Hong Kong mahjong payout table: from faan to points

Settling up after a win (找數, zaau2 sou3) takes three steps:

1. Count the faan. Add up everything the hand earns (the faan table has every hand). In the standard rules a hand needs at least 3 faan to win and is capped at 10.
2. Look up one unit for that faan below. A unit (S, one share) is what one opponent pays on a self-draw.
3. Work out who pays. On a self-draw all three opponents pay. On a discard win it depends on the table's payment rule: under 全銃 the discarder pays alone, under 半銃 everyone pays something.

Mahjong House's standard rules, used online and as the solo default, are 3-faan minimum, 10-faan cap, half-spicy (半辣上) and 全銃. Solo practice lets you change them; the tables below cover the options.

The total is capped before you look it up: with the standard 10-faan cap, a 12-faan hand pays the 10-faan unit, 64. Limit hands (爆棚) such as Thirteen orphans always pay the cap.

Both tables agree up to 4 faan: 1, 1, 2, 4 and 8 units for 0 to 4 faan. After that they part ways:

• Half-spicy (半辣上, bun3 laat6 soeng5) doubles every two faan, by alternately multiplying by 1½ and 1⅓: 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64 for 4 to 10 faan. It's Mahjong House's standard.
• Spicy (辣辣上, laat6 laat6 soeng5) doubles every faan: 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 for 4 to 10 faan. In Mahjong House it's an option for solo play.

So the bigger the hand, the wider the gap. At 5 faan spicy pays a third more than half-spicy (16 against 12); at 10 faan it pays eight times as much (512 against 64). Spicy rewards chasing big hands; half-spicy keeps the scores closer.

• Self-draw (自摸): each of the three opponents pays one unit, so the winner collects 3 units. This is the same under every payment rule.
• Discard win under 全銃 (cyun4 cung3, the discarder pays all): the player who discarded the winning tile pays 3 units alone; the other two pay nothing. The winner collects 3 units, as on a self-draw. This is Mahjong House's standard.
• Discard win under 半銃 (bun3 cung3, half responsibility): the discarder pays 2 units and each of the other two pays 1 unit, so the winner collects 4 units. A common club rule; a solo option in Mahjong House.
• Discarder pays double alone (出銃者獨付): another solo option. The discarder pays 2 units and the others nothing.
• Robbing the kong (搶槓): the player whose added kong was robbed counts as the discarder, and the win is paid like any discard win.

Half-spicy (半辣上), the standard

Spicy (辣辣上), a solo option

Several winners on one discard. In the standard rules only one player can win on a discard: the next in turn after the discarder (截糊). With the multiple-winners option (一炮多響), each winner is paid separately at their own faan: the discarder pays each one as the discarder, under 半銃 any player who didn't win pays each winner one unit, and winners never pay each other.

Sometimes one player has to pay the whole win alone: they're responsible (包, baau1). In Mahjong House the responsible player pays the winner's full amount under the table's payment rule, so the winner never gets less:

• On a self-draw (包自摸): the responsible player pays all 3 units by themselves; the other two pay nothing.
• On a discard win under 全銃: 3 units, from the responsible player.
• On a discard win under 半銃: all 4 units (2 + 1 + 1), from the responsible player. Under the discarder-pays-double option, 2 units.

The responsible player pays even when someone else discarded the winning tile: then the discarder pays nothing. Mahjong House applies 包 to three hands, when your discard is the one that completes the key set:

• Big three dragons (大三元): you discard the tile a player pongs or kongs for their third dragon set, when they already show two.
• Big four winds (大四喜): you discard the tile for their fourth wind set, when they already show three.
• Four kongs (十八羅漢): you discard the tile for their fourth kong.

For example, a self-drawn Big four winds is a limit hand, 10 faan. Under half-spicy the unit is 64, so the player who fed the fourth wind pays 192 alone; under 半銃, on a discard win, they would pay 256.

A 5-faan self-draw, half-spicy

5 faan is a unit of 12. Each opponent pays 12, so the winner collects +36 and each of the others is −12.

The same 5 faan on a discard

Under 全銃 the discarder pays the whole 36 and the other two pay nothing. Under 半銃 the discarder pays 24 and the other two pay 12 each: the winner collects +48. (The total is kept at 5 here to compare the rules. In play, the same tiles won on a discard lose the 1 faan for Self-draw.)

A 7-faan self-draw: half-spicy or spicy

Half-spicy: the unit is 24, so each opponent pays 24 and the winner collects 72. Spicy: the unit is 64, so each pays 64 and the winner collects 192.

A limit hand on a discard under 半銃

A limit hand pays the cap, 10 faan, a unit of 64 under half-spicy. The discarder pays 128 and the other two 64 each: 256 to the winner.

A 3-faan chicken hand

A chicken hand (雞糊) with Concealed hand, Self-draw and No bonus tiles is 3 faan, a unit of 4: each opponent pays 4, 12 in all. On a discard the same hand would be 2 faan and couldn't win under the 3-faan minimum.

Want the faan counted for you? Try the faan calculator. To keep the numbers at the table, print the cheat sheet: every hand, the claims and this payout grid on one page.

At real tables, players often name a stake after what the smallest hands are worth. In 一二蚊, for example, a chicken hand is worth one and a one-faan hand two. 五一 and 二五雞 are smaller stakes named the same way.

Tables differ in how they count from there, and the names are about money. Mahjong House doesn't use them: it counts in units of points (jade, 玉), which have no cash value. You can't buy, win or cash out anything with them, and this site never encourages playing for money.

Payouts vary from table to table more than any other rule, so agree them before the first hand:

• What 全銃 covers. Mahjong House's 全銃 has the discarder pay 3 units, what the winner would collect on a self-draw. Some tables have the discarder cover the full 4 units that all three would pay under 半銃.
• The shares themselves. Tables differ on exactly how many shares each player pays under 半銃 and 全銃, so check before you play.
• Minimum and cap. Casual tables may win from 0 or 1 faan (solo options in Mahjong House: 0, 1 or 3), and some cap at 13 instead of 10.
• House tables. Some clubs print their own table with different numbers. Whatever the table, the idea is the same: faan → unit → who pays.

The rules have the rest of Mahjong House's standard rules, and the scoring guide every hand's faan.