Rule variations

The rule of Ready – Voluntary Ready declaration (the Rule of Riichi)

Voluntary Ready declaration (jap. rii chi = "ready") is typically used in Japanese Mah Jong, but appears occasionally in other versions, too (even Western, e.g., Italian and French versions use a slightly modified version of this rule). It is used by default in the Japanese Transitional and Japanese Modern rule presets, as well as in the Korean and WMPA rule presets. The rule has probably evolved from the simple concept of "Original call" (ready on first discard), which is acknowledged in Chinese Classical rules, but as the options and the tables below show, it is far from simple as it is used today.

Many consider that the rule of Riichi has too strong an effect on the nature of the game as it encourages collecting quick and easy concealed hands at the expense of defensive strategies. It also accentuates the gambling element in the game: though the reward itself is not high (normally the declaration pays one extra double or han), a Riichi hand, combined with other bonus (e.g. for the Dora tiles),  easily produces fairly high scores. 

Declaring ready also involves a clear risk, since if the player does not win on a hand declared ready, he usually has to pay a certain amount (normally 1,000 points) to the winner. And the risk of losing is high, since the declaration warns other players (who naturally do their best to see that the declarer does not win), and especially as the declarer is forced to discard any non-winning tile he draws from the Wall, thus risking becoming a discarder (who in Japanese games always pays for all losers). 

However, the rule is enormously popular in modern Japanese Mah Jong, much of the same reasons it is opposed: it adds suspense to the game and makes it possible to make a fair profit on easy Chow-based hands.

To specify rule of Riichi:

1. Choose Preferences on the File menu (quit an ongoing game, if any).
2. From the Rule Presets list, choose a customized rule preset.
3. Choose Ready rule under the Rules section of the category tree.
4. Choose Voluntary (Riichi) on the drop down list at the top of the page.
5. Specify options you wish to use with the rule by clicking the Options button (see descriptions for options below).
6. Specify how the ready declaration should be validated (see section below) by using the Validate the declaration option.

Options for the voluntary ready declaration

Several options are available for this rule. To access the options for the Ready declaration, click the Options button. The displayed dialog box has the following settings:

Prerequisites (always checked, never penalized):

• Require concealed hand. This option is enabled by default in the Japanese Riichi and Japanese Modern rule presets. Notice that concealed Kongs are always allowed in the hand before the declaration (but not necessarily after).
• At least 0/4/8 tiles must be left. In the Italian rules at least 8 tiles must be left in the Wall, when the declaration is made. In EMA Riichi rules at least 4 tiles must be left in the Wall. The available options are 0 (no restrictions), 4 or 8 tiles.

After declaration:

• The hand declared ‘Ready’ cannot be altered. This is enabled by default in the Japanese Riichi and Japanese Modern rule presets. This option causes the hand of the declarer to be locked as soon as he makes his next discard. The player cannot improve his hand in any way (except for non-altering Kongs, if this rule option is enabled): the only tile he is allowed to keep or claim is the one he can use to go out.
  • Hide tiles. This option causes the tiles in the declarer’s hand are to be turned face down as soon as he makes his next discard. Traditionally the tiles were turned face down to mark that the hand is locked, but this rule is seldom used in modern Mah Jong.
  • Allow Kongs not altering the hand. This is enabled by default in the Japanese Modern rule preset. This rule option allows the player who has declared Ready to declare a concealed Kong, provided that the declaration of Kong does not alter the structure of the ready hand. The winning tiles and all possible combinations of the composing sets of the winning hand (the set of three tiles completed to Kong is considered the same set) must be exactly the same before and after the declaration. The fourth tile must be self-drawn in all cases (no melded Kongs are allowed). If the rules do not require that the ready hand is concealed, and the player already has a melded Pung, it is also legal to complete the melded Pung into a melded Kong by using a tile drawn from the Wall (but the player cannot claim any other than the winning tile).
    Note: A player cannot declare a concealed Kong immediately after the declaration, even if this option is checked (it is allowed on the subsequent turns only).
    Example of an illegal declaration of Kong. B-111 B2 B-444 C-777 WEWEWE, since melding of Kong B1 would remove the possibility to go out on B-123. Note that the fact that calling tiles remain unaltered does not alone guarantee that the declaration is legal.
  • Discard Flowers and Seasons. If checked, Flower and Season tiles received from the Wall after the declaration of Ready are automatically discarded. This rule is seldom used, but appears e.g. in the Italian rules.

Penalizable rules:

• Check hand against minimum points. This option and its sub options are only available if the rules specify a minimum point requirement for the winning hand. If the option is checked, Four Winds will evaluate the hand after the declaration to check whether the hand meets the specified minimum point requirement. Note that this is done according to the options specified in the Exceptions dialog box and by evaluating the hand as if it were completed – the hand does not need to be worth the minimum in its current state (that is, as a hand that still misses the winning tile). Normally this requirement is not used, but e.g. certain Japanese rules and Korean rules sometimes apply it.
  • Must be valid on a claimed winning tile. If checked, requires that the hand must meet the minimum point requirement even if it goes out on a discard (i.e., the hand must not depend on going out self-drawn – there must be at least one possible case where the hand can go out on a discard). 
    Note: This option is used in the WMPA and Korean Style rule presets and is recommended only for advanced players. 
    • Zero Ready bonus if the winning tile as a discard would not meet the minimum point requirement. If checked, this option dictates that if a player declares Out on a self-drawn tile, which would complete his hand into a legal winning hand, but the tile would not produce enough points if it were claimed from another player, the bonus for the Ready declaration is zeroed. If the hand, with zeroed ready bonus, does not meet the minimum point requirement, and the player declares Out, this is considered a faulty declaration of Out and penalized accordingly. On the other hand, if the player does not declare Out, he can discard the tile without further consequences (and should he later go out on a discard or on a self-drawn tile that would produce enough points as a discard, the bonus for Ready is paid normally).
      Note: This option is used in the WMPA rules and is recommended only for advanced players.
  • Must be valid on all winning tiles. If checked, requires that the hand must meet the minimum point requirement without assuming any specific winning tile (in case the hand can go out on several different tiles). That is, this rule requires that the hand can go out on any tile that structurally completes the hand. (Note that the rule of Sacred discard has no effect on this check: all winning tiles that make structurally the hand complete are examined, even if some of these tiles could not actually be used because of restrictions of the rule of Sacred discard). If this rule is combined with the requirement for being able to go out on a claimed tile, all possible winning tiles are evaluated as discards. 
    Note: This option is used in the Korean Style rule preset and is recommended only for advanced players. 
• Missed/discarded winning tile makes the hand dead. If checked, the ready declaration cannot be made (or is considered a faulty declaration of ready, if the validity is not checked at the time of the declaration), if a player has discarded a tile, which currently could make his hand a structurally valid winning hand (the minimum point requirement is ignored, when this is checked). Also, if the player subsequently misses a winning tile, either by not claiming it when another player discards it, or not using a self-drawn winning tile, the player's hand becomes dead, meaning that he cannot go out on any winning tile, neither discarded or self-drawn (doing so results in a faulty declaration of Out; on the other hand, missing the winning tile but not declaring out might result in a penalty for faulty declaration of Ready). Note that this option (when checked) overrides the Sacred discard rule. The rule option is used in the Korean Style rules, WMPA rules and in the Nashi-Nashi version of Japanese Mah Jong, but allowed in most versions that use a voluntary declaration of Ready. Checking this option is not recommended for novice players.
  Note: The option overrides the regular Missed discard option specified on the Claiming option page. Also, this option automatically checks and grays out the following two options.
• Require going out on the first possible self-drawn tile. This option is used in the Korean and WMPA rule presets. The option requires that the player must use the first possible self-drawn winning tile to go out. If the player discards a winning tile, he may not go out on any tile during the rest of the deal.
  Note: Most rules using the Riichi, e.g. Japanese Modern (Ari-Ari version), allow discarding a winning tile, but because of use of the Sacred discard rule (in the "absolute" mode), doing so makes the hand sacred so the player cannot subsequently claim any winning tile (he is forced to go out self-drawn).
• Require going out on the first possible discard. This option is used e.g. in the Japanese Transitional and Japanese Modern rule presets. The option requires that the player must use the first possible discard to go out. If the player misses a discard he could have used to go out, he may not go out on any discard during the rest of the deal. The only way he can complete the hand is by picking the winning tile from the Wall.
  Note: The option overrides the regular Missed discard option specified on the Claiming option page. If the Missed/discarded winning tile makes the hand dead option is checked, the player who misses a discarded winning tile cannot go out on any tile, whether discarded or self-drawn.
• Require One-chance winning hand. If checked, requires, that the hand can be completed with just one kind of tile (how many of this tile are still available for play is not relevant). This option is used in the Italian rules. Note that when "one-chance" is evaluated, none of the restrictions for the winning hand are taken into account (that is, "one-chance" just means that there is only one kind of tile that can structurally complete the hand into a winning hand, so if there are e.g. two structurally possible winning tiles but only one of them makes the hand such that it meets restrictions to the winning hand (e.g., a minimum point requirement), the hand is not one-chance, though in practice it can be completed only with one possible tile. The same is true for a situation where a hand can theoretically go out on two different tiles but all four of the other tile have already been played – this does not make the hand "one-chance".

Scoring

The scoring for going out with a hand declared Ready is specified in the Winning section of the Scoring list (on the Sets and Patterns page under the Scoring section in the category tree of the Preferences dialog box). 

• Declaration of Ready. This is the bonus for going out on a hand declared ready. Note that some rules may ignore this bonus when calculating the minimum points for the hand. This option can be specified by using the options of the Advanced Minimum Point Exceptions dialog box, accessed by clicking the Advanced button on the Exceptions to Restriction for Winning dialog box. 
• Exposed Declaration of Ready. If scoring is specified for this bonus pattern, the player can declare an exposed ready hand so that all tiles are turned face-up. An additional command appears under the Game menu, which allows you to declare Ready with an exposed hand. Note that there is an option for this bonus, that requires that no other ready declarations can co-exist with an exposed ready declaration.
  Note: If the rule of Sacred discard is used, it is ignored if the hand is exposed to all players. 
• Out one after the Ready declaration. Specifies scoring for the case where the player goes out on the first turn after the ready declaration (i.e., before making his next discard).

Penalties

Often the rules specify a cost for declaring ready (traditionally each player who declares ready places a counter on top of his hand to mark it ready). Since the winner collects these counters, they are practically a sort of penalty for failing to go out on a ready hand, and are handled and reported as penalties in Four Winds. These penalties can be specified only if the rule of Voluntary ready declaration is enabled

Penalties for not winning the hand with a hand declared ready:

• No points for the hand: Specifies that the player does not receive points for his hand (except for possible Flowers and Seasons), but pays normally.
  Note: If the deal ends in a draw, and rules specify that points are paid after a draw (either just for ready hands or to all players), this penalty is canceled.
• Ready penalties: A specified amount of points is reduced from the total points of each loser who declared ready. The winner receives these penalties, even if he has not declared ready. In the Japanese Transitional rules each player who declares a Ready Hand must pay 100 points for the declaration. In the modern Japanese rules the payment is usually 1,000 points. The pending Ready penalties are displayed on the status bar and in the Players window.
  Note: If multiple winners are allowed, the winner who sits first in turn after the discarder will get the pool of ready penalties. Note too, that Four Winds handles these penalties as pending payments so they do not affect the players' total points until the deal is ended and there is a winner who actually collects these payments.
• Retain in pool if no winner: Specifies that the ready payments are retained if the deal ends in a draw (or if it ends in a faulty Out). The next winner will collect all ready penalties in the pool.

Penalties for faulty declaration of Ready:

• Faulty declaration of ‘Ready’: Lets you specify the penalty points the offender must pay and whether the penalty is paid to all players or simply reduced from the total points of the offender, and whether East pays/receives double. You can also specify that the penalty is paid only in case the deal ends in a draw. This penalty is used only if the voluntary ready declaration is used.

Validation of the Ready declaration

Validation of the Ready declaration is done according to the setting of the Validate the declaration option on the Ready rule option page.

1. If the option is checked (as in most rules that use ready declaration), Four Winds checks that the player really needs only one tile to complete the hand, and, if the rule of Sacred Discard is used and the player is not allowed to declare ready with a Sacred hand (see option below), that the player does not have a sacred hand. The hand is validated after the player makes his discard after the declaration. 

Validation at the time of declaration makes it practically impossible to use the ready declaration for bluffing. Notice too, that penalties for faulty ready declaration are not applied, even if they have been specified. When playing over the network, the other players, however, are notified of the illegal declaration.

2. If the option is not checked, and the player subsequently declares Out on a faulty ready hand, this is considered a faulty Out, and appropriate penalties must be paid. If the deal ends in a draw, penalties for faulty declaration of Ready (if specified) are still applied.

Note: If there are restrictions on the winning hand, e.g., a minimum point requirement or prohibition of mixed suits, these conditions are checked only if the hand is locked after the declaration. The minimum point requirement is checked only if the Check hand against minimum points option (see above) is used. The hand is not checked against availability of tiles: if the hand cannot be completed because of all tiles required to complete it have already been played, it can be declared ready (the only exception being the case where the player's hand already contains all four pieces of the tile that is needed for winning – this is considered a faulty ready declaration as no hand can depend on existence of more than 4 similar tiles, unless jokers are used).

For detailed information, see the tables below.

a) Table over how Four Winds resolves violations against the Ready rule at the time of the declaration

The Ready rule is probably the most complex rule of Mah Jong. Since Four Winds simulates the game flow of real Mah Jong (rather than making decisions for the user), the user is hardly ever prohibited from making mistakes. However, the consequences of rule violations can be customized. As for violations of rule of Ready, Four Winds can act in a number of different ways, depending on the selected options.

b) Table over how Four Winds resolves violations against the Ready rule after the declaration is made

The following table summarizes violations after  the declaration of ready is made and lists the possible consequences.

Tip: If you apply the voluntary Ready rule, you might want to check the Pay points after a draw and For ready hands only options on the Winning & Draw page under the Rules section of the category tree. For more information, see Draw rules – Paying points after a draw.

Procedures:
Declaring Ready

Related topics:
Obligatory Ready declaration
Ready on original hand
Ready on first turn