Riipai (Hand Organization) - Arranging Your Tiles

What is Riipai?

Riipai is the act of organizing your hand tiles in a logical order for easier viewing. After receiving your starting hand or drawing tiles, you arrange them by suit and number to better understand your hand composition.

Riipai is not just tidiness - it’s a fundamental skill for preventing mistakes and building hands efficiently. However, your arrangement pattern can give information to opponents, adding a tactical dimension.

Standard Arrangement

Position	Tile Type	Detail
Left	Manzu (characters)	1m→2m→…→9m
Center	Pinzu & Souzu	1p→…→9p, 1s→…→9s
Right	Honor tiles	East South West North White Green Red

When to Riipai

Occasions for organizing:

After initial deal
- After receiving 13 tiles
- Preparation before play begins
After drawing
- Adding new tile to hand
- Insert in proper position
After calling
- When hand structure changes
- Re-organization needed

Organization Methods

Step 1: Rough Sorting

1. Separate into manzu/pinzu/souzu/honors
2. Move each to appropriate side
3. Check overall balance

Step 2: Detailed Arrangement

1. Order by number within each suit
2. Keep identical tiles adjacent
3. Group pairs and triplets

Step 3: Final Adjustment

1. Group potential melds
2. Move isolated tiles to edges
3. Review entire hand

Organization Styles

Standard Type:

Manzu→Pinzu→Souzu→Honors
Most common
Recommended for beginners

Meld-Grouping Type:

Group by potential melds
Easier to see completions
For intermediate+ players

Random Type:

Deliberately disorganized
Harder to read
Advanced technique

Strategic Considerations

Being Read Through Riipai

Observation: Moving manzu to the left
Inference: Building hand with manzu

Observation: Honor positions changed
Inference: Possibly switching to honor-based yaku

Observation: No more rearranging
Inference: Likely in tenpai with fixed shape

Preventing Information Leaks

Basic countermeasures:

Maintain consistent pattern
- Same arrangement every time
- Changes aren’t noticed
Minimal organization
- Avoid excessive sorting
- Keep movements natural
Add fake movements
- Occasionally vary pattern
- Confuse opponents

Common Mistakes

Over-organizing
- Rearranging too frequently
- Takes too much time
- Gives away information
Sloppy organization
- Random arrangement
- Increases oversights
- Causes mistakes
Getting read
- Predictable patterns
- Changes are obvious
- Hand becomes transparent
Etiquette issues
- Tiles visible to others
- Making noise
- Taking too long

Online vs Real Mahjong

Auto-Riipai Feature

Online mahjong:

Always organized automatically
No manual organization needed
No reading element

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

No mistakes
Saves time
Fair for all

Cons:

Different from real mahjong
Riipai skill doesn’t develop
No reading practice

Etiquette

Basic Manners

Consideration for others
- Keep tiles hidden
- Don’t make noise
- Work quickly
Game flow
- Don’t cause delays
- Be smooth
- Show cooperation
Tile handling
- Handle carefully
- Don’t be rough
- Arrange neatly

Practical Tips

Initial Organization

Efficient method:

Quick overview of all tiles
Rough sorting
Detailed arrangement
Consider strategy

Time allocation:

Complete within 30 seconds
Careful but quick
Don’t keep others waiting

During Play

After drawing:

Check drawn tile
Insert in proper position
Select discard
Natural discard action

Tehai: Your hand tiles
Haipai: Initial deal
Tsumo: Drawing from wall
Tedashi: Discarding from hand

Summary

Riipai is the fundamental action of organizing your hand tiles for efficient hand-building. Beginners should learn the standard “manzu→pinzu→souzu→honors” arrangement and practice quick, accurate organization. At the same time, maintain consistent patterns to avoid being read. Online mahjong has auto-riipai, but for real mahjong it’s an important skill - be prepared for both environments.