Learning Mahjong

General advice:

  • Play a lot: In-person where possible (our meetups are one such way!), online otherwise, but play a lot. There is no substitute for volume. Reading strategy guides and watching tutorials and replays helps, but intuition is built up through repetition. Play against different opponents and in different situations. Every game is a data point.

  • Find a style that suits you: Your journey is yours, and is sustained on your passion, so find a style you most enjoy. Every player gravitates towards a different philosophy - aggressive, defensive, opportunistic, methodical. Lean into what feels natural early on. You’ll develop a broader range over time, but start with a comfortable default that feels like second nature.

  • Listen and ask questions: After a hand or game, ask your opponents what they were aiming for. Why did they make a specific decision? What were they focused on? Vic Riichi runs weekly meetups which provide a relaxed environment where you can go over your games after they finish.

  • Analyse your own games: After playing, focus on key ideas, rather than specific decisions. It’s better to understand patterns of play, and specifically your own thought patterns, so that you can sort through what you’re good at and where you could improve on.

  • Focus on the mistakes you shouldn’t be making: Everyone makes mistakes, but not all mistakes are equal. A beginner dealing in to a damaten by not reading discards is expected - that’s a mistake you would make at your level. But failing to check something basic, like what the dora tile is, or repeating an error you’ve already identified - these are mistakes you shouldn’t be making. Fix these first. You will resolve advanced mistakes as your understanding grows.

  • Focus on the fundamentals: Most of your games will be won and lost on the fundamental skills - tile efficiency, defensive play, and push-fold judgement. Develop these before moving on to edge cases like EV calculations, reading discards, or tiles remaining in the wall. As a novice or intermediate, learning the yaku themes to build hand value, frequently used game terminology, and fundamental tile efficiency will be the most useful in helping you win more games.

  • Be social! Learning and improving at mahjong is not all about study and practice. It’s about enjoying yourself, talking to people on the same path as you (and those behind and ahead of you!).

Places to play mahjong online

Mahjong Soul (English): https://mahjongsoul.yo-star.com/

  • The most popular client for playing riichi mahjong. It is anime themed and contains purely cosmetic gacha elements.

Tenhou: https://tenhou.net/4/

Beginner Resources

Learning mahjong should be simple and fun.

Intermediate Resources

Skills Trainers