How to Score a game of Mah Jong
Special Hands
Special hands are alternative target sets of tiles that a player can go Mah Jong with. The original Chinese game allowed only a few special hands but some Western derivatives controversially include many more.
Special Hand Name | Description | Award |
Buried Treasure | Concealed Pungs in one suit with Winds/Dragons and a pair. | Limit |
Heads and Tails | Pungs/Kongs of Ones and Nines. | Limit |
The Wriggling Snake | A pair of Ones and a run from Two to Nine in the same suit, with each of the winds. | Limit |
Three Great Scholars | Pungs/Kongs of all three Dragons, another Pung/Kong and a pair. | Limit |
Four Blessings Hovering Over The Door | Pungs/Kongs of each of the four Winds with any pair. | Limit |
The Thirteen Unique Wonders | One of each Dragon, one of each Wind, one of each One and one of each Nine. Any one of these tiles must be paired. | Limit |
Heaven's Blessing | Mah Jong immediately made by East with the original fourteen tiles dealt to that player. | Limit |
Earth's Blessing | Mah Jong immediately made by West, North or South using the first discard made by East. | Limit |
Gathering the Plum Blossom from the Roof | The Plum Blossom is the Five of Circles. This is made by a player who draws a loose tile (the roof) as a replacement for a Kong, a Flower or a Season and that tile is the Plum Blossom which allows the player to go Mah Jong. | Limit |
Plucking the Moon from the Bottom of the Sea | The Moon is the One of Circles. This is made by a player who upon drawing the last tile from the wall finds that it is the Moon which allows the player to go Mah Jong. | Limit |
Scoring
Since a score can become ridiculously large, a limit is usually applied. In England, the limit is usually 2000 points although tournament limits tend to be 1000 points.
Scoring can be complicated. If a player went Mah Jong with a special hand or a player was Calling on a special hand at Mah Jong, the scores in the Special Hand table apply. Otherwise, the value of each hand is calculated, bonus points are added and, if appropriate, any doubling then takes place. The values of each hand is calculated as per the following two tables:
Combination | Exposed (declared on table) | Concealed (held in hand because completed by drawing from the wall) |
Minor tile Pung | 2 | 4 |
Major tile Pung | 4 | 8 |
Minor tile Kong | 8 | 16 |
Major tile Kong | 16 | 32 |
Pair of Dragons | 2 | 2 |
Pair of prevailing Wind | 2 | 2 |
Pair of player's own Wind | 2 | 2 |
For going Mah Jong | 10 |
For drawing the winning tile from the wall | 2 |
For going Mah Jong with the only possible tile | 2 |
Once the basic scores have been evaluated, each player's score is doubled for each item in the following table:
Pung or Kong of the player's own Wind (concealed or exposed) | Double |
Pung or Kong of the prevailing Wind (concealed or exposed) | Double |
Pung or Kong of Dragons | Double |
Finally, there are some additional doubles that apply to the hand that went Mah Jong only.
No Chows | Double |
Non-scoring hand (4 chows and a pair) | Double |
All one suit and some Dragons and/or Winds | Double |
All major tiles and some Dragons and/or Winds | Double |
All Dragons and/or winds | Double |
All 4 Winds (3 sets and 1 pair) | Double |
All 3 Dragons (2 sets and 1 pair) | Double |
Going Mah Jong with a loose tile | Double |
Going Mah Jong with the last tile from the wall | Double |
Going Mah Jong by Robbing the Kong | Double |
Rarely, a player may be Calling after his first discard. This is called an "Original Call". A Mah Jong made with those same 13 tiles plus a tile discarded or taken from the wall in subsequent turns. | Double |
Pungs/Kongs of any one suit and a pair. No Winds, Dragons or Chows. | Double three times |
The player who went Mah Jong is then paid by the other players the amount scored by his hand. This means that the player who gets Mah Jong always wins the round, even if other players have scored greater amounts. If East wins, the others pay double. If not, East pays double.
Each losing player pays any other losing player with a greater value hand, the difference between the two hands, with East paying and/or receiving double the difference.
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