A player who can form a valid hand with at least one yaku with the last discarded tile can win by clearly declaring "ron", unless he is furiten.
A player who can form a valid hand with at least one yaku with a tile just drawn from the wall or the dead wall can win by clearly declaring "tsumo". The player should keep the winning tile apart from the rest of the hand, so it is clear to all players which was the winning tile. A player who is furiten can still win on self-draw.
If the player fails to keep the winning tile apart, his win is still valid but he will not score any minipoints or yaku requiring a particular wait. I.e. the pinfu yaku can not be awarded in such a case.
A hand can end in two ways: by exhaustive draw (no-one declares a win after the discard after the last tile) or by one players winning. Chonbo results in a re-deal and does not count as a hand.
There are no abortive draws.
The last tile can only be claimed for a win, not for a shuntsu, kōtsu or kantsu. In case a kantsu is declared at the second-to-last tile, the replacement tile becomes the last tile. It is not allowed to declare a concealed kantsu on the last tile.
The fourteen tiles of the dead wall are not used.
An exhaustive draw occurs if no-one declares a win after the discard after the last tile.
After an exhaustive draw the players must announce if their hand is tenpai or noten. Tenpai hands must be shown (tiles turned face up). Noten hand must not be revealed. A player having a tenpai hand can choose to declare it noten and not reveal it, unless he had declared riichi.
Players announce if they are tenpai or noten in order: East declares first, then South, then West, and finally North. It is permissible to declare out of turn, but the announce can not be changed.
Noten players pay a penalty to tenpai players.
The total noten penalty amounts to 3,000 points, shared between players as follow:
| Number of noten players | Penalty paid by each noten player | Points earned by each tenpai players |
| 0 | - | 0 |
| 1 | 3,000 | 1,000 |
| 2 | 1,500 | 1,500 |
| 3 | 1,000 | 3,000 |
| 4 | 0 | - |
Players who have declared riichi are obliged to show their tenpai hand in case of an exhaustive draw. If they can't, or won't, they will be penalized for noten riichi (see the "wrong riichi declaration" section).
After an exhaustive draw, a continuance counter is placed on the table at East’s right-hand side.
The World Riichi Rule does not recognize any abortive draw case.
In case of a drawn game, any riichi bets stay on the table to be claimed by the next player who declares a win.
A furiten or temporary furiten player is not allowed to claim a win on a discard. He can still win by self-draw.
• A player is furiten if he can form a valid hand with one of his previous discards, even if the hand would not have any yaku. A furiten player can choose to change his hand to avoid being furiten, unless he has declared riichi.
• A player is temporarily furiten if he fails to claim a win on a discard completing a valid hand, even if the hand would not have any yaku. This also applies for missing an opportunity to rob a kantsu.
The state of temporary furiten ends when the player draws or claims a tile, unless he has declared riichi. It does not matter if the set of turns is interrupted by claims for shuntsu, kōtsu or kantsu: the player is still temporarily furiten until his next draw.
If the player had declared riichi, he remains temporarily furiten until the end of the hand.
