Hong Kong mahjong rules

Four people play, each at a seat named after a wind: East, South, West and North. Turns pass counter-clockwise, East → South → West → North. The player whose turn comes just before yours is your 上家 (soeng6 gaa1), the one after you is your 下家 (haa6 gaa1), and the one opposite is your 對家 (deoi3 gaa1).

East is the dealer (莊家) for the hand. Your seat's wind is your seat wind (門風). The round also has a prevailing wind (圈風). A pong of your seat wind, or of the prevailing wind, is worth a faan.

• If the dealer wins, or the hand is drawn, the dealer deals again (連莊, lin4 zong1) and nothing else changes.
• If someone else wins, the deal passes to the next seat: South becomes East, and every seat wind moves round one place.
• When the deal has passed all the way round the table, the prevailing wind moves on: the East round, then South, West and North.
• A full game is the four rounds, East to North.

In Mahjong House's solo practice you choose the length: four full rounds, 8 hands, 16 hands, or until somebody is bust. Online matches are four hands.

1. The 144 tiles are shuffled face down and built into four walls of 18 stacks, two tiles high, one in front of each player.
2. The dealer rolls three dice. Counting counter-clockwise from the dealer as 1, the total picks the wall to open; the wall is broken that many stacks from its right-hand end.
3. Tiles are dealt from the break, four at a time, three times round the table (12 each). The dealer then takes two more tiles (跳牌) and everyone else one: the dealer has 14 tiles, the others 13.
4. Starting with the dealer, each player in turn sets aside any flowers and seasons and draws replacements from the far end of the wall (補花), until they hold none.
5. The dealer opens by discarding; the dealer doesn't draw on the first turn.

Ordinary draws come from the front of the wall; replacement tiles for flowers and kongs come from the back end. Mahjong House plays with no dead wall: every tile can be drawn. Some houses keep the last 14 tiles back, and the hand ends when only those remain.

The eight bonus tiles are never part of a hand. Whenever you hold one, at the deal or when you draw it, you lay it face up and draw a replacement from the back of the wall. They count when you win:

• Seat flower or season (正花): 1 faan for each bonus tile numbered for your seat, East 1, South 2, West 3, North 4.
• Full set (一台花): all four flowers, or all four seasons, is 2 faan per set (instead of the seat tile in that set).
• No bonus tiles (無花): 1 faan if you win holding none.
• All eight (八仙過海): collecting all eight wins on the spot, scored as a self-draw worth 8 faan.
• Win on a flower replacement (花上自摸): 1 faan, on top of self-draw.

On your turn you draw a tile, unless you've just claimed one. With your 14 tiles you may then, in any order:

• declare a concealed kong (暗槓) of four identical tiles in your hand, then draw a replacement;
• declare an added kong (加槓) by adding the fourth tile to a pong you've already exposed, then draw a replacement (this can be robbed, see below);
• declare a self-draw win (自摸) if your hand is complete and worth at least 3 faan;

and you must finish by discarding one tile.

Each discard can be claimed by the other three players:

Priority: a win beats a pong or kong, which beats a chow. Only one player can ever hold enough tiles to pong a given discard, so pongs never clash. If two or three players can win on the same discard, the win goes to the one next in turn after the discarder (截糊, zit6 wu4).

After a pong or chow you discard straight away; after a kong you draw a replacement first. Play then continues from you, so anyone between the discarder and you misses their turn.

You may win on any tile, including one you discarded earlier yourself, and declining one win doesn't stop you taking the next.

• Exposed kong (明槓): claim a discard when you hold three of that tile.
• Added kong (加槓): on your turn, add the fourth tile to a pong you've already exposed.
• Concealed kong (暗槓): on your turn, declare four identical tiles from your own hand.

After any kong you draw a replacement tile from the back of the wall. Winning on it is 槓上開花 (gong3 soeng6 hoi1 faa1, "a flower blooming on the kong"): 1 faan on top of self-draw. A kong counts as a pong for every pattern. A concealed kong still counts as concealed for Four concealed pongs, but in the standard rules it ends the Concealed hand faan; some houses allow it.

When a player makes an added kong, anyone who could win with that fourth tile may take it instead: robbing the kong (搶槓, coeng2 gong3), worth 1 faan. The player who tried to kong is treated as the discarder and pays, and their set stays a pong.

A concealed kong can't be robbed, with one exception: a player waiting for Thirteen Orphans may rob a concealed kong of the tile they need.

A winning hand is four sets and a pair (kongs count as sets), or Thirteen Orphans, and it must be worth at least 3 faan. You can win:

• by self-draw (自摸), including on a kong or flower replacement;
• on another player's discard (食糊 / 出銃 for the discarder);
• by robbing a kong (搶槓).

A self-draw on the last tile of the wall is 海底撈月 and a win on the last discard is 海底炮, 1 faan each. A dealer whose first 14 tiles already win has a Heavenly hand (天糊), and a player who wins on the dealer's very first discard, before any claim, has an Earthly hand (地糊): both are limit hands.

Seven pairs isn't a Hong Kong hand. Mahjong House only lets you declare a win that is valid, so a false win (詐糊) can't happen in the game; at real tables it carries a heavy penalty, often paying every player as if they'd won a limit hand.

If the wall runs out before anyone wins, the hand is drawn (流局, lau4 guk6): nobody pays and the dealer deals again. A hand is also drawn if a replacement tile is needed for a kong or a flower and none are left. There is no payment for being ready (聽牌) when a hand is drawn.

The winner's faan, capped at 10, give a share from the payout table; in the standard half-spicy table, 3 faan is 4 points, 6 faan is 16 and 10 faan is 64.

• Self-draw: each of the three opponents pays one share.
• Discard win (全銃, standard): the discarder pays three shares alone; the other two pay nothing.
• Discard win (半銃, a common club rule): the discarder pays two shares and each of the other two pays one.
• Robbing a kong: settled as a discard win, with the kong player as the discarder.

The scoring guide has the full table and worked examples. In Mahjong House all scores are jade (玉), points with no cash value.

If your discard directly sets up certain limit hands, you are responsible (包, baau1) and pay the winner's whole amount by yourself, even if they go on to win by self-draw. Mahjong House applies it to three hands:

• Big three dragons: you discard the tile that lets a player pong or kong their third dragon when they already show two exposed dragon pongs.
• Big four winds: you discard the tile for their fourth wind pong when they already show three.
• Four kongs: you discard the tile for their fourth kong.

No two mahjong tables in Hong Kong play exactly alike, so agree the house rules (枱例, toi2 lai6) before you start. These are the ones you'll meet most: