Kansai Riichi (3 Player Japanese Mahjong)

Kansai Riichi is a fast paced three player version of Japanese Riichi. As the name suggests Kansai Mahjong has its roots in the Kansai district of Japan. The document intends to explain the major differences between Kansai riichi and regular 4 player Riichi.

Fewer tiles in Kansai Mahjong

Kansai Riichi uses few tiles. Character 2-8s are not used in Kansi Riichi. This in turn has some implications on the game. The more obvious one is that you can not make a mixed triple chow (San shoku doujun, 三色同順), since no chiis can be formed from the characters. The second implication of removing the character 2-8 tiles is that when the dora indicator is character 1 the dora is character 9 and vice versa.

Only Pon/Kan - No Chiis In Kansai

During the game play you can not declare a Chii on discards from the player to your left. You may however have concealed Chiis and you may alway declare Ron/Tsumo on discards or tiles drawn from the wall.

North Pon/Kan

A Pon/Kan of north is worth one Yaku open or concealed.

No Washout

The games continues even if all the players are in Riichi, util an exhustive draw or ron/tsumo.

No Renho (人和, Blessing of Man)

No Yakuman is awarded for a Renhou. Considering how seldom this occurs, It is hardly an issue of concern!

Seat Winds

Since the game is played with three players only East, South and West are used as seat winds.