Basic rules

How a Turn Works

Draw and discard, plus chi, pon, kan, riichi, tsumo and ron: everything that can happen in a hand.

Dealing and turn order

Each player starts with 13 tiles; the dealer takes 1 more and discards first. Play then passes East → South → West → North (on screen that is counterclockwise: after you discard, the player on your right goes next).

On your turn: draw 1 tile, discard 1 tile. Your discards are laid out in front of you in your pond.

The last 14 tiles of the wall are the dead wall and are never drawn normally: the dora indicator sits there, and kan replacement tiles come from there.

Chi: only from the player on your left

Taking another player's discard to complete a run is called chi. You can only chi the discard of the player on your left (the one who plays just before you).

After a chi you lay the set face up, discard a tile, and play passes to the player on your right.

Pon and kan

• Pon: you hold 2 identical tiles and anyone discards the third. You take it to make a triplet, then discard; any players in between are skipped.
• Open kan: you hold 3 identical tiles and someone discards the fourth.
• Closed kan: you draw the fourth copy yourself. The tiles are not exposed, and your hand still counts as closed.
• Added kan: you already called pon on a triplet and draw the fourth copy, so you add it.

After any kan you draw a replacement tile from the dead wall (the rinshan tile) and a new dora indicator is turned over.

When several players want the same tile: a win comes first, then pon and kan, and chi last.

The cost of calling

Chi, pon and open kan are calls, and they make your hand open. Calling speeds your hand up, but an open hand:

• cannot declare riichi;
• loses some yaku that require a closed hand, such as pinfu, iipeikou and menzen tsumo, and others are worth 1 han less;
• must still have a yaku. If you pon an ordinary tile and have no other yaku, your hand has "no yaku" and cannot win.

Also, right after a chi or pon you may not discard the same kind of tile you just called (or the tile at the other end of that run). This is called kuikae and is not allowed here.

Riichi

When your hand is closed (no chi, pon or open kan) and in tenpai, you can declare riichi:

1. Press "Riichi" and choose the tile to discard. It is laid sideways.
2. Put up a 1,000-point riichi stick. The next player to win collects it.

Conditions: at least 1,000 points, and at least 4 tiles left in the wall.

Riichi is a 1-han yaku in itself, with a chance of ippatsu and ura dora on top. The price is that your hand is locked: every tile you draw that does not win must be discarded (the game does this for you).

Tsumo and ron

• Tsumo: you draw your winning tile yourself. All three other players pay.
• Ron: you win on another player's discard. Only the player who discarded it pays; this is called dealing in.

If several players can ron the same tile, the default rule allows a double ron: everyone who can, wins (if three players ron at once, the hand is a draw instead).

Draws

If the wall runs down to the dead wall and nobody has won, the hand ends in an exhaustive draw. Then:

• Players in tenpai collect a 3,000-point noten penalty in total from those who are not.
• If the dealer is in tenpai, they stay dealer; otherwise the deal passes on.

Some "abortive draws" end the hand early and replay it, for example when all four players discard the same wind on the first go-around, or when all four declare riichi. They are listed in How a match works.

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