How is riichi mahjong scored?

Base points use fan (from yaku) and fu (from hand structure). 5 fan is mangan; 6-7 haneman; 8-10 baiman; 11-12 sanbaiman; 13+ yakuman. The dealer pays/takes double.

What is the difference between fan and fu?

Fan come from named patterns (yaku). Fu come from the structure: pairs, waits, and whether you won on a draw or a discard. Both feed the same score formula.

What is a yakuman worth?

Yakuman is the maximum score: 32,000 points as a non-dealer ron, or 48,000 as a dealer tsumo. Some rules allow double and triple yakuman.

Riichi Mahjong Scoring Explained: Fan, Fu and Yakuman

How riichi mahjong points work — fan (han), fu, mangan and above, plus a quick yakuman list. Understand the score table without the jargon.

Published 2026-07-04 · Updated 2026-08-13

Riichi Mahjong Scoring Explained: Fan, Fu and Yakuman

What are fan and fu in riichi mahjong?

A riichi mahjong hand scores two separate quantities: fan (番), which come from named patterns called yaku such as riichi, tanyao or pinfu, and fu (符), which come from the physical structure of the hand (your pair, your wait shape and how you won). The point formula is base points = fu × 2^(2 + fan), so every fan doubles the score while fu only scales it linearly. A typical closed hand scores 30 fu, seven pairs is fixed at 25 fu, and a pinfu self-draw can drop as low as 20 fu. In practice you never compute any of this by hand: this site's game log shows the fan, fu and points after every win, and the breakdown is produced by the open-source @kobalab/majiang-core engine, the same one that powers the game itself.

How much is a yakuman worth?

Once a hand reaches 5 fan it stops doubling and scores the flat mangan value: 8,000 points for a non-dealer ron and 12,000 for the dealer. Above that come the named ceilings: haneman (6-7 fan, 12,000/18,000), baiman (8-10 fan, 16,000/24,000), sanbaiman (11-12 fan, 24,000/36,000) and yakuman at 13 fan or more (32,000/48,000). A yakuman, 13 orphans (kokushi musou), four concealed triplets (suuankou), big three dragons (daisangen) and the other classic maximum hands, therefore pays the same as 13 fan, which is why it is the maximum score in the game. On this site yakuman hands are detected automatically: the engine marks the hand as yakuman and the settlement shows the full 32,000/48,000 value, so you never have to argue the point at the table. Every listed ceiling is exactly what the engine pays, so the numbers in this article match the numbers in your game log.

Which yaku actually appear most often?

The yaku that decide most games are the small ones. Riichi (1 fan) requires a concealed tenpai declaration and costs a 1,000-point stick; tanyao (1 fan) is an all-simples hand using only 2-8 tiles; pinfu (1 fan) is all sequences with a two-sided wait and a non-honor pair; and yakuhai (1 fan) is a triplet of dragons, your seat wind or the round wind. Seven pairs (chiitoitsu) is worth 2 fan, a mixed one-suit hand (honitsu) is 3 fan closed and 2 open, and a pure one-suit hand (chinitsu) is 6 fan closed and 5 open. This site's MVP keeps the fan set honest: it never credits ippatsu, ura-dora or red-five (aka) fan, and it uses a single dora indicator per hand, so the fan total you see is exactly what the engine scored.

What is the full scoring formula, step by step?

The full formula is base points = fu × 2^(2 + fan), rounded up to the nearest 100. For a non-dealer ron, the discarder alone pays base × 4. For a non-dealer tsumo, the dealer pays base × 2 and each of the other two players pays base × 1. A dealer ron collects base × 6 from the discarder, and a dealer tsumo collects base × 2 from every player. Worked example: 30 fu and 3 fan gives 30 × 2^5 = 960 base; a non-dealer ron then pays 960 × 4 = 3,840, rounded up to 3,900 points, while the same hand won by the dealer on a discard pays 960 × 6 = 5,760, rounded to 5,800. These are the exact figures in every standard riichi score chart, and they are the figures this site's settlement dialog displays after each hand.

How do you read the point table?

The standard score table runs from 20 to 110 fu across 1-4 fan, with mangan beginning at 5 fan. Only two rows really matter for everyday play. The first is 1 fan / 30 fu (the minimum riichi hand), which pays 1,000 points on a non-dealer ron and 300/500 on tsumo (300 from each non-dealer, 500 from the dealer). The second is 4 fan / 40 fu, which pays 8,000, sitting exactly at the mangan edge. Once you know that 3 fan / 30 fu equals 3,900 and 4 fan / 40 fu equals 8,000, you can estimate almost any hand within a few hundred points. Everything above that is the same formula capped at the mangan and haneman boundaries listed earlier, so the whole table collapses to a handful of landmarks.

Who pays on tsumo vs ron?

Ron costs only the player who discarded the winning tile, which makes it the best result for you and the worst for them. That is exactly why defense exists in riichi. Tsumo spreads the cost across all three opponents, and the dealer always pays double, so holding the dealer seat is a genuine strategic position: your wins pay more, but your discards are also the most dangerous to the table. The settlement dialog on this site always shows who paid how much after every hand, so you can watch the payment split in real time instead of trusting your memory of the table. Over a few games the pattern becomes intuitive: ron is a targeted strike at one opponent, while tsumo is a tax collected from everyone at once. Ron is also the only win type furiten can block, which makes tsumo the safer route whenever your discards are tainted.

What are honba and riichi sticks?

In full riichi, every riichi declaration places a 1,000-point stick on the table and the winner of the hand collects all the sticks in play. Honba counters (场棒/積み棒) appear after exhaust draws and add 300 points per counter to the payments of the next hand, and a dealer who wins or stays tenpai on a draw keeps the seat for a renchan. These are the small print that most score calculators fold in automatically. This site's MVP deliberately keeps the table simple: it scores the hand itself through the majiang-core engine and shows the fan, fu and points without tracking stick balances or honba, and it does not implement renchan (each hand is scored independently), so beginners can focus on the hand rather than on bookkeeping. The distinction matters at the table: a riichi stick is a visible commitment to a locked hand, while honba are passive bookkeeping that only long sessions accumulate.

What do real winning hands score?

Three reference hands cover most of what you will see. Hand A: closed riichi + pinfu + tanyao scores 3 fan at 30 fu, worth 3,900 points on a non-dealer ron. Hand B: riichi + menzen tsumo (a self-draw with a fully concealed hand) plus one more yaku reaches 3 fan, and a dealer tsumo then pays 2,000 from each player for a 6,000-point total. Hand C: a pure one-suit hand (chinitsu, 6 fan) always scores mangan or haneman regardless of fu, so even at the minimum 30 fu the cap kicks in immediately, and the hand is worth at least 12,000. Play a few rounds on this site and these three hands become reference points you recognize from the settlement dialog before you ever open a textbook. All three hands are scored by the same engine that runs the game, so the numbers you see in this guide are the numbers you will see in play.

Riichi score table — non-dealer ron (mangan caps at 8,000)

Fu / Fan	1 han	2 han	3 han	4 han
20 fu	700	1,300	2,600	5,200
25 fu (seven pairs)	—	1,600	3,200	6,400
30 fu	1,000	2,000	3,900	7,700
40 fu	1,300	2,600	5,200	8,000
50 fu	1,600	3,200	6,400	8,000
60 fu	2,000	3,900	7,700	8,000
70 fu	2,300	4,500	8,000	8,000
80 fu	2,600	5,200	8,000	8,000
90 fu	2,900	5,800	8,000	8,000
100 fu	3,200	6,400	8,000	8,000
110 fu	3,600	7,100	8,000	8,000

Sources & references

FAQ

How is riichi mahjong scored?: Base points use fan (from yaku) and fu (from hand structure). 5 fan is mangan; 6-7 haneman; 8-10 baiman; 11-12 sanbaiman; 13+ yakuman. The dealer pays/takes double.
What is the difference between fan and fu?: Fan come from named patterns (yaku). Fu come from the structure: pairs, waits, and whether you won on a draw or a discard. Both feed the same score formula.
What is a yakuman worth?: Yakuman is the maximum score: 32,000 points as a non-dealer ron, or 48,000 as a dealer tsumo. Some rules allow double and triple yakuman.