Riichi Teaching Method

This is the standard teaching method we use at Queen City Riichi. Like most existing teaching methods, we introduce rules one at a time, but instead of “teaching yakuless mahjong then yaku”, we start with the idea of riichi, before we even teach chii and pon (read the Hands-on Time section for details). Benefits of this teaching method are as follows:

1. since we start by requiring beginners to call riichi before winning, the idea of yaku as a winning requirement will be a natural progression and much easier to digest
   • in contrast, in our old teaching method, we first teach people to win with just x sets and 1 pair, allowing chii and pon. When we finally introduce yaku, we have to contradict the previous teachings by saying “now you can’t win without yaku; riichi is a yaku; if you chii or pon you can’t riichi”. This is a lot of rule changes to take in at once and often where the beginners get confused and frustrated.
2. This helps beginners form three good habits:
   • they will learn what a “ready hand” is and to always check if their hand is ready (this will also help with their reasoning/efficiency)
   • they will learn to plan for riichi or another yaku (when we taught chii and pon before yaku, the beginners tend to open blindly and hope for an impossible yaku later, since they are used to winning without a yaku)
   • they will understand the timing of riichi and call it whenever possible

Overall Ideas

• Repeat each step as necessary.
• play with revealed hands and explain basic efficiency (e.g., why someone shouldn’t cut number tiles if they have a singleton honor).
• Switch to concealed hands once beginners are comfortable with the basic efficiency and game flow.
• Avoid unnecessarily explaining rules that “come up” (i.e., don’t mention furiten when the beginners are still learning chii)

Hands-on Time

1. replace any special tiles with regular tiles to minimize confusion (e.g., red fives -> normal fives).
2. start with pinzu and souzu tiles only. Explain the deck composition (2 suits of numbers 1-9, 4 copies each). Set the goal to build 2 sets (a run in the same suit or a triplet) and 1 pair. Introduce the concept of making critical calls: riichi, ron and tsumo.
   • IMPORTANT: riichi here is just an arbitrary call someone must make when their hand is ready, like “UNO!” (don’t explain yaku yet!)
   • make sure the beginners understand the concept of “ready hand” – that’s when they must call riichi!
3. add in honors. Now 4 sets + 1 pair.
4. introduce other beginner yaku
   • they can’t open their hands yet, but now they can win without riichi
5. add in pon and chii; explain that stealing tiles disables riichi
6. add in manzu tiles

In short:

1. pinzu + souzu + riichi
2. honors
3. yaku
4. chii + pon
5. manzu

Add in Furiten and Scoring

Once the beginners are confident with the above rules, introduce these:

1. furiten (“can’t call ron on ANY tile if you discarded one of your waits, etc.”).
   • Unlike teaching yakuless mahjong, which can lead to a bad habit of going yakuless, it’s okay to omit furiten in the beginning, since players won’t form a bad habit of going furiten if they play the game normally.
2. simplified scoring system (1k -> 2k -> 4k -> 8k -> 12k, etc.)
3. dora and kan