EMA riichi rule revision

[Shirluban]

From the EMA website:

The EMA Riichi Rules have been slightly revised. The revised version is effective as of March 1, 2012.

Some cases of ambiguity have been clarified, scoring examples have been added and rules on etiquette and tournament play introduced.
The uma (winner bonus) have been increased to 30,000/10,000/-10,000/-30,000.
Double yakuman have been removed, except for Big Four Winds.

Feel free to post your comments here.

[Barticle]

Mainly I'm just glad that - after several years - they finally fixed the fan/yaku terminology errors. Long vowels are still applied inconsistently on the romanized yakuman names though.

Their previous 3-9 uma was unusually low so that's a good revision but I see they've retained their kuitan nashi and ryan han shibari (oops "two yaku minimum" in preface!).

Personally I'd keep the other three standard double yakuman - it's not like they're going to imbalance normal play since they're so very rare.

The new sections are helpful additions but I preferred the original simple cover art, even if the "mixed pung" was rather odd.

(Despite my criticism, I must say that overall the rulebook remains an excellent resource. It was hugely useful to me when learning the game.)

[Barticle]

[...]the fan/yaku terminology errors

Hmm, just noticed that the new scoring examples have this issue, e.g. "2 yaku for All Pungs".

Also, although it gives the same results, it's more correct to say that the outside, flush and straight hands are worth one han less when open rather than one han more when concealed. For example the guide lists Chanta as being worth one han (with one han added if concealed) when it should be two han (with one han lost if open). The rule is called Kuisagari - Kui as in "Kuitan" (indicating an open hand) and Sagari meaning "decline".