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Hong Kong mahjong scoring rules

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Français<br>粵語<br>中文

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Rules of Hong Kong variants of mahjong

In Hong Kong mahjong, when a player declares a winning hand, scoring proceeds in two stages.[1] First, the winning hand is awarded a number of "faan"—a unit from the Cantonese term 番 (pinyin: fān / jyutping: faan1).

Second, faan are converted into scores for each player. When gambling with mahjong, these scores represent money. In this article, "points" refer exclusively to these scores (and not faan).

Most Hong Kong mahjong games require that players declaring a win to have 3 faan,[2] but other minimums are possible.[3] This generally increases the length of each game and allows more strategizing around discarding and forming melds.

Counting faan<br>[edit]

In Hong Kong mahjong, 13 faan is considered the absolute limit for faan, but players can set a lower ceiling to reduce stakes (e.g., 8 faan).

The general equation for the total faan of a winning hand is:

Total Faan

min<br>13

Hand

Winning Condition

if hand is a limit hand,

min<br>13

Hand

Wind and Dragon

Flower

Winning Condition

if otherwise.

{\displaystyle {\text{Total Faan}}={\begin{cases}\min(13,{\text{Hand}}+{\text{Winning Condition}}),{\text{if hand is a limit hand,}}\\\min(13,{\text{Hand}}+{\text{Wind and Dragon}}+{\text{Flower}}+{\text{Winning Condition}}),{\text{if otherwise.}}\end{cases}}}

High-scoring hands (Chinese: 例牌,[4] translated to "limit hands" in this article) are only scored based on the hand and winning conditions, but not winds, dragons, or flowers.

Hand Faan<br>[edit]

The contents of the hand are most important for awarding faan. Typically, a rarer hand is worth more points, but this may not be the case.

If multiple criteria are satisfied, the points awarded under each criterion are stacked together.

The tables following list the criteria for scoring the contents of the hand.

English<br>Cantonese<br>Faan<br>Description

Common Hand (i.e., all sequences)

平糊; ping4 wu4*2<br>Every meld is a Chow

All in Triplets

對對糊; deoi3 deoi3 wu4*2<br>Every meld is either a Pong or Kong

Mixed One Suit

混一色; wan6 jat1 sik1<br>Only honor tiles and tiles from one suit

All One Suit

清一色; cing1 jat1 sik1<br>All tiles from one suit

Mixed Orphans

花幺九; faa1 jiu1 gau2<br>Hand containing Pongs/Kongs of Ones, Nines, or Honor Tiles only (implies All in Triplets, which adds another 3 faan)

Small Dragons

小三元; siu2 saam1 jyun4)<br>Melds of 2 dragons and a pair of the 3rd dragon. The faan of the 2 dragon triplets will be counted also, such that the dragon tiles will add 5 faan.

Great Dragons

大三元; daai6 saam1 jyun4<br>Melds of all 3 dragons. The faan of the 3 dragon triplets will be counted also, such that the dragon tiles will add 8 faan.

Small Winds [a]

小四喜; siu2 sei3 hei2<br>Melds of 3 winds and a pair of the 4th wind. Bonuses for seat or round wind can result in even higher faan.<br>If the remaining meld is from a suit, this hand will satisfy Mixed One Suit (which adds another 3 faan). Thus, a hand that satisfies Small Winds will grant at least 9 faan in practice.

Seven Pairs (played by some variants)[5]

七對子; cat1 deoi3 zi2<br>Hand consists of seven pairs. Can stack with All Honor Tiles, Mixed One Suit and All One Suit.<br>In some variants, Kongs are not permitted in this hand.

Limit Hands<br>[edit]

Certain high-scoring hands are "limit hands" that are ineligible for additional faan awarded based on winds, dragons, or flowers.[6][7] Even if the limit hand satisfies other hand criteria (e.g., all honor tiles must also be all triplets), the faan from the other criteria are not counted.

Various sources classify limit hands differently and assign them different scores (e.g., the Hong Kong Mahjong Assoication sets a maximum faan of 10, such that 13 Orphans is only awarded 10 faan[8]). This section is written to conform with the Cantonese version of this article.

If a winning hand satisfies more than one capped hand criterion (e.g., great winds where the pair is dragons, therefore also an all honor tile hand), only the criterion with the highest score applies.

All Honor Tiles

字一色; zi6 jat1 sik1<br>10<br>All honor tiles

Self Triplets

四暗刻; sei3 am3 hak1<br>坎坎糊; kaan2 kaan2 wu2<br>10<br>Every meld is either a concealed (unmelded) Pong or concealed Kong.[b] The bonus can only be won either (a) by self-pick or (b) from a discarded winning tile that forms the pair, i.e., the discard cannot form the melds.

Orphans

么九; jiu1 gau2<br>10<br>Hand containing Pongs/Kongs of Ones and Nines only

Nine Gates[c]

九子連環; gau2 zi2 lin4 waan4<br>10<br>Hand in any one suit consisting of 1112345678999, must be totally concealed.

-- + any tile in the set

Great Winds

大四喜; daai6 sei3 hei2<br>13<br>Melds of all 4 winds

All Kongs

十八羅漢; sap6 baat3 lo4 hon3<br>四槓子; sei3 gong3 zi2<br>槓槓和; gong3 gong3 wo4<br>13<br>Hand containing four Kongs...