8
votes
What manners are specific to mahjong?
I beg to disagree with User545. Mahjong is drenched in formal--even ceremonial--aspects: The sorting of the seats, the selection of the first east, the building of the wall, the breaking of the same, ...
- 81
7
votes
Mahjong exposing And discarding
By "exposing a set", I assume you mean the move when you take a just-discarded tile to complete a set you have in hand. When that happens:
You declare the match ("pong" if you're ...
- 11.2k
5
votes
Am I allowed to take a red 5 after reaching?
According to the Japanese Wikipedia article on riichi:
打牌の選択（手牌の入れ替え）ができない。つまり、和了する場合と後述の暗槓する場合を除いて、自摸した牌をそのまま捨てなければならない。
Translating, this means "You are no longer allowed to select your discards ...
- 51
4
votes
Why is there no black dragon in Mahjong?
The simplest answer is that the "Dragon" tiles are more of a triplet, and not a pair.
This is pretty clear when using one of their Chinese names 三元牌 or Three Fundamental Tiles,
the name "Dragons" was ...
- 5,027
3
votes
Mahjong board formation and drawing rules
I used to be a member, and for a time the President, of the MSU Mah Jong club. The custom used there built the wall as a square that overlapped at the ends, not as a spiral as shown in the linked ...
- 1,197
3
votes
Accepted
Mahjong board formation and drawing rules
In theory yes, you can play with a single pile. The reason people setup the wall this way (aside from historical reasons) is because the layout suits the nature of the game. You typically play on a ...
3
votes
How can I quickly calculate the shanten number in Mahjong?
If you're eyeballing it, then you go with counting three things:
the standard count from 8. (worst case scenario: 147m147p147s1234z or 13-sided kokushi)
the terminal count from 13. (worst case ...
- 121
3
votes
In Mahjong , what is the chance to get a hand that allows a player to finish on their first turn?
I wrote a program that draws a random 14-tile set from a reservoir of all possibles tiles (expect flowers and seasons, sorry):
then the program checks if the hand is a mahjong. So far here are my ...
- 41
3
votes
Accepted
Riichi Mahjong on PS4 Game "Judgement"
The yaku in the shown hand is Kuitan, not Tanyao.
Tanyao (All Simples) is a standard Yaku, but it applies to closed hands, which that pictured hand is not due to the two claimed discards. There are ...
- 1,759
2
votes
Accepted
What are rules for completely blank tiles?
I know some sets use a blank tile for a white dragon. The red one could be a red dragon.
This page has a blank white dragon.
And according to this page (link provided by L. Scott Johnson):
There ...
- 11.7k
2
votes
Two player mahjong?
I don't know much about two-player mahjong, but three-player riichi mahjong is extremely popular online (about as popular as four-player mahjong, at least on some sites). It's often known by its ...
- 155
2
votes
Two player mahjong?
We have a mahjong set and regularly play with only three people but using the same rules as the four-player game. The only difference is that it is often slightly easier for someone to win with three ...
- 21
2
votes
Does a concealed Kan interrupt the game flow?
As the question refers to game flow, the short answer is yes. {OP MainQ}
The long answer is that calling a kan (closed or not) does three things:
First, It will break time-sensitive bonuses: any ...
- 121
2
votes
What is a "dead hand"?
What I call a dead hand is one where there is no possibility of winning. The case I’m thinking of is a hand that was complete except it was missing one pair. All four of the needed tiles were out. ...
- 21
2
votes
Mahjong - declaring
The Rules of Mah Jong by The World Series of Mah Jong state:
Change of Claim: If a player, after announcing a claim for “chi”, “pong” or “kong”, changes his mind and wishes to change his claim into ...
- 11.9k
2
votes
When do you draw loose tiles in Chinese Mahjong?
From Tom Sloper's rules, there are no loose tiles:
After breaking the wall, each player takes 2 stacks (4 tiles) at a time until everyone has 12 tiles, then:
East takes one tile from the first and ...
- 121
1
vote
Accepted
In mahjong, how will joker tiles change the game strategy?
I don
t see that this would significantly change strategy or play. I concur that playtesting would be a good idea.
My understanding is that the "joker" was never a part of the traditional ...
- 1,197
1
vote
Common Mahjong wait patterns
Update January 2023:
There is a Mahjong Waits Infographic which shows common patterns:
Links: PNG | PDF | Author's post (Reddit)
Original answer
As an additional resource, I created a tool for ...
- 111
1
vote
In Mahjong , what is the chance to get a hand that allows a player to finish on their first turn?
Here is yet another answer from this page. 以上により、天和の確率は12859078207674÷4250305029168216000 ＝約0.000003025 (約1/330530)となります。
I think it means that the probability to get a tenhou=tenwu is 1/330530. ...
- 41
1
vote
In Mahjong , what is the chance to get a hand that allows a player to finish on their first turn?
Note: I am basing this answer on Japanese Mahjong rules; Chinese rules will probably lead to a different outcome.
Tenhou, Chihou or Renhou hands must be valid hands, i.e. they must satisfy the ...
- 334
1
vote
In Mahjong , what is the chance to get a hand that allows a player to finish on their first turn?
The https://tenhou.net/sc/prof.html page contains statistics on yaku. As I understand it, Tenhou (天和) is found in 0.00046% of the hands that ended in someone victory, and Chiihou (地和) in 0.00091%. ...
- 11
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