Riichi Mahjong Scoring: Han, Fu & Yaku List

What Are the Most Common Yaku and Their Han Values?

The most common yaku in riichi mahjong are the 1-han patterns that form the backbone of everyday hands: riichi, tanyao, pinfu, and iipeiko. Learning these four yaku covers the vast majority of winning hands you will encounter or build yourself.

Riichi (1 han): You declare riichi by placing a 1,000-point stick on the table when your closed hand is one tile away from winning (tenpai). You cannot change your hand after declaring. Riichi is the single most frequently scored yaku in competitive play and also enables ippatsu (winning within one turn cycle of your declaration, worth an additional 1 han) and access to ura-dora (hidden dora indicators under the regular dora indicators, checked only if you win after declaring riichi).

Tanyao (1 han): Your hand contains only simple tiles — numbered 2 through 8 in any suit — with no terminals (1s or 9s) and no honor tiles. Some rulesets allow open tanyao (kuitan), while others restrict it to closed hands. Most modern Japanese rulesets, including those used in M-League and on Mahjong Soul, allow open tanyao.

Pinfu (1 han, closed only): All four melds are sequences (no triplets), the pair is not a yakuhai tile (not seat wind, round wind, or dragon), and the final wait is a two-sided open wait (ryanmen). Pinfu hands have no extra fu from melds or waits, which makes them score exactly 30 fu on a ron win and 20 fu on a tsumo win.

Iipeiko (1 han, closed only): Your hand contains two identical sequences — same suit, same numbers — such as two sets of 3-4-5 of bamboo.

Beyond the 1-han basics, several mid-range yaku appear regularly:

Notice that several yaku lose 1 han when the hand is open (contains called melds). This penalty reflects the reduced difficulty of building a hand with calls. Chinitsu — a pure single-suit hand — is worth 6 han closed and 5 han open, making it one of the most valuable non-limit yaku in the game.

How Do You Calculate Fu (Minipoints)?

Fu calculation starts with a base value of either 20 or 30, then adds bonus fu from melds, the pair, and the wait type. The total is always rounded up to the nearest 10 before being plugged into the scoring formula.

The base fu depends on how you won:

• Closed ron (menzen ron): 30 fu base
• Open hand or tsumo win: 20 fu base
• Tsumo bonus: Add 2 fu for winning by self-draw (tsumo), except in pinfu tsumo which is fixed at 20 fu total

Meld fu values follow a clear pattern based on two factors — whether the meld is a sequence or triplet, and whether it involves simple tiles or terminals/honors:

Sequences never contribute fu. Triplets and quads are the primary source of meld-based fu, and the values double at each step: open → closed doubles it, and simples → terminals/honors also doubles it. A closed quad of honor tiles is worth 32 fu — the maximum from a single meld.

Pair fu is simpler: a pair of dragons, seat wind, or round wind adds 2 fu. If a tile is both your seat wind and the round wind (e.g., you are East in the East round), some rulesets award 2 fu and others award 4 fu. This is one of the few genuine rule variations in Japanese riichi scoring.

Wait-type fu rewards restrictive waits:

• Ryanmen (two-sided open wait): 0 fu
• Shanpon (two-pair wait for a triplet): 0 fu
• Kanchan (closed/middle wait, e.g., waiting on 5 in 4-_-6): 2 fu
• Penchan (edge wait, e.g., waiting on 3 in 1-2-_): 2 fu
• Tanki (pair wait): 2 fu

After totaling all fu, round up to the nearest 10. A hand with 32 raw fu becomes 40 fu. The only exception is chiitoi (seven pairs), which is always fixed at 25 fu — it is never rounded.

How Do You Calculate Final Point Values?

Final point values are determined by plugging fu and han into the base-points formula, then applying multipliers based on whether the winner is the dealer (East) or a non-dealer, and whether the win was by ron (discard) or tsumo (self-draw).

The core formula is:

Base points = fu × 2^(2+han)

This formula applies only for hands worth 1–4 han. Once the base points exceed 2,000 (which happens at various fu/han combinations), the hand is capped at mangan. For 5+ han, fixed limit values replace the formula entirely.

For a non-dealer ron win, the discarder pays base points × 4, rounded up to the nearest 100. For a dealer ron win, the discarder pays base points × 6, rounded up to the nearest 100.

For a non-dealer tsumo win, the two non-dealers each pay base points × 1 (rounded up to 100), and the dealer pays base points × 2 (rounded up to 100). For a dealer tsumo win, all three non-dealers each pay base points × 2 (rounded up to 100).

Let's work through a concrete example. Suppose a non-dealer wins by ron with 40 fu and 3 han:

1. Base points = 40 × 2^(2+3) = 40 × 32 = 1,280
2. Non-dealer ron multiplier = × 4 → 1,280 × 4 = 5,120
3. Round up to nearest 100 → 5,200 points

Now consider a dealer winning by tsumo with 30 fu and 4 han:

1. Base points = 30 × 2^(2+4) = 30 × 64 = 1,920
2. Dealer tsumo: each non-dealer pays 1,920 × 2 = 3,840 → rounded to 3,900 each
3. Total received: 3,900 × 3 = 11,700 points

Because the formula produces awkward numbers, experienced players memorize a scoring table rather than calculating on the fly. The most common reference points are: 30 fu / 1 han = 1,000 (non-dealer ron); 30 fu / 2 han = 2,000; 30 fu / 3 han = 3,900; 30 fu / 4 han = 7,700. At 30 fu / 4 han the base points (1,920) are close to the 2,000 cap, and at 40 fu / 4 han the base points hit 2,560 — which exceeds 2,000, so the hand is promoted to mangan.

What Are Limit Hands and How Do They Simplify Scoring?

Limit hands are fixed-value scoring tiers that replace the fu × 2^(2+han) formula once a hand reaches 5 or more han. They exist because the exponential formula produces enormous and unwieldy numbers at high han counts, so the game caps scores at defined thresholds.

The five limit-hand tiers are:

For non-dealer tsumo, the notation "2,000 / 4,000" means each non-dealer pays 2,000 and the dealer pays 4,000.

Mangan is the most frequently achieved limit hand. Any combination of yaku and dora totaling 5 han qualifies — for example, riichi (1) + tanyao (1) + pinfu (1) + dora 2 = 5 han = mangan. Additionally, hands at 3 han / 70 fu or 4 han / 30 fu that produce base points exceeding 2,000 are rounded up to mangan under a rule called "kiriage mangan," though this rule is not universal. Check your ruleset.

Yakuman is the pinnacle. Thirteen specific yaku — including kokushi musou (thirteen orphans), suuankou (four concealed triplets), and daisangen (big three dragons) — are each defined as yakuman regardless of their literal han count. A yakuman ron as non-dealer pays 32,000 points from a single opponent, enough to completely reshape a game's standings. Some rulesets recognize double yakuman (64,000 for non-dealer ron) for exceptionally rare patterns like suuankou with a single wait or kokushi with a 13-sided wait.

How Do Dora Tiles Boost Your Score?

Dora tiles are bonus han sources indicated by marker tiles on the dead wall. Each dora tile in your winning hand adds 1 han, but dora alone cannot make a hand valid — you always need at least one qualifying yaku first.

At the start of each hand, one dora indicator is revealed on the dead wall. The dora indicator shows the tile before the actual dora tile in the suit's sequence. If the indicator is a 3-man (3 of characters), the dora is 4-man. For winds, the sequence is East → South → West → North → East. For dragons, it is White → Green → Red → White. Every copy of the dora tile in your hand adds 1 han.

Additional dora indicators are revealed when a player declares a kan (quad). Each kan flips one new indicator, creating a new dora for all players. In a hand with 4 kans (the maximum), there are 5 dora indicators active. This mechanic makes kan declarations a double-edged sword: they increase potential scoring for everyone at the table.

Ura-dora are hidden indicators beneath each regular dora indicator on the dead wall. They are only checked when a player wins after declaring riichi. If you declared riichi and win, you flip the tiles under the dora indicators and count any matching tiles in your hand as additional han. Ura-dora can dramatically inflate a hand's value — a hand that looked like 2 han before ura-dora might jump to 4 or 5 han after flipping.

Aka-dora (red dora) are red-colored 5s — typically one each in characters, circles, and bamboo — that replace a normal 5 in the tile set. Each red 5 in your hand counts as 1 han of dora. Red dora are standard in most online platforms (Mahjong Soul, Tenhou) and in M-League, but they are not used in all competitive rulesets. The European Mahjong Association (EMA) Riichi rules, for example, do not include red dora.

A key strategic fact: dora are pure han with no associated fu, and they stack with everything. A hand worth riichi (1) + tanyao (1) + pinfu (1) + dora 1 + ura-dora 1 = 5 han = mangan. Dora are often the difference between a modest 1,000-point hand and a mangan-level windfall.

What Strategies Maximize Your Scoring Potential?

The most effective scoring strategy in riichi mahjong is to build closed hands that stack multiple yaku and preserve access to riichi, ippatsu, and ura-dora. Open hands sacrifice these high-value bonuses for speed, so the trade-off must be deliberate.

Prioritize closed hands when possible. A closed hand can declare riichi (1 han), qualify for pinfu (1 han), earn ippatsu (1 han), and access ura-dora. An open hand loses all four of these options. The scoring difference is enormous: a closed riichi + pinfu + tsumo hand with 1 dora is 4 han / 20 fu (mangan by some rulesets), while the same tiles in an open hand with just tanyao and 1 dora is 2 han / 30 fu = 2,000 points on a non-dealer ron.

Know when to open. Despite the scoring advantages of closed hands, calling tiles is correct when you hold a high-value yaku that works open — particularly honitsu (2 han open) or yakuhai triplets — and speed matters more than maximum value. In the late game, when you need a quick win to avoid a larger loss, an open 1-han hand paying 1,000 points is better than a beautiful 5-han hand you never complete.

Count to 5 han. Mangan is the first limit hand and represents a massive jump in payment. When building your hand, count your guaranteed han (yaku you have locked in) plus likely han (dora you hold, yaku you expect to complete). If you can see a path to 5 han, pursue it aggressively. If your hand is stuck at 1–2 han with no dora and no path to stack more yaku, treat it as a fast hand and win quickly or consider defending.

Respect the dealer bonus. The dealer (East) receives 50% more on ron wins and collects from all three players at an elevated rate on tsumo wins. A dealer mangan tsumo is 4,000 from each player (12,000 total) compared to a non-dealer's 2,000/4,000 split (8,000 total). When you are the dealer, push for bigger hands. When an opponent is the dealer on a streak, consider defensive play to end their dealership.

Use dora awareness. Always track which tiles are dora. If you hold 2 dora, even a simple riichi + tanyao hand (1+1+2 dora = 4 han) is one tile away from mangan with ura-dora. Conversely, avoid discarding dora tiles carelessly — they are dangerous to opponents for the same reason they are valuable to you.

For a complete overview of riichi mahjong rules and hand-building fundamentals, see our Riichi Mahjong Rules guide. For a broader look at how scoring works across different mahjong variants, visit our Scoring Overview.

How Does Dealer vs. Non-Dealer Scoring Differ?

The dealer (East) receives approximately 50% more points than a non-dealer for the same hand, making the East seat the most powerful — and most targeted — position at the table.

On a ron win, the difference is straightforward. A non-dealer's base points are multiplied by 4, while a dealer's base points are multiplied by 6. For a mangan ron, a non-dealer collects 8,000 points and a dealer collects 12,000 — a 4,000-point difference from the exact same hand.

On a tsumo win, the dealer's advantage compounds because all three opponents pay the elevated rate. A non-dealer mangan tsumo collects 2,000 from each non-dealer and 4,000 from the dealer (8,000 total). A dealer mangan tsumo collects 4,000 from each of the three non-dealers (12,000 total). The dealer receives 50% more total points, and no single opponent bears a disproportionate share.

This asymmetry shapes strategy at every level. Strong players push harder for wins when they hold the dealer seat, accepting riskier hands to maintain their position. When facing a dealer on a scoring streak, the table often shifts to coordinated defensive play — prioritizing safe discards and avoiding feeding the dealer expensive wins. Understanding this dynamic is as important as memorizing the scoring tables themselves.

If you want to practice these concepts in a live setting, you can find riichi mahjong games near you or join a mahjong club to play with experienced opponents who can help reinforce scoring fundamentals at the table.

Key Takeaways

• Han and fu are the two axes of riichi mahjong scoring. Han come from yaku and dora; fu come from melds, pair, wait type, and win method.
• The base-points formula is fu × 2^(2+han), but it only applies for hands worth 1–4 han. At 5+ han, fixed limit-hand values take over.
• Mangan (5 han) is the critical scoring threshold. It pays 8,000 on a non-dealer ron and 12,000 on a dealer ron — a massive jump from sub-mangan hands.
• Dora tiles add han but are not yaku. You always need at least one valid yaku before dora count. Ura-dora and red dora (aka-dora) can dramatically inflate hand values.
• Closed hands outscore open hands because they retain access to riichi, ippatsu, ura-dora, and closed-only yaku like pinfu and iipeiko.
• The dealer receives roughly 50% more points for the same hand, making the East seat both a scoring opportunity and a defensive priority for opponents.
• Memorize common scoring benchmarks (30 fu / 1 han = 1,000; mangan = 8,000 non-dealer ron) rather than calculating the formula every time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Play?

The best way to internalize riichi mahjong scoring — sometimes also written as mah-jong scoring — is to play regularly and verify your point calculations in real time. Whether you are a beginner learning your first yaku or an advanced player refining your han-counting instincts, live practice is irreplaceable. Find mahjong lessons near you to learn from experienced instructors, or join a mahjong club to sit down at a table and put this scoring knowledge into action.

Related Articles

• Scoring Overview — Compare scoring systems across mahjong variants
• Riichi Mahjong Rules — Complete rules guide for Japanese riichi mahjong
• Find Riichi Mahjong Near You — Locate games, clubs, and events in your area
• Find Mahjong Lessons Near You — Learn from instructors who can walk you through scoring in person
• Join a Mahjong Club — Connect with local players and practice scoring at the table