Hong Kong mahjong rules: how to play and count faan scores
A guide to Hong Kong mahjong tiles, sets, gameplay and faan from the HKMA rulebook, with a four-player house-rules simulation that uses a transfer cap and a net-points leaderboard.
Table of Contents
Hong Kong mahjong is played by four people who draw and discard tiles until a hand forms four sets and one pair. That hand can only win once its value reaches the agreed minimum in faan, the units used to value a hand. In the rulebook of the Hong Kong Mahjong Association (HKMA), that minimum is 3 faan. After a win, players count the faan, then convert them into points.
This guide covers face-to-face play with physical tiles and scorekeeping for communities or events. Credits and rewards here mean game points kept for records and rankings. None of the example calculations involves monetary value, redeeming points or cash prizes.
Choose the rule variant before you play
Mahjong has several variants, and values do not carry over from one to another. Make sure everyone at the table uses the same rulebook.
| Variant | How hands are valued | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong | Faan. A minimum of 3 faan and a maximum of 10 faan in the HKMA rulebook. | HKMA |
| Japanese Riichi | Yaku (scoring patterns), han and fu (score units). A winning hand must have at least one yaku, and dora (bonus tiles) are not yaku. | WRC Rules 2025 |
| Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR) | Its own list of patterns, with a minimum of 8 points to win. | World Mind Games |
This article uses the 17 May 2023 version of the HKMA's Hong Kong Mahjong rulebook for patterns and faan. The point transfer formula in the practice section is a house rule we wrote for illustration, not an HKMA rule.
Tiles and basic combinations
A basic set has 136 tiles. There are 108 number tiles in three suits (circles, bamboo and characters), numbered 1 to 9 with four copies of each. The remaining 28 are honor tiles: the four winds and the three dragons, also four copies each. Eight flower and season tiles bring the set to 144. The HKMA recognizes both the 136-tile and the 144-tile set.
Flower tiles are not used inside the hand. If your table plays with them, show the flower tile and draw a replacement. A flower cannot stand in for a tile in a set or a pair.
| Combination | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Chow (chi) | Three consecutive numbers in one suit | Circles 1, 2, 3 |
| Pung (pong) | Three identical tiles | Three red dragons |
| Kong (kan) | Four identical tiles, declared | Four 7 bamboo |
| Pair | Two identical tiles | Two 5 characters |
Without a kong, four sets and one pair make 14 tiles: 4 × 3 + 2. Each kong adds one physical tile, so a hand with one kong has 15 tiles. Flower tiles are counted separately.
The example above is a 1-2-3 chow in circles, a 4-5-6 chow in bamboo, a pung of 9 characters, a pung of red dragons and a pair of 5 circles. The shape is complete, but the dragon pung gives only 1 faan. At the 3-faan minimum this hand cannot win yet, unless another pattern adds to its value.
How a game runs, for beginners
- Settle the seating. The player who draws East is the first dealer, and the winds run East, South, West, North counterclockwise.
- Deal the tiles. The other players hold 13 tiles each, while the dealer holds 14 because the dealer discards first. If you play with flowers, replace them first.
- On a normal turn, draw one tile from the wall, check whether your hand has won, then discard one tile. Turns move counterclockwise.
- Declare claims clearly. You may claim a discard for a chow only from the player on your left. You may claim anyone's discard for a pung. A kong comes in three forms: concealed, from a discard, and added to an exposed pung.
- When you win, lay your tiles face up so the other players can check the shape, the faan and where the last tile came from. Record the points once everyone agrees on the result.
If several players claim the same discard, the HKMA sets the order: a win first, then a pung or kong, then a chow.
Keep the two sources of a winning tile apart. A discard win means the last tile came from another player's discard, so the discarder must be recorded. A self-draw means the player drew the last tile from the wall. If the wall runs out with no winner, the round ends in a draw. Do not name a winner just to fill in the record.
The deal passes counterclockwise after each game, except in certain cases such as a dealer win. The HKMA rulebook does not say what happens to the dealer after a draw, so agree on it before you play. Disputes over simultaneous claims, special hands and fouls need the full rules, which this summary does not cover.
The faan list and how to check it
Faan are the values given for a hand pattern or a winning condition. These are the patterns from the HKMA list that come up most often.
| Pattern | Requirement | Faan |
|---|---|---|
| Self-draw | Last tile drawn by the winner | 1 |
| Concealed hand | No exposed sets | 1 |
| All sequences | All four sets are chows | 1 |
| Dragon pung | Pung or kong of dragons | 1 |
| Wind pung | Wind of your seat or of the round | 1, or 2 if it matches both |
| All triplets | Every set is a pung or kong | 3 |
| Semi-flush | One suit plus honor tiles | 3 |
| Small Dragons | Two dragon pungs and a pair of the third dragon | 5, including the two dragon pungs |
| Flush | One suit, no honor tiles | 7 |
| Big Dragons | Three dragon pungs | 8 |
A semi-flush and a flush cannot occur together in one hand. Special hands such as Thirteen Orphans and All Honours are worth 10 faan outright, which is also the cap. A total above 10 still counts as 10.
Check the shape before you add up values. For example, a hand of 111 circles, 333 bamboo, 666 characters, 888 circles and a pair of 55 bamboo is all triplets. Won off a discard with one exposed set and no other condition, it is worth 3 faan. Count each condition only once.
Flower tiles have no faan value in the HKMA rulebook. The rulebook mentions flowers only in the replacement step, so a flower bonus is a house rule your table adds. Write that bonus down before the game starts.
The official HKMA score table
The HKMA rulebook converts faan into scores as follows. On a discard win, the discarder pays the hand's full value. The self-draw value is written as 16 x 3, which we read as 16 from each of the three opponents. The rulebook does not explain this split in writing, so settle it at your table.
| Faan | Discard | Self-draw |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 32 | 16 x 3 |
| 4 | 64 | 32 x 3 |
| 5 | 96 | 48 x 3 |
| 6 | 128 | 64 x 3 |
| 7 | 192 | 96 x 3 |
| 8 | 256 | 128 x 3 |
| 9 | 384 | 192 x 3 |
| 10 | 512 | 256 x 3 |
Example house rules for four-player practice
The simulation below uses our own practice rules. They differ from the HKMA table above and are not the algorithm that 888 Mahjong, our scoring app, uses. The aim is to show how to record point transfers. A, B, C and D each start with 500 points. There are no extra points for the dealer or for a double win, and a drawn round does not change anyone's points.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Winning requirement | Hand pattern faan (H) of at least 3, before bonuses |
| Flower bonus | 1 faan for a flower or season with your seat's number (East 1, South 2, West 3, North 4). Maximum 1. |
| Self-draw bonus | 1 faan, counted once |
| Total faan | F = H + flower bonus + self-draw bonus |
| Base points | P = 2 to the power of F |
| Discard win | The discarder pays min(2 × P, 64) |
| Self-draw win | Each opponent pays min(P, 64) |
| Transfer cap | 64 points per paying player |
The min function picks the smaller number. Because the cap applies per payer, the most a self-draw winner can receive is 3 × 64 = 192 points. Bonuses do not remove the requirement that H is at least 3. A hand with H = 2, a flower bonus of 1 and a self-draw bonus of 1 still cannot win, even though its total is 4.
Example: counting credits and rewards in points
Round 1: a win off a discard
A wins off B's discard with an exposed all-triplets hand, so H = 3 and there is no bonus. F = 3, so P = 8. B pays min(2 × 8, 64) = 16 points. The balances become A 516, B 484, C 500 and D 500.
Round 2: a self-draw win
C wins by self-draw with an exposed semi-flush (H = 3), one matching flower bonus and the self-draw bonus. F = 3 + 1 + 1 = 5, so P = 32. A, B and D each pay 32. C receives 96, exactly the total the three opponents paid. The balances become A 484, B 452, C 596 and D 468.
Round 3: the transfer cap applies
D wins off C's discard. The hand is a pung of 2 bamboo, a pung of 7 circles, a pung of red dragons, a pung of green dragons and a pair of 5 characters. Its value is all triplets at 3 plus two dragon pungs at 1 each, so H = 5. The pair is made of number tiles, so this is not Small Dragons. A flower bonus of 1 on top makes F = 6 and P = 64. The raw transfer of 2 × 64 = 128 is capped at 64. C loses 64 and D gains 64.
| Record | A | B | C | D | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | +16 | −16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Round 2 | −32 | −32 | +96 | −32 | 0 |
| Round 3 | 0 | 0 | −64 | +64 | 0 |
| Net | −16 | −48 | +32 | +32 | 0 |
| Final balance | 484 | 452 | 532 | 532 | 2,000 |
Net points for an event leaderboard
The four players' balances always add up to 2,000. This is the zero-sum check: every gain must be matched by deductions of the same total from the other players. If the total changes, a round was recorded wrongly.
For rankings, take the final balance minus the starting balance for each session, then add up each participant's net change across the event. In this example, C and D are both +32, A is −16 and B is −48.
A participant who plays two sessions, starting with 500 in each, will look ahead if their raw final balances are summed, because the starting points are counted twice. Keep the same participant ID when someone moves tables, and show the number of sessions or rounds played. Net points do not adjust for participants who played different numbers of games.
Set the tie rule before the event. In this practice game, C and D share first place. Do not break a tie by alphabetical order or by the order in which results were entered. If the organizers want extra awards, keep their criteria separate from the round transfers so the game record can still be checked.
Event scorekeeping with 888 Mahjong
888 Mahjong by Aksara Karya Digital is a scorekeeping app for face-to-face Hong Kong mahjong. The organizer sets the rules, and the players at the table still check each win. The scorekeeper enters the winner, how the hand was won, the discarder if there is one, and the agreed faan. The calculator works out the point split, which is checked before saving.
- Setup: the Admin Dashboard manages tables, players and admin accounts. The Multi-table feature runs several tables with 2 to 4 players per session, and sessions with two or three players use a house-rules variant.
- Events and access: Event Management creates an event, selects the tables and sets the rules. Participants join by scanning a QR code or entering a code. One phone becomes the table's scorekeeper, and other devices can view the session.
- Scores: the Score Calculator computes points from the faan and bonuses entered. Custom Rules set the starting points, the minimum faan and the payment cap.
- Rankings: the live event leaderboard updates from the saved results, and TV mode shows it full screen, paging through automatically.
- Checks: Session History provides search and filters. Undo and admin corrections are recorded in an audit history. Round photo attachments help check the tile layout.
- Recap: results can be exported to Excel or shared as an image. The Mahjong Guide covers hand patterns and bonuses.
A record of each table's all-time top player is available as an add-on for IDR 489,000 (price as of 13 October 2026). That figure covers this extra feature only. Supplying and setting up the main app is covered in a separate quote.
The app needs an internet connection. Riichi support, tile recognition by camera and an offline scoring queue are not available. Photos are only supporting evidence for people to check and do not decide the faan. Before entering data, compare the bonus definitions and transfer cap at your table with the settings the app offers, because the practice formula above may not be available as a single package. When you review the mahjong scoring app's workflow, have ready your number of tables, the game variant, your bonus list and an example of the point split you want to use.
Author
Dzaki Fauzaan
