Curriculum · 4 / 50
Calls: pon, chi, kan
Pon, chi and kan let you claim a discard to complete a group, but opening your hand costs you riichi and many valuable yaku.
The principle
A call means claiming the tile an opponent just discarded to complete a group at once, instead of waiting to draw it yourself. Pon takes a discard to form a triplet (koutsu) and can be made off any player. Chi forms a sequence (shuntsu) of three consecutive tiles in the same suit, but only from the discard of the player on your left (kamicha).
Rule and example
Kan forms a quad (kantsu) of four identical tiles, and comes in three shapes: the open kan (daiminkan) on an opponent's discard, the added kan (kakan) that upgrades a pon already on the table, and the closed kan (ankan) declared with four tiles in hand. After any kan you draw a replacement tile from the dead wall (rinshan) and a new dora indicator is flipped (kan dora).
What changes
The cost of a call: your hand opens up (naki), and you lose the right to declare riichi as well as menzen tsumo. Many yaku become impossible (pinfu, iipeikou) or lose one han when open (kuisagari): sanshoku, ittsuu, honitsu, chinitsu, chanta, junchan. Only the ankan keeps your hand concealed and preserves riichi.
Mistake to avoid
In practice you call when an open yaku remains and the speed gained justifies the lost flexibility. Under Tenhou, ron beats a group call, pon or daiminkan beats chi, two ron calls may win, and three ron calls abort the hand. WRC 2025 keeps only one ron winner by turn order; between group calls, the first clearly announced call wins before pon or daiminkan priority over chi.
Rules references
- Tenhou rulesReference profile used for game mechanics and scoring.
- WRC Rules 2025International rules compared whenever their options differ from Tenhou.