Mahjong Judgement

[Gwenda Gronert]

Severalgames give the option to register for a mahjong tournament. Registration costs a one-time fee of 50,000 Yen (or 50,000 Mon in Ishin), after which participation is free. It is possible to win various prizes which are worth much more than the initial entry fee.

Starting with Yakuza 6, the Craks tiles are denoted with the numbers 1 to 9 and the winds with the initials E, S, W and N. In previous titles it is necessary to know the characters on the tiles to read them.

Each round is played over four numbered hands and the seat winds rotate one place after each hand so that every player gets each of the winds over the duration of the round. However an extra hand is played (with the same number and seat winds) whenever a hand ends in a win for the current east player or a draw where the east player had a ready hand (one tile away from being complete).

Each player starts with thirteen tiles. Players take turns in counter-clockwise order around the table - on each turn a player draws a tile and then discards one. The goal is to be the first player to make a complete hand composed of four sets and one pair, and which also has at least one Yaku.

*A quad is declared either when four matching tiles are in a hand, or when a triplet is made by stealing a tile and the fourth matching tile is drawn. / displays the Kong or Kan (カン) command. An extra tile is then taken to complete the hand.

With a pair of dragons, prevalent wind or seat wind, it is possible to steal the third to make a triplet that counts as a Yaku, otherwise it is recommended to discard any lone winds and dragons first, followed by any isolated ones and nines, and then any isolated twos and eights.

Sequence sets are easier to make. Since there are four copies of each tile, having two identical tiles means there are only two others that could complete the triplet (e.g. 33 makes 333). In the case of 12, 89 or two tiles that are two apart (e.g. 57) there are four copies of the one tile that could complete the sequence set. A good basic structure to have is two consecutive suit tiles between 2 and 8, because there are four copies each of the two tiles that would complete the sequence (e.g. 56 makes 456 or 567).

In the following case, a recommended example play is to keep the complete sequence and pair in the Craks suit and the efficient 67 shape in Bams. This is done by discarding the wind and dragon first, then the lone 9 Dots and 2 Bams. If the 3 Dots is drawn, the 24 will become a sequence; if 5 Dots is drawn, the shape is now 45 and the 2 Dots can be discarded.

Any set completed with a stolen tile is locked - the tiles cannot be discarded. Additionally, stealing tiles causes a hand to no longer be considered concealed, and instead becomes exposed.

Keeping a hand concealed can be beneficial since stealing tiles will sometimes leave a hand without any possible Yaku, preventing it from winning. Some Yaku (including the major ones Riichi and Pinfu / No-Points Hand) are disallowed in a hand with stolen tiles and several other Yaku score less with an exposed hand. A concealed hand also has better potential for defending and winning by Tsumo with a concealed hand awards the Yaku Fully Concealed Hand.

Stealing can be beneficial as long as there is at least one valid Yaku in the exposed hand, for example All Simples (specifically when the Kuitan rule option is applied) or a triplet of dragons, prevalent wind or seat wind. This is an easier way for beginners to get a winning hand or to win more quickly with a valuable hand (e.g. with several Dora bonus tiles or a Full Flush). Additionally, if it looks like a hand is going to end in a draw, tiles can be stolen to have ready hand (one tile away from complete) to receive points in the payout on the draw.

In order to display the Riichi (リーチ) command, / should be pressed during a player's turn. There are no penalties for pressing the button when Riichi cannot be called, meaning pressing the button on every turn is a safe way to check if one's hand is ready.

After declaring Riichi, turns are taken as normal, with the exception of the whole hand being locked, with the only moves allowed being discarding the drawn tile, declaring a win or making a quad set if possible.

Winning the hand after declaring Riichi refunds the 1,000 points and awards the Riichi Yaku in addition to any other applicable Yaku. Riichi can be used to add the necessary Yaku to a hand that does not qualify for any others.

In the event of a draw, any Riichi bets stay on the table and will be collected by the next player to win a hand. The number in the center of the screen next to a bar with a single red dot indicates the number of unclaimed Riichi bets left on the table, each worth 1,000 points.

To avoid wasting points, it is often best to use Riichi only when several turns remain and when there are two or more different tiles that would complete the hand. With the exception of Yakuza 2, all games have a pop-up that appears when choosing Riichi which shows possible winning tiles and how many of each have not been drawn.

After declaring Riichi, if a player forms a quad set with Kan and the resulting hand is no longer considered ready, the player receives an "Illegal Riichi" penalty and must pay out a large sum of points to the other players. As an example, if the hand has three 1s of the Dot suit, two of which constitute as the hand's pair while the third is part of a 1-2-3 Dot sequence, then the resulting quad of four 1s will remove the pair and break a sequence, disrupting the formerly-ready hand.

This will usually give a relatively cheap hand unless you can combine it with Dora bonus tiles or a Half Flush, however it's one of the easiest ways to get the Yaku required to declare a win. If you have two matching tiles you can steal the third to complete the set and, since the hand is already exposed, you might as well steal more tiles to complete the hand faster.

(In Judgment the family name of Toru Higashi is spelled using the same kanji as "east" (東). For the Western release of the game this was translated correctly into English as Higashi but the same translation was also applied to a scoring triplet of east tiles in the mahjong minigame! So if you see Higashi on the score-sheet for a winning hand in Judgment [or Yakuza: Like a Dragon for that matter!] it should say East.)

The simples are the suit tiles numbered 2 to 8 inclusive so the requirement for this Yaku is that your hand contains no ones, nines, winds or dragons. This is another easy choice for novices to get a Yaku.

This is a potential bonus applied when you win immediately after declaring Riichi. To get the "One-Shot" win for Ippatsu you must either win by Ron off the next discard from any of your three opponents or by Tsumo off the tile you draw on your next turn. If another player steals a tile after you declare Riichi, Ippatsu cannot be claimed.

This is a hand containing only one of the three suits plus at least one triplet (or a pair) of winds or dragons - in other words the hand has two suits completely excluded. The value can be increased by including triplets of dragons, seat wind or prevalent wind.

This Yaku requires three consecutive sequence sets (123, 456 and 789) all in the same suit. Any of the four sets can be completed by stealing and any tiles can be used for the fourth set and the pair.

The Dora system is a handy way to boost your score. The tile shown in the centre of the screen is the Dora indicator and the next sequential tile is the Dora. Each Dora tile in your hand is worth one Han, for example if the indicator is 2 Dots and you have a pair of 3 Dots in your hand then you have two Dora worth two Han.

After a quad set is declared an additional Dora indicator will be revealed in the centre of the virtual tabletop and then if a player wins with Riichi the extra Reverse Dora indicators will be flipped under both the standard Dora indicator and the extra quad Dora indicator.

(The additional Dora tile/s resulting from declaring a quad set can often give a significant boost to the value of a hand so it's usually best to only make a quad when you're close to winning a hand. It can be very dangerous to do it after another player has declared Riichi since two extra Dora would be applied if they win.)

If you have a ready hand that could be completed by any of the tiles that you've already discarded yourself then you are Furiten and you cannot declare a Ron win on any tile. You can still win by Tsumo or you can change your hand structure so you are no longer Furiten.

In modern Japanese mahjong each player usually starts a match with the standard total of 25,000 points each. Usually if you're not playing in the tournament you'll need to buy your first points from the parlour receptionist.

If the supply of tiles is depleted without a win being declared then the hand ends in a draw. In this situation a total of 3,000 points is shared between the players who have ready hands (one tile away from complete) paid by the other players whose hands are not ready.

The player whose seat wind is currently east (東) - commonly known as the dealer in English - receives 50% extra points each time they win a hand so you should try to take advantage when you have the east seat. You will remain east in an extra hand (in addition to the standard four per round) whenever you win a hand or it ends in a draw where you have a ready hand.

Every consecutive hand that results in either a win for the east player or a draw will add one to the Honba counter in the centre of the screen next to a bar with eight dots. This indicates the number of 300 points bonuses that will be added to the value of any winning hand (e.g. 3 x 300 pts = 900 pts). When any player other than the east player wins a hand the Honba counter is reset to zero.

At the end of a match the player with the highest score wins and then a final exchange of points between players is applied. Traditionally the amounts traded are symmetrical, for example with 3rd place paying 10,000 pts to 2nd and 4th place paying 20,000 pts to 1st, however in the earlier Yakuza games they're skewed - typically with 1st place receiving 10,000 pts from 3rd and 15,000 pts from 4th. This will never change the final positions but if you're gambling it will affect the amount of money you win - or lose!

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