What is Honba in Mahjong? (Counter Sticks Explained)
Honba is the small counter that quietly inflates every winning hand after a draw or a dealer keep. Here is what it actually does and why it matters.
What is honba?
Honba (本場, literally "original venue") is a per-round counter that tracks how many times the current dealership has been extended without a clean rotation. The first deal of any dealer's seat starts at 0 honba; every renchan (dealer keep) and every ryuukyoku (exhaustive draw) ticks it up by one until the dealership finally rotates.
How is honba scored?
Each honba adds 300 points to the next winning hand on top of the base score. For a ron win the full 300 × honba comes from the discarder; for a tsumo win it is split 100 × honba per opponent (non-dealer) or 100 × honba from each of the three (dealer). At a 2-honba table, a 5,200-point ron becomes 5,200 + 600 = 5,800.
When does honba increment?
Two trigger cases: (1) a renchan — the dealer wins the hand and keeps the seat, the counter bumps; (2) a ryuukyoku — the wall exhausts with no winner, the counter bumps regardless of who is tenpai. Some house rules add a third case (any abortive draw like nine-terminals), but the two above are the standard nationals-rule baseline.
How is the count shown at the table?
Physically, the dealer places 100-point sticks horizontally in the upper-right corner of their score tray — one stick per honba. Online clients usually print the count next to the round indicator ("East 3, 2 honba"). Either way the count is public — every player should be tracking it because it changes the value of every winning hand.
When does honba reset?
Honba resets to 0 the moment the dealership cleanly rotates — i.e. the dealer loses the hand or is noten at ryuukyoku (under the rule variant where noten loses the seat). It does NOT reset across rounds within the same dealership: an east-1 dealership that goes 5 honba deep still carries those 5 honba into the next hand if the dealer wins or stays.