Practical tutorial
Connect yaku, scoring, defense, the table situation, and the score situation to decisions in live play.
Practical tutorial
Choose a step in the inline tutorial below to review the flow.
Learning
Melds, Yaku, Calls, and Furiten
Learn Melds and Pairs, Basic Yaku, Calls, and Furiten
Draw and discard tiles to build a valid 14-tile shape with a yaku and compete for points.
- Article Complete Yaku and Hand Shapes to Score the Most Points
- Pattern Build a valid hand and yaku with 14 tiles
- Move sequence Draw one, discard one
- Pattern Call an Opponent's Discard to Build the Hand
- Multiple choice Win from tenpai
- Multiple choice The Player with the Most Points Wins
Connect yaku, scoring, defense, and situational judgment to read an entire hand of riichi mahjong.
- Article Compare speed to victory, scoring power, and safety
- Article Organize Yaku by Closed Hand, Open Hand, and Han Value
- Article Fu, Han, Mangan, and Dealer vs. Non-Dealer Scores
- Article From Known Safe Tiles to Suji, Walls, and One-Chance Reads
- Article Change your judgment based on position, round, dealer, and turn count
Mahjong Basics
Choose a step in the inline tutorial below to review the flow.
Tile flow and basic hand structure
Open it only when you need to check something.
Basics of turns and winning
Standard human-readable notation
5m 9s 1z
Use m for Characters, p for Circles, s for Bamboo, and z for honor tiles.
Draw
Draw one tile from the wall Begin your turn by drawing one tile.Discard
Discard one unwanted tile Choose one tile from your hand and discard it to the river.Meld
A set of three tiles Build groups such as sequences, triplets, and quads.Pair
Two identical tiles The standard hand structure is four melds and one pair.Ron / Tsumo
Win with a valid yaku You need a yaku, not just a complete hand shape.Turn flow
- On your turn, draw one tile from the wall and discard one tile from your hand.
- You may be able to use another player's discard for Chi / Pon / Kan.
Winning
- The standard goal is to form four melds and one pair.
- You cannot win without a yaku. Start by learning honor-tile yaku, Riichi, and Tanyao.
Next step
Choose after the tutorialOnce you are comfortable moving pieces, review anything that was unclear or practice your decisions with a short problem.