01 · Tenpai: ready, not yet a win
Complete Lesson 1 first. This optional reference proceeds through ready hands, closed status, yaku, winning-tile source, riichi, dora, furiten and draws. Japanese eligibility and scoring passages apply only to the riichi branch; use the separate courses for MCR and Sichuan.
13 tiles: ready
Wait — not yet in your hand
South does not complete this hand
A ready hand needs one suitable tile to complete its shape. In this example four sequences are complete, leaving a lone East. Another East makes the pair: a single-tile pair wait. The waiting tile is not part of your current thirteen.
Ready does not guarantee that the tile will arrive, or that every completion is legally winnable. If South arrives, East-South is not a pair merely because both are winds. If East arrives, check the source and winning eligibility.
02 · Closed hands and open calls
Closed means you have not used open calls to make exposed groups. Those exposed groups are melds. Standing your tiles upright or arranging them neatly does not make a hand closed. Hidden tiles are visible in the illustration only for teaching.
Closed: drawn by you, no open calls
Open example: this chow is exposed
A concealed kong preserves closed status in riichi. The final ron tile also does not simply turn an otherwise closed hand into an open hand. Track how each group was obtained, because that affects riichi and yaku eligibility.
03 · Yaku, han and fu: eligibility before value
A yaku is a recognised winning pattern or condition in riichi. Ordinary wins require at least one. A Red Dragon triplet can provide a dragon yaku, but the rest of the hand still needs completion. A Red Dragon pair does not provide that triplet yaku.
Red Dragon triplet
Pair only — not this yaku
Han and fu are inputs to riichi scoring, not fixed payments per han. First establish a completed hand, a yaku and legal winning permission; then use the chosen scoring table. Japanese yaku requirements and Chinese Official minimum scoring are different systems.
04 · Tsumo: completing with your own draw
Self-draw describes where the finishing tile came from. Drawing any tile is not a win. Starting with the thirteen-tile East wait above, you draw East and form the pair. Keep the finishing tile separate while checking the result.
1. Your own draw
2. Add to the original 13: now 14
In riichi, self-draw as a way to finish is distinct from the closed-self-draw yaku. An open hand can still win by drawing, but needs another yaku. Do not mistake the source of a tile for automatic permission to win.
05 · Ron and dealing in: an opponent supplies the last tile
Use the same East wait, but an opponent now discards East. If eligible and not barred from ron, you may declare a discard win. You cannot pick an arbitrary old discard, nor call pung first and then declare ron.
Your 13: waiting on East
Opponent’s just-discarded tile
From the discarder’s perspective, supplying the winning discard is dealing in. The distinction from tsumo is the last tile’s source. The rest of the illustrated hand is unchanged; an actual riichi ron also needs a yaku and a furiten check.
06 · Riichi: declare ready and commit to the hand
Riichi is a Japanese-mahjong declaration, not a rule shared by every variant. With a closed ready hand, declare it on your turn, discard while retaining the wait and place a 1,000-point deposit. From a teaching score of 30,000, 29,000 remains and 1,000 is on the table; this is scoring, not a cash purchase.
1. Fourteen after drawing
2. Declare riichi and discard South (sideways on a real table)
3. Keep these 13; no free rearrangement
In the picture, discard the surplus South and retain thirteen waiting on East. Place the declaration discard sideways on a real table. Afterwards you normally discard each new draw or legally win; only restricted concealed kongs are exceptions. Riichi is neither victory nor guaranteed safety. Platform restrictions on scores or tiles remaining can differ.
07 · Dora and indicators: extra value, not a yaku
The exposed four-dot is the indicator; five-dot is the dora. Two five-dots in your hand mean two copies. Numbered indicators advance within the same suit, wrapping nine to one. Honours use their own cycles.
Indicator: four dots
Dora: five dots
Two copies in your hand → two dora
Dora adds value to a legal win but is not itself a yaku. Two dora cannot rescue a no-yaku hand. Ask which yaku you have before counting bonuses. Red ink on an ordinary character tile is not automatically a red bonus tile.
08 · Furiten: a matching discard may still be unavailable
Furiten restricts ron in riichi. You now wait on East, but previously discarded East yourself. You cannot ron an opponent’s East; hiding the old discard or having it called away does not erase that history. An otherwise legal self-draw remains possible.
Current wait
Your earlier discards
Opponent’s East: no ron; own draw: tsumo may be legal
With multiple waits, one previously discarded waiting tile bars ron on the whole hand, not just that tile. Passing a completion can also cause temporary furiten; after riichi it lasts for the hand. This single-East example introduces the concept; not declaring riichi does not prevent furiten.
09 · Exhaustive draw: a hand can end without a winner
If the live wall runs out without a win, the hand ends in an exhaustive draw. Being one tile away is not a win. The illustrated thirteen wait on East, but you cannot add an imagined East to the result.
Thirteen at an exhaustive draw
A draw may require a ready-hand check, score adjustments or a dealer-continuation decision. It does not necessarily mean no score changes. Rules also differ on abortive draws. Separate ending a hand, completing a shape and legally winning.