All Chows

What Is All Chows

All Chows in Chinese Mahjong is a 2-fan pattern achieved by forming four chows and a single pair with no pungs or kongs. While straightforward to conceptualize, it can require careful tile management to avoid triplets. When done correctly, All Chows can integrate nicely with other patterns—especially if you remain concealed or incorporate certain wait bonuses.

The Tile Pattern of All Chows

Four Chows: Every melded/concealed set in your hand is a sequence (chow). For example: 2-3-4 of Bams, 3-4-5 of Craks, 4-5-6 of Craks, 7-8-9 of Dots.

One Pair

• Alongside these chows, you have exactly one pair (e.g., 5 of Dots + 5 of Dots).
• This pair can be any tile (including honors). However, if the pair itself is an honor tile relevant to your seat or the round, you might trigger additional patterns or cause certain pattern conflicts—always check the synergy or restrictions.

No Pungs or Kongs: The defining factor is that your sets are purely chows. Even one pung or kong disqualifies you from the All Chows pattern.

Fan Value of All Chows

Under Chinese Mahjong scoring, All Chows is worth 2 fan. This is a valuable upgrade compared to many of the 1-fan patterns. If you also combine All Chows with other scoring elements (like Self-Drawn or No Honors), your total fan value can increase further.

Strategies and Considerations of All Chows

Focus on Suits

• Sequences naturally thrive when you have multiple tiles in consecutive ranks. If you find yourself drawing runs in multiple suits, you may organically form chows without much effort.
• While you can use honors as your pair, try not to collect more than two copies of any honor tile, or it risks turning into a pung.

Avoid Accidental Pungs: If you pick up a third copy of any tile already in your hand, you break the “all chows” condition. You could still discard the extra tile, but be careful not to hamper your sequence development in the process.

Use Melds Judiciously: Melding (chowing) can help you complete sequences quickly, but it reveals your tiles. If you remain concealed, you might also aim for Concealed Hand, which can stack with All Chows for a bigger payoff. Balance speed versus secrecy.

Opponents’ Discards

• Collecting discards to complete your chows can accelerate your hand, but each meld reduces your potential to remain concealed (and possibly get a Concealed Hand bonus).
• If you see opponents discarding middle or connecting tiles, that may help you form chows quickly.

Overlap with Other Patterns

• No Honors: If your pair is also in the suits, you may qualify for No Honors (+1 fan).
• One-Void Suit: If you naturally avoid one suit while building sequences in the other two, you can stack that +1 fan with All Chows.
• Edge Wait / Closed Wait / Single Wait: If your final waiting tile qualifies as one of these special 1-fan wait patterns, that can further boost your total fan count.

Reduced Scoring from Triplets: All Chows is incompatible with pung-based patterns. If you draw too many duplicates of the same tile, consider whether forming a pung might yield a better route—especially if it’s a scoring pung like a Dragon Pung.

Accidental Pungs: Drawing or claiming a tile that accidentally forms three-of-a-kind can ruin your All Chows plan. Decide whether to discard the extra tile or pivot to a pung-based approach if it’s more efficient.

Overcommitting: If your tile draws are more conducive to pairs/pungs, forcing All Chows can delay your hand completion. Remain flexible if the sequence route becomes too cumbersome.