How to Play Japanese Riichi Mahjong

There are 136 tiles total, which consist of 4 copies of 34 unique tiles.

1 through 9 of circles (tiles with pictures of small circles on them).
1 through 9 of bamboo (tiles with pictures of bamboo rods. The 1-bamboo traditionally also has a picture of a bird).
1 through 9 of characters (tiles with the Chinese character for 10,000. In Japanese mahjong sets they are labeled in katakana)
4 winds (tiles with the Chinese characters for east, south, west, and north)
3 dragons, which consist of the red dragon (a red Chinese character "chuu" or "chung" which means "middle"), the white dragon (a blank tile), and the green dragon (a gree Chinese character "fa" which means "growth").

That's 9*3+7=34 different tiles. There are 4 copies of each one giving 136 tiles total.

Sticks (or chips):
Each player gets 30,000 points worth of sticks at the start of the game; 1 stick worth 10,000, 2 worth 5,000, 9 worth 1,000 and 10 worth 100 points.
At the beginning of the game, each player sets aside a certain amount of points that ends up going to whoever has the most points at the end of the game as a bonus. Usually this is 5,000 points from each player. In some variations the bonus is split it between the player who got first and the player who got second.

A standard length game of riichi mhjong is played over 2 rounds, with at least 4 hands in each round. The first round is the "east wind" round and the second round is the "south wind" round. The wind direction of the round factors into the scoring and will be covered later. The players are seated in certain positions as East, South, West, and North (in that order counterclockwise), and after the hand is over the seating positions are rotated (Exception: If the player sitting East wins that hand, then the seat positions do not change and there is a bonus hand played in that round. This can happen up to 8 times... A bonus hand is also played in the case of a draw when only East has a waiting hand(see below) ). When the player that was east for the first hand in a round becomes east a second time, you enter the next round and the prevailing wind changes. Originally the game was played over 4 rounds, one for each compass direction, however since that takes a very long time only 2 rounds are played in modern games. Games with only one single east wind round may also be played to speed things up. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins, and is awarded the bonus points set aside at the beginning of the match.

To begin, a 17x17 square wall of tiles, face down, two deep, is made in front of the players. A pair of dice is rolled to determine where to begin taking tiles, and the players each form their hands by taking tiles from the wall until everyone has 13 tiles. 14 tiles are separated from the back-end of the wall, called the "dead wall", and the top tile from the third stack from the end is turned over, called the "dora indicator." For an explanation of this, see the section on "dora" later.

The player seated East begins by taking a 14th tile from the (living) wall, and then chooses a tile from their hand to discard. The player counterclockwise then does the same thing, and the hand proceeds in this order unless a player declares a pung or kong (see below). If all the tiles from the wall are used up (except the dead wall), or if 4 kongs have been declared, the hand ends in a draw. Otherwise the hand ends when a player declares a mahjong.

The object is to make mahjong, which means 4 sets and 1 pair.
The sets can be of 3 types:
Chow: 3 tiles in the same suit in numerical order. (e.g. 2 bamboo, 3 bamboo, 4 bamboo)
Pung: 3 identical tiles
Kong: 4 identical tiles

You can claim the discards of your opponents if they will let you make a chow, pung, or kong. (exception: if you are making a chow, the discard has to be from the player immediately proceeding you, i.e. to your left). If you do that, you must declare "chow", "pung" or "kong", and place the tiles face up in front of you on the table. The set is now "declared" and that factors into the scoring later. (It's always better to have sets that are concealed.)
If you declare a kong, because that set has 4 tiles, you need an extra tile, so after declaring a kong you draw a replacement tile from the back end of the dead wall before you make your discard. (Optional: At the same time, the tile next to the dora indicator is turned over as a second dora indicator.)
When a player has a kong in their hand completely hidden, they can do a "concealed kong" whenever it's their turn, and draw the extra tile from the dead wall. This does not count as revealing the kong and it can be strategic to wait to do this until later in the hand (because the extra dora indicator might give another player extra points if they declare mahjong first.)

Riichi: If you have a completely concealed hand (i.e. you have not declared a chow, pung or kong), and need only a single tile to make a mahjong, you can decalare "riichi". When you do this, you put a 1,000 point stick on the table as an extra bet, and from then on any tile you draw from the wall must be discarded until you make mahjong or someone else wins, or in other words, you are not allowed to change anything in your hand except for wait for someone to discard the winning tile or for you to draw the winning tile.

Winning: There are two ways to declare mahjong. One is when drawing a tile yourself from the wall. This is called "tsumo". The second way is by claiming another player's discard. This is called "ron". This effects the way the points are distributed. In riichi mahjong, it is also a requirement that your hand have at least one "yaku". See below for a list of yaku. If you don't have a yaku, you cannot declare mahjong.

After someone declares mahjong, they count the point value of their mahjong, and the other 3 players (in the case of tsumo) or 1 player (in the case of ron) pay the winner the appropriate amount. See the section below for scoring. Also, riichi bets and bonus round counters are distributed to the winner.

Scoring is complicated. This is especially important in Saki. It's so complicated, in fact, that most Japanese players use large charts to help them figure out the proper scores.

Outline of how to score a hand:
1. Count the number of minipoints in your hand.
2. Count the number of fan in your hand.
3. Round minipoints up to nearest 10, then multiply by 2^(number of fan+2). This is your hand's base value. Or, if you have a table, look up the value in the appropriate table depending on whether you are sitting East and whether you won with a tsumo or ron.

Some terminology: 1's and 9's are called "terminals". Dragons and winds are called "honors". Anything that isn't a terminal or an honor is called a "simple". A hand that is not concealed is called "open".

Counting Minipoints:

Counting Dora:

Counting Yaku:

Counting Fan:

Final base point tally and point distribution:

Plus-Minus scoring: