FAQ

What is a ready hand?

A hand is said to be "ready", or "calling", or "cleared" if it can be completed into a winning hand with just one tile.

E.g., the following hands are "calling", or "ready" hands:

The first hand can be completed into a winning hand if a player receives another white Dragon either from the Wall or claims it from another player's discard. The second hand can be completed into a winning hand if a player receives either Bamboo 3 or 6 from the Wall or claims it from another player's discard.

Note that availability of tiles does not have effect on the calling status of a hand. E.g., the first example hand is a calling hand, even if three white Dragons already appear amongst discards or melded sets. On the other hand, the following hand is not considered ready, unless jokers are used and there is no restriction on having more than four identical tiles in a winning hand:

(melded Chow)

This hand depends on existence of five Bamboo 3's and cannot be a calling hand without the use of jokers.

This basically simple concept becomes problematic, when the rules specify restrictions on a winning hand and at the same time allow payments for "ready" or "calling" hands, or apply a specific rule for ready declarations, or specify that a deal is passed only if the dealer's hand is not "ready". These kinds of situations are typical to e.g. the Australian rules, which allow certain payments to a loser only if his hand is "cleared", and the Japanese rules, which allows payments for "ready" hands, if a deal ends in a draw.

Ready state of a hand in draws

Some rules, e.g., the modern Japanese rules, allow payments for "ready" hands, if a deal ends in a draw. Sometimes passing of the deal after a draw is also modified by a rule according to which the deal is passed, unless the dealer has a calling hand.

Normally Four Winds checks only the structural requirements to determine whether a hand is ready:

The hand must be such that it needs just one tile to be consisted of four sets and a pair (or an irregular hand).
If the rules apply a prohibition of mixed suits, the hand may not contain more than one suit. Exceptions mentioned on the Exceptions dialog box are allowed.
If the rules restrict the maximum number of Chows, the hand may not contain more Chows than allowed. Exceptions mentioned on the Exceptions dialog box are allowed.

If the rules apply a minimum point requirement on a winning hand, this is normally ignored. However, the minimum point check can be turned on by checking the Check true ready state of a hand box on the Winning & Draw option page. In this case the hand must be such that it meets the specified minimum with the best possible winning tile that completes the hand. Exception rules listed on the Exceptions dialog box are applied in the calculation (these rules allow a player to specify that bonus points for Flowers, Dora tiles, patterns like "Going out on a supplement tile", etc., should be ignored when calculating the points during a minimum point check).

Note: Turning on the minimum point check is not advisable for novice players. The rule is very seldom used in real games, e.g., the modern Japanese rules nearly always consider any hand that is one tile short of a winning hand to be a valid ready hand in the context of a draw.

Ready state of a loser's hand

When the rules allow payments between the losers, normally the losers get points only for completed sets. However, certain Western rules allow payments also for uncompleted hands like One suit and Honors, All Terminals and Honors, etc.. When this is allowed, rules might specify an additional requirement that payments for uncompleted hands should be paid only if the hand is ready, or "cleared". E.g., in the Australian rules a loser can collect points for One suit and Honors only if he has a structurally legal calling hand (i.e., the hand must be such that it can be completed into a winning hand with just one tile, and it cannot contain more than 1 Chow, unless the hand is fully concealed). On the other hand, the Dutch rules allow payments for One suit and Honors even if a player has not even one complete set in his hand.

By default Four Winds does not require a loser's hand to be ready in order to pay scores for it. But you can specify otherwise by checking the For ready hands only box for each pattern and hand for which you want to use this option. The option is visible when you have activated the loser scoring by clicking the Losers radio button on the Sets and Patterns option page or Limit & Special hands option page. (Note that this option is missing for most special and limit hands, as these are by definition calling hands in order to be acknowledged at all – e.g., it is not possible to consider a hand to be a Seven Pairs hand, if it does not already contain 6 pairs and a single tile.)

If the For ready hands only box is checked, the following rules are used:

The hand must be such that it needs just one tile to be consisted of four sets and a pair (or an irregular hand).
If the rules apply a prohibition of mixed suits, the hand may not contain more than one suit. Exceptions mentioned on the Exceptions dialog box are allowed.
If the rules restrict the maximum number of Chows, the hand may not contain more Chows than allowed. Exceptions mentioned on the Exceptions dialog box are allowed.

If the rules apply a minimum point requirement on a winning hand, this is normally applied also for calling hands in the context of calculating losers' scores. In this case the hand must be such that it meets the specified minimum with the best possible winning tile that completes the hand. Exception rules listed on the Exceptions dialog box are applied in the calculation.

However, the minimum point check can be turned off by checking the When determining ready hand state of losers' hands box of the Exceptions dialog box.

Ready state of a hand with ready declarations

When a voluntary ready declaration (riichi) is allowed in the rules, normally only the structural requirements are evaluated:

The hand must be such that it needs just one tile to be consisted of four sets and a pair (or an irregular hand).
If the rules apply a prohibition of mixed suits, the hand may not contain more than one suit. Exceptions mentioned on the Exceptions dialog box are allowed.
If the rules restrict the maximum number of Chows, the hand may not contain more Chows than allowed. Exceptions mentioned on the Exceptions dialog box are allowed.

Normally a minimum point restriction is ignored in this context, but it can be enabled by checking the Check hand against minimum points box in the Options for Ready declaration dialog box. There are several other options on this same page which allow a player to specify how exactly the minimum point count should be performed, how missed and discarded winning tiles should be handled when determining whether a ready declaration is legal, etc..

The rules that use voluntary ready declaration differ significantly in requirements they set on a valid ready declaration. E.g. in the Japanese Modern rule preset any structurally legal and concealed calling hand can be declared ready (that is, the minimum point requirement and rule of sacred discarded are ignored, when determining the ready state of the hand).

On the other hand, in the WMPA rules the hand to be declared ready must meet the following requirements:

The hand must be concealed.
The hand must be such that it needs just one tile to be consisted of four sets and a pair (or an irregular hand).
The hand, when completed, must be worth at least 2 points and meet this requirement even on a claimed winning tile, and when determining whether the hand can go out on a claimed winning tile, the hand must not depend on the bonus given for the ready declaration itself. (E.g., if a hand is worth 2 faans – excluding the 1 faan for the ready declaration – if it goes out on a discard, it may not be declared ready, even if the total value of the hand when it goes out self-drawn would be 3 faans or more).
If a player has amongst his discards a tile that would make his current hand a structurally legal winning hand, the hand may not be declared ready. Note that in this context the minimum point requirement is ignored – i.e. any tile amongst the player's discards that would complete the hand into a structurally legal winning hand is considered a sacred discard, even if the resulting hand would not meet the minimum point requirement.

In the Korean rule the hand to be declared ready must meet the following requirements:

The hand must be concealed.
The hand must be such that it needs just one tile to be consisted of four sets and a pair (or an irregular hand).
The hand, when completed, must be worth at least 3 faans and meet this requirement on each tile that completes the hand into a structurally legal winning hand, even when claimed from another player.
When determining the minimum points, the following patterns are ignored: all scores for Flowers and Seasons, Winning, Out on the last tile of the Wall, Out on the last discard, Out on a supplement tile, Out by robbing a Kong, Declaration of Ready, Declaration of Exposed Ready, Winning tile bonus, Plum Plossom on the Roof.
If a player has amongst his discards a tile that would make his current hand a structurally legal winning hand, the hand may not be declared ready. Note that in this context the minimum point requirement is ignored – i.e. any tile amongst the player's discards that would complete the hand into a structurally legal winning hand is considered a sacred discard, even if the resulting hand would not meet the minimum point requirement.

Note that it is perfectly possible that a hand that is legally declared ready becomes dead or somehow restricted because of user's actions after the declaration. E.g., in the Japanese Modern rules a player can make a ready declaration even if he has a sacred discard, but he cannot claim any winning tile in this situation, but has to go out on a self-drawn winning tile. Similarly, if a player misses a winning tile after he has made a ready declaration, he cannot subsequently go out on any discarded tile, but has to go out on a self-drawn winning tile. On the other hand, in WMPA and Korean rules missing a winning tile makes the hand dead, so any declaration of out (also on a self-drawn tile) with such a hand results in a faulty declaration of out.

Note: If the rules require an obligatory ready declaration, Four Winds normally does not check whether the declaration is valid. If the validation is turned on by checking the Validate the declaration box on the Ready rule option page, the structural requirements are always examined, but the minimum point requirement is never examined. (Note that there are no penalties for making a faulty declaration, when the declaration is obligatory.)