Rule variations

The rule of Ready – Ready on original hand

The declaration of Ready is also used if you have enabled the scoring pattern Ready on original hand in the Winning section of the Scoring list (on the Sets and Patterns option page under the Scoring section of the category tree). You do not need to apply either of the actual ready rules (obligatory or voluntary) in order to enable payments for this pattern. But if either of the ready hand rules are used, a declaration made because of having a ready dealt hand is otherwise considered a normal ready declaration and the same restrictions, if any, apply.

In order to get scores for Ready on original hand, a player whose dealt hand is ready must declare Ready on his first turn before making his first discard. Four Winds checks that the discarded tile is actually the one picked from the Wall and not received in the dealt hand (the hand naturally must not contains melds, either). The declaration is made by choosing Declare Ready Hand on the Game menu. Most rules do not allow the dealer to have a chance for this bonus (probably because it would be difficult in a traditional game to verify which were the first 13 tiles – or 16 tiles, when playing with 5 sets – the dealer picked from the Wall), but you can turn off this restriction by checking the Allow for East, too option (available when the Ready on original hand pattern is selected in the Scoring list).

If the player subsequently goes out on a hand containing the 13 (or 16) original tiles, the specified bonus is paid. If the player discards any of the original tiles, he loses his chance to get this bonus. Some rules may specify that a dealt hand which is declared ready cannot be changed, but Four Winds does not apply this rule, unless explicitly forced by using a specific ready rule option, which forbids changing of the hand after the declaration.

Ready on original hand is a Western version of the concept of Original Call that was used in classical Chinese Mah Jong: in the classical rules there were no restrictions on the hand to be declared ready: the only restriction was that the hand is ready at the time a player makes his first discard (and the chance was naturally allowed to dealer, as well). In Four Winds Original Call is supported by the Ready on first turn pattern (see the link below).

Note: Four Winds automatically checks at the time of the declaration whether the hand qualifies for this bonus, but a player is not prohibited from making a faulty declaration, unless the Validate the declaration option is checked on the Ready rule option page (under the Rules section of the category tree).

Procedures:
Declaring Ready