Mah Jong Scoring

How to Score

  1. Order of Payout
    1. Winner calculates score first, and then everyone pays the Winner.
    2. Going anti-clockwise from the Winner, everyone else calculates their score.
    3. Non-winning players then pay each other the difference between their hands.
  2. Calculating Payout
    1. East always pays or is paid double.
    2. Calculate score of the hand using Basic Hand Scores and then apply all appropriate doubles using Doubles.
  3. Rounding Scores
    1. When using chips in multiples of 10, rather than 2, work out the difference in hand values before any rounding. If East is paying or being paid, double the value paid before any rounding.
  4. Exposed and Concealed Sets
    1. A Pung or Kong is concealed if it contains only tiles originally dealt or picked up from the wall. It is exposed if it contains a tile from the discard. For certain doubles and limit hands, a concealed Pung can be turned into an exposed Kong without loss of the extra points. For all other purposes, such a Kong is exposed.
  5. Bonus Tiles
    1. A player’s own Flower or Season is numbered 1, 2, 3 or 4 for East, South, West and North respectively.
    2. Flowers are Plum (1), Orchid (2), Chrysanthemum (3) and Bamboo (4).
    3. Seasons are sometimes marked as Old Man or Spring (1), Pot of Gold or Summer (2), Fisherman or Autumn (3), and Fish or Winter (4).

Basic Hand Scores

  1. Pungs and Kongs
    1. Start with 2 points
    2. Double if Major (Dragons, Winds, 1s and 9s)
    3. Double if Concealed
    4. Multiply by 4 if Kong rather than Pung
  2. Pairs
    1. Dragons - 2 points
    2. Own Wind - 2 points
    3. Prevailing Wind - 2 points
    4. Own Wind which is also Prevailing - 4 points
  3. Bonus Tiles - 4 points each
    1. Going out - 10 points, then additionally…
    2. Self drawn - 2 points
    3. Filling the only place - 2 points
    4. Fishing the eyes (minor tile) - 2 points
    5. Fishing the eyes (major tile) - 4 points

Doubles - All Hands

Hand Notes
Own Flower and own Season
All Flowers
All Seasons
Pung or Kong of Dragons
Pung or Kong of own Wind Can have this and the one below
Pung or Kong of Prevailing Wind Can have this and the one above
Little Three Dragons
Big Three Dragons 2 doubles, in addition to any doubles for the Dragons
Little Four Joys
Big Four Joys 2 doubles, in addition to any doubles for the Winds
Three Concealed Pungs A concealed Pung made into an exposed Kong does not prevent this double.

Doubles - Mah Jong Hands

Hand Description
No score Hand contains four Chows and a non-scoring pair, although it may score in any other way.
Birds Singing In Harmony Hand contains no Chows.
Concealed Hand Hand is all concealed, including last tile.\nA concealed Pung made into an exposed Kong does not prevent this double.
One Suit Hand Hand contains one suit only, but may also include Dragons and Winds.
Clear Suit Hand 3 doubles Hand contains one suit only; it must not contain Dragons or Winds.
All Majors Hand contains only Dragons, Winds, 1s and 9s.
All Honours Hand contains Dragons and Winds only.
Opening a Flower on Top of the Mountain Winner goes out by drawing a loose tile (that is, by replacing a Kong).
Winning from the Bottom of the Sea Winner goes out by drawing the last available tile.
Catching a Fish from the Bottom of the River Winner goes out on a discard after the last available tile is gone.
Robbing an Exposed Kong Winner goes out by robbing an exposed Kong.

Limit Hands

Hand Description
Heaven’s Blessing aka Natural Winning East is dealt a winning hand.
Earth’s Blessing aka Unnatural Winning Winner goes out on East’s first discard.
Gathering Plum Blossom from the Roof Winner goes out on 5C drawn from the Kong box.
Catching the Moon from the Bottom of the Sea Winner goes out on 1C drawn from the live wall, when it is the last tile.
Scratching a Carrying Pole Winner goes out by robbing a Kong of 2B.
Kong upon Kong aka Twofold Fortune Winner gets a Kong, gets another Kong from the replacement, and then goes out on the replacement.
Fourfold Plenty Winner has 4 Kongs.
Buried Treasure Winner has 4 Concealed Pungs, and goes out self-drawn.
Three Great Scholars Winner has three sets of Dragons and no Chow.
Four Joys in Full aka Four Blessing Hovering O’er the Door Winner has 4 sets of Winds.
All Symbols All Winner’s tiles are Winds or Dragons.
Heads and Tails All Winner’s tiles are 1s and 9s.
Imperial Jade All Winner’s tiles are Green (23468B and Green Dragon).
9 Sacred Lamps of Lotus Winning hand is all concealed and could have been completed by any of 9 tiles; hand must be all concealed, and be 1112345678999.
Wriggling Snake Winning hand is all one suit; a set of 1s; a set of 9s; a pair of 2s, 5s or 8s; and two Chows of the missing numbers.
Concealed Clear Suit Hand Winning hand is all concealed and all of one suit.
Thirteen Unique Wonders aka Thirteen Grades of Imperial Treasure Winning hand has one of each 1, one of each 9, one of each Wind, one of each Dragon, and any matching tile.
East’s Thirteenth Hand East wins thirteenth hand in a row.

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