Japanese mahjong scoring, step by step
Scoring is the part of riichi everyone says is hard. It is easier than its reputation — if you learn it in the right order. This page teaches the 90% you need at a real table first, then the exact math, in that order. Fu comes last, because that is where it belongs.
The two numbers that price a hand
Every winning hand is priced by two numbers:
- Han 飜 — the hand's value class. Each yaku is worth a fixed number of han, and each dora adds one more. Han do the heavy lifting: more han roughly doubles the score.
- Fu 符 — fine-grained “minipoints” from the hand's shape: triplets, the wait, the pair. Fu only changes the score at 1–4 han, and most hands land on 30 or 40 fu anyway.
Step 1: learn the limits, skip the math
From 5 han the score is fixed — fu stops mattering entirely. These tiers are the skeleton of all riichi scoring, and they are the first thing to memorize:
| Tier | Han | Non-dealer ron | Dealer ron |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mangan 満貫 | 5 (and capped 3–4 han hands) | 8,000 | 12,000 |
| Haneman 跳満 | 6–7 | 12,000 | 18,000 |
| Baiman 倍満 | 8–10 | 16,000 | 24,000 |
| Sanbaiman 三倍満 | 11–12 | 24,000 | 36,000 |
| Yakuman 役満 | 13+ or a yakuman hand | 32,000 | 48,000 |
Step 2: memorize the everyday scores
Below mangan, real games are dominated by a handful of values. Learn these eight — really just four values and their dealer versions — and you can play a full session without touching a chart (30 fu):
| Han (30 fu) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-dealer ron | 1,000 | 2,000 | 3,900 | 7,700 |
| Dealer ron | 1,500 | 2,900 | 5,800 | 11,600 |
Notice the pattern: each added han roughly doubles the payment. “3,900” and “7,700” look odd but are just doublings rounded up to the nearest hundred. Dealers score 1.5× — that is why the dealer seat matters.
Dealer mangan. The most common “scoring shock” for new players is forgetting that every tier pays 1.5× when the dealer wins — and that the dealer then keeps the deal for another hand.
Step 3: the actual formula
The exact rule behind every number above:
base = fu × 2(2 + han)
- Non-dealer ron: discarder pays 4 × base
- Dealer ron: discarder pays 6 × base
- Non-dealer tsumo: dealer pays 2 × base, the other two pay 1 × base each
- Dealer tsumo: everyone pays 2 × base
- Every payment is rounded up to the next 100; base is capped at 2,000 (that cap is mangan)
Example: 3 han 30 fu → 30 × 2⁵ = 960 base → ×4 = 3,840 → rounded up: 3,900. That is the whole system. Honba counters add 300 per repeat on ron (100 from each player on tsumo), and riichi sticks on the table go to the winner.
Step 4: fu — when you are ready
Fu rewards hand shapes that are harder to complete: triplets over sequences, hard waits (middle, edge, pair) over two-sided ones, honor pairs over number pairs. Two shortcuts cover most hands: pinfu is always 30 fu on ron and 20 on tsumo, and chiitoitsu is always 25 fu. Everything else starts at 20 and rounds up to the next 10. The complete rules, with worked examples, live on the fu calculation page.
Tools
- Score calculator — han/fu in, exact payments out, offline-capable
- Full score table — all four situations, every fu row
- Fu counting guide — the last 10%, mastered
Scoring is also where automatic tables quietly change the game: ALBAN's Slim Voice SCORE reads the point sticks for you and displays every player's total on an LCD — the fu math is still yours, but the bookkeeping isn't.