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Rules guide

Hong Kong Mahjong Rules Guide

Learn Hong Kong Mahjong online with HKOS rules, 3 non-flower faan eligibility, flowers, claims, scoring tables, and interactive tutorials.

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Rules at a Glance

Quick FactDetails
Tile Set144 tiles including flowers and seasons
Winning HandFour sets and a pair, or a supported special hand
Win GateAt least 3 non-flower faan
ScoringFaan converted through the app payout table

Setup

  • 144 tiles: three numbered suits, Winds, Dragons, and eight Flower/Season tiles. The dealer starts with 14 playable tiles; others start with 13.
  • A sequence is three consecutive tiles of one suit; a triplet is three identical tiles. Honors cannot form sequences. A kong is four identical tiles and counts as one set.

Turns

  • Play proceeds counter-clockwise: draw one tile, then discard one, unless you declare a legal win or kong. A meld claim skips the draw and is followed by a discard; a kong requires a replacement draw.
  • Reveal flowers and seasons, set them aside, and draw replacements immediately. Repeat if another bonus tile appears. A win or wall exhaustion ends the hand.
  • The dealer repeats after a dealer win or a draw; a non-dealer win moves the dealer to the next seat. The prevailing wind advances after four dealer changes.

Calls

  • CHOW takes a sequence from the player on your left. PONG takes a triplet from any opponent. KONG takes a quad from a discard or your own hand. Claim priority is WIN > KONG > PONG > CHOW.
  • Competing discard wins use head-bump: the nearest eligible player in turn order wins.

Winning

  • Complete four sets and one pair, or a supported special structure such as Seven Pairs or Thirteen Orphans. Each kong adds one physical tile.
  • A legal win needs at least 3 non-flower faan. Flowers and seasons add payout value only after that gate is met.

Scoring

  • Compatible scoring patterns add faan, up to the 13-faan cap. The payout reference gives the base points for each faan band.
  • On a discard win, the discarder pays twice the base and the other two opponents pay the base. On self-draw, all three pay twice the base. Draws transfer no win points.

Scoring patterns and winning structures

Supported hand patterns, their values, and tile examples. Bonus and payment rules appear in the companion references.

Supported HKOS Scoring (Faan)

Thirteen Orphans

All terminals + all honors + 1 duplicate

13

dot 1dot 9bamboo 1bamboo 9character 1character 9wind eastwind southwind westwind northdragon reddragon greendragon whitedot 1

Big Four Winds

PONG/Kong of all 4 Winds

13

wind eastwind eastwind eastwind southwind southwind southwind westwind westwind westwind northwind northwind northdot 8dot 8

Big Three Dragons

PONG/Kong of all 3 Dragons

13

dragon reddragon reddragon reddragon greendragon greendragon greendragon whitedragon whitedragon whitebamboo 2bamboo 3bamboo 4dot 5dot 5

Little Four Winds

3 Wind PONGs + 1 Wind Pair

13

wind eastwind eastwind eastwind southwind southwind southwind westwind westwind westwind northwind northcharacter 6character 6character 6

All Kongs

Four declared Kongs plus a pair

13

dot 1dot 1dot 1dot 1bamboo 2bamboo 2bamboo 2bamboo 2character 3character 3character 3character 3wind eastwind eastwind eastwind eastdragon greendragon green

All Honors

Only Winds and Dragons

10

wind eastwind eastwind eastwind southwind southwind southwind westwind westwind westdragon reddragon reddragon reddragon whitedragon white

All Terminals

Only 1s and 9s, no honors

10

dot 1dot 1dot 1dot 9dot 9dot 9bamboo 1bamboo 1bamboo 1character 9character 9character 9bamboo 9bamboo 9

Nine Gates

Concealed 1112345678999 plus any tile in the same suit

10

character 1character 1character 1character 2character 3character 4character 5character 6character 7character 8character 9character 9character 9character 5

Four Concealed PONGs

Four concealed PONGs/Kongs, won by self-draw

10

dot 2dot 2dot 2bamboo 4bamboo 4bamboo 4character 6character 6character 6dragon reddragon reddragon redwind westwind west

Pure One Suit

Only tiles of a single numbered suit, no honors

7

dot 1dot 2dot 3dot 4dot 5dot 6dot 7dot 8dot 9dot 3dot 3dot 3dot 5dot 5

Small Three Dragons

2 Dragon PONGs + 1 Dragon Pair

5

dragon reddragon reddragon reddragon greendragon greendragon greendragon whitedragon whitedot 1dot 2dot 3bamboo 5bamboo 5bamboo 5

Seven Pairs

7 pairs, concealed only

4

dot 2dot 2bamboo 5bamboo 5character 3character 3character 7character 7wind eastwind eastdragon greendragon greendot 9dot 9

All PONGs

All 4 sets are PONGs/Kongs (no Chows)

3

dot 2dot 2dot 2bamboo 6bamboo 6bamboo 6character 9character 9character 9wind westwind westwind westdragon reddragon red

Mixed One Suit

One numbered suit + honor tiles

3

bamboo 1bamboo 2bamboo 3bamboo 5bamboo 5bamboo 5bamboo 7bamboo 8bamboo 9wind eastwind eastwind eastdragon reddragon red

Ping Hu

Common Hand: All Chows + Valueless Pair

1

dot 1dot 2dot 3dot 4dot 5dot 6bamboo 2bamboo 3bamboo 4character 7character 8character 9dot 9dot 9

Dragon PONG/Kong

PONG or Kong of any Dragon (each)

1

dragon reddragon reddragon reddot 1dot 2dot 3bamboo 4bamboo 5bamboo 6character 7character 8character 9wind southwind south

Round Wind PONG

PONG/Kong of the current round wind

1

wind eastwind eastwind eastdot 2dot 3dot 4bamboo 3bamboo 4bamboo 5character 6character 7character 8dragon greendragon green

Seat Wind PONG

PONG/Kong of your seat wind

1

wind southwind southwind southdot 3dot 4dot 5bamboo 4bamboo 5bamboo 6character 5character 6character 7dragon whitedragon white

Chicken Hand

Valid structure but no base scoring patterns. Cannot win in this strict HKOS profile.

0

dot 1dot 2dot 3dot 5dot 5dot 5bamboo 7bamboo 8bamboo 9character 2character 2character 2wind northwind north

Bonuses and scoring conditions

RuleValueCondition
Heavenly / Earthly Hand13Opening-hand limit wins when available
No Flowers/Seasons1No flower or season bonuses revealed by the winning player
Concealed Hand1No open melds taken from discards
Self-Drawn / Zimo1Win by drawing the tile yourself (Zimo)
Last Tile / Replacement / Robbing Kong1Going-out bonuses for the listed winning conditions
Flowers/SeasonsbonusSeat-matching flowers/seasons and all-flower/all-season sets add payout value after the base 3 non-flower faan gate is met

Faan payout table

FaanBase points
3 faan8
4–6 faan16
7–9 faan32
10–13 faan64

Liability payments

RuleValueCondition
Big Three Dragons / Big Four WindsFull table paymentThe opponent who feeds the final required exposed Dragon/Wind set pays for all losers.
Pure One SuitFull table paymentThe qualifying feeder of the exposed pure-suit hand covers the table.
Direct-kong replacement winFull table paymentThe opponent who supplied the direct kong pays for all losers.

Rules used in tsumo

These are the rules used in tsumo. Regional and house rules may differ.

  • tsumo HKOS rules