Important things to remember: - Your hand needs to have ONE or MORE of these yaku in it in order to be a legal configuration. If it doesn't have at least one, you cannot declare Mahjong and win that hand. Han from dora will not make your hand legal, it MUST contain at least ONE yaku. - Only steal when you need to. Stealing opens your hand and will often either lower your score or make your hand null. It's a good idea to only steal when doing so would guarentee you a win. (stealing a pon of a yakuhai) - When a "pon" (3-of-a-kind) is required for a yaku, a "kan" (4-of-a-kind) is also acceptable. Keep this in mind when combining hands if you're lucky enough to get kans. - For visual examples and possibly deeper explanations of the different yaku, please check out the Wikipedia page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Mahjong_yaku or the Mahjong Made Simple Hand List here http://www.japanesemahjong.com/reachmahjong/hand_values/han_value_frameset.htm (note that the Mahjong Made Simple list contains unique names that might not be reflected in this list, but has lots of nice examples and tips for combining yaku). Simple yaku: CLOSED TSUMO (MENZEN TSUMO) Description: Do not steal and complete your hand with a tile you drew yourself. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: NO YAKUHAI: COLOURS (JIHAI) Description: A pon (set of 3-of-a-kind) or kan (set of 4-of-a-kind) of a single colour/dragon/element tile. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: YES YAKUHAI: TABLE WIND (BAKAZE) Description: A pon (set of 3-of-a-kind) or kan (set of 4-of-a-kind) of the dominant wind of the round (usually East or South). Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: YES YAKUHAI: SEAT WIND (JIKAZE) Description: A pon (set of 3-of-a-kind) or kan (set of 4-of-a-kind) of the wind assigned to your seat for the hand. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: YES RIICHI Description: You put a 1000 point stick on the table and declare that you are tempai (one tile away from winning). You cannot declare Riichi with an open hand. You cannot change your hand after declaring Riichi. If you discarded one of the tiles you're waiting on, you're "Furiten" and cannot "Ron", you must draw whatever tile you need yourself. You must Ron or Tsumo on the first tile possible. The 1000 point stick goes to whoever wins. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: NO PINFU Description: Hand consisting of 4 Chi (run of 3 tiles in the same suit) and 1 Head (pair of the same tile). Final Wait must be an Open Wait. Head cannot be of a Yakuhai tile. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: NO ALL SIMPLES (TANYAO) Description: Hand has no 1s, 9s, or honours. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: NO STRAIGHT (ITTSUU) Description: Have runs 1-2-3, 4-5-6, and 7-8-9 of one suit in your hand. Score: 2 Han Stealing OK?: -1 Han ALL PONS (TOI TOI) Description: Hand consisting of 4 pons (sets of 3-of-a-kind) or kans (4-of-a-kind) or a mixture of the two and 1 pair. Score: 2 Han Stealing OK?: YES HALF OUTSIDE (CHANTA) Description: Every group in your hand has at least one terminal tile (1, 9, or honour). Chis must have a 1 or a 9 and pons must be of 1s, 9s, or honours. Score: 2 Han Stealing OK?: -1 Han TRIPLE PON (SANSHOKU DOUKOU) Description: Hand contains 3 pons of the same numbers. Score: 2 Han Stealing OK?: YES ALL PAIRS (CHITOITSU) Description: Hand consists of 7 pairs. Can't use two of the same pair, as it's considered a kan. Score: 2 Han Stealing OK?: N/A (Impossible) DOUBLE RIICHI Description: Riichi declared on your first round, as long as no one stole any tiles beforehand. Score: 2 Han Stealing OK?: NO 3 KANS (SAN KANTSU) Description: Hand contains 3 kans, open or closed. Score: 2 Han Stealing OK?: YES 3 CLOSED PONS (SAN ANKOU) Description: Hand contains 3 closed pons. Score: 2 Han Stealing OK?: YES (hand can be open, but you can't steal the pons!) HALF FLUSH (HONITSU) Description: Hand consists of tiles all of the same suit and honours. Score: 3 Han Stealing OK?: -1 Han FULL OUTSIDE (JUNCHAN) Description: Pons and Chis that all include 1s or 9s. No honours allowed. Score: 3 Han Stealing OK?: -1 Han ALL ENDS (HONROU) Description: Hand is made with only terminals (1s, 9s, and honours). Can be made with All Pairs (Chitoitsu) or All Pons (Toi Toi), but in either case the 2 Han from either is already included in the score. Score: 4 Han Stealing OK?: YES FULL FLUSH (CHINITSU) Description: All tiles from one suit (no honours). Score: 6 Han Stealing OK?: -1 Han Not Simple Yaku DOUBLE CHI (IIPEIKOU) Description: Hand contains two identical Chis (same suit and sequence). Does NOT combine with All Pairs (Chitoitsu). Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: NO IPPATSU Description: Able to Ron/Tsumo on one of the next 4 tiles after calling Riichi (discards and next draw). If anyone steals in that time, Ippatsu is invalid. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: NO LAST TILE RON (HOUTEI RAOYUI) Description: Complete your hand with the last tile discarded. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: YES LAST TILE TSUMO (HAITEI RAOYUE) Description: Complete your hand by drawing the last tile. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: YES DEAD WALL WIN (RINSHAN KAIHOU) Description: Complete your hand on the draw from the Dead Wall after making a kan. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: YES LATE KAN RON (CHANKAN) Description: Complete your hand with the tile used to declare a late kan by another player. Score: 1 Han Stealing OK?: YES TRIPLE CHI (SAN SHOKU) Descriptions: Hand contains 3 chis of the same numbers in different suits. Score: 2 Han Stealing OK?: -1 Han DOUBLE-DOUBLE CHI (RYANPEIKOU) Description: Hand that includes 2 Double Chis. Does NOT combine with All Pairs (Chitoitsu). Score: 3 Han Stealing OK?: NO LESSER COLOURS (SHOU SANGEN) Description: Hand contains 2 pons of colours/dragons/elements and one head of colours/dragons/elements. Score includes the 2 Han from the two pons of colours. Score: 4 Han Stealing OK?: YES ALL ENDS DISCARD (NAGASHI MANGAN) Description: Strange hand made in the player's discard pile. Canot be combined with any other hand. Get this if the hand ends without any winners, you've only discarded terminals (1s, 9s, and honours), and none of your discards were stolen. Score: 4 Han Stealing OK?: N/A Limit Yaku (Yakuman) (NOTE: Yakuman are always worth the max number of points (48k for dealer, 32k for non-dealer).) 4 CLOSED PONS (SUU ANKOU) Description: Hand made of 4 closed (non-stolen) pons and a head (pair). NOTE!: if the wait is Double-Set wait, you MUST win with Tsumo or the final Pon will be considered Open. Thus, you shouldn't declare Riichi with this hand since it won't help anyway. Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: NO 13 ORPHENS (KOKUSHI MUSOU) Description: Hand consisting of one of each of the terminals (1s, 9s, and honours) and then one more of any of them (making one pair). Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: N/A GREATER COLOURS (DAI SANGEN) Description: Hand contains pons of all three colours/dragons/elements. Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: YES 4 WINDS (DAI/SHOU SUUSHII) Description: Three pons of 3 winds and a pair or better of the last wind. Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: YES ALL GREEN (RYUU IISOU / OORU GURIIN) Description: Hand is exclusively made up of 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 bamboo and/or Green Dragon. Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: YES ALL HONOURS (TSUU IISOU) Description: Hand consisting of ONLY honour tiles. By definition, must be 4 pons/kans and a head. Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: YES ALL ENDS (CHINROUTOU) Description: Hand is only made up of 1s and 9s. Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: YES OUT FROM FIRST DRAW (TENHOU / CHIHOU) Description: Tsumo on the first tile you draw. If anyone steals before you draw, it's invalid. Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: NO OUT FROM FIRST ROUND DISCARD (RENHOU) Description: Ron on any discard before your first draw. If anyone steals beforehand, it's invalid. Score: YAKUMAN (usually) Stealing OK?: NO NINE GATES (CHUUREN POUTOU) Description: Hand consists of 111245678999 all in one suit, plus one more tile of that suit. Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: NO 4 KANS (SUU KANTSU) Description: One of the rarest yakuman. Hand consists of 4 kans (open or closed) and a head. NOTE!: if you make 4 open/closed kans and don't go out on Dead Wall Win (Rinshan Kaihou), the hand will end in a Washout ("Abortive Draw"). Score: YAKUMAN Stealing OK?: YES