Riichi Mahjong in Singapore

Dead Hand

Players with Dead Hand cannot pon/chi/kan/ron/tsumo.

The following offences are subjected to Dead Hand penalty:

• Too few or too many tiles on the hand
• Picking tile from the wrong part of the wall (To be declared by players before the tile being added into offender’s hand)
• Claiming a false set and discard has been made Eg. melded 112
• Claiming a tile after the hand has been declared a dead hand
• Knocked and revealed the 1st replacement tile from the dead wall

Chombo Penalty 

Chombo Penalty is 4k payment to all players each regardless of whether the offender is dealer or not, followed by a deduction of announced 2 or 3 LP for the league.

After an occurrence of any Chombo offence, riichi bets are returned to the players who declared riichi, and there is a re-deal. No counter is placed, and the dealer does not rotate.

The following offences are subject to Chombo penalty:

• Invalidly declaring a win*
• Declaring riichi on a hand that is not waiting (determined only in case of a drawn game)
• Making an invalid concealed kong after declaring riichi** (determined only if the offender wins or in case of a drawn game)

* First timer attending the session will only be penalised dead hand in an event of invalid agari.

**Invalid Kan

An Invalid Kan occurs during Riichi when the Kan made, changes the waiting pattern and/or changes the interpreted sequence or triplets.

Example 1

Upon drawing 6p, 7p or 8p, the kan cannot be made as the sets can be interpreted as either sequence or triplets. By doing a kan, it forces the hand to only be interpreted by 1 way. Therefore, this kan is invalid.

Example 2

Upon drawing 6m, 3m cannot be kan as the original hand read 345 as a sequence, by doing a kan of 3m, it changes the sequence to 456. Therefore, this kan is invalid.
After an occurrence of an Invalid Agari, riichi bets are returned to the players who declared riichi, and there is a re-deal. No counter is placed, and the dealer does not rotate.

Vocalisation of calls/melds

Players are to

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

Calls Penalty

Offence	Penalty
Silent Calls	1st time – Warning 2nd time – Warning 3rd time and subsequent – Dead Hand
Empty Calls
Wrong word used win/calls

Other fouls and treatments

Failing to take the claimed tile

While a player who claims a tile can make a discard before placing the claimed tile with his revealed tiles, the player should take the tile before the next two players have made a discard. Failing to take the tile in a timely manner results in a Dead Hand, since the player will have a false set.

Did whatever that made the game impossible to continue

Offline penalty of minus 20 rating points.

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.