How to play Hong Kong mahjong
Hong Kong mahjong in 60 seconds
- Four players, 144 tiles, including eight bonus tiles.
- Each turn: draw one tile, discard one.
- Win with four sets and a pair: runs, triplets or kongs.
- Pung or kong any discard; chow only from your left.
- A win needs at least 3 faan, the scoring unit.
- Self-draw: all three pay. Off a discard: the discarder pays.
On this page
What is the goal?
目標Build a complete hand of four sets and one pair, fourteen tiles in all, then declare the win: 食糊 (sik wu, "going out"). A set is three tiles (or four, for a kong); the pair is two identical tiles, sometimes called the eyes.
A legal shape isn't enough. Your hand must also be worth the table's minimum faan (3 faan by default in Mahjong Versus). Scoring is chapter seven.
What tiles are in a Hong Kong mahjong set?
牌The set has 144 tiles: three suits of nine (four copies of each), seven kinds of honours, and eight bonus tiles.
Suit tiles form runs and triplets. Honours (winds and dragons) only form triplets and pairs, never runs. Bonus tiles never sit in your hand: draw one, set it aside face-up, draw a replacement. Each is worth extra faan if it matches your seat.
How do you set up the game?
開局Four players sit at the four winds: East 東, South 南, West 西, North 北. East is the dealer 莊家 (jong ga) and plays first.
The tiles are shuffled into a wall and each player draws a hand of 13 tiles (the dealer briefly holds 14). Play moves counter-clockwise: East, then South, then West, then North.
A Mahjong Versus table plays one hand: seats are drawn, the hand runs to a win or a washout, and the table settles. In the app, shuffling, dealing, and seating are all automatic; you just play.
How does a turn work?
出牌Every turn is the same two beats: draw one tile, discard one tile. Your hand always returns to 13. The game is deciding which tile you can live without, and reading what everyone else can't.
Discards are public and permanent. Every tile you throw tells the table what you're building, and feeds anyone waiting to claim it.
Try it for real. Mahjong Versus is a free iPhone app for live four-player Hong Kong mahjong against real players or bots, and it deals, checks and scores every hand for you.
How do you claim a discard?
牌組Three kinds of set complete a hand. You can build them quietly from the wall, or claim another player's discard to finish one openly.
Pung碰
Three identical tiles. Claimable from any player's discard.
Chow上
A run of three in one suit. Claimable only from the player on your left.
Kong槓
Four identical tiles. Declare it and draw a replacement from the wall.
How do you win?
食糊When you're one tile away, you're calling 聽牌 (ting pai, "listening"). The winning tile arrives one of two ways, and how it arrives changes the score.
Self-draw自摸
You draw the winning tile from the wall yourself. Worth +1 faan, and all three opponents pay you.
Off a discard食出
Someone discards your winning tile and you claim it. The discarder pays your full score.
Declare, lay your hand face-up, and the app verifies the shape, checks the minimum, counts the faan, and settles all four seats instantly. No arguments, no arithmetic.
How does faan scoring work?
番數Winning hands are valued in faan 番 (scoring points). Patterns stack: each one your hand contains adds its faan, and more faan means a steeper payout. The ones you'll see every session:
Stacking: a hand scores every pattern it contains, added together, so 對對糊 plus 混一色 is six faan. The gold rows are limit hands: they pay the table's ceiling on their own and don't stack with anything else.
Who pays: on a self-draw, all three opponents pay. Off a discard, the discarder pays alone. The app banks every settlement automatically.
A worked hand
You sit South. You claimed a pung of red dragons, built pungs of 2, 5 and 9 dots yourself, hold a pair of East winds, and set aside bonus tile 夏, which matches your South seat. Someone discards your winning tile. That is All Triplets (3) plus Half Flush (3) plus Seat Flower (1): 7 faan. The discarder pays 24 points; the other two players pay nothing.
Try this exact hand in the Faan calculator.
What if nobody wins?
流局Sometimes the wall runs out first. The hand ends the moment someone needs to draw and no tile is left, whether for a normal turn or a replacement after a kong or a flower. That is a washout, 流局 (lau guk): nobody wins and nobody pays.
Kongs and flowers late in the hand draw their replacements from the same wall, so they can bring the washout a turn or two sooner.
Hong Kong vs American vs Riichi mahjong
流派Mahjong is a family of games with very different rules. If you learned another style first, this is what changes.
| Rule | Hong Kong | American | Riichi (Japanese) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiles | 144, with flowers and seasons | 152, with jokers | 136, no flowers |
| Jokers | No | Yes, eight | No |
| Passing tiles before play | No | Yes, the Charleston | No |
| How you win | Four sets and a pair, worth the minimum faan | Match a hand on the year's National Mah Jongg League card | Four sets and a pair (or a special hand) with at least one yaku |
| Claiming a discard for a run | Only from the player on your left | Not allowed | Only from the player on your left |
| Scoring | Faan, which set the payout | A fixed value printed on the card | Han and fu |
Coming from American mahjong? The big changes are no jokers, no card to match, and the faan minimum: any legal hand can win once it is worth 3 faan.
Tips for your first games
心得- Stay flexible early. Keep pairs and near-runs for the first few draws instead of committing to one pattern.
- Plan your 3 faan. Pick a route early, such as all triplets or a half flush, so a finished hand is also a legal win.
- Claim with purpose. Every claim opens your hand and gives up the concealed bonus, so claim when it clearly moves you forward.
- Read the discards. Tiles nobody wants show what is safe, and a suit that stops appearing tells you what someone is building.
- Play safe late. Near the end of the wall, discard tiles already seen on the table rather than fresh ones.
Glossary
術語Common Questions
問答What is the goal in Hong Kong mahjong?
Build a complete hand of four sets and one pair, then declare the win (食糊, sik wu). A set is three tiles, or four for a kong; the pair is two identical tiles, sometimes called the eyes. That is fourteen tiles at the moment you win, and one more for each kong you have declared.
How many tiles are in a Hong Kong mahjong set?
144 tiles: three suits of nine with four copies of each, seven kinds of honours (four winds and three dragons), and eight bonus tiles (four flowers and four seasons).
How does a turn work in mahjong?
Every turn is the same two beats: draw one tile, then discard one tile, so your hand always returns to 13. Play moves counter-clockwise from East.
Who can you claim a discard from in Hong Kong mahjong?
Pung and kong can be claimed from any player, and the winning tile can be claimed from any player. A chow can only be claimed from the player to your left. If two players want the same discard, a win beats pung or kong, and pung or kong beats chow.
What is the difference between a pung, a chow and a kong?
A pung (碰) is three identical tiles. A chow (上) is a run of three in one suit. A kong (槓) is four identical tiles, and declaring one draws a replacement tile from the wall.
What is faan in Hong Kong mahjong?
Faan (番) is the scoring unit. Patterns stack: a hand scores every pattern it contains, added together, so All Triplets (對對糊, 3 faan) plus Half Flush (混一色, 3 faan) is six faan. More faan means a steeper payout, up to a capped limit.
What is the minimum faan needed to win a hand?
A legal shape is not enough. The table sets a minimum, and in Mahjong Versus the default floor is 3 faan, configurable in private rooms. Below the floor you cannot declare a win.
How much is a self-draw worth in Hong Kong mahjong?
Drawing the winning tile yourself (自摸, zi mo) is worth an extra faan, and all three opponents pay you. If you win on someone else’s discard instead, that discarder pays your full score alone.
What is a limit hand in Hong Kong mahjong?
A limit hand pays the table’s ceiling on its own and does not stack with any other pattern. All Honours (字一色), Big Four Winds (大四喜), Thirteen Orphans (十三么), Heavenly Hand (天糊), Earthly Hand (地糊) and Eight Immortals (八仙過海) are limit hands.
How is Hong Kong mahjong different from American mahjong?
Hong Kong mahjong uses 144 tiles with no jokers, has no Charleston, and has no card to match: any hand of four sets and a pair wins if it is worth at least the table's minimum faan. American mahjong adds eight jokers (152 tiles), passes tiles before play, and only accepts hands printed on the year's National Mah Jongg League card.
What happens if nobody wins a hand?
If a player needs to draw and no tile is left in the wall, the hand ends in a washout (流局). Nobody wins and nobody pays.
Can I play Hong Kong mahjong online?
Yes. Hong Kong mahjong is played online in apps and on websites, at live four-player tables and against bots for practice. Mahjong Versus is one such app: free on iPhone, with every hand dealt, checked and scored for you.
Updated
That's the whole game. The app enforces every rule and counts every faan, so the fastest way to learn the rest is a seat at the table.