The Best 3 Player Rules Set

[Gamegrunt]

Please to be telling me the best way to be playing this game you call Riichi with only three players - me must know.

Gg

[WorTeX]

I haven\'t played any other 3 player variation than the one tenhou.net uses, simply just removing every character tile except 1s and 9s, and there is no north seat, and north tiles can be declared \"as flowers\" for bonus points(1 han per declared north). I have no clue about scoring though, I think normal rules apply for winning from other players, but when you win with self draw the amount paid is 3/4 of the original (I think!).

[FixxeR]

http://japanese-mahjong.com/3pmjintro.html Here\'s a guide to that 3 player variation.

[Poochy]

I have no clue about scoring though, I think normal rules apply for winning from other players, but when you win with self draw the amount paid is 3/4 of the original (I think!).

On Tenhou, scoring is normal for ron; for tsumo, the would-be North seat player\'s payment is ignored. This means a dealer tsumo is worth 2/3rds, and a non-dealer tsumo is worth 3/4ths. Also, no-ten bappu is 2,000 points.

My preferred rules:
+ Tsumo is split 50/50 (i.e. each opponent pays half the value of a ron) no matter what. For example, a dealer mangan would be 6,000 points each, and a non-dealer mangan would be 4,000 each. Tsumo happens more often in 3-player, and the Tenhou rules screw over the poor schlimazel who happens to be dealer when someone else happens to tsumo with a big hand.
+ No declared dora. It inflates hand values by a purely luck-based factor.

MFC Sanma uses those rules, with four red 5\'s (2 each in pinzu and souzu), 600 points per honba, no-ten bappu is 3,000 points. I\'m indifferent on those rules.

[Gamegrunt]

From http://japanese-mahjong.com/3pmjintro.html

There is no \"Chi\" in the three-player game. In other words a player cannot complete a run of three tiles by claiming a tile from the person to his left as is the case in the four-player game.

Is chi permitted if it results in a ron?

Gg

[b4k4ni04]

Anything is permitted if it results in ron, Always. As long as your hand has the minimum 1-han. (not including bonuses like north\'s and other dora\'s)

So, yes. You can even steal a called north if it completes your hand. The Chan-Kan yaku does not apply.

[hirohurl]

Hi Gg,

The scoring in three-player is much easier than standard rules scoring. You can do it on the fingers of one one hand:

http://japanese-mahjong.com/3pmjpage11.html

I cut my mahjong teeth on 3player mj. I\'d be interested to hear how you get on with it.

Best wishes,

David H

[Gamegrunt]

Hi Gg,

The scoring in three-player is much easier than standard rules scoring. You can do it on the fingers of one one hand:

http://japanese-mahjong.com/3pmjpage11.html

I cut my mahjong teeth on 3player mj. I\'d be interested to hear how you get on with it.

Best wishes,

David H

David,

Mucho thanks for your typically fine contribution! I have a question about the scoring system from your link...

1. Add up the total value of the yaku.
2. Add 1 point for each dora.
3. Add 2 points to the total.

There doesn\'t seem to be any need to determine fu or mini-points. It seems that adding 2 points to the total of yaku, dora and red five han points would spawn a lot of mangan hands.

My wife and I played a couple of hands of three player (removal of minor character tiles) and I liked the result. Only 3 walls, and a good pace to the play. I\'m hoping to try it out with 3 live players, rather than the 2 + dummy thing.

Gg

[Shirluban]

There doesn\'t seem to be any need to determine fu or mini-points. It seems that adding 2 points to the total of yaku, dora and red five han points would spawn a lot of mangan hands.

Not more than the regular 4 player rules.
In 4 player mahjong, you also add up 2 to your number of doubles. It\'s invisible because we don\'t do the fastidious calculation all the time but look at tables instead, and because the said tables generally don\'t show these +2.

If you don\'t believe me, try to re-calculate the tables and you\'ll see :P


David\'s 3 player scoring table show the +2 in the "score" column. So in David\'s the "score 6" line correspond to the "4 han" line you\'re used to.
(Without fu and rounded up to Mangan to make the scoring simpler.)

[hirohurl]

Gamegrunt wrote:There doesn\'t seem to be any need to determine fu or mini-points. It seems that adding 2 points to the total of yaku, dora and red five han points would spawn a lot of mangan hands.[/quote]

That\'s right, we kind of forget about \"fu\" - in fact, because 3pmj was my thing for so long, I was pretty much unaware of \"fu\" for a long time.

My wife and I played a couple of hands of three player (removal of minor character tiles) and I liked the result. Only 3 walls, and a good pace to the play. I\'m hoping to try it out with 3 live players, rather than the 2 + dummy thing.

Well, you could play 2-Player Mahjong!

How do you do that?

Set up the walls as usual but you take your opponent\'s tiles off the wall for her and place them in front of you with their faces facing your opponent.

She does likewise for you. At no point do you tou touch your own tiles or have your opponent rearrange them for you; you handle only your opponent\'s tiles.

When your turn comes you tell her which tile to discard. It\'s very good practice because you have to work with your hand all higgledy-piggledy.

Here\'s a photo...

Cheers,

DH

[center][/center]

[Robert]

Because there\'s only two suits, your head must hurt after a while.

Where did you learn about this 2-player variation?

And how do you tell her which tile to discard? The awkward \"no, not this one, the one to the right -- no, your other right!\"? Or just \"first\", \"second\", etc., counting from an end you had previously agreed upon?

[Gamegrunt]

Well, you could play 2-Player Mahjong!

How do you do that?

Set up the walls as usual but you take your opponent\'s tiles off the wall for her and place them in front of you with their faces facing your opponent.

She does likewise for you. At no point do you tou touch your own tiles or have your opponent rearrange them for you; you handle only your opponent\'s tiles.

When your turn comes you tell her which tile to discard. It\'s very good practice because you have to work with your hand all higgledy-piggledy.

David,

So with this rules set you use all the tiles? No dummy hands, just two players alternating turns?

Thanks for the suggestion!

Gg

Edited by moderator: Correction of quote tags and shorten this oh-so-long quote. :P

[hirohurl]

@Robert: I heard about it from a guy called Allan Jenkins (RIP) back in the early 2000s and his source was a Japanese mahjong player in Hiroshima...

\"Discard the third tile from your left, please!\"

@Gg: You can use it for 4 or 3 player style, with no dummy.