Nagashi mangan 流し満貫 · nagashi mangan

Short answer: Nagashi mangan is an optional rule: if the hand ends in an exhaustive draw and every tile you discarded was a terminal or honor, with none called by an opponent, you are paid a mangan.

If the hand ends in a draw and every tile you discarded is a terminal or honor — none claimed by anyone — you score a mangan.

Nagashi mangan isn't a hand you build toward — it grows out of a deal too weak to win with. When your starting tiles are scattered terminals and honors with no realistic road to tenpai テンパイ, discarding nothing but terminals and honors turns a dead hand into a live one. The decision has to come with your first discard, because every discard counts, including the ones you make before you have a plan.

It's a fragile line. One call on any of your discards kills it for the rest of the hand, and late honor discards are exactly what a yakuhai hand wants to pon. You also only collect if the hand actually reaches the exhaustive draw: if anyone wins first, there's nothing to check. Playing for it means keeping the discard row clean and quietly hoping the wall runs out.

Since some tables treat this as an optional rule, confirm how yours plays it before the first deal. And remember it cuts both ways: when an opponent's discards run nothing but terminals and honors deep into a slow hand, calling a tile you don't even need is the standard counter. One call, and the mangan is gone.

Key points

• Checked at an exhaustive draw only
• All your discards must be terminals or honors, and no opponent may have called any of them
• Scored as a mangan; treated as tsumo payments in most rules

Worked example

Your starting hand is scattered — a few 1s and 9s, four different honors, no pairs worth keeping. Instead of forcing a slow hand, you discard only terminals and honors from the first turn: 1m, 9p, East, White, 9s, West, and so on. The row above is ten turns in, and every tile in it still qualifies.

If the wall runs out with nobody winning and your row still contains nothing but terminals and honors, you collect a mangan. Most rules pay it like a self-drawn mangan: as a non-dealer you receive 2,000 from each non-dealer and 4,000 from the dealer, 8,000 in total; as dealer, 4,000 from each player, 12,000. How it combines with the tenpai payments, honba, and riichi sticks varies by ruleset.

Common mistakes

• Treating it as a yaku you win with. You never call ron or tsumo for nagashi mangan; it is checked only when the hand ends in a draw.
• Forgetting that one call kills it. If an opponent calls pon, chii, or kan on any of your discards — a common fate for honors that someone wants for yakuhai — the line is dead for the rest of the hand.
• Assuming every table plays it. WRC and EMA core rules leave it out; agree before the first deal.

Related yaku

• All terminals and honors 混老頭 — Every tile in the hand is a terminal or an honor — no 2 through 8 anywhere.

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