of times a player
Percentage term
gets first place divided by

the number of games played

by the player.
shouritsu
Winning
tiles/game The final tile to complete a
Tile
winning hand.
agarihai
X-Ray Play cheating Distinguishing tiles based on

method
marks on the backs or sides

of the tiles.
ganpai
B. Answers to Quizzes
Quiz 1Waits
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
193 Reach Mahjong
vii.
viii.
ix.
x.
Quiz 2Illegal Reach Quads
1.
May be quadded.
2.
May not be quadded, because the

waits lost.
194 Reach Mahjong
3.
May not be quadded, because the
waits are lost.
4.
5.
May be quadded.
May not be quadded, because the pair

of the hand becomes fixed instead of arbitrary.
6.
vs.
Appendix B 194
tile.
May not be quadded, because its a winning
195 Reach Mahjong
Quiz 3Hand Points
1. 1 HP: Peace Hand (1)

2. 3 HP: Round Wind (1), Seat Wind (1), Green Dragon
(1)
3. 3 HP: Concealed Self-Draw (1), 3 Colored Runs (2)
4. 2 HP: Peace Hand (1), All Simples (1)
5. 6 HP: Seat Wind (1), Half-Flush (3), Full Straight (2)
6. 9 HP: Red Dragon (1), Green Dragon (1), Mixed Outside Hand (2), Small Dragons (2), Half-Flush (3)
7. 1 HP: 3 Colored Runs (2-1)
8. 5 HP: Reach (1), First-Turn Win (1), Concealed-SelfDraw (1), All Pairs (2)
9. Concealed Self-Draw (1), Three Concealed Sets (2),
Pure Outside Hand (3) for a total of 6 HP
10. 4 HP: Seat Wind (1), 3 Lucky Tiles (3)
11. 5 HP: Concealed Self-Draw (1), All Simples (1), Double Run (1), 2 Lucky Tiles (2)
12. 3 HP: 3 Colored Runs (2-1), Pure Outside Hand (3-1)
13. 3 HP: Round Wind (1), Seat Wind (1), Mixed Outside Hand (2-1)
14. 3 HP: Inside Hand (1), Peace Hand (1), Lucky Tile (1)
Quiz 4Base Points
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
50
40
50
70
50
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Points
Points
Points
Points
Points
Quiz 5Scoring Hands
5,800 (dealer: 30BP, 3HP)

500/1,000 (non-dealer: 30BP, 2HP)
8,000 (non-dealer: 50BP, 5HP)
8,000 (non-dealer: 30BP, 5HP)
4,000 each (dealer: 40BP, 5HP)
196 Reach Mahjong
Appendix B 196
Quiz 6Doubles Calculations
1. BP: 20+8(
)+4(
)+2(Gut Shot)=34 rounded
up to 40BP
HP: 2+1(Value Tile)+1(Lucky Tile)=HP
40BPx24 = 40BPx16 = 640
Dealer River Win: 640x6=3840 rounded up to
3900 paid by discarder.

)+4(
)+2(Gut Shot)+2(Self-Drawn
2. BP: 20+8(
Win=36 rounded up to 40BP
HP: 2+1(Value Tile)=3HP
40BPx23 = 40BPx8 = 320
Non-dealer Self-Drawn Win: 320 rounded up to
400 from each non-dealer and 320x2=640 rounded up to 700 from the dealer.
)+2(
)=26 rounded up to 30BP
3. BP: 20+4(
HP: 2+1(All Simples)=3HP
30BPx23 = 30BPx8 = 240
Dealer River Win: 240x6=1440 rounded up to
1500 paid by discarder.
197 Reach Mahjong
Quiz 7Scoring the Game

Name
Number

Player A
Player B
Player C
Player D
Question
1
+42
Question
2
+16
-44 +17
Question
3
+46
+11
Question
4
+51
-49
-19
-25
-39
+52
-43
-12
-14
+10
Subtotal
Total
Other
Quiz 8Wild White Dragon
1. Any tile will complete the hand. It is an infinite wait.

(Waiting to pair the White Dragon)
2.
3.
4.
198 Reach Mahjong
Appendix B 198
Quiz 9How Many Away
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1
3
2
4
3
Away
Away
Away
Away
Away
from
from
from
from
from
Ready
Ready
Ready
Ready
Ready
Quiz 10Getting Ready
1.
2.
3.
C. Etiquette
These are general guidelines used in cash games and tournaments in Japan to make games run smoothly. Some rules
dont apply outside of Japan and if any are used for home
games, they should be decided on before the game starts.
These are not game rules, but rather etiquette guidelines. Many
guidelines are here to speed up games and some are to consider other players during the game.
i. Tiles
Wall
You should always place the wall in front of you
close to the middle of the table.
The wall should be placed at a slant so the tiles
on your right (the ones that will be drawn first)
are closer to your opponents, making it easier
for them to make draws.
After a hand ends, players should not turn over
the remaining tiles in the wall.
In a hand-shuffled game, all tiles should be
placed upside-down before the wash begins.
Dealing
The dealer should always break the wall himself, no matter whose wall the dice lands on.
200 Reach Mahjong

The person in front of the broken wall is responsible for dropping the top tile at the end of
the Kings Tiles and turning over the Lucky Tile
(dora) indicator.
The dealer is responsible for making sure each
player has taken all 13 tiles in the deal before
discarding the first tile.
Your Own Tiles
After the hands are dealt, unless you have won
the hand, its a courtesy to keep only one hand
on the table at all times, so that your hand is visible to all other players.
Drawn tiles should be placed on the right edge
of the hand until a tile has been discarded and
the turn ends.
Discarded tiles should be placed in the river in
rows of six.
Tiles should not be discarded while another tile
is in the discarders hand.
Hands in play should never be placed facedown on the board, even after Reaching. Hands
should always stay up, facing the player, unless
another player has stood up from the table and
its necessary to hide the hand for a short time.
Hands in play should not remain touching the
side of the table during play.
If a player does not keep their hand organized,
they should open it before rearranging the tiles.
Winning hands should always be shown with
two hands and all at the same time (no slowrolling).
Winning hands should be arranged by suit and
denomination, so other players may easily score
the hand.
201 Reach Mahjong
Appendix C 201
ii. Play
A tile should never be drawn until the previous
player has already completed his discard.
As tiles are drawn from the wall, the player in
front of the shortening wall should push the tiles
toward the center to make it easier for other
players to draw tiles.
Reach should only be declared using a
1,000-point stick. If a player does not have one,
he should ask another player for change before
placing any scoring sticks in the middle for his
Reach declaration.
After Reaching, a player should not check the
Hidden Lucky Tile (dora) and should not look at
other players hands until the hand is over.
Non-winning hands should not be displayed for
other players after the hand is over unless the
hand ends in a draw.
When the hand ends in a draw, the dealer
should always announce Ready or Not Ready
first and the following announcements should
follow in the proper play order.
Elbows should not be placed on the table.
iii. Speaking
When making declarations, players should
always speak clearly and loud enough for all
other players to hear.
All declarations should be announced before
any actions are taken.
Tiles should not be named when being called
(example: North-pon).
A player making a chow declaration should
wait one beat to make sure other players are
not going to declare pon/bump.
202 Reach Mahjong

Players should never speak about their hands,
whether theyre speaking the truth or lying.
Depending on the venue, it may be against
etiquette to announce the Hand Points of winning hands and only the score should be announced. In certain venues, its good manners
to announce all Hand Points in the hand before
announcing the final score.
Points should always be counted and announced
by the winning player. Assistance may be given
by other players when necessary.
Players should not hum, whistle, or sing during
games.
B. Web Sites
ReachMahjong: The Only Way to Play
http://reachmahjong.com/
English and Japanese
Started by the only American members of the Japan
Professional Mahjong League, Jenn Barr and featuring Garthe Nelson and Shintaro Konno. This site has
it all: player forums, regular columns, pro interviews,
podcasts, quizzes, discussion questions, reviews, rules
and much more! All content focuses on the Reach form
of Mahjong which originated in Japan and boasts the
worlds only professional circuit.
Japan Professional Mahjong League
http://ma-jan.or.jp/
Japanese
The biggest and most successful professional Mahjong league in the world. The JPMLs Japanese site has
regular interviews of professional players, tournament
schedules, articles and reports on tournaments, infor-
203 Reach Mahjong
Appendix C 203
mation on JPMLs professional test, JPMLs official battle

site, Ron2 and more.
MahjongMart
http://mahjongmart.com/
English
Online Mahjong store specializing in Reach Mahjong
goods from Japan. This shop is run by ReachMahjong.
com and ships goods all over the world.
Sloperama
http://sloperama.com/mjfaq.html
English
The most comprehensive Mahjong FAQ in the world.
Author of The Red Dragon & The West Wind, Tom
Sloper has consolidated information about every type
of Mahjong and is available to answer questions.

Mahjong News
http://mahjongnews.com/
English
Mahjong News is an independent Internet Mahjong
newspaper run by Martin Rep and reports on Mahjong
events throughout the world.
About the Author

Jenn Barr was born and raised in
Seattle and set off for Japan the minute
she finished high school. She spent half
a year in Osaka before attending the
University of Hawaii for a semester, then
ended up at Sophia University Tokyo,
from which she graduated in 2005.
Jenn fell in love with Mahjong in
2004 and worked on her game so that
she could join the Japan Professional
Mahjong League in 2006, the largest
and most successful professional Mahjong league in the world.
She is working on spreading love for the game throughout the
world and hosts a Web site, reachmahjong.com, for other
Reach fans, which features columns, quizzes, podcasts, online
meet-ups, and more.
Visit
LasVegasAdvisor.com
for all the latest on
gambling and Las Vegas
Free features include:

Articles and ongoing updates on gambling.
Tournament listings and articles.
Up-to-the-minute Las Vegas gambling promotion announcements.
Question of the DayIn-depth answers to
gambling and Las Vegas related queries.
Active message boards with discussions
on blackjack, sports betting, poker, and
more!
Become a Las Vegas Advisor Member

and get our exclusive coupons and
discounts.
About Huntington Press

Huntington Press is a specialty publisher of Las
Vegas- and gambling-related books and periodicals,
including the award-winning consumer newsletter,
Anthony Curtis Las Vegas Advisor.
Huntington Press
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Las Vegas, Nevada 89103
Games
$7.98
HuntingtonPress.com
Las Vegas, Nevada

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Reach Mahjong

The Only Way to Play

New Dogs Learning Old Tricks.......................................... 1

I. Tools of the Trade

To play a full game, you need four players. Short on friends?

These are obviously the most important physical elements

The 1-Bams is usually a bird. Dont mix it up with the 1-Dots!

The red character under the black numbers stands for

Tools of the Trade 6

White Green Red

Red Fives: There is a small circle on each red-five in case

A pair of dice comes with any

Tools of the Trade 8

Reach Mahjong uses scoring sticks or bones to keep track

1,000-point bones (36)

5,000-point bones (8)

10,000-point bones (4)

Altogether these total 120,000 points. I like to break one of

A full game of Reach Mahjong consists of two rounds

In Japan, you can find casino-style Mahjong parlors in just

Tools of the Trade 10

A. East Players Hand (dealer)

Many Mahjong players consider seating to be a big deal.

3. The person across from

5. The shuffler turns over the tiles without changing the

6. The two numbered tiles are moved to

9. North and South are the opposite of normal maps, so

For a quick way to choose seats, just mix up one of each

Each player starts with 30,000 points. The bones should be

Building the Wall

Now line up 17 more in front of that.

put your pinkies on either side of the back row, steady

The dealer in Mahjong has an important role. Each player

Breaking the Wall

She starts on the right-hand side of the wall in front of the

Lucky Tile/Dora Indicator

There is always a bonus tile in Reach Mahjong called the

Taking Turns or, Playing the Game

All discards must be lined up in front of the player who

I suppose you might want to know how to decide if you

Sequential run of three

Bad sets of three

Bad set of four

(seven and nine of craks)

(see the eight-craks on left-players discard)

Ponned from player on the left

Ponned from player directly

Ponned from player on the right

An open quad is essentially bumped from another player

Meld your set, once again turning one tile sideways to

Sometimes youll be lucky enough to draw quads yourself

If youve ponned a set of 3-of-a-kind and you draw the

Placing Declared Tiles

The first exposed set should go on the corner of the table

Ready Hand is a very important term in Reach Mahjong.

If a hand has three complete groups of three (or four if there

If a hand has three complete groups of three (or four if there

If a hand has four complete groups of three (or four if there

A ready hand could be left with no outs or could have up

This hand is waiting to complete a run with three options:

This hand can win with 3-bams, 6-bams, 5-dots, or 8-dots.

Here, you could be waiting for 1-bams, 4-bams, or 7-bams.

Here a 2-bams or 5-bams will complete the pair. That