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Chinese Mahjong

Chinese Standard Mahjong uses 13 tiles and focuses on skill and strategy, with 82 scoring patterns and a strict scoring system. It features the "8 Fan minimum to win" rule, encouraging high-scoring hands and making the game more competitive and exciting. Don't worry about the complexity – Mahjong Nation is the best platform to experience Chinese Standard Mahjong online! 🤗

How to Play Chinese Mahjong

Basic Rules: Mahjong Tiles, Chow, Pung, Kong, Pair, Ready Hand, Winning Hand.

After understanding the basic rules, I'll explain the most crucial aspect: How to win. In standard Chinese Mahjong, a special rule requires a hand to have at least eight Fan to win.

How to Win

Fan: Fan represents a scoring unit. It's a point system used to determine the value of a winning hand. Each distinct feature or combination of tiles in a winning hand contributes a certain number of fan. We've detailed the complete Fan table on our website's Learn page, so I won't go into specifics here.

Mahjong hand: The basic type of Mahjong hand is structured with four sets and a pair, in which a set is a chow, a pung, or a kong, as follows:

  • 11, 123, 123, 123, 123
  • 11, 123, 123, 123,111 (or 1111)
  • 11, 123, 123, 111, 111 (or 1111)
  • 11, 123, 111, 111, 111 (or 1111)
  • 11, 111, 111, 111, 111 (or 1111)

A few of the permissible hands use special structures, utilizing pairs or single tiles as follows:

  • 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11 (Seven Pairs);
  • 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 11 (Thirteen Orphan)

1 = a single tile; 11 = a pair; 111 = a pung; 1111 = a kong; 123 = a chow

Two ways to make Mahjong: the first is self-drawn, and the second is by discard.

  • Self-Drawn: To make Mahjong by taking a fresh tile from the wall yourself. (This isn't displayed in our game; the system automatically taking tiles for you.）
  • By discard: To make Mahjong with a tile discarded by another.

Comprehend the table: The green numbers on the left indicate the Fan points, and the green text at the top indicates the Fan name. You can look up the points for a Fan by its name. If the total score is greater than or equal to eight points, you can declare yourself winning.

Example：

This hand follows: 123, 123, 123, 111, 11

So it's already a winning hand. This hand contains the following Fan. These Fan add up to a total of 21 Fan, which is greater than 8 Fan, allowing for an immediate win.

  • Pure Shifted Chows--16 Fan
  • Concealed Hand--2 Fan
  • One Voided Suit--1 Fan
  • Single Wait--1 Fan
  • No Honors--1 Fan

Therefore, to win a hand, a tile combination needs to satisfy two conditions:

  • It must conform to the "four sets and a pair" rule.
  • It must have at least 8 Fan.

How to Calculate the Score

The Points structure of winning Hand. It composes Extra Points, Basic Points and Penalty Points.

  • Extra Points: Non-winning players must pay 8 points to the winning player;
  • Basic Points: points scored, based on the fan claimed by the winning player;
  • Penalty Points: if a player has fouled during the play of the hand, the relevant points must be subtracted after the Hand or a complete Game (Session) has been finished.

How to calculate the points after a hand is finished. The following formula should be followed when counting point.

  • Win by self-drawn: Extra Points ＋Basic Points, then multiply ×3 (each player pays Extra Points + Basic Points to the winner);
  • Win by discard: Extra Points × 3 ＋Basic Points ×1 (Discarder pays winner Basic Points + Extra Points, and the other two players pay the winner Extra Points only).

Chinese Mahjong Fan List

Chinese Mahjong Winning Strategies

Build High-Fan Hands

Chinese Mahjong, the fan count determines your score, so constructing high-fan hands is key to winning. Common high-fan hands include:

  • Clean Hand: All tiles are of the same suit, 24 fan.
  • Full-Flush: Composed of seven pairs, 24 fan. Combining with Clean Hand or other conditions can increase the fan count.
  • Half-Flush: One suit combined with honor tiles or a hand made of honor tiles and terminals (1 and 9), 6 fan.
  • All-Pungs: The hand consists only of pungs (three of a kind) and a pair, 6 fan.
  • All-Honors: Made entirely of honor tiles (East, South, West, North, Red, Green, White), 64 fan.

Strategy Tips:

  • Early Goal Setting: Choose your development direction based on your initial hand.
  • Avoid Forcing High-Fan Hands: If your hand conditions aren’t favorable, don’t force a high-fan hand. Stay flexible and adapt as needed.

Make Use of Additional Fan Types

Besides basic hand types, you can earn extra fans through additional conditions:

  • Concealed Hand: No pung, chow, or kong actions, 2 fan.
  • All Simples: A hand formed without terminal or honor tiles, 2 fan.
  • Out with Replacement Tile: Self-draw after a kong, 8 fan.
  • Under the River: Self-draw the last tile to win, 8 fan.

Strategy Tips:

  • Maintain Flexibility: Prioritize keeping middle tiles (2-8), which offer more flexibility, and avoid committing to chows or pungs too early, as they can affect conditions like "Closed Hand."
  • Timing of Kongs: Konging can both increase your fan count and provide extra tiles. Assess the risks based on the overall situation before deciding to kong.

Maximum Fan in a Hand

The maximum possible fan in Chines Mahjong is 332:

Big Three Dragons (88 fan) + Four Kongs (88 fan) + All Honors (64 fan) + Four Concealed Kongs (64 fan) + Out with Replacement Tile (8 fan) + Under the River (8 fan) + Prevailing Wind (2 fan) + Seat Wind (2 fan) + flower Tiles (8 fan) = 332 fan

Flower tiles：

Mahjong hand：

  • Identical Prevailing and Seat Wind: If the prevailing wind and the player's seat wind are the same, both the Prevailing Wind and Seat Wind are counted.
  • Four Concealed Kongs and Four Kongs: Four Concealed Kongs is a specific hand type. Four Kongs is an additional bonus earned on top of Four Concealed Kongs if all four kongs are formed.
  • Kong After Out with Replacement Tile: The scenario describes forming the fourth kong with the second to last tile and then drawing the very last tile to complete the winning hand. This allows both Kong After Draw and Last Tile Draw to be counted.
  • Drawing all Bonus Tiles Before the Fourth Kong: The description emphasizes that all bonus tiles must be drawn before the fourth kong is declared to maximize the fan. If a bonus tile is drawn after the fourth kong is declared while waiting for a replacement tile, Kong After Draw will not be counted.

Resource

Chinese Mahjong Tile Generator

Chinese Mahjong Score Calculator

Special Thanks

风盈月影, 大三元, lucina, 司辰, palsarge, jcai, 邓雅军, Jobriq, 隐世窥红尘...

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