Editing Mahjong (section)

==== Ready hands ====
When a hand is one tile short of winning (for example: [[File:MJs1-.svg|25px|1 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs2-.svg|25px|2 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs3-.svg|25px|3 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs1-.svg|25px|1 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs2-.svg|25px|2 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs3-.svg|25px|3 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs2-.svg|25px|2 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs3-.svg|25px|3 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs7-.svg|25px|7 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs8-.svg|25px|8 Bamboo]] [[File:MJs9-.svg|25px|9 Bamboo]] [[File:MJd2-.svg|25px|Green Dragon]] [[File:MJd2-.svg|25px|Green Dragon]], waiting for: [[File:MJs1-.svg|25px|1 Bamboo]], [[File:MJs4-.svg|25px|4 Bamboo]], or [[File:MJd2-.svg|25px|Green Dragon]], as [[File:MJs1-.svg|25px|1 Bamboo]] can be the eyes), the hand is said to be a ready hand, or more figuratively, "on the pot". The player holding a ready hand is said to be ''waiting'' for certain tiles. It is common to be waiting for two or three tiles, and some variations award points for a hand that is waiting for one tile. In 13-tile mahjong, the largest number of tiles for which a player can wait is 13 (the ''[[Hong Kong mahjong scoring rules#Non-standard special hands|thirteen wonders]]'', or ''13 orphans'', a nonstandard special hand). Ready hands must be declared in some variations of mahjong, while other variations prohibit the same.

Some variations of mahjong, most notably Japanese and Korean ones, allow a player to declare {{nihongo||立直|rīchi|sometimes known as ''reach'', as it is phonetically similar}}. A declaration of ''rīchi'' is a promise that any tile drawn by the player is immediately discarded unless it constitutes a win. Standard requirements for ''rīchi'' are that the hand be ''closed'' or have no melds declared (other than a concealed kong) and that players already have points for declaration of ''rīchi''. A player who declares ''rīchi'' and wins usually receives a point bonus for their hand directly, and a player who won with ''rīchi'' also has the advantage to open the inner dora which leads to higher possibilities to match such a card, thus has more chance to grant additional bonus. However, a player who declares ''rīchi'' and loses is usually penalised in some fashion. Declaring a nonexistent ''rīchi'' is also penalised in some way.

In some variations, a situation in which all four players declare a ''rīchi'' is an automatic drawn game, as it reduces the game down to pure luck, i.e., who gets their needed tile first.