Ready Hands
If you have a hand that is only one tile short of making
a winning combination then you are said to have a ready
hand.
The player holding a ready hand is said to be waiting for
a specific tile, it's often the case that you will be waiting
for more than one tile, normally 2 or 3, to make that winning
hand.
In some variations of Mahjong, you can delcare riichi.
Declaring riichi to the other players is a promise that
any tile drawn by the player will be discarded straight
away unless it makes the final winning hand.
A player who declares riichi and wins usually receives
a points bonus. A player declaring and loses is normally
penalised in the same way. This feature is most common in
the Japanese rules of mahjong.
Draws
If only the dead wall is remaining and yet there are still
no winners, then the round is classed as a draw, often termed
goulashed." A new round then begins.
Abortive Draws
In Japanese Mahjong, draws where the round is closed as
a draw but where there are tiles still available is known
as an Abortive Draw. Abortive Draws can happen where :
If, on a player's first turn, a player has nine
different terminal or honor tiles and no melds have been
declared.
If three players claim the same discarded tile in
order to win the round.
If, on the first turn without any meld declarations
being made, all of the players discarded the same wind tile.
If all four players declare riichi (see above for
description) then the round is drawn.
The round also drawn when the fourth kong is declared
unless all 4 were by a single players. In this instance
the round is drawn when another player declares a kong.
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