How to play
How to play riichi mahjong
Step-by-step Riichi Mahjong for a first table, including what the Tilehaus interface expects you to click.
Before the first tile
Open the Riichi Mahjong table. Choose seat count 4. For a first game, enable bots so empty seats still take their turns.
Keep your discards honest
Arrange discards in rows of six. Other players read your waits from those rows. Calling pong opens the hand and blocks riichi.
Deal-in risk
If a player has declared riichi, avoid dealing a tile that is not in your own safe discard row. Honor tiles already discarded by that player are often safer.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers to what people search — for Google, voice, and assistants.
What is riichi mahjong?
Riichi is the Japanese four-player form of mahjong. You still build four melds and a pair from 136 tiles, but a winning hand needs at least one yaku. Declaring riichi bets 1,000 points and locks a closed hand that is one tile from winning.
What does riichi mean?
Riichi (reach) means you announce that a closed hand is in tenpai — one tile from a legal win. You place a 1,000-point stick, stop changing the hand, and discard whatever you draw unless it completes the win.
What is a yaku in mahjong?
A yaku is a qualifying scoring pattern. In riichi you cannot win without at least one yaku, even if the 14-tile shape is complete. Riichi itself is a yaku. Dora tiles add han but are not a yaku — you cannot win on dora alone.
What is dora in riichi mahjong?
Dora are bonus tiles that add one han each to an already valid win. A dead-wall indicator is flipped; the next rank in that suit becomes dora. Red fives (akadora) also count as dora. Dora never replaces the yaku requirement.
What is furiten in riichi?
Furiten blocks you from winning on someone else’s discard (ron). You are in furiten if any of your waits sits in your own discard row, or if you skip a winning discard. You can still win by self-draw (tsumo). After riichi, skipping a win makes furiten last the rest of the hand.
Is riichi the same as Chinese mahjong?
No. Both use 136 tiles and 13-tile hands. Riichi requires yaku, uses han/fu scoring from a 25,000-point start, ordered discards for furiten, and the riichi declaration. Chinese/Hong Kong tables use faan charts and usually allow any four melds and a pair, sometimes with a minimum fan.
How many points do you start with in riichi mahjong?
25,000 points each in a standard four-player hanchan. A riichi declaration costs 1,000. The table ends after East and South rounds, or when a player hits zero under some house rules.
Can you play riichi mahjong online?
Yes. Tilehaus has a teaching riichi table in the browser: 136 tiles, riichi declaration, and the four-meld-plus-pair shape. Club-level yaku lists and full han/fu charts are the next layer — the meld engine is already shared.
How long does a riichi hanchan take?
An East-South hanchan is typically 60–90 minutes in person. Online teaching hands are shorter. A full tournament match with west/north extra can run past two hours.