Why do some games last 3 rounds and other games last 8 rounds?

[EvilRamenNoodle]

Title. I am fuming right now and want to understand the rules of the game better. I don't understand what causes the "All Last" phrase to appear. Sometimes, its super quick. And other times, like the game I just had where I was up to 40000 points with everyone else low because I managed to get 3 Tsumos back to back, it took so long to appear that I ended up back in 2nd place before the game ended.

As cheated as I feel from this, I probably wouldn't if I understood the mechanic, which is why I'm asking. I want to be a better player.

[Dystopia]

If the Player who draws first (east wind) wins, they get extra round.

[EvilRamenNoodle]

Ty

[1.2M | Missingno.]

https://riichi.wiki/Renchan

There are two types of games, East-only (Tonpuusen) and South (Hanchan). In the former, play normally continues until every player has been dealer once. In the latter, every player gets to be dealer twice. All Last refers to the final dealer, East 4 in Tonpuu or South 4 in Hanchan.

If the dealer wins a hand, or nobody wins but the dealer is in tenpai, then they get to be dealer again. Preserving a dealer streak allows a chance to extend the game and make a comeback. Note that in All Last, if the dealer is already winning then an extra hand is not played, they can end the match and walk away.

Games can also end prematurely if a player goes into the negatives. Or they can extend past East/South 4 if no player has reached 30000 points. MajSoul will forcibly end a game at West 4 if that threshold still hasn't been crossed though (I have had this happen once!)

Also note that Riichi Mahjong is a game with many little rule variations depending on where you play. Everything I've said above is the default for MajSoul's ranked, but may differ in IRL and tournament environments.

[MoonlitDNC]

Fastest way to tell? The person with the red marker in the center of the table is the "banker". If they win the hand, they get an extra-large payout and get to be "banker" again until they lose a hand.

Your job when you're not "banker" is to take that marker away from them as fast as possible - if you win because you stole the "banker"'s tile, you get an extra-large payout from them too.

[1.2M | Missingno.]

Originally posted by MoonlitDNC:

If you win because you stole the "banker"'s tile, you get an extra-large payout from them too.

Not quite, dealer doesn't pay any extra for getting ronned. Dealer does pay more for a tsumo, you'll take 50% from them and 25% each from the other two players.