Table manners

Why they matter

Good manners keep the game moving and head off arguments. In a Japanese parlor or at a tournament everyone takes them for granted, and nobody will explain them to you. Almost all of them have a practical reason: nobody sees what they shouldn't, nobody touches what isn't theirs, and the hand runs without pauses.

At the start

• Greet the table when you sit down with yoroshiku onegaishimasu (よろしくお願いします), and thank everyone at the end with arigatou gozaimashita (ありがとうございました). In Japan these are the first and last words at any table.
• Build your wall neatly, so no tiles fall over.
• Push your wall toward the center, where the others can reach it, with its right end angled slightly forward.
• If you're the dealer (親, oya), pick up the dice and keep them beside you once the wall is broken.
• The dealer rolls the dice. The player whose wall is broken splits it and flips the dora indicator. On automatic tables the machine builds the walls, and you flip the indicator by hand only if it comes up face down.
• When you flip the dora indicator, also lower the top tile of the stack at the end of the dead wall, the first replacement tile (嶺上牌, rinshanpai). It goes face down beside the wall, so it can't fall.
• If you're the dealer, wait until everyone has their tiles before you make your first discard.

During the hand

• Don't touch the tiles another player is about to draw, not even to pass them along, unless they ask you to. As the walls get shorter, you can push them closer to the center.
• Don't cut, join, or split the walls when there's no need.
• Draw and discard with the same hand.
• Don't draw before the player on your left has discarded (先ヅモ, sakizumo). M-League punishes it with a dead hand.
• Discard your chosen tile first, then sort the new one into your hand. It saves time.
• Discard in order, in rows of six, and leave every tile in plain view.
• A tile you've discarded never comes back into your hand.
• Call out loud and clear: chi, pon, kan, ron, tsumo, riichi. Say "riichi" before you turn the tile sideways.
• Show the tiles you're calling with at the moment of the call, or right after. Never after you discard.
• After you declare riichi, don't lay your hand down or turn it face down (伏せ牌, fusehai). Many parlors require this.
• Don't comment on how your hand is going, with lines like "I'm almost tenpai."
• Don't talk with the others about what another player might be holding.
• Don't take too long on each turn. Sometimes the right move is to let the tile go and move on.
• Don't slam or throw the tiles or the point sticks (点棒, tenbou). It comes across as aggressive.
• Unless you have a side table of your own, don't eat at the table.
• Long phone calls can wait for later.

Winning and paying

• Don't put your winning tile from a tsumo into your hand. Keep it apart: the others need to know which tile you won on, because the fu depend on it.
• If you won with riichi, you flip the ura dora indicators yourself, where everyone can see them. They're the tiles under each indicator, kan indicators included.
• When you win, call out the score you're owed, or your yaku if you don't know the score. It speeds up the payment.
• When you pay, combine sticks so both players use as few as possible.
• Show your hand only when you win, when you're tenpai at an exhaustive draw, or when you declare an abortive draw such as kyuushu kyuuhai (九種九牌, nine different terminals and honors). It's a matter of modesty.

Your attitude at the table

• Don't walk out of a game in progress because you're losing. Discipline.
• Respect the other players. Don't put their win down to "luck," and skip the snide remarks and noises.
• Don't win a hand that ends the game if you'd still finish last (アガラス, agarasu). It gets you nothing and takes the game away from someone else. The exception is a tournament scored on total points across several games, where those points help you.
• Don't wreck your own chances to wreck another player's, out of spite or because "being an agent of chaos is fun." It isn't acceptable.

Anything anti-competitive or self-destructive has no place at the table.

Online

Manners count on Tenhou and Mahjong Soul too:

• Don't run out the clock on purpose.
• Don't disconnect to dodge a loss.
• Go easy on the stamps and emotes.