Riichi Mahjong in Singapore

It was apparently that many didn’t read my email on behavioural etiquette & penalties post before attending the session.

I don’t blame those who didn’t read because I understand how it can be last minute. I apologised that it was so late because I had been getting more and more busy with schoolwork.

Regarding this, what eventually happened during yesterday’s session?

There were MANY MANY occasions of players not vocalising their calls. Many silent calls, many wrong calls. For newcomers with only Singapore mahjong background, it is perfectly understandable if they say “hu” instead of ron. That’s fine.

But for chi/pon/kan, some players have to be repeatedly told “you need to say chi”, “must say pon”.

To those players who repeatedly remind those to do the right things, I greatly appreciate your effort even though it might make you look like a bad guy to them. For those who were being reminded, please don’t take it too personally. What we are trying to do, is to cultivate a more well-mannered and professional setting. Plus, based on WRC rules, they really do penalise strictly on that.

It is really not difficult to say a correct word before making your move.

About the penalty system, I’m gonna make it simpler such that it is easier for everyone to remember.

*Newcomers will only be awarded dead hand. ONLY FOR THEIR FIRST SESSION IN SMC.

Committing the offense of silent calls OR empty calls OR wrong word used for win/calls for 3 times (and subsequently) will get an offline penalty of minus 5,000.

There is a penalty row in score sheet. Be brave and just “3rd time foul, minus 5k* then take paper and record.

Issue of Pon over-riding Chi

Each call is given 3 seconds to do so. If a chi was done too quickly (tiles revealed), it will be treated as exposed if a Pon overides it. So it is advisable for players to “Chi slower”. That is to say, to wait for 2 seconds before calling for Chi and only reveal the tiles at the 3rd second. A call for Pon after this will be considered too late for a call and hence, be considered invalid.

Exposed tiles

Exposed tiles are tiles that are officially exposed (Invalid Ron, wrong melds, overridden melds). These tiles will remained exposed throughout the round. This is not a penalty of whatsoever but just a treatment to deal with such a situation. Players are not obligated to discard them immediately.

PLEASE DO

• Make clear calls for Chi, Pon, Kan, Riichi, Ron, Tsumo and use them appropriately.
• Vocalise before revealing your tiles.

PLEASE DO NOT

• Make unnecessary comments that affect gameplay (Shamisen)
• Change your mind to meld the moment you have touched the tile you are supposed to draw.

My personal comment

Honestly speaking, I’ve never imagined that I would ever implement penalties on the issue of calls/melds. I was never fond of penalising something trivial that happens unintentionally or temporarily.  SMCRM started off without any of this problem and I thought as we grow, things will naturally turn out the same way as it started. People who don’t vocalise their melds will eventually do so as the majority do it, I thought. Unknowingly over the course of 1 year, many bad habits started to become prevalent such that I cannot do nothing about it. Just like how we have a good culture of players coming on time, I can’t imagine how this can ever be cultivated if latecomers ain’t penalised. Similarly, I will have to try to apply the same for some behavioral etiquette.

We are now 1 year old so let’s really start to have a community that have grown, shall we? Just do our part and we will be happier as a whole.

Thank you, all.

Session report will be up soon!

Feng