Winning a hand
Two things must be true at once: your fourteen tiles form a complete shape, and the hand contains at least one yaku. The second rule is the one that catches every new player — let's make sure it never catches you.
The complete shape
Almost every winning hand is four sets and a pair. The two exceptions are seven pairs and thirteen orphans, each its own yaku. When you are one tile away from completion, you are tenpai:
Two ways to take the winning tile
- Tsumo ツモ — you draw the winning tile yourself. All three opponents pay, split by the scoring rules.
- Ron ロン — an opponent discards your winning tile and you claim it. That player pays the entire score. (This is why good players fold — see the furiten lesson for the rule that governs ron.)
The yaku rule
A complete shape with no yaku is not a winning hand. You simply may not call ron or tsumo — you sit tenpai until the hand changes or ends. This is the single most common “bug report” from new players, usually phrased as “the app won't let me win.”
Dora do not count. A hand can hold five dora and still be worthless without a yaku — dora only multiply a hand that already has one. When in doubt, the three easiest guarantees are riichi (any closed tenpai hand), tanyao (no terminals or honors), and yakuhai (a dragon or your wind triplet).
“How did I win?” — reading your score screen
When an app announces your win, it lists the yaku, then dora, then the han/fu price. If the list says only “riichi + 2 dora”, that is exactly the anatomy: one real yaku (riichi) carrying two bonus counters. Recognizing this pattern is the moment scoring starts making sense.
One tile, one winner
If two players can ron the same discard, rulesets genuinely differ: some allow both wins, others play head-bump (atamahane — only the player closest in turn order wins). Agree before you start — it matters rarely, but memorably.
Next: Lesson 7 — furiten, the rule that protects the discarder.