CHAPTER 04

The recipe for a winning hand.

This chapter is all you need to play your first game tonight. HK mahjong can be played as a 0-point game — no scoring rules, no minimum faan floor. You just race to assemble the shape before anyone else does. Master the shape first. Points come later.

A winning hand is fourteen tiles organized into one specific shape: four melds and one pair. Every tile must belong to a group — nothing left over.

Chow

上

Chow

上

Pung

碰

Pung

碰

Pair

雀

4 melds × 3 tiles+1 pair × 2 tiles=14 tiles

The building blocks

Each meld is either a chow or a pung/kong. The pair is separate: exactly one, no more, no less.

Pung碰

✓Can claim

Three identical tiles. Works with any tile: numbered suits, winds, or dragons.

Anyone at the table

When anyone discards the third, call pung. Take it, expose all three face-up, then discard one tile.

Chow上

✓Can claim

Three consecutive tiles in the same suit. Never across suits, and never with winds or dragons.

Left-hand player only

Call chow on the discard that completes your sequence, but only from the player on your left.

Kong槓

✓Can claim

All four copies of the same tile. Counts as one meld, but you draw a replacement tile from the back of the wall.

Anyone at the table

When anyone discards the fourth, call kong. Expose all four, draw a replacement tile from the back of the wall, then discard.

Pair雀

✕No claim

Two identical tiles. Your hand needs exactly one. It holds the shape together but cannot double as a meld.

Cannot be claimed mid-game

You cannot call a discard to form your pair during play. Exception: if the discard completes your pair and wins the hand, you can call it.

Playing toward the shape

While you're playing, you hold 13 tiles — always one short of the winning shape. The core question every turn: which tiles are closest to finishing a meld?

Mid-game hand · 13 tiles

✓Complete chow

✓Complete pung

…Needs 6 or 9

…Needs 3

⇌Your pair

✕Discard

Complete

Needs a tile

Pair

Discard

→Discard the 9 Dot. You're two tiles from winning — one to finish each open chow.