The base rules for the club are based off the 2016 revision of the EMA Riichi Rules. The amendments below are made as a difference from these rules.

The following are the differences between the EMA rules above and the rules we play to.

1. When there are only one or two attendees, mahjong shall be cancelled.

2. When there are three attendees present a game shall be played, with the fourth spot effectively being like an online player who has left the game.

3. When there are five attendees present a game of five shall be played whereby the player sitting East on the previous hand will sit out the new hand and be replaced by the player who was sitting out, who shall become the new North player. The 120k points will be divided into 24k each.

4. Games of 3 or 5 shall in all circumstances be considered ‘friendly’ games, with no impact on any ranking system in place.

5. Where there are 6 or more present and the numbers aren’t divisible by 4 then games shall be arranged to ensure everyone plays while having as few playing 3 or 5 player games as possible.

6. If 3 or 5 player games are required, those who played one such game at the last event will be prioritised for a 4 player game. If there are more such people than available seats then it will be settled by the rolling of dice.

7. If there are not enough mahjong sets then priority is given to those who were unable to play at the last event. Of those remaining, priority is given to those who have played the fewest games.

8. Yaku are named according to a set of English names, rather than with their Japanese names (except for riichi and pinfu).

9. The game will be terminated if a player’s score drops below -30000 points (i.e. they have no point sticks left).

10. The Japanese names for calls (i.e. pon, chi, kan, tsumo, ron) are used – not their Chinese counterparts or any other calls.

11. Abortive draws apply: 4 wind discards; ‘9 tiles 9 types’; 4 riichis; and 4 kans.

12. On an open kan or a late kan the kandora is revealed after the discard (or further kan).

13. Headbump rule applies for multiple ron calls.

14. A player must have at least 1,000 points to declare riichi.

15. 13+ han hands will be scored as yakuman. Double yakuman are also scored for the hands generally considered so.

16. The hand of man yaku (renhou) recognised in EMA rules is not recognised in these rules.