How scoring works
- Add up every faan the hand earns: how it was won, bonus tiles, honour pongs and the hand's pattern. There is no base faan: the total is exactly the sum.
- You need at least 3 faan to win (三番起糊). A complete hand worth less can't be declared.
- The total is capped at 10 faan (十番滿糊). Reaching the cap is called 爆棚 (baau3 paang4).
- Limit hands score the full 10 on their own: nothing else is added or listed.
- When a hand can be read more than one way, it scores the reading worth the most.
Winning situations
| Hand | Faan | How it scores |
|---|---|---|
| Self-draw自摸 | 1 | You draw the winning tile yourself. |
| Concealed hand門前清 | 1 | No chow, pong or exposed kong: every set came from your own draws. Winning on a discard still counts. In the standard rules a concealed kong also ends it. |
| Win on kong replacement槓上自摸 | 1 | You win on the replacement tile drawn after a kong (槓上開花). Self-draw counts too: 2 faan together. |
| Win on flower replacement花上自摸 | 1 | You win on the tile drawn to replace a flower or season. With self-draw, 2 faan. |
| Robbing the kong搶槓 | 1 | You win on the tile another player adds to an exposed pong to make a kong. |
| Last tile of the wall海底撈月 | 1 | A self-draw win on the very last tile of the wall. |
| Last discard海底炮 | 1 | A win on the discard made after the last tile was drawn. |
Flowers and seasons
Flowers and seasons are numbered 1 to 4, matching the seats East, South, West and North. East's are the Plum flower (梅) and Spring (春); see the tile guide.
| Hand | Faan | How it scores |
|---|---|---|
| Seat flower or season正花 | 1 | 1 faan for each bonus tile whose number matches your seat: East 1, South 2, West 3, North 4. Your own flower and your own season count separately. |
| Full flower or season set一台花 | 2 | All four flowers, or all four seasons. Each complete set is 2 faan and replaces the seat-tile faan within that set. |
| No bonus tiles無花 | 1 | You win holding no flowers or seasons at all. |
| All eight bonus tiles八仙過海 | 8 | Collecting all eight flowers and seasons wins at once. It is scored as a self-draw, exactly 8 faan, with nothing added. |
Dragons and winds
| Hand | Faan | How it scores |
|---|---|---|
| Dragon pong紅中／發財／白板 | 1 | A pong or kong of any dragon: 1 faan each. |
| Seat wind pong門風 | 1 | A pong or kong of your own seat's wind. |
| Prevailing wind pong圈風 | 1 | A pong or kong of the round's wind. If it is also your seat wind, both count: 2 faan. |
| Little three dragons小三元 | 5 | Pongs of two dragons and a pair of the third. The 5 includes the two dragon pongs. |
| Big three dragons大三元 | 8 | Pongs or kongs of all three dragons. The 8 includes the dragon pongs. |
| Little four winds小四喜 | 6 | Pongs of three winds and a pair of the fourth. Seat and round wind faan aren't added for those winds; other sets still score. |
Hand patterns
| Hand | Faan | How it scores |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken hand雞糊 | 0 | A complete hand with no pattern. It still wins if other faan reach 3, for example concealed hand + self-draw + no bonus tiles. |
| All chows平糊 | 1 | Four chows and a pair that isn't a dragon, your seat wind or the round wind, won on a two-sided wait (not an edge, middle or pair wait). |
| All pongs對對糊 | 3 | Four pongs or kongs and a pair. |
| Half flush混一色 | 3 | Tiles of one suit plus winds or dragons. |
| Mixed terminals混么九 | 4 | Only 1s, 9s and honours, all in pongs and a pair. The 4 already includes All pongs. |
| Full flush清一色 | 7 | Every tile from one suit, no honours. |
Limit hands (10 faan)
A limit hand scores the cap, 10 faan, and only that: no self-draw, concealed hand or flowers are added.
| Hand | Faan | How it scores |
|---|---|---|
| Thirteen orphans十三么 | Limit | One of each 1 and 9 of the three suits, each wind and each dragon, plus a second of any of them. Must be concealed; may be won on a discard. |
| Nine gates九蓮寶燈 | Limit | Concealed 1-1-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-9-9 of one suit, plus any other tile of that suit. |
| Four kongs十八羅漢 | Limit | Four kongs of any kind, and a pair. |
| Big four winds大四喜 | Limit | Pongs or kongs of all four winds. |
| All honours字一色 | Limit | Only winds and dragons. |
| Pure terminals清么九 | Limit | Only 1s and 9s, in pongs and a pair. |
| Four concealed pongs坎坎糊 | Limit | Four pongs (or concealed kongs) all drawn yourself. Win by self-draw, or on a discard only for the pair. |
| Heavenly hand天糊 | Limit | The dealer's first 14 tiles, after flowers are replaced, already win. |
| Earthly hand地糊 | Limit | A non-dealer wins on the dealer's first discard, before anyone has claimed a tile. |
What stacks and what doesn't
- Half flush and Full flush never go together.
- All pongs + Half flush = 6. All pongs + Full flush = 10, the cap.
- Little three dragons (5) and Big three dragons (8) already include their dragon pongs. Other honour pongs still add: Little three dragons with your seat wind is 6.
- Little four winds (6) replaces the faan for its three wind pongs. A dragon pong still adds; All pongs adds if the fourth set is a pong; Half flush adds if the fourth set is from one suit.
- Mixed terminals (4) already includes All pongs, so it is 4, not 7. It often comes with a Half flush.
- Win on a kong or flower replacement adds to Self-draw: 2 faan from the situation alone.
- Concealed hand and Self-draw both count, so a concealed self-drawn hand starts at 2.
- All honours and Pure terminals are limit hands, so All pongs and Mixed terminals aren't counted with them.
Worked examples
A chicken hand that still wins: 3 faan
There's no pattern here (one pong rules out All chows), yet the situation alone reaches the minimum. Won on a discard instead, the same hand would be 2 faan and couldn't win.
All chows, concealed, with your seat flower: 4 faan
Half flush, all pongs and winds: 9 faan
Full flush, all pongs: the 10-faan cap
Thirteen orphans: a limit hand
Self-drawn, Thirteen orphans scores 10 faan. Self-draw, Concealed hand and flowers aren't added; the hand is worth the limit, and nothing more.
From faan to points
Each faan total gives a share from the payout table. Mahjong House's standard table is half-spicy (半辣上), where the share doubles every two faan:
| Faan | Self-draw: each opponent pays (one share) | Discard, 全銃: the discarder pays | Discard, 半銃: discarder + the other two |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 4 | 12 | 8 + 4 + 4 |
| 4 | 8 | 24 | 16 + 8 + 8 |
| 5 | 12 | 36 | 24 + 12 + 12 |
| 6 | 16 | 48 | 32 + 16 + 16 |
| 7 | 24 | 72 | 48 + 24 + 24 |
| 8 | 32 | 96 | 64 + 32 + 32 |
| 9 | 48 | 144 | 96 + 48 + 48 |
| 10 | 64 | 192 | 128 + 64 + 64 |
- Self-draw: each opponent pays one share, so the winner collects three.
- Discard win, discarder pays all (全銃, standard): the discarder pays three shares; the other two pay nothing.
- Discard win, 半銃 (a common club rule, a solo option): the discarder pays two shares and the others one each, so the winner collects four.
- Full responsibility (包): the responsible player pays the winner's whole amount alone (see the rules).
So the 9-faan example above, won on a discard, costs the discarder 3 × 48 = 144 points; the 4-faan self-draw collects 8 from each opponent, 24 in all.
Spicy (辣辣上), a solo option, doubles every faan from 4 up: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 for 3 to 10 faan. With the 13-faan cap (another solo option) the half-spicy shares carry on as 96, 128 and 192 for 11 to 13 faan.
Mahjong House counts every score in jade (玉), a points unit with no cash value.
Common variants
Mahjong House's standard rules leave these out, but you'll meet them at some tables:
- Human hand (人糊): a win on any discard in the first go-round, often 3 faan or more.
- All melded, single wait (全求人): four exposed sets and a win on a discard for the pair, 1 faan.
- Seven pairs (七對子): some tables score seven pairs, often at 3 or 4 faan.
- Seven flowers (花糊): seven bonus tiles as an immediate 3-faan win.
- Consecutive kongs (連槓開花): a win after two kongs in a row scored as a limit hand.
- 13-faan cap, spicy payouts and 半銃: in Mahjong House these are options for solo play.
Some clubs also fix All honours or Four concealed pongs at a set number of faan instead of the limit. Agree the house rules before the first hand.